Zen Cart

[habbyworld]

Does anyone know anything about zen cart. I was thinking of using it instead of paying about £150 a year for the one i have. I have got zen cart all set up and ready to use. But when i had a look through it, it dosen`t look that easy. Most of the cart is set for use in the USA. I want a cart that is set for the UK. Does anyone have any recommendations ?

[scrapbook party]

there is a book available - i have it, and it is really good for clearing up confusion.

Also get onto the zen cart forum,they ae quite helpful.

And finally, look at changing your ost, i amwith terra network, and they set the cart up for the british market ready for you to customise.

[habbyworld]

Thanks, it does not matter now. I installed zen cart and it`s crap. All of the free ones are.
I have paid £300 for a decent one and no monthly fees.

[CraftyGal]

If you know what you're doing in terms of creating a new template then zen cart (and other free shopping carts) can be quite effective. If you want something that won't involve you taking on lots of coding then purchasing another shopping cart or a template is the way to go.

Lisa x

[scrapbook party]

i disagree about zen being crap, you get out of it what you put in. Remember it is free, and you have to do a lot of the work yourself.

i put in a lot of time, and got it looking pretty good, unfortunately i have now changed the direction of my business and no longer need it, but i would recommend it to anyone with programming knowledge, or a willigness to learn!

[CraftyGal]

i disagree about zen being crap, you get out of it what you put in. Remember it is free, and you have to do a lot of the work yourself.


I agree, but it depends on your IT knowledge. If you can work on it yourself and get it looking good then it is definetely worth it. But if you cannot do that and have to pay someone else to re -design it for you then it can be quite costly to get it looking the way you want.

Lisa x

[CardCapers]

Zen Cart is dated and old fashioned. However saying that it is one of the most stable and secure e commerce platforms you can get. Alot of other "payed for" carts use either Zen Cart or its father cart "OSCommerce" as base plates. I suppose it comes down to what you need the site for. My new site has been in development since November of last year, we are using a top grade application that has had many many hours work to get it to work well. However the long term benifits are huge. As another poster has already said you will only get out of it what you are prepared to put in. If you decide that £300 is well spent then that is your choice, and may be the best option.

[CreativeFabrics]

I didn't much care for Zen cart myself. I found it difficult to try and customize, especially as Habbyworld said, to try and get it geared for the UK.

I even tried it on 2 separate occasions..... a few years apart, thinking that maybe after having a better knowledge would have helped, but it didn't.

Have you looked into Cubecart? I am using the free version on my UK Yankee Crafts site which works great there. It is highly customizable too, and you can find loads of free templates if you don't like the ones it comes with. I found it easier to figure out the template system too, but I would place my HTML at an intermediate to advanced level.

For my fabric site, I am using the paid version. You can try out the paid version for 30 days if you wish. Cubecart is also based in the UK, so while the cart can be used Globally, they do have the UK customer in mind.

I think the only downside to buying and installing your own cart is that updates are not taken care of FOR you, and any issues you run into you have to sort out or hire someone. So if that puts you off, or you are not comfortable with dealing with that side of things, then it might be better paying the monthly/annual fee for someone else to do that for you.

So I guess it comes down to your abilities with the HTML and coding. Personally I enjoy installing these things and customizing them. I know nothing at all about PHP though, but I can follow instructions! lol They have alot of great mods to get the store to work how you want it to. Just do your homework or try it out first before buying. Read through the forums and see if you think you can tackle the fixes and mods yourself if you have to, or if you think you will need to hire someone - and does that fit into your budget?

geez... I sure know how to ramble. Sorry!

[habbyworld]

I was paying for the monthly cart with a certain supplier. But after over 2 years, the cart still wasn`t updated. I like how the cart works, so i found the people who made it and bought the licence.