Introduction to Opencart – eCommerce Shopping Cart Starlet

It is hard to call OpenCart a new player in the shopping carts bandwagon because this software was in the shade of more mature and better-promoted online platforms for a long time. Analyzing the past two years of the development of OpenCart we can state the fact that it was a period of great changes for the whole OpenCart community.

Huge work has been done by developers and now regular users have a great opportunity to try out this reliable and powerful software for online store maintenance. This PHP-written online store platform uses MySQL databases which is the most popular type of databases for eCommerce projects, so nothing uncommon here.

Our team is preparing the launch of design layouts powered by OpenCart eCommerce engine so if you are interested in being informed about this very release feel free to sign up for the notification on our pre-launch OpenCart templates page. We are extremely excited about this forthcoming event and sincerely hope that you'll appreciate our efforts in expanding the range of eCommerce products. In the meantime let's return to learning more about Opencart.

---

---

Key Options

First stable release of OpenCart was in October 2008. It took several years to put this software on the rails of wide online store-management software road. I have a personal experience in installing OpenCart software on the hosting and I must confess that even a 6-year old kid can handle this task. It doesn't mean that I'm going to praise this software because as many similar platforms it has its own peculiarities. Before we start discussing them I'll share some information about the major functional features of the OpenCart.

• Multi-Language
• Multi-Currency
• Product Reviews
• Product Ratings
• Related Products
• SEO Capabilities
• Guest Checkout
• Shipping Weight Calculation
• Discount Coupon System
• Module System
• Backup & Restore Tools
• Printable Invoices
• Sales Reports

OpenCart developers have done their best to create a fully functional online store in one box. Basically you almost don't need any special or additional software to maintain your online store after installing. It is well thought-out software aimed at simplifying the store management process and making it very comfortable.

Modules

Also you can enhance your webstore's functionality with the help of default modules that are built into the core features. Besides default modules there are some premium modules that would help you to solve some custom tasks. Here is the list of default modules that would be available right after installation.

• Bestsellers
• Cart
• Category
• Featured
• Latest
• Specials
• Manufactures
• Information
• Google Analytics

It is also worth mentioning that OpenCart has a great administration user interface. Even if you are a newbie in eCommerce sphere it would take you 10-20 minutes to figure it out, understand everything and find all important sections in the dashboard. Besides, you can always ask for help in the OpenCart community forum. We do believe that you, our dear readers, and the whole Template Monster's community will love OpenCart shopping cart software and will start using it in your future projects. This is only the first post from our series devoted to OpenCart software and OpenCart templates so stay tuned - there is more fun ahead!