Buying a Template

My colleage is responding to the OP's question. And it's very good advice for ALL NOVICES: Don't buy a TM template.

And yes... we are quite good businessmen. I fly first-class between London and Cape Town twice a year and live in a really nice part of BOTH cities.

I suppose the big difference between us and Template Monster is that WE don't rip people off. :D

fairestcape:

My colleage is responding to the OP's question. And it's very good advice for ALL NOVICES: Don't buy a TM template.

And yes... we are quite good businessmen. I fly first-class between London and Cape Town twice a year and live in a really nice part of BOTH cities.

I suppose the big difference between us and Template Monster is that WE don't rip people off. :D

Maybe you think $200 is a lot of money, but when you're in business spending that money to save even a few hours is worth it.

And really, if you look up britefactorys postcode and 'yours', you're the same location.

I think the TYPING IN CAPITAL LETTERS GIVES IT AWAY ;)

I live in Upper Mill Street in Vredehoek in CapeTown. My colleague lives in Hertfordshire, england. Our business address is (as you would expect) our business address.

I can't see why you're frothing at the mouth over this?

Go back to the purpose of this thread. General opinion is that for people new to zencart, TM templates are not recommended. MOST experienced ZC people would say the same thing.

Please get over your rant...

fairestcape:

Go back to the purpose of this thread. General opinion is that for people new to zencart, TM templates are not recommended. MOST experienced ZC people would say the same thing.

And what im saying and you're missing the point of is TM templates are not recomended for YOU the user. TM templates are recommended for the CUSTOMER, and will convert well, look professional, and make you money, and quickly.

A TM template - a customer can visit your site, make a sale, give you money. Thats the basics any online store needs. 99% of all 'mods' you say you need to add to a site don't really affect conversions in anyway - they simply make the site owners life easier.

Its not a rant. Aesthetics, layout and professionalism are the most important aspects to the customer.

The back end functionality of your site doesnt even come into it.

There are some websites that sell massive amounts of product, and have only one webpage to them and a paypal checkout basket. They have no back end fuctionality whatsover, no means of updating, no reporting.

They sell **** loads of product.

They must be wrong eh.

The fact remains that many novice users buy TM templates and then come here to ask the Zen Cart team why settings in the admin don't work. Yes, they do. You just chose to use a product that disables the functionality, so it looks pretty, but limits the functionality available to both the store owner and customers.

Does TM make money? Definitely. Are they ripping people off? I think so. In their case, you DON'T get what you pay for because THEY don't use the override system properly. Do a search of the forums for people reporting problems because of TM templates and how TM doesn't respond to requests for help.

afo:

The fact remains that many novice users buy TM templates and then come here to ask the Zen Cart team why settings in the admin don't work. Yes, they do. You just chose to use a product that disables the functionality, so it looks pretty, but limits the functionality available to both the store owner and customers.

Does TM make money? Definitely. Are they ripping people off? I think so. In their case, you DON'T get what you pay for because THEY don't use the override system properly. Do a search of the forums for people reporting problems because of TM templates and how TM doesn't respond to requests for help.

All Zencart users start off novice users. Some of them buy a TM template and start making sales far sooner than ones that don't.

The other type spend ages developing their site, and it looks pretty poor at the end of it after months and months, but they have the luxury of being able to play with all their admin settings....not that it makes any real difference as no one is buying from their amateur looking site.

I know which one Id prefer to be.

We have people talking across each other here, and each has some valid points. If you are in a competitive niche where everyone else has the identical products and prices as you, you must have an attention-grabbing site to compete. (It appears all of dgent's sites are in such markets.)
If you have a unique and desirable product, it hardly matters what your site looks like as long as it works correctly. (As referenced by schoolboy.)

gjh42:

We have people talking across each other here, and each has some valid points. If you are in a competitive niche where everyone else has the identical products and prices as you, you must have an attention-grabbing site to compete. (It appears all of dgent's sites are in such markets.)
If you have a unique and desirable product, it hardly matters what your site looks like as long as it works correctly. (As referenced by schoolboy.)

Thats very true, but I still stand by the point that both sites 'work correctly' in regards to the customers experience.

As Glenn mentioned, there are valid points to both sides of the argument. I personally think the stock classic green template that comes with the basic install is hideous. As a consumer who does most of his shopping online, I can tell you that - in the days since Web 2.0, HTML5, etc. - the older, basic looking sites I see look very dated, amateurish, and unprofessional at best, which is why the average cart owner scrambles for a template as soon as the installation is complete.

Maybe I shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but to me, it's a direct reflection on the business and how it may (or may not) operate. Probably also why Prestashop has become so popular in such a short period of time - a modern-looking site can be had out of the box without having to learn to code in addition to trying to get a business up and running.

This is really no different than operating a brick and mortar store. Window dressing counts.

Having said all of that, when I DO shop, I expect my checkout experience to work as expected. A lot of research has been put into shopping behaviors and other ways to chase conversion rates, but at the end of the day, I don't care about personas, social tie-ins, etc. I just want my stuff at a fair price, and fulfilled in a timely manner.

Interesting discussion...

I have to agree that the stock template is very dated and unattractive to the contemporary eye. This has been discussed countless times, with the upshot being that "users should customize their template anyway, so why make the default one 'modern' - give them an incentive to change it." My opinion is that huge numbers of users will never change more than the essentials, and it's better for uncreative users to have a generic contemporary template than a generic outdated template.

@dgent

By all means, go ahead and buy a TM template - BUT don't come here crying for help when things don't work. Not many zenners (myself included) are willing to clean up an utter mess created by TM.

frank18:

@dgent

By all means, go ahead and buy a TM template - BUT don't come here crying for help when things don't work. Not many zenners (myself included) are willing to clean up an utter mess created by TM.

Im pretty sure, that you can install a TM template, and a customer can visit your site, register, add a product to their cart, check out, pay money and you send out the goods and the customer is happy.

Quit with the propaganda lol, Im pretty sure there are far more people on this forum crying for help with their stores that ARENT running TM templates...

gjh42:

I have to agree that the stock template is very dated and unattractive to the contemporary eye. This has been discussed countless times, with the upshot being that "users should customize their template anyway, so why make the default one 'modern' - give them an incentive to change it." My opinion is that huge numbers of users will never change more than the essentials, and it's better for uncreative users to have a generic contemporary template than a generic outdated template.

The stock template should be something like the PureGreen/blue/Red series. Simple, unoffensive.

dgent:

Im pretty sure, that you can install a TM template, and a customer can visit your site, register, add a product to their cart, check out, pay money and you send out the goods and the customer is happy.

Quit with the propaganda lol, Im pretty sure there are far more people on this forum crying for help with their stores that ARENT running TM templates...

.... and they are being duly helped

Something to keep in mind: For current versions, the stock template is what it is, as the devs have not made changes to the code except to fix things that were broken or add functional/security features. The next major release will see a complete refactoring of the core code, and it has been stated that the stylesheet will be completely overhauled, so it would seem likely that the template will be upgraded at the same time.

JMHO, but I always thought the default template serves 2 purposes

1. give the store owner (or designer) clues as to what should be changed
2. it's purposely ugly so the user will change it

The nicer the default template, the more likely it is that people will install Zen Cart and never do much more than add products.

There are lots of free templates available that will help create an attractive store front while keeping the admin functions working properly. No one needs to rely on the default.

The "classic" template is there to provide store owners with a CORE view of what a template should behave like (don't worry what it LOOKS like... it is not supposed to be used as a visible template for a live site.)

It's KEY VALUE is a "fall-back" diagnostic tool, and is invoked when users experience problems with their CUSTOMISATIONS.

Reverting to the un-touched CLASSIC will revert to CORE behaviour, allowing store owners to see if bad behaviour in their CUSTOM stuff is being replicated in the CORE.

afo:

JMHO, but I always thought the default template serves 2 purposes

1. give the store owner (or designer) clues as to what should be changed
2. it's purposely ugly so the user will change it

The nicer the default template, the more likely it is that people will install Zen Cart and never do much more than add products.

There are lots of free templates available that will help create an attractive store front while keeping the admin functions working properly. No one needs to rely on the default.

Have you ever wondered how many people DON'T use Zencart because of how it looks. It looks old, so they will probably assume its old technology and not suitable for modern eccomerce.

The nicer the template, yes, they may only just add products...But isnt that the whole point of opening a shop. Spend the time getting your products on and actually making sales instead of spending months trying to get it to look right first before even making a sale.

I see lots of people on this forum with posts like 'im finally ready to go live with my site' and there first post on the subject was a couple of months previous. Time is money.

dgent:

Have you ever wondered how many people DON'T use Zencart because of how it looks. It looks old, so they will probably assume its old technology and not suitable for modern eccomerce.

The nicer the template, yes, they may only just add products...But isnt that the whole point of opening a shop. Spend the time getting your products on and actually making sales instead of spending months trying to get it to look right first before even making a sale.

I see lots of people on this forum with posts like 'im finally ready to go live with my site' and there first post on the subject was a couple of months previous. Time is money.

No, I don't waste my time wondering why people don't use Zen Cart. Different strokes for different folks. The look of the site should be secondary to the FUNCTIONING of the site. If you want to put the cart before the horse, be my guest. The free templates work well and the instructions in the default template are huge clues to what files need to change.

Many new Zen Cart users have live online store which they are converting to Zen Cart. Those users may decide to take the time to learn Zen Cart and get the look the way they want before going live.

I've never been impressed with TM's templates, but those who chose to use commercially developed templates should be aware that although they may be attractive, the templates may disable certain admin functions and any problems/questions of that sort should go to the template designer/seller.

Your mileage may vary.

afo:

No, I don't waste my time wondering why people don't use Zen Cart. Different strokes for different folks. The look of the site should be secondary to the FUNCTIONING of the site. If you want to put the cart before the horse, be my guest. The free templates work well and the instructions in the default template are huge clues to what files need to change.

Many new Zen Cart users have live online store which they are converting to Zen Cart. Those users may decide to take the time to learn Zen Cart and get the look the way they want before going live.

I've never been impressed with TM's templates, but those who chose to use commercially developed templates should be aware that although they may be attractive, the templates may disable certain admin functions and any problems/questions of that sort should go to the template designer/seller.

Your mileage may vary.

The 'cart' is business and making money, the 'horse' is learning coding and delaying any sales.
We have enough things to worry about in business such as products, margins, accounts, premises, staff, than to sit down trying to code a template from scratch.

..hence if you follow the link at the top of this page to the 'Live Showcase Stores' and wonder why half of them have gone out of business and no longer active...