Shopping Cart Systems

by Erin Banister

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Many of us use shopping cart systems for our products (and info products) and are paying a heafty price tag for some of those systems.

I’ve just heard about an Open-Source Shopping Cart system! It’s called Zen Cart, and the website says this about their service:

Designed for Online Shoppers

Zen Cart™ will deliver the ultimate online shopping experience to your customers. Navigating through your merchandise offerings is a breeze with Zen Cart™, the program provides several “Spotlight” lists in addition to the traditional category to product links. Once a product is added to the shopping cart, secure checkout is a simple 3-step process. After providing the billing information, your customer chooses the shipping method. (multiple shipping methods including real-time internet shipping quotes are built-in) Next, a payment type is chosen from one of the popular payment modules. (PayPal™ and AuthorizeNet™ are just 2 of the included modules) Last, the customer reviews the order, shipping and payment choices, and confirms the order. You are immediately notified of the order and your customer automatically receives an e-mail confirmation.

Zen Cart™ addresses many of the goals we set:

• make the program easy to set up
• make it easy to customize
• automate tasks, such as order confirmation
• make navigation simple
• built in promotions; discount coupons, gift certificates, newsletters and product notification
• offer single item specials and storewide discounts (group discounts and quantity discounts - Coming in future editions)
• built in Search Engine Optimization tools
• password protect the Administration Tool (administration “levels” - Coming in future editions)
• support multiple languages, currencies and tax structures

Server Requirements: Minimum/suggested server requirements: PHP 4.1.x or higher (PHP 4.3.x for optimal performance), Apache 1.3.x and MySQL 3.2.x or higher. Register Globals may be on or off, safe_mode off recommended.

I haven’t personally tried Zen-Cart, but if you have leave a comment so we can hear your views!

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