I build basic websites but have a customer who wants an online shop which includes many different types of product. Therefore the shop needs to be able to offer various options such as size, colour etc for most items.
I have a good grasp of html and css but not php so is zencart a good option for me? I would obviously like to brand it quite a bit and make it look very un-standard like. Perhaps I won't need php for this, just css.
I recently used Mal's shoppping cart which is a third party system that can also be used with Paypal, not bad but a bit tricky sorting the shipping weights but plenty of help available on the forum for this, with this shopping cart and a quick hand in illustrator we pulled Gopher Graphics: Posters, Roller Banners, PVC Banners, Pop up stands, Exhibition Graphics off in just 10 days from scratch.
Thanks but you misunderstood me, perhaps my fault. What I'm talking about is a complete shop, not just the cart. Zencart offers the whole shebang but I wondered if anyone has experience of it?
sorry then, just integrated the shopping cart facility to allow people the chance to purchase direct on the site. I am aware of Zen but not used this directly.
I have heard good reveiws and if I was looking at integrating a complete functioning shopping cart I would certainly look at this option.
Please let me know how you get on with this and what the overall setup costs are roughly as I am working on another project that could benefit from an integrated shopping facility and i would be interested to hear you views, as like you I am familiar with basic HTML and a bit of CSS (all self taught).
Good luck
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A3M Desings Ltd | www.A3M.co.uk | Roller banners, pop up displays, posters, PVC banners, Large format printing + more.....
Excellent I will have to look into this alot more, as i mentioned above i have only briefly looked at Zen in the past, think this deserves a little more investigation on my part.
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A3M Desings Ltd | www.A3M.co.uk | Roller banners, pop up displays, posters, PVC banners, Large format printing + more.....
I've seen a few sites built on Zen Cart and they look like a botched pile. Just looks like osCommerce. All eCom sites I have worked on have been built from scratch and now from a base framework where all sites run from common classes. An example: Baby Pushchairs, Prams, Strollers & Baby Equipment
I heard a lot of people are using this Magento thing. I've seen some decent sites on this:
Interesting David, but surely if you know what you're doing and have the css/design skills then you can make them look professional and bespoke to a certain degree?
Hi there, Zen cart is very flexible. It is just like osCommerce and in fact I think they have some history together. For my money, I'd go with Cubecart. It's well easy, and the CSS templates are easy to buy,edit etc.
Hosting wise, Zen internet do the bronze linux hosting for £3.99 a month which includes cubecart/zencart etc which you can install and play with.
I build basic websites but have a customer who wants an online shop which includes many different types of product. Therefore the shop needs to be able to offer various options such as size, colour etc for most items.
I have a good grasp of html and css but not php so is zencart a good option for me? I would obviously like to brand it quite a bit and make it look very un-standard like. Perhaps I won't need php for this, just css.
Any thoughts?
Zencart sounds ideal for you. Also if you get hosting (cpanel tend to have this) with a fantastico script feature you can install it at the click of a couple of buttons.
The various options you require is catered for with zencart and you can also use HTML in pages via the shop admin panel. You dont need any php skills to use.
I heard a lot of people are using this Magento thing. I've seen some decent sites on this:
Shopify — Hosted e-commerce with style, in less than 2 minutes
But really, serious eCommerce requires serious development, not out of the box botches.
We had a similar debate in our company for a future shop that would integrate well with our existing systems, and the development team came up with Magento as the best choice. I had a glimpse at both osCommerce and Magento database structures and just from that I can say Magento is far better right from the foundation.
The obvious drawback is that the full version comes quite expensive, however the free community edition should take you all the way until your business grows to a point where buying the full license would be reasonable.
Interesting David, but surely if you know what you're doing and have the css/design skills then you can make them look professional and bespoke to a certain degree?
Yeah. I guess you are right. I think the problem is that the people using some of these eCommerce packages don't have those skills. You often see sites that are just light modifications of the default out-of-the-box templates.
I had a look at Magento a while back after posting on this thread. I have no idea what the code of it is like, but the backend is nothing short of exhaustive. If you have a small budget it looks like a good solution. It also seems to be free of the basic usability and SEO issues that Zen and OS seem to suffer.
Zen cart is really good, I have used/SEO'd it and it is spot on (once you make some changes to it). There are seo plugins out there anyhow, but I prefer a little more control over things.
I have had absolutely no issues with zen, no problems getting #1 rankings with it.
What I would say is that the standard checkout is dog pooh, I have had it totally re-written so it is all on one page, far FAR better for conversions
There is a mod for faster checkout and checkout without account available (for free).
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OWG is old, Bald and Welsh, and provides Seo From Wales - he also thinks Rugby is the god of sports
We use Zen cart - see link below. As oldwelshguy said it is really good with the SEO and I get good rankings.
Also I went on a long search for the best and ended up with Zen cart.
We have gone the bespoke route, and written our own shop and checkout, which obviously we like!!
However, not going to rubbish zen-cart, or any of these products. They do what they are designed to do, and for the most part, do it just fine.
We needed more flexibility, and we build software, hence our approach!
But, back to opening question, if you take the trouble to understand how to play with zencart, you will find you can build totally workable solutions for your clients.
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Paul Norman - OrangeTree Development
I used zencart and it was a nightmare to configure and customise. The admin backend menu is very unintuitive and you can spend ages looking for one little option hidden away in the huge array of drop down menus. Some menu options are repeated too, or aren't very well placed.
I would highly recommend Shopify. Nothing to install, no hosting to worry about, simple and easy to admin and plugs into most payment gateways with an excellent community.
I get several clients a month moving away from things like Zencart, OS Commerce as they just to complicated for what most people need.
well zen cart, as well as oscommerce - require some php knowledge definitely. I've been working on tens of oscommerce projects - eveything is absolutely customizable, but some things are not built smart in the stock versions. So perhaps for those who works only with html/css - this is not the best way. But for experienced people this is a very good template to build absolutely anything... this applies to the functionnality as well as for the design. More than that, oscommerce addons library is just huge and really make save alot of time almost about anything you need...
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my new project - www.allhomesinlondon.com - free property advertising in London
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ZenCart - any good?
