CREATION OF AN ONLINE STORE ON THE PLATFORM ZEN CART
If you are looking for a free and flexible e-commerce solution, you might want to consider ZEN CART. ZEN CART is an open-source shopping cart software that allows you to create and manage your own online store. In this blog post, I will review ZEN CART and its features, and share my experience of working with it.
What is the country and brand history of ZEN CART?
ZEN CART was originally based on osCommerce, another open-source e-commerce software. It was created in 2003 by a group of developers who wanted to improve the functionality and design of osCommerce. Since then, ZEN CART has evolved into a separate project with its own codebase and features. ZEN CART is developed and maintained by a team of volunteers from different countries, who collaborate through GitHub and the community forum. ZEN CART is licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL), which means that anyone can use, modify, and distribute it for free.
What kind of projects is ZEN CART suitable for?
ZEN CART is suitable for any kind of online store, whether you are selling physical products, digital downloads, or services. You can use ZEN CART to sell anything from books, clothing, electronics, to music, software, or consulting. ZEN CART can handle multiple languages, currencies, taxes, shipping methods, and payment gateways. You can also customize your store's appearance and functionality with templates, modules, and plugins.
What load is ZEN CART designed for?
ZEN CART is designed to handle high traffic and large product catalogs. It uses MySQL as its database engine, which can store millions of records and process thousands of queries per second. ZEN CART also supports caching and compression techniques to reduce server load and improve performance. However, the actual load that ZEN CART can handle depends on your hosting provider, server configuration, and optimization.
What are the components and modules of ZEN CART?
ZEN CART consists of two main components: the storefront and the admin panel. The storefront is what your customers see when they visit your online store. It displays your products, categories, shopping cart, checkout process, etc. The admin panel is where you manage your online store. It allows you to add, edit, or delete products, categories, orders, customers, etc.
ZEN CART also has many modules that extend its functionality. Modules are optional features that you can enable or disable according to your needs. Some examples of modules are:
- Payment modules: These allow you to accept payments from different methods such as PayPal, Stripe, Authorize.net, etc.
- Shipping modules: These allow you to calculate shipping costs based on different factors such as weight, destination, carrier, etc.
- Order total modules: These allow you to apply discounts, coupons, taxes, fees, etc. to the order total.
- Product type modules: These allow you to create different types of products such as gift certificates, downloads, subscriptions, etc.
- Sidebox modules: These allow you to add extra content or functionality to the sidebar of your storefront such as best sellers, featured products, search box, etc.
What are the system capabilities of ZEN CART?
ZEN CART has many capabilities that make it a powerful and versatile e-commerce solution. Some of them are:
- Responsive design: ZEN CART adapts to different screen sizes and devices such as desktops, laptops, tablets, and smartphones.
- SEO-friendly: ZEN CART generates clean and semantic URLs, meta tags, and sitemaps that help your store rank higher on search engines.
- Security: ZEN CART supports SSL encryption, CAPTCHA verification, and anti-spam measures to protect your store from hackers and spammers.
- Backup and restore: ZEN CART allows you to backup and restore your database and files easily through the admin panel or FTP.
- Analytics and reports: ZEN CART provides various statistics and reports on your store's performance such as sales, orders, customers, products, etc.
- Newsletter and email: ZEN CART allows you to send newsletters and emails to your customers using templates or HTML editor.
- Customer service: ZEN CART allows you to communicate with your customers through contact forms, live chat, or ticket system.
- Reviews and ratings: ZEN CART allows your customers to leave reviews and ratings on your products and services.
- Wishlist and gift registry: ZEN CART allows your customers to create and share wishlists and gift registries with their friends and family.
- Social media integration: ZEN CART allows you to connect your store with social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.
What is the price of ZEN CART?
ZEN CART is completely free to download and use. You don't have to pay any license fees or commissions to use ZEN CART. However, you may have to pay for some optional costs such as:
- Hosting: You need a web hosting service that supports PHP and MySQL to run ZEN CART. The cost of hosting depends on the provider, plan, and features that you choose.
- Domain name: You need a domain name that represents your online store. The cost of domain name depends on the registrar, extension, and availability that you choose.
- Template: You can use the default template that comes with ZEN CART or choose from thousands of free or paid templates that are compatible with ZEN CART. The cost of template depends on the source, quality, and design that you choose.
- Module: You can use the default modules that come with ZEN CART or choose from thousands of free or paid modules that add extra functionality to ZEN CART. The cost of module depends on the source, quality, and feature that you choose.
- Support: You can get free support from the community forum or paid support from the official team or third-party developers. The cost of support depends on the source, level, and duration that you choose.
How are we working with ZEN CART and creating a very good store?
We are working with ZEN CART by following these steps:
- Downloading and installing ZEN CART on our hosting server.
- Configuring the basic settings such as store name, email, language, currency, etc.
- Choosing a template that suits our store's theme and style.
- Adding products and categories to our store's catalog.
- Enabling the modules that we need such as payment, shipping, order total, etc.
- Testing our store's functionality and appearance on different browsers and devices.
- Launching our store and promoting it through SEO, social media, email marketing, etc.
- Monitoring our store's performance and feedback through analytics, reports, reviews, etc.
- Updating and maintaining our store regularly by adding new products, features, security patches, etc.
By following these steps, we are creating a very good store that is attractive, functional, secure, and profitable. We are also enjoying the benefits of using ZEN CART such as its flexibility, customization, community, and affordability.
If you are interested in working with me or have any questions about ZEN CART , please feel free to Contact us. We will be happy to help you create a very good store.