Zencart | eCommerce and Marketing News & Tips

Speed up your Zencart site by minifying your CSS and JS files

Posted in Tips & Tricks August 5th, 2009 by admin - Comments (6)

There are two important things you can do about your css/js files to improve your page load (and remember, faster page load = more satisfied customers = less cart abandon)

Reduce the total number of file size (there are many tips regarding best practices for css coding out there on the web. If you want to get a summary of the BEST css practices for Zencart let me know)
Reduce the total number of css/js files (or requests)

As I have mentioned in Zencart Performance Optimization Guide, you can combine all your css files (per page) into 1 single file and also minify(*) that file to get the best performance.

However, there are potential problems with minification: remember that CSS requires that you move @import command to the top of a css file, if you combine multiple css files and one of those files has @import command then this @import command will not run properly (Tabbed Product Pro is one of Zencart modules that uses @import). Read more…

Super cross selling to boost sales and search ranking!

Posted in Add Ons August 3rd, 2009 by admin - Comments (2)

I have always wanted to do this, but never found the time for it, but this time I know I HAVE to do it. I have been working hard to help many of our clients to boost sales as well as increasing their rankings on search engines and I found the ultimate weakness of the current XSell system for Zencart:

It is manual labor work, and very time consuming. Many of my clients have stores that reach hundreds of thousands of products. It is almost impossible to cross sell manually.
It is based on the store owners’ assumption (you assume customers want to see X if they are checking Y) Read more…

Secure your Zencart – A time consuming yet easy task

Posted in Tips & Tricks August 2nd, 2009 by admin - Comments (4)

I have run Windows XP for years without any virus/trojan/spyware problem. How, you ask? I apply security patches regularly, I use the free Avast! anti virus to keep the viruses and trojans out, I use ZoneAlarm’s free firewall to keep the hackers at bay, I use Firefox with ads block plugin to stop spam, and obviously I know what I’m doing so I just don’t go and click on any popup saying “Security Alert! Scan your computer for FREE”.

Alright, my rant about Windows stops here, what I meant to say was: if you actively protect yourself then the chance that someone can harm your computer or your website is really low. Last week, I have received a message from a user on Zencart forum asking me this:

Hi yellow can you explain what is going on with hundreds and hundreds of zen cart stores ? If you read my6 thread possible hack in the security section you will see what i mean. This is getting worse aswell.

BTW, if you haven’t known yet, I go by the nick yellow1912 on Zencart forum.

Below is the rest of our conversation: Read more…

Lethaldiesel – our latest zencart project with all the bells and whistles

Posted in Projects August 1st, 2009 by admin - Comments (1)

We have finally finished a whole new look for Lethaldiesel, this is the second Zencart Customization project we have done for Jonas at LethalPerformance. Be patient while we are working on the new design of our home page (if you haven’t seen it yet, you should check it out, much cleaner and more elegant design) and we will share all the cool new features and smart conversion tricks we used on this latest project. In the mean time, you can pay LethalDiesel a visit and enjoy the new “evil” look it sports!

Best wishes to Jonas and his business!

Ajax Checkout 2.0, ready to go be released any time!

Posted in Ajax Checkout July 29th, 2009 by admin - Be the first to comment

Shorter checkout

This time we make the Zencart’s checkout process even faster by combing the shipping/billing address steps into one.

Cleaner layout

Yes, we removed many unnecessary parts on the layout to make it much more cleaner.

Easier Config

Yay, 1 step reduced. We also moved most configuration settings into admin so you can easily change the settings without having to edit the config file via FTP.

Faster

Yes, it is faster. We reduced a bunch of necessary loads to speed it up.

Bugs fixed

A bunches of minor bugs were fixed, so now the checkout process will be as smooth as it can be.

The new version will be available on Eazy-Template soon. If you have bought a previous version of this module, you will see the free upgrade package available in your account section soon.

Is your Zencart slow? Zencart optimization guide

Posted in Tips & Tricks July 29th, 2009 by admin - Comments (5)

Did you know that, unless the users really need to see the content on your site, most wait no longer than 5 seconds before moving to another site. And with the huge number of sites on the internet, they have MANY choices. To avoid losing potential customers, one of the most important things you want to make sure is that your users can experience lightning fast speed when they visit your site, and here are several tips for you: Read more…

Best Practices in Shopping Cart Design Part 2

Posted in Zencart February 7th, 2009 by admin - Be the first to comment

(You can read the first part of Best Practices in Shopping Cart Design here)

Too much candy can distract the eye

When planning the overall design or theme of your site try to keep things somewhat low key, too much eye candy will pull your visitors attention away from the actual products you are promoting. Try to avoid extensive use of flash animations, JavaScript effects, video and sound. A simple header logo along with graphics introducing special offers or discounts should be plenty for the actual store front. The only place the on-line shopping cart can be graphics heavy is within the actual product information pages, here the rule of thumb is the more pictures the better. If your store visitor spends time looking at a good selection of images for a product then they are being forced to concentrate upon it, a single picture can be viewed and dismissed in a split second. Add an image gallery for the product, with suitable image navigation and your customer is effectively locked into that product for the time they spend browsing the images.

Here is an example of an on-line store which uses a simple theme which does not cause the visitor to lose focus on the products:

simple theme which does not cause the visitor to lose focus on the products

Our latest project – Gift Card Store

Posted in Projects February 2nd, 2009 by admin - Comments (3)

Our latest project was to build a store using Zencart where customers can buy GiftCards for local stores, and they will be able to print those GiftCards and redeem at those stores.
The features we delivered:
1. A random 16 digit key automatically generated for each GC purchased.
2. The card is available for use only after the payment is made (if payment is made by check/money order then the card is not available until the check/money order is cashed in).
3. The 16 digit key will be printed on the GiftCard of the specific store, which customer can then print out for use.
4. Customers can track the GiftCards they have purchased so far, as well as the status of each card.
5. Local store owners can track the use of the GiftCard, they can also mark the cards as “redeemed” when the customer uses it.

All of this was done without modifying Zencart core code, thus allowing the store owner to easily upgrade in the future. This also demonstrate the capability and flexibility of Zencart to do things you never think it can do.

Zencart Ajax Checkout

Posted in Ajax Checkout,eCommerce January 9th, 2009 by admin - Comments (20)

In our continuous effort to help shop owners convert more leads into sale by improving customers’ shopping experience, we have developed the brand new ZenCart Ajax Checkout. Eliminating the need for multiple steps and required registration, One-Page Checkout will dramatically increase the number of completed purchases. Ajax checkout’s ultimate goal is to:

Allowing customers to complete the checkout process on a single page (Similar to Fast And Easy checkout module)
Presenting the least information at a time. We don’t want to scare the customers and drive them away by presenting too much information to fill in at once.
Coming soon: Allowing the customers to checkout without creating an account (Similar to checkout without account module)

Now is the time to bring your business online

Posted in eCommerce,Zencart January 1st, 2009 by admin - Be the first to comment

Today’s world economy continues to decline due to many different crises and experts believe that recovery is not possible even after a year or two. This particular situation has created a major impact on businesses all over the world. Many business owners are now looking for ways to reduce or minimize the cost of operation to help their business survive. This is where eCommerce comes in. Lots of business owners resort to eCommerce because of the many benefits it could give. Taking your business online will not only cut the cost of operation but will also help introduce your business to more people and increase your total sales.
Read more…

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