The Power Of The ZenCart Software

August 27, 2009 in Zen Shopping Cart | Comments closed

I have been building shopping cart webstores for three years with the Zen Cart Open Source software. Hardly a day passes by when I haven’t learned something new and/or something cool that I can do.

Lets just start with the addons that I think are essential to the ZenCart software.

First, let me explain that the addons are the things that make your site different from others and they help you get your work done faster, easier and most of all, help you promote and manage your webstore.

I consider each of these essential:

Backup MySQL – Backing up your SQL database is absolutely essential. You can always login to the control panel of your server and do a backup but if it’s two clicks away in the admin panel of you webstore, you are more apt to do it more often, saving you time and money if something goes wrong.

FCKeditor- This addon just makes life so much easier when trying to create pages and products. It allows you edit your “document” as easy as working in word.

Add Customer From Admin- Do you take orders from other avenues… phone orders, direct sales? This gives you the opportunity to manage all of you customers in one place.

Cross-Sell Advanced- What a way to upsell to your customers… If they are interested in product A- maybe they would also like Product B to go with it!

Okay, these are basic addons. Next time, I’ll start diving into the admin addons that make your life easier!

Until next time!

Selecting An Ecommerce Web Designer

August 24, 2009 in Getting Started | Comments closed

Choosing an ecommerce web designer is the most important part of your website design. You need to work with someone that understands your needs and goals. They need to be responsive to your questions and straightforward with the answers. There can be real miscommunication when building an ecommerce website and they will happen- it’s just a matter of recognizing the issues and being able to adjust and work through it. With that being said, here are a few questions that can start you on the path to finding the right ecommerce website designer for you.

Can you see work that they have done?

Take time to look at the sites that they have designed. Look at each site and decide if the overall appearance is something that appeals to you. Keep in mind that the designer is not the owner and that they are there to guide the owner and do the work that they have been hired to do!

Who exactly is going to be doing the work?

When you hire a company, you should be sure that they are not contracting out the work. You want to be in touch with the person that is doing the work- it will really cut down on the miscommunication that I talked about earlier.

How much is it going to cost and what is included?

A company should be upfront about the cost of building a website and what would be included with that site.  As the process moves along there may be changes to what you what you want but a good web designer should be upfront about those changes and let you know if there is any additional cost.

How do you feel about the company you have have found?

Have you talked with them? Do they sound like they are on the same page? Your “gut feeling” can go a long way in helping you decide. Sometimes, the cheapest company is not necessarily the best- nor do you have to go with the most expensive.  Does it sound like you can work together?

These questions should help you get started in you quest for the great ecommerce website.

Next time, we are going to change gears a little bit and talk more specifically about the ZenCart software. It’s so amazing~ Even after working with it for almost three years, I’m still constantly amazed by what it can do!

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Step Three: Preparing Content

July 28, 2009 in Zen Shopping Cart | Comments closed

Ok, now we have answered some basic information questions about getting your shopping cart built.  Now we need to talk about specifics. Even shopping cart (ecommerce) websites need to have certain elements that you, as the owner will need to define. Typically, three to five pages of information will do the trick. You will need to decide what information to present to your potential customers. Some examples: “Contact Us”, “Shipping and Returns” and “Privacy Policy”.

You will also need to work on your Products. You’ll need photos, a description (including a title) and pricing to begin with. If you decide to have us build your shopping cart for you, we will enter  a couple of sample products for you and we’ll be more than happy to enter all of your products for you (for a small fee).

When is comes to the photos of your products, high resolution pictures are not necessary.  In fact, images  that have a resolution of about 15kb will work fine. It’s more important that the images are clear. Taking the time to have clear, professional style pictures is very important, it does not need to be expensive- it does convey to your customer a clear vision of your products and your business!

Next time, we’ll talk about the type of web designer you would want to work with when building your ecommerce webstore. There are tons of choices out there but you should ask some questions before spending your money!

www.buildmyshoppingcart.com

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Step Two: Creating Your Shopping Cart

July 2, 2009 in Zen Shopping Cart | Comments closed

More decisions… These are things that you need to think about whether you are building you shopping cart or you are hiring someone to do it for you. These items are a matter of your plan and how you want to present yourself to your potential customers. It’s important to think of them up front. You can always make changes but if you have a plan, it keeps from having to adjust the things that you shouldn’t have to worry about everyday!

What form of Payment are you going to accept? There are many ways to do this, Google Checkout, PayPal or a online merchant account. (My personal preference would be to start off with PayPal and/ or Google Checkout)

If applicable, what are your shipping and tax rates?

What extra pages would you like on your site? Contact us? FAQ? Shipping policy? Refund policy? Privacy Policy?

How do you want to set up the structure of your shopping cart? In other words, how do you want to organize your categories?

Next time, we will discuss content (text and images).  Still more decisions to make but a bit more hands on!

First Step To Begin Building Your Shopping Cart

June 24, 2009 in Getting Started | Comments closed

Whether you are building your own shopping cart or if you plan on hiring someone to help you, you have some decisions to make. Before you even get started, you need to think about some of these things.

  • Where do you want your website hosted?
  • Do you already have your domain name?
  • Do you want to do this yourself?
  • What do you want your site to look like? What kind of color, layout and navigation do you like?
  • How do you want to organize your products?
  • Do you have products that have different attributes (ex. available in different colors or sizes)?

You can start answering these questions by looking around the web and making notes of things that you like as well as the things that you don’t like! We are willing to help you answer some of these questions. This is only the beginning! Building a shopping cart- even with Zen Cart as the power behind it, takes thought and time.

Next time, we will talk about content. Content is an important part of your shopping cart.  It’s your way of communicating with your customer and answering potential questions before they are even asked!

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The Features of Zen Cart

June 16, 2009 in Zen Shopping Cart | Comments closed

  • Allows customers to shop your store 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365+ days a year!
  • Easily keep your product/catalog updated — no HTML coding required to add, delete, or modify products.
  • Secure — no one but your administrative personnel can access your customer/catalog data
  • User frontend is validated to XHTML 1.0 Transitional
  • Merchandise Pricing options — Single and Multiple items can be put on Sale. Sale options include Percentage-off, Fixed Amount off, New Price, etc. Sales can include or exclude product attributes. You can add or exclude a discount from a Special. You can put a whole category or the entire store on sale!
  • Products can be marked as Free, or “Call for Price”
  • Products can be marked as “Featured” for specific highlighting/attention.
  • Products can be linked and/or copied to multiple categories
  • Minimum or Maximum Quantities and Units – You can sell 1 per customer, or require at least 4 and in multiples of 2. You can set requirements on a per-product basis.
  • Quantity Discounts can be configured per-product for varying pricing levels or quantity levels.
  • Product Attributes can be added, either as Radio buttons, Checkboxes, Drop-down lists, Text Boxes, File Uploads, File Downloads, and more. Attribute Options can upcharge the price of an item, and an item can have its price completely controlled by attributes. Attributes can be configured as “read only” so as to provide a Features List.
  • One-Time Fees can be added to products via attributes
  • Attributes also support Text Pricing, such as price-per-word or price-per-letter for personalizing
  • Attributes can show image/color swatches
  • Store layout can be controlled in great detail simply by switching settings in the Admin area. Choose your side column and box widths, Breadcrumb Separator, which Sideboxes you want to appear where on the page, enable/disable links in various places.
  • Entire categories of products (or individual products) can be enabled/disabled with just a few clicks
  • Sort order of products is easily controlled in the admin area
  • If you need to take your site offline for a period of maintenance, you can do it easily by posting advance notices, as well as a friendly Down For Maintenance page that’s also Search-Engine friendly. Webmaster and WebDesigner can specify IP addresses to override maintenance and still access the site for testing.
  • You can send administrative emails on most customer shopping activities to various administrators as desired. Email addresses are protected from abuse, as they are not displayed on-screen. The Contact Us page can be configured to support multiple destinations, such as Sales, Technical Support, Webmaster, and so on.
  • Nearly every piece of information about your products can be controlled in the Admin areas, giving you the ability to fine-tune how your products and services appear to your customers. Features and options can be enabled/disabled quickly and easily.
  • Multiple items can be added to the shopping cart by simply entering quantities and click Add
  • The Product Type feature allows you to customize information fields and display format for different products differently. Products for sale vs Documents for viewing, vs Music Downloads, and the list goes on.
  • You can add multiple images to your products, in small/medium/large format. Popups are available if desired for viewing of larger images.
  • A verification for Agreement to the Terms of Service has been added for compliance with new laws regarding privacy and disclosure.
  • CVV2 card verification number support is available for compliance with most Merchant Agreements. This feature is enabled/disabled in the Admin
  • Shipping Options — multiple carriers are supported, including Hold for Pickup, Free Delivery in an area, and most major couriers and postal services
  • Customer Access Control — You can set up your shop to only allow customers access to pricing or pricing but not buying until after being authorized by an administrator. You can restrict them from browsing at all too, if desired.
  • Showcase – You can set your store up to be simply a product showcase, without pricing at all.
  • Search options allow you to search for products based on name, description, metatags, price, and more!
  • Meta Tags keywords and descriptions can be controlled at the per-product level, all from the administrative interface
  • Automatic detection of search engine spiders
  • Intelligent generation of metatags content for search engines
  • Built in WYSIWYG page editor for modifying non database pages. (version 2.0)
  • Tight security on password handling, login/logout, and more.
  • HTML-style email supported
  • Email can be sent via sendmail, smtp, or smtp-with-authorization
  • Email archiving supported for audit trail
  • Administrative activity logging enabled for audit trail — especially beneficial with recent Merchant Agreement requirements concerning tracking of activity related to accessing customer information.
  • Advertising Banners — show information about your business colleagues and track banner link activity. Banners open in new windows so that customers never really leave your site.
  • Shipping Estimator allows your customer to get an idea of their shipping costs prior to checkout
  • Coupons and Gift Certificates are easily handled both by customers and administrators
  • Customer “Group Pricing” allows groups of users to receive a set discount amount at checkout
  • Newsletter system and Product Notification system
  • Low-Order Fees can be configured
  • COD Fees can be added
  • Shipping Tare, Large-Package handling to give fine-grain control over shipping services
  • Tax rates, tax zones, etc easily configured in the admin area
  • PayPal IPN and many other popular Merchant Services supported
  • Customers can write product reviews (approvals can be required by an Administrator)
  • Low-Stock notifications to administrator when inventory is getting low (level can be configured)
  • Scalable from small shops to larger shops with hundreds of thousands of products
  • Track Who’s Online interactively
  • Multiple Language Support
  • Multiple Currency Support

If that’s not enough, there are additional addons available  for customize your store.

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What is Zen Cart?

June 15, 2009 in Zen Cart? | Comments closed

We think that the Zen Cart software is the most amazing shopping cart software system available! It’s user friendly, easily adapted and  provides a truly custom solution that integrates quickly and perfectly with any plan for a webstore.

Zen Cart is a robust and customizable electronic storefront that’s easy to keep up-to-date with new features. It provides usable, intuitive and unobtrusive purchase flows based on proven industry best-practices.

Our plan is to use this cutting edge software to create your website and provide tools to you so that you have the ability to maintain your store yourself, if you desire. Of course, we are always willing to help!

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