Features of Zen Cart

• Easily keep your product/catalog updated – no HTML coding required to add, delete, or modify products
• No limits on the number of categories or products
• Secure – no one but your administrative personnel can access your customer/catalog data
• Easy to install – our helpful installation program guides you easily through the setup process
• Mobile ready: can be viewed on tablets and phones as well as desktop devices
• The responsive_classic template meets accessibility standards for both desktop and mobile.
• Advanced Template System using stylesheets and images
• PHP customizations can be protected during upgrades by using overrides and notifiers
• Switching from one installed template to another is as simple as a couple of clicks in the Admin
• Product variants may be added using product attributes, appearing as radio buttons, checkboxes, drop-down lists, text boxes, file uploads, file downloads, and more
• Attribute Options can upcharge the price of an item, and an item can have its price completely controlled by attributes
• Attributes can be configured as “read only” so as to provide a Features List
• One-Time Fees can be added to products via attributes
• Attributes also support Text Pricing, such as price-per-word or price-per-letter for personalizing
• Attributes can show image/color swatches
• No fixed limits on the number of attributes or values per attribute
• Merchandise Pricing options: items can be price reduced using percentage-off, fixed amount off, or new price
• Price reductions can include or exclude product attributes
• Products may be included or excluded from a price reduction
• Price reductions can be put on one item, a whole category or the entire store
• Products can be marked as Free, or “Call for Price”
• Products can be marked as “Featured” for specific highlighting/attention
• Products can be linked and/or copied to multiple categories
• Per product minimum or maximum quantities and units - You can sell 1 per customer, or require at least 4 and in multiples of 2
• Quantity Discounts can be configured per-product for varying pricing levels or quantity levels
• Store layout can be controlled in great detail simply by switching settings in the Admin area
• Entire categories of products (or individual products) can be enabled/disabled with just a few clicks
• Sort order of products is easily controlled in the admin area
• If you need to take your site offline for a period of maintenance, you can do it easily by posting advance notices, as well as a Down For Maintenance page that’s also Search-Engine friendly
• During maintenance intervals, specified IP addresses may still access the site for testing
• Nearly every piece of information about your products can be controlled in the Admin areas, giving you the ability to fine-tune how your products and services appear to your customers without needing to write code
• Multiple items can be added to the shopping cart from a listing page by simply entering quantities and clicking Add
• The Product Type feature allows you to customize information fields and display format for different products differently
• You can add multiple images to your products, in small/medium/large format
• A verification for Agreement to the Terms of Service has been added for compliance with new laws regarding privacy and disclosure
• CVV2 card verification number support is available for compliance with most Merchant Agreements
• Shipping - quotes from most major couriers and postal services are available
• Shipping - non-quoted options possible, such as Hold for Pickup, Free Delivery in an area, etc.
• Payment - multiple payment processors are supported, including PayPal, Square and Authorize
• Payment - offline options available such as Check/Money Order and Invoice
• Customer Access Control – Browsing, viewing prices and buying may be configured to require authorization
• Showcase - You can set your store up to be simply a product showcase, without pricing at all
• Search options allow you to search for products based on name, description, metatags, price, and more
• Meta Tags keywords and descriptions can be controlled at the per-product level, all from the admin interface
• Automatic detection of search engine spiders
• Intelligent generation of metatags content for search engines
• Upgrade Detection notifies administrators of new versions at login
• CKEditor integration available for WYSIWYG editing of site content
• Tight security on password handling, login/logout, and more
• Customizable email generated at all relevant points of ordering process: when a new account is created, when stock is depleted, after a customer order, as order is processed by storeowner, when product availability changes, when customer reviews are received, and more
• Storeowner email addresses are protected from abuse, as they are not displayed on-screen
• Contact Us page can be configured to support multiple destinations, such as Sales, Technical Support, Webmaster, and so on
• HTML email supported
• Email can be sent via sendmail, smtp, or smtp-with-authorization
• Email archiving supported for audit trail
• Administrative activity logging enabled for audit trail – especially beneficial with recent Merchant Agreement requirements concerning tracking of activity related to accessing customer information
• Advertising Banners – show information about your business colleagues and track banner link activity
• Shipping Estimator allows your customer to get an idea of their shipping costs prior to checkout
• Coupons and Gift Certificates are easily handled both by customers and administrators
• Customer “Group Pricing” allows groups of users to receive a set discount amount at checkout
• Newsletter system and Product Notification system
• Low-Order Fees can be configured
• COD Fees can be added
• Shipping Tare, Large-Package handling to give fine-grain control over shipping services
• Tax rates, tax zones, etc easily configured in the admin area
• PayPal IPN and many other popular Merchant Services supported
• Customers can write product reviews (approvals can be required by an Administrator)
• Low-Stock notifications to administrator when inventory is getting low (level can be configured)
• Simple customization of templates via Stylesheets
• Developers Toolkit helps quickly locate a setting or text string to be customized
• Scalable from small shops to larger shops with hundreds of thousands of products
• Track Who’s Online interactively
• Multiple Language Support
• Multiple Currency Support
• Ability to add new pages
• Can be installed with demo data for evaluation.

Zen Cart also has a plugins capability that allows for extension of its core capabilities.

Do you have a question about whether Zen Cart offers a particular feature? It might be answered on the Can Zen Cart do this? page.