Introduction to Zen Cart customisation

18 December 2008
Posted in D.I.Y. Ecommerce - Zen Cart store layout and customization

One of the biggest advantages of your store software over it's competitors is how customisable it is. You can pretty much make it look however you like. Of course you have to know how to do this. You have several options at this point.

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Installing the recommended template

18 December 2008
Posted in D.I.Y. Ecommerce - Zen Cart store layout and customization

If you look at your store as it is you will probably want to get rid of all references to Zen Cart. I reccomend all but the one at the very bottom of the page. This link has a use later in the DIY Ecommerce guide and anyway, credit where credit is due. Here is what to do next.

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How to smarten up the template

18 December 2008
Posted in D.I.Y. Ecommerce - Zen Cart store layout and customization

Now we are going to tweak the column widths in order to make things look right. The numbers you are typing in tell Zen Cart what size, in pixels, to make the columns and sideboxes. The sizes are specifically chosen so that over all they fit in with the width of the header, the graphics of the sideboxes themselves and the width of the stylesheet that defines the layout of this template.

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Changing the Zen Cart header message

18 December 2008
Posted in D.I.Y. Ecommerce - Zen Cart store layout and customization

Now you probably want a nice smart header image with perhaps your company logo or your key products or maybe something else entirely. We will come to some ideas soon but first we need to get rid of the 'Tagline Here' text and the Zen-Cart image.

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How to change the page title

18 December 2008
Posted in D.I.Y. Ecommerce - Zen Cart store layout and customization

You will notice that the page title says 'Zen Cart!, The Art of Ecommerce'. You can see this, as can your customers, in the top off the browser window. Clearly we want to change this to 'FluffyTEDDIESUK – The best teddy shop in the world' or similar. Here is how to do it.

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How to remove the Zen Cart picture

18 December 2008
Posted in D.I.Y. Ecommerce - Zen Cart store layout and customization

Simple! We need to make a quick change to the very same file. I only did it in 2 stages so you could see the effect of each change. On line 25 delete the file name logo .gif leaving the line as;

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Zen Cart sideboxes

18 December 2008
Posted in D.I.Y. Ecommerce - Zen Cart store layout and customization

Here is how they work. Sideboxes can pretty much contain anything. There could be a message, a picture, an advert, your specials, best sellers and more. You can create your own custom sideboxes by creating your own content in one. And you can use the 'ready made' sideboxes for the specific purposes for which they were intended.

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Custom sideboxes

18 December 2008
Posted in D.I.Y. Ecommerce - Zen Cart store layout and customization

Now we will create a banner to appear in a sidebox and then make it appear. I like images they are what distinguishes the look of your store from others. So let's make a custom sidebox.

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Changing the store header graphic

18 December 2008
Posted in D.I.Y. Ecommerce - Zen Cart store layout and customization

Obviously you don't want the default header graphic supplied by Zen Cart. I have provided a blank template in Templates/Graphics. File is called header.jpg. Open it up in Gimp and using all your photographic skills make your store header.

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How to create a 'key information' banner

18 December 2008
Posted in D.I.Y. Ecommerce - Zen Cart store layout and customization

Now I will show you how to make a banner and insert it at the top of every page. This is a good idea because it can make the most important offering from your store visible all the time. But at the same time you are not having to manually enteri it into every page you make. This means by amending your header banner you can change the top of every page without amending each page individually. You could also switch the banner on and off as you please.

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Some Zen Cart settings to consider

18 December 2008
Posted in D.I.Y. Ecommerce - Zen Cart store layout and customization

Log in to your store control panel. Select Configuration > Customer Details. I would suggest setting the 'Date of Birth' field to 'false'.  This is because it removes a little bit of the form filling your customers need to do to buy your products. So unless you have good reason to collect birthdays set this to false. Here are some more settings to consider.

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More Zen Cart customisation

05 December 2008
Posted in D.I.Y. Ecommerce - Zen Cart store layout and customization

 What follows is a short list of really easy ways you can improve and customise your Zen Cart store.

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