Need SIMPLE solution

[foxden vixen]

I have a client that I created a simple page for ordering custom made baseball bats. There are only a few that he makes and sells but he wants to add a coupon code so that customers can get a discount when purchasing a certain amount. Now since I set up a simple Paypal checkout system, Paypal does not support this. I thought that maybe it is time to have a real shopping cart but looking at this maybe this is too much. I want it to match his current site, http://haagbatco.com/order.html, but not sure exactly how to do this. Any guidance would be greatly appreciated. I have tweaked Wordpress in the past for websites (don't like to) and it seems that this follows pretty close to that. What I mean by that is headers, footers, includes, etc. This may be too much for what he needs. He only has 4 models of bats to sell.

[RescoCCC]

Zen cart can easily be stripped down to do what you'd like it to do, and it can also be easily customized to duplicate that look.

[foxden vixen]

Thanks....good to know....now where do I start?

[RescoCCC]

You would start by downloading Zen Cart:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/zenc...d?source=files

In the distro you will find very thorough installation instructions. If you'll be building at the same domain, you would want to do the build in a sub-directory, something like /dev for example. Then after you have all your customizations done and you've tested to make sure everything works, you can move it to the root.

[gjh42]

The one thing that will be tricky is getting four different products with attribute selection all on one page. Zen Cart is designed to go to the individual product page to select attributes, though various people over the years have discussed the coding to put attributes on the listing page, most recently rbarbour with his "quick view" mod development.

[keneso]

Once done what RescoCCC suggested don't forget to read the template tutorial.

[foxden vixen]

Thanks for all the suggested help. I do have another question...does my client need an SSL certificate through his hosting company or is the SSL certificate on Paypal enough? This might not be the solution for him as SSL certificates are expensive.

[afo]

An SSL certificate is never a bad idea, but it's not a requirement.

You may find that Zen Cart will appear to be overkill for the products your client is selling, but I think in the long run the switch will be worth it.

I know a lot of what I say next will sound like gibberish to you, but once you start playing around with Zen Cart, you'll understand.

All of the current site content can be included in Zen Cart using EZ-pages and/or document general product types.

You should be able to use product attributes for the various options.

I suggest you install Zen Cart as a test somewhere and play with it before deciding what to do. You can get a free template to jump start your customizations. You can see them at http://(sorry, site offline)/. Use the pulldown menu to see what the template will look like on a live site.

When you have a question, come back here to check the Tutorials/FAQ section and the forum.

[gjh42]

If you're only using Paypal, all financial information is handled there, but it's still a good idea to have SSL on your store's login/account areas and admin. You can get SSL certificates pretty cheap if you don't require the big brand names like Comodo. Godaddy is supposed to be good and cheap for SSL (but stay away from them for e-commerce hosting), and there are probably others out there. My host offers a GlobalSign cert to his clients for $20/year.

[RescoCCC]

Godaddy is supposed to be good and cheap for SSL

Yep, they have a perpetual special at $12.99 a year. Google the phrase SSL cert cost.