Is Zen what I need?

[gingerwilliam]

Hi
I have a perfectly workable website with a shopping cart and payment gateway.....no problems! That was until my payment gateway provider decided, with no warning at all, to withdraw the option of discount coupons!
I just need to be able to create coupons that my customers can redeem in the cart before they get to the payment gateway.
I don't need or want to change the appearance of my site - I don't want a massive "rewrite" - I need a really fast solution. Is Zen for me - or would it be a nuclear bomb to crack a peanut?
Somebody out there must know the answer!!!

[jcpatrick]

Well,

You won't need a nuke, but you may need some dynamite to get what you want.

See you'll still have to edit the template to find the look and feel that you want, and getting it to look exactly like your other site may be a problem with your current cart's copyrights.

Can you provide a link so we can look at it?

And these problems will be evident no matter what cart you choose?

[afo]

birdoasis is right. You're going to run into similar problems/issue with any online cart software. Zen Cart is highly flexible and fairly easy to use (once you get over the learning curve - also an issue with any software).

[yellow1912]

True. But I would not recommend ZC for anyone who looks for a fast and easy solution though, as I learn that from my own experience ^^.

[afo]

I don't think there is a "fast and easy" solution to it. Anything is going to require some work.

[gingerwilliam]

Hi People
Many thanks for the speedy replies.
I do need a fast solution - I've been left high and dry - promised customers discounts that I now can't deliver - - but I don't mind putting the work in.
I want to keep my current payment gateway - Google Checkout (even though I want to ) - but I'm going to have to change the cart to be able to offer the discounts.
I just have this feeling that I'm going to be restricted in the design side of things. I like the look of my website and don't want to change it.
Zencart seems to offer about a million fabulous features - but I only want one!
Advice please!

[jcpatrick]

if you give us a link to the site we can give you some ideas on what you'll need to change.

There could be a template out there with the sideboxes in the same place as the one your using.

[afo]

I don't know about Google Checkout, so I can't comment on that, but you can probably get a functional cart in a fairly brief amount of time if you don't get too terribly picky about the design. You can always change that later once the cart is behaving as desired.

I know you don't want to replace your current site, but you may not have a choice in your situation. On the plus side, you might find that Zen Cart is easier to maintain and expand.

As birdoasis said, if you give us a link to your current site, we might be able to give you some advice about Zenning it. :)

[gjh42]

There are essentially no restrictions on how you can design your Zen Cart template. Some designs will just be easier to make than others.

[jcpatrick]

Another idea is if your site requires someone to sign in to buy something maybe you can do a group discount. Does your site have that capability?