PrestaShop Geolocation Features

PrestaShop includes Geolocation features that let you detect a visitor’s location based on their IP address and adapt your shop’s behavior accordingly. This is mainly useful for regional restrictions, pricing, tax rules, and compliance. Here’s a breakdown of the geolocation features:

🔑 Core Geolocation Features in PrestaShop

1. Restrict Access by Country
   • You can block access to visitors from specific countries.
   • Useful for compliance (e.g., selling alcohol, regulated products, or legal restrictions).
2. Redirect Customers Based on Location
   • Detects the country of the customer’s IP address.
   • You can redirect them to the correct store version (if you run a multi-store with multiple languages or currencies).
3. Automatic Tax & Currency Settings
   • Applies the correct tax rules (VAT, GST, sales tax) depending on customer’s country.
   • Can auto-display the local currency when available.
4. GeoIP Database Integration
   • Uses the MaxMind GeoLite2 database (must be installed manually since PrestaShop 1.7+ due to licensing changes).
   • Ensures accurate country detection.
5. Granular Control for Products/Orders
   • You can prevent orders from regions where you don’t ship.
   • Helps avoid unwanted shipping or payment gateway mismatches.
6. Fallback Options
   • If a visitor’s IP cannot be geolocated, PrestaShop allows you to define a default country/currency.

⚙️ How to Enable Geolocation in PrestaShop

1. Go to Back Office → Shop Parameters → Traffic & SEO → Geolocation.
2. Enable Geolocation by IP address.
3. Upload the MaxMind GeoLite2 database file (GeoLite2-Country.mmdb) into the /app/Resources/geoip/ directory.
4. Configure:
   • Countries allowed/blocked
   • Behavior for restricted IPs (show message, deny access, or redirect)
   • Default country if location cannot be detected

📌 Practical Use Cases

• EU VAT compliance: Charge the right VAT based on the customer’s country.
• Multi-store setup: Redirect Indian visitors to your .in domain, US visitors to .com.
• Restricted goods: Block visitors from countries where shipping is not allowed.
• Fraud prevention: Compare the customer billing country with the detected IP country.