So you have installed Zen Cart but the site design is, shall we say, less than desired? And the admin panel is a bit intimidating and confusing? Never fear, follow the steps below and you will soon be on your way to customizing the look of your online store! So log in to your Zen Cart admin panel and let's get started!
Step 1:BASIC DESIGN CONFIGURATIONS Hide your store from the public while you are building content and design. Collect your IP address, it will be listed in the footer of your web site. (Click on "Online Catalog" in the admin panel at any time to open your web site in a new window.) In the admin area, scroll over Configuration and click on Web Site Maintenance. Click on "Down For Maintenance (exclude this IP-Address)" and enter your IP address in the form field. Click on Update. On the same page, click on "Down for Maintenance: ON/OFF". Select True and click on Update. Now the only computer that will be able to view your site is yours, all others will see a page that says "Down for Maintenance".
Step 2: Template Selection & Installation One of the best features of Zen Cart is the template system which allows you to change only a few files to change the look and design of your web site. Because Zen Cart is an Open Source platform, there are many web sites offering free Zen Cart Templates.
Most Zen Cart template packages will come with installation instructions. You can use either a ftp client or your web host C Panel to upload the files to the correct directories.
Now that your template files have been installed, you can use the admin panel to activate the template. While logged into your Zen Cart admin panel, scroll over Tools and click on Template Selection. The right side of the page will have a list of installed templates. You should see your new template listed. Click on Edit and select your new template from the drop down list. Click on Update. Click on "Online Catalog" and you will see the beginings of your new template.
Step 3: Customization of Your New Template. You've got a color scheme you like but your store isn't named "Zen Cart" and you may ask how do I get rid of the "Sponsors" box? Following the steps below you will learn how to upload your own logo and arrange and deactivate the sideboxes.
CHANGE YOUR LOGO To change the logo that came with your template, upload a new image titled logo.gif to the following directory includes/templates/YOUR_TEMPLATE/images/ and replace the image that came with the template set. Your new logo image must be in gif format and should be approximately the same size and the default image. eSales411 FREE ZEN CART TEMPLATES come with a Photoshop document that will allow you to create your logo in photoshop.
CHANGING THE SIDEBOXES In the admin scroll over "Tools" and click on "Layout Boxes Controller" On this page you will see a list of all available boxes. Simply click on each box and change the settings turning it on or off and assigning it to the left, right, or header position. You can also set the sort order of each box on this page. Check your work by clicking on "Online Catalog".
Now your getting somewhere! A web site with the colors and layout you like and your own logo.
Add Products to ZenCart At this point, you are ready to set up your categories and start adding products and content pages to your store. Before doing anything in your admin area, it is important to remember the the "6 P's", Proper Preparation Prevents Piss Poor Performance.
Set up your categories categories carefully. Here are a few things to keep in mind: Most online shoppers do not want to click endlessly before they can purchase an item. Categories and sub-categories are necessary to keep your content organized but please keep the levels of sub-categories to less than three. A customer should be able to add an item to their cart in three clicks or less. With Zen Cart, items can be linked to and listed in multiple categories. Once a category is added at a level, products can not be added at the same level. With your category list in hand, log in to your Zen Cart admin panel and take the following actions: Scroll over "Catalog" and clink on "Categories/Products". If you do not know html and would like to use a WYSIWYG editor, select "HTMLarea" from the "Text Editor" drop down box.
Click on "New Category" Fill in the "Name" field and add a Category Description if you wish. The category description will be placed above the sub-categories or products for the category. If you wish, assign a sort order for the the Category. NOTE: Categories or Products with the same sort order will be listes alphabetically. Click on the "Save" button. Repeat the steps for each category at the top level To add sub-categories to categories follow these steps: Click on the yellow folder icon for the category for which you would like to add a sub-category. Click on "New Category" Fill in the "Name" field and add a Category Description if you wish. The category description will be placed above the sub-categories or products for the category. If you wish, assign a sort order for the the Category. NOTE: Categories or Products with the same sort order will be listes alphabetically. Click on the "Save" button. Repeat the steps for each sub-category at this level. Note that once a category at any level, the "New Product" button is no longer available. Your Categories and Sub-Categories are now set up. Before adding Products, we need to add Manufacturers if you would like to assign Manufacturers to your products. To add Manufacturers to your database, follow these steps: Scroll over "Catalog" and click on "Manufacturers". Click on the "Insert" button Fill in the name field. If you have a logo for the manufacturer, click on the "Browse" button and navigate to the image. Upload the image. If you would like to assign a web site for the manufacturer, enter the URL in the "Manufacturer's URL" field. NOTE: This url will be placed on product pages assigned to this manufacturer. Click on the "Save" button. Repeat the steps until all of your manufacturers are added to the database. Now that all of your categories, sub-categories and manufacturers are set up, it is time to start adding your products. To add products, follow these steps: Navigate to the correct Category or Sub-Category for your product by clicking on the yellow folders or selecting the correct Category from the drop-down list. If you do not know html and would like to use a WYSIWYG editor, select "HTMLarea" from the "Text Editor" drop down box.
Click on the "New Product" button. Fill in the fields in the following way: Products Status: select In Stock or Out of Stock If the item is Out of Stock, select the date available. The system will automatically add the product to the catalog on the specified date. Products Manufacturer: Make the selection from the drop-down list or leave as none. Products Name: Enter the name of your product Product is Free, Product is Call for Price, and Product Priced by Attributes: Select Yes or No. Tax Class: Select None or Taxable Goods. Enter the Products Price (Net), the system will automatically show the price with tax in the Products Price (Gross) field if the item is a taxable good. Tax will only be charged on items shipped within your state. All out of state items will not be charged tax. Product is Virtual, Always Free Shipping, and Products Quantity Box Shows: Select Yes or No for each. Virtual products are downloadable products such as eBooks or software. Product Qty Minimum: If you sell your items in lots, enter the minimum amount here. Product Qty Maximum: Maximum amount of items you will sell to a customer. This is not the same as Quantity in Stock. Product Qty Units: Do you sell your item in lots only? Enter the lot amount here. Product Qty Min/Unit Mix: Leave as yes. This prevents people from ordering an amount not entered in the above field. Products Description: Enter the description for the product. Add as much information as possible. This text is picked up by the search engines so it is important to make sure you have described the product properly and fully. Products Quantity: Enter the amount of items in stock. For items that are always in stock, enter a large number. Products Model: Does the manufacturer assign a model number for the product? If so, enter the model number. Again, this information is picked up by search engines. Products Image: Browse your hard drive and select the correct image for the product. It is best to have an image at least 500 pixels wide and tall but no more than 750 pixels wide or tall. The system will automatically resize the images for the different placements of the image but uploading images that are too large will cause slow load times. Products URL: entering a web site here will show the following text on the product information page, "For more information, please visit this products webpage." and will create a link. Only use this field if you want people to leave your web site to purchase a product. Products Shipping Weight: If your shipping rates are based on product weight, enter the weight here. Otherwise, leave blank. Sort Order: Enter the sort order of the product. Lower numbers are placed first. If you want your products listed alphabetically, leave this field blank. Click on the "Preview" button. If all information is correct, click "Insert". If edits need to be made, click the "back" button to make your changes. Repeat the steps for each product Congratulations, you now have products available for sale!
Add Content to Zen Cart Adding informational content to your zen cart store is really quite easy! But just like everything else with Zen Cart, you have to know where to make the changes.
Zen Cart comes with multiple information pages pre-installed which are viewable via the "Information" sidebox. To edit these pages, navigate to Tools --> Define Pages Editor in the admin section of your web site. Below is a list of the files you can edit and which page they change, most are self explanitory. Make sure you have HTMLarea selected as your Text Editor if you do not know html. define_checkout_success.php: The page customers see when they have completed placing an order. define_conditions.php: Terms and Conditions for using your web site. Conditions can range from one to two sentences to multiple paragraphs of legal speak. Research your competitors and write your Terms & Conditions policy to suit your needs. define_contact_us.php: Changes to this file will add text above the Contact Us form that comes standard with zen cart. define_discount_coupon.php: Text to help customers search for available discount coupons. define_mainpage.php: This is your home page text. define_page2.php: An additional information page provided by zen cart. I advise not using this file because it is difficult to change the name of the file. To turn off the file so that it is not viewable from the front end of your site go to Configuration --> Define Pages Status in the admin and check option 3 for Define Page 2. NOTE: Also turn off sideboxes/more_information.php on the Tools --> Layout Box Controller page of the admin area of your site. define_page3.php: An additional information page provided by zen cart. I advise not using this file because it is difficult to change the name of the file. To turn off the file so that it is not viewable from the front end of your site go to Configuration --> Define Pages Status in the admin and check option 3 for Define Page 3. NOTE: Also turn off sideboxes/more_information.php on the Tools --> Layout Box Controller page of the admin area of your site. define_page4.php: An additional information page provided by zen cart. I advise not using this file because it is difficult to change the name of the file. To turn off the file so that it is not viewable from the front end of your site go to Configuration --> Define Pages Status in the admin and check option 3 for Define Page 4. NOTE: Also turn off sideboxes/more_information.php on the Tools --> Layout Box Controller page of the admin area of your site. define_page_not_found.php: Zen Cart will automatically show the site map if a visitor tries to access a page that is no longer available. Changing this text will add a message above the site map links. define_privacy.php: A word about your privacy policy. define_shippinginfo.php: A word about your shipping rates and return policy. define_site_map.php: A few words to place above your site map links.
You may want to add more personalized informational pages to your web site such as About Us, Schedule of Events, Press, etc. To accomplish this, Zen Cart has provided the ezPages section. Navigate to Tools --> EZ-Pages in the admin panel. Click on the "New File" button Fill in the Page Title. Select whether the page will open in a new window and if the page needs to be secure (SSL). The next section determines which area of the layout the link will appear. Select Header, Sidebox, or Footer and assign a sort order. This number must be 1 or higher, the links will appear in the order you assign here. Pages with the same sort order number will appear alphabetically. Enter your content in the box provided. There may be instances where you want another page to appear with the EZ Pages. For example, when I design web sites I like to have a site map and privacy link in the footer section. The text for these pages has already been defined in the Define Languages Editor (see section above). If this is the case, do not enter any text in the box provided, instead enter the url of the page in the Internal Link URL box. The link to add for the site map is index.php?main_page=site_map The link to add for a copy of the privacy page is index.php?main_page=privacy If you would like to add a copy of another page to the EZ Pages section, navigate to that page on the front end of your web site and copy the text after the .com/ of the web address. Click on the Insert button NOTE: If you want your EZ Pages to appear in a sidebox, make sure that sideboxes/ezpages.php is turned on and assigned a value in the Tools --> Layout Boxes Controller section of your admin panel.
Your web site is now looking good!
Payment, Shipping & Taxes Now that your products and informational content has been added, we can configure your payment, shipping and taxes. You will then be ready to test the site and go live!
CONFIGURE PAYMENT OPTIONS Zen Cart comes with a multitude of payment options pre-installed. One of the easiest ways to set up payment is to use payPal. PayPal offers two account options.
Follow the steps below to set up Zen Cart to accept payPal Web Payments Standard: Go to Modules --> Payment in your Zen Cart admin area. Click on "PayPal IPN - Website Payments Standard" Enter your primary payPal email address Enter your PDT token from payPal. Follow these steps to configure your payPal account for PDT: 1. Log in to your PayPal account. 2. Click the Profile subtab. 3. Click Website Payment Preferences in the Seller Preferences column. 4. Under Auto Return for Website Payments, click the On radio button. 5. For the Return URL, enter the URL on your site that will receive the transaction ID posted by PayPal after a customer payment. You can copy the Auto Return URL from your Zen Cart Install PayPal IPN page. 6. Under Payment Data Transfer, click the On radio button. 7. Click Save. 8. Click Website Payment Preferences in the Seller Preferences column. 9. Scroll down to the Payment Data Transfer section of the page to view your PDT identity token. Select your transaction currency. Payment Zone, Set Pending Notification Status, Set Order Status, Set Refund Order Status, Sort order of display, Page Style, Mode for PayPal web services, and Debug Mode can be left at their default values Click update to activate payPal payments
The default installation of Zen Cart has other payment options pre-installed. To de-activate these options, click on the payment option and then click on the "Remove" option.
CONFIGURE SHIPPING OPTIONS Below are directions for setting up Table Rate Shipping options which seems to be the most widely used shipping method. Go to Modules --> Shipping in your Zen Cart admin panel. Click on Table Rate Click on the "Install" button Select True for Do you want to offer table rate shipping? Enter your rate schedule following the instructions on the page. NOTE: Be careful, a misplaced semi-colon or colon will cause the shipping to not be configured properly. Under Table Method select weight, price, or item. NOTE: If weight is selected, you must enter a weight for each product. Handling Fee: enter a handling fee if you are charging one. Tax Class: If your state requires you to charge tax on shipping select Taxable Goods, otherwise leave as none. Tax Basis: follow the instructions on the screen. Shipping Zone: follow the instructions on the screen. Sort Order: If you are offering more than one shipping method, enter a sort order.
CONFIGURE TAX CALCULATIONS To configure your tax rate, follow these steps: Scroll over Locations/Taxes and click on Zone Definitions. The default installation will have Florida listed. If your store is not in Florida, click the "Edit" button. Fill in your State and description. Click "Update". Now click on the yellow folder icon next to your state name. Click the "Edit" button. Select the state where your store is from the drop down menu. Click "Update" Now scroll over Locations/Taxes and click on Tax Rates. You will now see your state under the Zone column. Click "Edit". Enter the tax rate and description. Click "Update".
Congratulations, the nitty gritty of payment, shipping and taxes are now set up!