Opencart ? What is it ? Why many developers are talking about it so much ? What does it do ? How useful it is ?
Cool down… We are going to clear your doubts with this blog.
OpenCart is free open source eCommerce platform for online merchants
Free:
Yes it is free. You can start your online business in just 2 minutes after installing opencart. You need to download the opencart latest version from its download section. Downloading the latest version is always recommended as it is the best and with more features. You can read installation instructions of opencart on the documentation page of opencart.
Open Source:
Opencart is open source which means you have freedom to study opencart files, make changes as per your requirements and use it for your business. Open source allows developers across the world to contribute to opencart and improve its code for eCommerce.
E-commerce Platform:
You always need a base to start anything in life. A good life is only supported on good base. Similarly Opencart is the base for your online store. It is the platform on which your online store will be expand and your business will spread across the world.
Opencart provides you the best platform to start your online business.
Why Opencart and not any other ?
1 min installtion:
Yes opencart can be installed instantly within one minute. If you have brought your host / domain. You can login into your cpanel and instantly install opencart. It takes less the one minute to install opencart. You can also do manual installation. It takes about 4 to 5 min to install opencart.
Admin Dashboard:
Opencart provides you with awesome dashboard to manage your online store. The navigation menu is always available on left to easily navigate to any feature. On main dashboard, you can check your latest orders, check customer activities, check customers online, total sales amount based on dates.
Customized Theme:
You can select your theme as per your business from thousands of opencart templates available online. Some free and some paid. There are themes available for all business categories like jewelry, dresses, automobiles, manufacturer business, medicines, restaurant, etc.
Unlimited Categories / Products:
Each business has different categories and products to work with. You can create unlimited number of categories and products to your store. Many other eCommerce will charge you for number of products and categories you can have. But with opencart this limitation does not exist. It gives you right to add unlimited quantity of categories and products.
Plus you can also add SEO data for this products and categories so search engines will show your products higher in search results.
Supports Multi Language / Currency :
Yes by default open-cart supports multiple language and currency. You can run your online store in multiple languages. For example: Customer from London will see store language in English and customer from Spain will see store language in Spanish.
Also your store will automatically switch to the currency of the country. For example: customer from India will see store in Indian currency (Rupee) and customer from Dubai will see store in Dirham (AED).
Both multi language and multi currency are optional to have. So you have also run single currency and language as per your store requirement. It is really easy to manage it.
Product Reviews / Ratings :
Opencart provides a nice management for reviews and rating. Customers can add their rating and reviews directly from product page. Store owner has permission to check the rating and reviews before they can be shown on product page. So store admin always has upper control over reviews. Besides this store owner can also add rating and reviews from admin dashboard.
There are also many extensions available to improve your reviews and ratings. For ex: asking reviews in email directly.
Downloadable Products:
You can also have downloadable products in your online store. Many software selling stores or music stores will have downloadable files as their products. This can also easily be done by assigning this files to products and selling them online.
Customer can only download this products once order is made. Besides this you can also limit number of time customer can download such files.
PCI Compliant :
Opencart is PCI compliant (Payment Card Industry Security Standards) which means the payment methods used in opencart are secured and safe to use. They are in secured environment. So customer details are always secured and are in safe ends. Customers can easily place orders without worrying about their credentials.
Product Image Resizing :
When you upload your product images it is not necessary that it will be of same size. But when your customers see all your product images it will automatically be resized to same amount. As it provides better look for your online store. So you never need to work about product images in opencart.
Multiple Tax Rates System :
Opencart provides you a smart tax rate system. You can assign different taxes to different product based on location.
Many countries have issues with tax to be shown on product always. Such issues are covered in opencart.
Blogs / Information Page Unlimited:
If you want to increase sales of any business you need to have good article about it. You need to have information pages for products explaining about their uniqueness. Opencart provides you for creating unlimited number of information pages to share your work and products. Plus you can also add SEO data for this pages so search engines will show your pages higher in results.
All Payment Gateways:
Opencart has inbuilt so many payment gateways that you can start your online business straight away. Famous payment methods like Paypal, Authorize.Net, Bank Transfer, Cash on delivery, Skrill, etc are all inbuilt in opencart. You only need to turn them ON as per your requirement.
All Shipping Methods :
You can also get your desired shipping method inbuilt within opencart. Example: Fedex, Australia post, Citylink, Royal Mail, UPS. Besides this you can also have flat rate shipping , per item shipping, weight based shipping or free shipping for your products. You need to just enable them to show to your customers.
Discount / Special / Coupon Management :
Sales are definitely on rise when you provide sales on store. Opencart provides you with discount schemes, special price schemes and coupon code to run offers on your store.
With discount schemes you can have quantity based discount like buy 2 get $10 off, buy 3 get $15 off, etc
With special offer you can have special price for product based on customer groups.
With coupon codes you can have fixed or percentage discounts on products.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) :
Search engine optimization is important for any online store. Without SEO online store has zero value. But with opencart you need not worry about SEO.
You can add seo data for your products, categories, information pages. You can also add seo data for your home page.
So your pages get good rank on search engines and your site is shown at higher point in search results.
Improving Store With Modules / Extensions :
With modules / extensions you can have improve your store looks, store perfomance and customer service. Opencart provides you with thousands of free and paid modules and extensions to do job for you. You can search module on extension page.
You can filter and search extension as per your requirements. There are tons of module to help you get your work done.
Store Backup / Restore Tools:
Backups are important things that is must for every software or data. Without backup, it would be difficult to restore your data.
In opencart you can backup anything with a click. You can back up orders, customer details, products and categories, etc literally everything. And then you also have restore feature. So you can take your store back to one week or one month or a year. It provides you safety for your data uploaded.
Order Invoice / Shipping Labels :
Order invoice is important document for your store and customers. It is easy to print invoice in opencart by just selecting the order id. You can also have invoice number for orders. Besides this opencart also provides shipping labels to be created for orders with a click. The only work left is to print it.
Reports For Everything:
You cannot analyse anything without proper report. A good report provides you the improvement direction.
In opencart you can have reports for everything like: sales, orders, shipping, coupons etc.
Error Logging :
If you have any errors that need to be worked out. You can check error logs and know about the error. It is the fastest way to debug any errors across the store. If you do not have error logging you will be helpless. As you will not be able to check where issue is happening.
Opencart forum :
If you have any doubts with using opencart you can place your query in opencart forum. Many developers will help you clear your doubts with suggestions.
Conclusion :
With so many features discussed above, Opencart is worth trying for your online store. Plus it is free to use. So why not give it a try. If you have doubts you can leave comments below..