E-COMMERCE
Boden/Ledingham specialize in using Zen Cart for building e-commerce web sites because it has proven to be a powerful, flexible, search engine friendly shopping cart system.
Zen Cart provides you with a user friendly interface so you can maintain your online store, track inventory, sell downloadable digital products, collect payment for orders, print packing slips/invoices as well as providing an easy to use and personal shopping experience for your customers
For most start-ups and businesses with low turnover, we usually recommend Paypal or Google Checkout as a low cost 'easy start' solution. PSP/Merchant Account fee's can prove costly.
ZEN CART FEATURES |
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• Sell your products 24/7/365
• Inventory management
• Shopping cart & shipping estimator
• Pay using a PayPal, Google checkout
• Merchant services/credit cards supported
• Track orders through all stages
• Built-in invoices, packing slips etc
• Gift certificates & coupons
• Products & "Specials" or "Featured"
• Best sellers listed
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• Products can be sorted by manufacturer
• Quantity discounts can be configured
• Tight security on password handling
• Product notification system
• Low-stock notifications to administrator
• Customers can write product reviews
• Who is online - send to a Friend
• Multiple language support
• Multiple currency support
• SSL certificate optional |
ADMINISTRATION |
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Nearly every piece of information about your products can be controlled in the Admin areas, giving you the ability to fine-tune how your products and services appear to your customers. Features and options can be enabled/disabled quickly and easily.
Easily keep your product/catalog updated -- no HTML coding required to add, delete, or modify products.
Store layout can be controlled in great detail simply by switching settings in the Admin area. Choose your side column and box widths, Breadcrumb Separator, which Side boxes you want to appear where on the page, enable/disable links in various places.
Nearly every piece of information about your products can be controlled in the Admin areas, giving you the ability to fine-tune how your products and services appear to your customers. Features and options can be enabled/disabled quickly and easily.
Built in WYSIWYG page editor for modifying non database pages
Administrative activity logging enabled for audit trail -- especially beneficial with recent Merchant Agreement requirements concerning tracking of activity related to accessing customer information
Tax rates, tax zones, etc easily configured in the admin area
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SERVING GLOBAL MARKETS |
Multiple Language Support
Multiple Currency Support
Multiple payment methods
Multiple shipping methods
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PRODUCT CATALOG |
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Unlimited categories
Unlimited category nesting
Products can be assigned to unlimited categories
Unlimited products
Members-only categories
"Featured Products" box
Automated display of bestsellers
Related products, up selling and cross selling
1-click enable/disable switch for products and categories
Configurable search by title, description, category
Ability to modify multiple products simultaneously
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CATEGORIES AND PRODUCTS |
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Products can be marked as Free, or "Call for Price"
Products can be marked as "Featured"
Products can be linked and/or copied to multiple categories
Entire categories of products (or individual products) can be enabled/disabled
Sort order of products is easily controlled in the admin area
The Product Type feature allows you to customize information fields and display format for different products differently. Products for sale vs Documents for viewing, vs Music Downloads, and the list goes on.
You can add multiple images to your products, in small/medium/large format. Pop ups are available if desired for viewing of larger images
Sort by manufacturer
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PROMOTIONS/SALES/DISCOUNTS |
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Individual special prices
Global sale reductions
Category-wide sale prices
One-time charges
Low-Order Fees can be configured
COD Fees can be added
Quantity discounts
Retail and wholesale prices
Priced by attributes
Set minimum order amount
Customer group discounts
Discount coupon codes and gift certificates
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PRODUCT ATTRIBUTES |
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Product Attributes can be added, either as Radio buttons, Checkboxes, Drop-down lists, Text Boxes, File Uploads, File Downloads, and more.
Attribute Options can up-charge the price of an item, and an item can have its price completely controlled by attributes.
Attributes can be configured as "read only" so as to provide a Features List.
One-Time Fees can be added to products via attributes
Attributes also support Text Pricing, such as price-per-word or price-per-letter for personalizing
Attributes can show image/color swatches
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FEATURES FOR CLIENTS |
Password recovery feature
Customizable email invoices/notifications
Newsletter management system
"Send to a friend" feature
Customers can review a product
Per Customer discounts
Wish list
Printable invoices
Customers can search/sort products extensively
Customers can search/browse order history
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SHIPPING |
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Shipping Tare, Large-Package handling to give fine-grain control over shipping services
Shipping Estimator allows your customer to get an idea of their shipping costs prior to checkout
Shipping can be configured to link online with Canada Post at time of customer check out
Unlimited custom delivery methods
Mark your products as "free shipping" products
Flat rate, weight, order total and per-item shipping
Different weight limits for different delivery methods
Add handling/freight charges
Can handle international, domestic and local shipping
Send promotional "free shipping" coupons to your customers
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TAXES |
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Restrict shipping by location
Allow your customers to choose delivery methods
Full support for downloadable goods (e-goods)
Customizable tax calculation
Taves can be configured for individual products
Taxes & shipping fees depending on client's location
"Tax exempt" feature
GST/PST Tax rates, tax zones, etc easily configured in the admin area
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INVENTORY |
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Full inventory control
"Out of Stock" Messages
Low-Stock notifications to admin when inventory is getting low (level can be configured)
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SALES ANALYSIS |
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Number of orders / Customers
Product views / Category views
Sales by product / Best sellers
Total sales
Export sales & customer data
Order data is sorted and printable
Printable shipping labels
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SECURITY |
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Tight security on password handling, login/logout, and more
Email addresses are protected from abuse, as they are not displayed on-screen
HTTPS/SSL support
Password-protected admin access
Secure HTTPS/SSL admin access
Encrypted customer data
Can block/disable specific IP addresses
System backup
Validation of customer's address
Credit card info is not stored by Zen Cart
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SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION |
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Meta Tags, keywords and descriptions can be controlled at the per-product level, all from the admin
Pages can be indexed by search engines
Define custom META tags for every category and product
Automatic detection of search engine spiders
Intelligent generation of meta tags content for search engines
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