Welcome To Zen Cart® - The Art of E-Commerce
Designed for Online Merchants
Zen Cart® truly is the art of e-commerce; a free, user-friendly, open source shopping cart system. The software is being developed by group of like-minded shop owners, programmers, designers, and consultants that think e-commerce could be, and should be, done differently.
Some other "solutions" seem to be complicated programming exercises instead of responding to users' needs. Zen Cart® puts the merchant's and shopper's requirements first.
Similarly, other programs are nearly impossible to install and use without an IT degree. Zen Cart® can be installed and set-up by anyone with the most basic computer skills.
Others are so expensive ... not Zen Cart®, it's FREE!
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; easy-to-configure Sales/Specials, Discount Coupons, Gift Certificates, Newsletters and Product Notifications
- offer single-item or category-wide specials and storewide discounts (group discounts and quantity discounts)
- password protect the Administration Tool (administration "levels" will be coming in future editions)
- support multiple languages, currencies and tax structures
In short, Zen Cart® is shopping cart software the way it should have been all along.
For Web Designers
Zen Cart® gives web designers 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 right out of the box based on proven industry best-practices - there are no major revisions required to get things right for your clients!
One of the secrets behind its power lies in our robust template system that "abstracts" the look-and-feel from the code and logic behind Zen Cart®. This enables you to give clients a truly custom solution that integrates quickly and perfectly with their existing marketing websites. Using the customized template system helps you implement a core upgrade very quickly.
For Developers and Hosting Providers
Developers are able to deploy cutting-edge solutions based on Zen Cart®'s modern standards and technologies. Combining PHP server-side technology with the ability to choose from multiple databases on the back end results in flexible software that you can customize and modify to suit your needs.
Zen Cart® Minimum Server Requirements:
* PHP 5.2.14 or higher, Apache 2.0 or higher, and MySQL 4.1.3 or higher. (NOTE: MySQL STRICT mode *not* supported in this version of Zen Cart®.)
* Apache must be configured with AllowOverride set to either 'All' or at least both 'Limit' and 'Indexes' parameters, and preferably the 'Options' parameter as well.
* PHP must be configured to support CURL with OpenSSL
RECOMMENDED server capabilities:
PHP 5.3.5 or higher, Apache 2.0 or higher, and MySQL 5.0.90 or higher, and the Apache/PHP configuration settings mentioned above.
While Zen Cart® can run on Windows/IIS servers, Linux/Apache servers are recommended for best results.