Newbie questions/advise

Hello,

Please excuse me if this is the wrong place to post this, i have not posted here in ages.

I want to start a shop selling RC helis and spares, i have had absolutely no experience with carts although I am a web designer and php programmer.

I am looking for a cart that is simple and easy to administer and not to intimidating, it should at least be easy in the beginning.

I dont ask for much, just around 10 functions:

1. Admin panel where i enter quantity and it keeps track of inventry

2.Intergrate with paypal+2checkout anything more is a bonus

3. Easy to "template"

4. Should be able to give discounts based on price and accept discount codes.

5. Should offer the "customers who bought this also bought" feature

6. Easy to maintain

7 Customer cpanel so they can have a look at their orders and past orders

8. Should not interfere with my vbull forum (v3.4.5...i think)

9. Should be fast and not have too many calls to the db per page as this will be on a shared hosting environment. I once saw a shopping cart a while back that was querying the DB around 150 times per page.... thats really high, i dont think my host will be too happy with that esp with how much I pay for hosting!

10. I have a very good page template (pure html) that i would like to use to display my products, would it be hard to customize the cart to display in the templates format?

11. Reviews of my products would be a fantastic feature, but if its not there, no problem.

Would you recommend Zen Cart for doing the above?

Please note that I am a newbie and will have a large bunch of questions if i do start using this, can I count on the community to help me when i run into problems? I know you guys are nice guys giving your time to support this free software but I have to ask :)

I WILL make a small donation if I use the cart - you can hold this to my word.

Thanks in advance!
Ryan

Ryan,

Good to have you back!

Yes, the features you're looking for can all be found here. The degree to which each one meets your needs depends on the specifics of each point, but for the most part you'll be very pleased with Zen Cart.

Just remember one thing ... in v1.3.0.x, the "classic" template is not something to build your template "from". Start from template_default as a base, and you'll be up and running with a contemporary cart with less pain.

There are a number of helpful folks around here, and I'm sure that their support combined with your thorough use of the forum search, the faq's and the wiki, will help your journey be a pleasant one.

There are a number of contributed templates in the "downloads" section (see link at top of page) which you may find useful as well.

There are some newbie guides kicking around as forum posts, which I'm sure folks will be able to point you to as a reference, depending on what stage of development you're at with your site.

Hey!

"Good to have you back!"

Thank you! Thats a real warm welcome, was unsure if you guys would be p*ssed at me for not being more active here :)

Happy to know all my requested features are available in one place!

DrByte:

Just remember one thing ... in v1.3.0.x, the "classic" template is not something to build your template "from". Start from template_default as a base, and you'll be up and running with a contemporary cart with less pain.

I have very little/no idea about v1.3.0.x so I will be starting from sqaure one on this... I think that might be a good thing. My host is giving me a bit of a problem right now so i cant really download and check it up, but it should be solved by tomorrow so will give it a go.

"There are a number of helpful folks around here, and I'm sure that their support combined with your thorough use of the forum search, the faq's and the wiki, will help your journey be a pleasant one."

Thanks! All i need is a few points and a few urls and I am sure i can manage, i work with computers all the time... but am just scared a bit as this is my first online shop venture. Total newbie, dont know on what terms/keywords to search the forum....

"There are a number of contributed templates in the "downloads" section (see link at top of page) which you may find useful as well."

Will do!

"There are some newbie guides kicking around as forum posts, which I'm sure folks will be able to point you to as a reference, depending on what stage of development you're at with your site."

Right now i am at the "waiting for products to arrive" stage :0)
but would appreciate it if people would give me the urls to those pages

Thanks!
Ryan

Here's some on the templating system to get you started:
http://www.zen-cart.com/wiki/index.php/Customisation_-_Templates_-_Create
http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/faq.php?faq=template_customize#faq_create_new_template
http://www.zen-cart.com/wiki/index.php/Customisation_-_Templates#Introduction

DrByte:

Here's some on the templating system to get you started:
http://www.zen-cart.com/wiki/index.php/Customisation_-_Templates_-_Create
http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/faq.php?faq=template_customize#faq_create_new_template
http://www.zen-cart.com/wiki/index.php/Customisation_-_Templates#Introduction

Thanks m8,
Will check them out as soon as I have ZC installed on my server..