Introduction To Zen Cart

Zen Cart is a free, user-friendly, open source shopping cart system, that allows you to create an online e-commerce store for selling your goods and services.

It is written in PHP and requires a MySQL database to work.

The software is designed to cater specifically to the requirements of store owners and shoppers.

Zen Cart is free

What is Zen Cart?

Allows customers to shop your store 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365+ days a year!

Easily keep your product/catalog Product Customization through AttributesSimple Checkout ProcessMultiple Payment OptionsMultiple Shipping OptionsMultiple Languages, Currencies and TaxesWide Array of Marketing ToolsAdvanced Pricing OptionsOrder Total CalculationOrder ManagementCustom Look-and-Feel

Features of Zen Cart

Zen Cart is divided into two areas:Store FrontAdmin Console

Store Quick Tour

A Typical Shopping FlowHome page

21

ProductInfo page

3Shopping Cart page

4

Log In/Sign Up page5

Delivery information

page6

Payment info page

Order Confirmatio

n page

7

Checkout success page

9My Account Information

page8

Store Location

ObjectivesIn this lesson you shall:

Understand how the different pieces of location information (i.e. Countries, Zones and Zone Definitions) are used together to determine the taxes, shipping and payment charges that a customer incurs.

Configure Countries information.

Configure Zones information.

Configure Zone Definitions information.

Specify your Store Location.

Categories of LocationLocation is divided into three categories in

Zen Cart:

Countries

Zones

Zones Definition

countriesZen Cart comes with a complete set of countries in

the DatabaseYou might have to remove some countries

ISO Country Codes These are internationally recognized abbreviations of

country codes according to the ISO-3166 standard.

ISO-3166 Standarddefines both two-letter and three-letters codes for

different countries in the world.Zen Cart uses both the ISO Code (2) and ISO Code

(3)

Address Formats Used in Different Countries

Each country defines a fixed format for their addressesThis address format is available via the post

office of each countryZen Cart comes with a default of six address

formats

Address format patterns used in Zen CartAddressFormat

Pattern Default CountriesAffected

Address Format Examples

1$firstname $lastname$streets$city, $postcode$statecomma$country

All other countries notstated below.

James Logan496 Victoria StreetSydney, 2010New South Wales, Australia

2$firstname $lastname$streets$city, $state $postcode$country

United States John Doe123 Magnolia StreetDallas, TX 55803-0034United States

3$firstname $lastname$streets$city$postcode - $statecomma$country

Spain Martina GonzalezGeneral Castanos, 86Barcelona08003 – Barcelona, Spain

Address format patterns used in Zen Cart (continue)

AddressFormat

Pattern Default CountriesAffected

Address Format Examples

4$firstname $lastname$streets$city ($postcode)$country

Singapore Singapore John Low16 Whampoa DriveSingapore (260042)Singapore

5$firstname $lastname$streets$postcode $city$country

Austria, Germany Germany Heidi KohlerLentzeallee 19414195 BerlinGermany

6$firstname $lastname$streets$city$state$postcode$country

United Kingdom Kingdom James Watson1 St. Georges Business CentrePortsmouthPortsmouthPO1 3AXUnited Kingdom

ZonesZones are defined as geographical regions

within a country

Zen Cart comes with a default set of zones configured for the following countries: Australia, Austria, Canada, Germany, Palau, Spain, Switzerland and United States.

Purpose of Zonesto allow you to fine-tune your shipping, payment

and tax charges based on Zone information.Adding a Zone

Zone DefinitionsA Zone Definition is a logical grouping of zones

A Zone Definition can cover a small area such as a State in a country (e.g. Paris) or several countries in a federation (e.g. European Union).

Purpose of Zone Definitions: Zone Definition allows you to restrict a shipping or payment option only to customers from a specific area in the world. Similarly, you can use a Zone Definition to specify a specific tax rate for customers from a specific location in the world.

Adding a Zone Definition

Specifying Your Store LocationYou need to provide Zen Cart with details of

where you are located

This is because Zen Cart may need this information to determine how certain charges are to be calculated

To specify your store location

SummaryLocation information provides the basis for

you to specify shipping, payment and tax rules

A slight misconfiguration here could affect the charges that a customer should pay for your product or service; ultimately it might hurt your revenue and possibly your reputation.

Zen Cart Store Contact Information

ObjectivesWe shall :Specify your store contact information. See how your store information is displayed

in your online store.See how your store information is displayed

in printable documents generated by your store.

See how your store information is displayed in emails sent to customers

Specifying Store Contact InformationResearch has shown that customers prefer to

deal with businesses that display their contact information prominently

To specify your store's contact information for online and printed documents:

Store Contact Information Displayed OnlineYour store contact information is available in

the following places online:Contact Us page.Order Confirmation page if Check/Money

Order payment option chosen by customer.

Contact Us PageTo view your store's contact information in

the Contact Us page, go to your Store Front and click on Contact Us from the Information side-box.

Store Contact Information Displayed in Printable Documents

Your store's contact information will also appear in the following printable documents – invoices and packing slips.

InvoicesYour store contact information will be

displayed on the top-left corner of an invoice

Packing SlipsSimilarly, your store contact information will

also be displayed on the top-left corner of a packing slip.

Store Information Appearing in EmailsContact information presented in emails sent

out from your store will only contain the store name and store owner‘s

As shown in the following sample screen shot.

SummaryYour contact information is available through

several mediums: online store, printed documents and in emails.

Always keep your contact information updated as it is important for the image and credibility of your business.

Currency

ObjectivesWe shall :Add new currencies to your Zen Cart store.Update currency exchange rates in real-time.Specify the default currency for your store

The Currencies ScreenAll currency configurations in Zen Cart are

configured via the Currencies screen. To access this screen, click on Localization > Currencies

US dollar is the default currencyhas a value of 1.00000000All other currencies will be relative to this

currency when specifying the exchange rate.

To add a new currency:

Updating Exchange Rates in Real-TimeTo update your currency to the latest

exchange rates, you click on the update currencies button in the Currencies screen.

Zen Cart will immediately fetch the latest exchange rates from http://www.oanda.com.

If this site is down or the exchange rates you specified is not available there, Zen Cart will switch to another currency exchange site http://www.xe.com