Considering Zen Cart, have questions...

Hello. We are starting an online truck accessories store. We already have a retail business so we have the products.

We are trying to determine if Zen Cart is for us. We want it to look something like this site (http://www.stylintrucks.com/). Not sure what system they use. We will build up to thousands of SKU's and need a year-make-model filter which I know Zen Cart has an extension for.

I am a part-time web designer, not a developer. So we will probably get the cart and buy a theme to modify. We are not opposed to paying for a developer to help if necessary.

The only other cart we have found that has year-make-model available (as an extension) is Magento. We have read about how big the program is and how many resources it takes. We can pay for a better host if necessary.

Does anyone have suggestions? Thanks.

Zen Cart is a great choice. It is easy to work with, the addons are normally very easy to install and doesn't require an extensive amount of programming knowledge.

My only suggestion to you is whatever you do stay away from Godaddy hosting solutions. While they are inexpensive they are very limited on support. Try bluehost, hostmonster hostgator whatever, just stay away from Godaddy lol

Thanks. We are on HostGator right now, business plan.

Two concerns about Zen Cart I have are:

1. It's getting old. Is 2.0 coming anytime soon?
2. I've read that upgrading Zen is difficult when you have customized themes and extensions.

1. Nobody knows about 2.0. In the meantime, 1.3.9h works fine for me.

2. Anytime you add more code (or 'customized themes', which I'll read as purchased Template Monster templates), upgrading will involve more work than would a stock, unmodified Zencart installation, but I wouldn't say 'difficult'. There's a pretty straightforward upgrade process that applies to any Zencart site, extensions or no.

The "old" look of the stock template is irrelevant, as it can be changed to anything you might want. I built the Future Relics site from scratch while beginning to learn PHP, CSS and HTML, so it doesn't take advanced skills to do lots of things.

The code is stable and reliable, and up to date in security.

"buy a theme to modify"

This can be problematic - Template Monster templates are notoriously hard to modify. It is often easier to build from scratch to fit a look you have developed.

Thanks for the responses. Did anybody look at that link I provided? Can Zen Cart do a site similar to what their year-make-model search does?

gjh42:

"buy a theme to modify"

This can be problematic - Template Monster templates are notoriously hard to modify. It is often easier to build from scratch to fit a look you have developed.

What about themes from this site:

http://demo.12leaves.com/zen-cart-templates/business-set/index.php?main_page=index&template_switch_id=business_black

They look to not mess with the ZC structure more than necessary. Have you also looked at the free templates at (sorry, site offline) ? One of those might be as easy to modify to the look you want (which, by the way, is not a difficult one to get with the ZC template structure - a bunch of work, but not especially tricky).

Can someone look at this site (http://www.coolcarpartsonline.com/) and tell me if the "part finder" is a custom module? If so, how much would something like that cost to have developed?

This is essentially the type of site I need to build.

That part finder is a very nicely presented copy of a mod contributed by torvista in Free Addons.

gjh42:

That part finder is a very nicely presented copy of a mod contributed by torvista in Free Addons.

Thanks, I have seen that mod in the addons. I'm guessing they had someone alter it to fit their site.

Removed

gjh42:

That part finder is a very nicely presented copy of a mod contributed by torvista in Free Addons.
How easy it is modify the Product finder to suit the needs of a parts store?

You should ask in the Product Finder support thread, where people familiar with the mod will see your question.