In the world of ecommerce platforms there might be many free and open source ones but only a handful of them have been able to reach up to the expectations of merchants. Zen Cart belonging to the bloodline of once almighty Oscommerce is one such free and open source ecommerce platform. It might not be the most popular platform today but among the top 1million ecommerce stores as per Alexa ranking Zen cart stands at the 10th position.
Zen cart is PHP based and uses HTML components and MYSQL for database. Its completely free and open sourced covered under GNU General Public License. If you plan to proceed with Zen cart as the platform for your online store the only cost associated would be for the hosting and for a developer if you are not well versed with PHP. As for extra functionalities and templates, you will get hundreds of them for free.
Zen cart has its own drawbacks just like every other ecommerce platform but it has enough features to have them overlooked as well. Here are some reasons which make a Zen cart a strong contender in the battle field of free and open source platforms:
Available Add-Ons:
Ecommerce platforms mostly come with all essential features out of the box. Zen Cart unlike others come with only basic features out of the box. But has hundreds of free Add-Ons available to cater almost every possible need of yours. You can download all add-ons ranging from administrative tools to adding extra languages all from here.[SM1]
Some of the notable Add-On categories:
Admin tools: The plug-ins under this section provide functionalities like generating extra reports, customer management, bulk order management, advanced login etc.
Language packs: Installing these packs available for multiple languages will allow you to have your store in different languages.
Marketing tools: Much needed functionalities like upselling, cross selling, coupons, newsletters etc. are catered by the plug-ins under this category. You will find plugins to integrate with Facebook, Google Map, twitter and much more.
Payment Modules: The most highly essential set of plug-ins to enable taking payments through various modes as well as payment gateways are available under this category.
Product Types: In case you are selling services or products of a type which does not fit in the general league the plug-ins under this section will allow you to create custom products/services.
Shipping Modules: Plugins under this section will allow to have various features related to shipping e.g. Dropshipping. Also you will find plugins which facilitate integrations with eminent shippers like UPS, FedEx etc.
Product Management:
Zen cart provides a well-equipped product management system which enables you to sort products in categories and subcategories and even maintain multiple product attributes like colors, sizes etc. It allows easy management and controlling of stock levels. Apart from this it also allows creating products in bulk, as well as creating special/featured products. Reviews can be written for each product by logged in consumers.
Payment Processing:
Zen cart out of the box supports taking payments through Authorize.net, First Data, and PayPal while requirement for others can also be catered through available plug-ins. It provides options to configure which credit cards would be accepted (Visa, Master Card, American Express etc.) Zen cart supports a wide range of payment gateways and merchant accounts.
Service and Support:
Being open source and free Zen Cart does not have official technical support or customer service, but has a strong and active forum with more than 100,000 registered users. Categories are well organized and you would get your questions answered step by step in a very short time. At times by running a quick search you might even get your question already answered. Under the Wiki section you would get a lot of step by step procedure to execute some of the essential tasks like installation, upgradations etc. The Tutorials/FAQ section has many troubleshooting topics explained in details. Apart from all these you would also get a detailed User manual in PDF format.
Zencart can be very well concluded as a complete ecommerce platform and justifiable for every type and size of business organization. But again your approach and background matters a lot in selecting an ecommerce platform. Zen-cart can be an undeniable option for low-budget business with access to someone proficient in programming. But if you don’t have access to such resources you will have no choice other than hiring one to do even the littlest of jobs. But as a whole although being free and open source, feature wise Zen cart definitely cannot be underrated.
