Archive for the ‘eCommerce’ Category
Once this new e-commerce platform has been used, gradually it can’t be replaced by anything else. Of course you know what we are talking about – PrestaShop, a shopping cart system that was build to take advantages of web 2.0 innovations. Though it was launched in 2007, it is getting a lot of favorable publicity by word of mouth.
We assume that you all covet this speedy and very lightweight e-commerce platform and that’s why we present you a Free PrestaShop Theme for cell phone stores. We have started producing PrestaShop themes recently (they are about to be launched in a short time) and this is the first example of this product. The cell phone store template that we present today will surely shorten the distance between the idea of successful online shop and its practical application.
Check out this Free PrestaShop Theme:
To download this theme, visit the free Prestashop theme download page at TemplateMonster and type an email address that you want the free template package to be delivered to (Prestashop theme live demo is also available). Feel free to use this template for your business, but you cannot resell it as a template. And of course your feedback about this first PrestaShop will be highly appreciated. If you have any, send it to marketing@templatemonster.com and get a nice discount for the PrestaShop themes that are about to be launched. Additionally, you will be provided with a one-time 50% discount in case you write a review about this free PrestaShop theme on your website or blog.
Note! The Prestashop themes from TemplateMonster are already launched! Go ahead and browse them now to choose the one for your business!
Download Free PrestaShop Mobile Theme (18,4 MB)
This article is composed by Andy Marcus, TemplateMonster lead product manager and the head of our R&D Dept.
If you ask yourself questions like that, you probably should continue reading this article, otherwise just go to our eCommerce templates section.
As I made templates for and worked with almost every popular shopping cart available it is going to be hard for me to stay unbiased during this review, obviously I do have my own favorite platform, but still I will try to keep the info fair.
Lets begin with some history. In the beginning there was Harald Ponce de Leon, who as a project leader started an open source e-сommerce solution osCommerce™. It was the first largest Open Source shopping cart available back in 2000, the forefather of them all. After a while the team that worked on osCommerce project has split into CRE Loaded™, Zen Cart™ and the original osCommerce™, therefore you will find much in common between those three. Each team was after perfection of their product, with their own approach, but the core code was pretty much the same. If you look inside you will find same variables, same functions in all three of them. Back in those times it was the revolution. Although osCommerce was the foundation it had neither the template system nor the ability to control the original layout by the end user, Zen Cart and CRE Loaded had a pretty nice functionality along with other things.
Actually CRE Loaded and Zen Cart were the response to the demands of a rapidly growing osCommmerce community, each of them has met the needs of their users in a unique way. For instance Zen Cart has a slogan saying “the art of e-commerce” meaning that Zen Cart is the art, and indeed back then it was nicely put together with their override system that gives the coder an opportunity to add and change functionality without messing and changing the original code. CRE Loaded contained the best and most useful contributions made for osCommerce, they had 3 versions of the cart, the community edition and 2 commercial editions with additional functionality. The code was partly object oriented and partly procedural (osCommerce’s boxes were class-based, but the rest was procedural). OsCommerce (and it’s derivatives) ruled the universe of free e-commerce solutions up until 2004.
The selection of eCommerce Manuals presented by Template Monster and osCommerceManuals.com makes the best value choice for eCommerce community. These special versions of eBooks exclusively contain an extra chapter on How to Install a TemplateMonster template of respective eCommerce platform, and are available for osCommerce, Magento, Zen Cart templates, and CRE Loaded store templates. On the whole, each user manual is based on a full installation and setup of a real live store, and is chock-full of actual screenshots.
Before, it was only possible to obtain eCommerce Manuals along with TemplateMonster’s eCommerce Template of respective type. Currently, we’ve added these eBook series as a separate product available for an independent purchase. Therefore, you can now buy them separately or again together with eCommerce Template. Note that if you purchase any of those books along with our template of respective type, the eBook price will be cut to 50% of its initial price.
Right now, you are welcome to check for these helpful User Manuals eBook series. Plus, if you decided to buy eCommerce Template as well, feel free to browse our Magento templates, osCommerce templates, Zen Cart templates and CRE Loaded templates, choose the one you like and you will be offered the respective eBook manual on checkout (you’ll even be able to pay for the template and the eBook in a single transaction which is very convenient).
This time we are happy to present the exciting interview with eCommerce professionals – Nick Weisser and Brian Stanic. We were lucky to know these two awesome guys by their comments on our blog – you can always tell a real pro even after just a couple of words from him.
So anyways, given how awesome these eCommerce professionals are, we knew their opinions about certain things related to eCommerce industry would be really interesting for our blog audience. Below are their answers to the questions we thought are the most trendy ones these days in eCommerce. Enjoy and let us know your opinions in the comments section!
The participants are:
Nick Weisser – web architect and owner of Openstream Internet Solutions in Zürich, Switzerland. He is an osCommerce team member, official Magento community (edition) partner and, as he calls himself, an Open Source evangelist.
Brian Stanic – the founder of The Holt Partnership, a Web Site Design company based in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, England. For the last twenty four years (!), he has been heavily involved in both the Accountancy and Business Software industries.
On with the interview…
1. From developer’s point of view, what’s your favorite eCommerce platform to work with and why?
- Nick Weisser Being an osCommerce team member and an official Magento Community Partner in Switzerland I like to work with both of these open source e-commerce platforms.
- Brian Stanic: osCommerce, CRE Loaded or Zen Cart. Low cost of ownership and very good support options via Add-ons and significant amount of people/organizations, able to modify code on request.
2. What eCommerce engine do you most frequently suggest to your clients?
- Nick Weisser: I recommend Magento as an enterprise class e-commerce platform and osCommerce as a solid and flexible e-commerce platform for smaller store owners and startups who have to watch their budget given the fact that Magento as a TCO (total cost of ownership) that is 2-3 times higher than that of osCommerce.
- Brian Stanic: osCommerce. Very good selection of Add-ons, good support via online community and developers, well versed in the osCommerce structure, wide range of Ready-made Templates via TemplateMonster and relatively low cost of on-going ownership.
3. Each platform has certain design restrictions and requirements. So in terms of these design restrictions, what platform do you think allows the most interesting visual solutions?
Wish to learn more about payment processing and merchant accounts? Or are you new to eCommerce and looking for a way to accept payments on your website? We’ll try to offer a good introductory material for getting started in this area.
In fact shopping carts, merchant accounts, payment gateways, credit card processing can get pretty much confusing when you start looking into the various aspects of eCommerce. Any business that needs to accept payments on their website should carefully consider the right merchant system since the proper choice of a payment gateway is a vital element which will contribute to success or failure as an online business.
Generally speaking, a payment gateway is a separate service and acts as an intermediary between the merchants’ shopping cart and all the financial networks involved with the transaction, including the customers’ credit card issuer and your merchant account.
There are numerous different payments service providers systems available for online merchants. So, let’s briefly recap the range of well-known eCommerce merchant systems that allow credit card processing. Our short descriptions include some of the major factors to consider when selecting a service.
1. PayPal
PayPal is an e-commerce business allowing payments and money transfers to be made through the Internet, being the faster, safer way to pay and get paid online. With more than 78 million active accounts around the world, PayPal enables global eCommerce.
The service allows members to send money without sharing financial information, with the flexibility to pay using their account balances, bank accounts, credit cards or promotional financing. PayPal performs payment processing for online vendors, auction sites, and other commercial users, for which it charges a fee. It sometimes also charges a transaction fee for receiving money.
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2. 2Checkout
2Checkout is an established payment gateways available and is used by hundreds of thousands of merchants worldwide. Being the authorized reseller for thousands of tangible or digital products and services, it helps merchants start selling online without any hassle, providing an integrated payment solution to help them handle the customer payments from start to finish.
2Checkout provides the crucial back-end features you need for a full-service solution. Its proprietary technology supports back-office functions including financial reporting, tracking, fraud prevention, affiliate tracking, customer service and sales tracking. Besides, 2CO provides you with a customizable transaction interface, multi-level customer service interaction and a satisfaction survey system.
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There are so many shopping carts out there, and it is hard to know which one to use for your website. That is a common question for a web community which currently contemplates in eCommerce field truly impressive shift from stable and proven osCommerce to relatively new Magento eCommerce platform.
The interesting tendency we’ve traced
In fact osCommerce is now faced with a serious challenger which certainly has no difficulties to penetrate the market of eCommerce open source. The new Magento package is set to take the eCommerce community by storm. It is one of the most promising of the moment having already attracted a large following, and osCommerce the inevitable is going to have to leave its place. Google Trends, in particular, graphically shows this tendency reflecting the situation where the new Magento just beats the hell out of the traditional osCommerce. Magento is now officially the most searched-for eCommerce solution.
Let’s face it – before Magento’s release osCommerce was the most popular eCommerce platform. The situation has surely changed since then, and the greater amount of customers is going now exceptionally with a Magento based shopping cart. osCommerce in its turn enjoys less popularity, though remains being around with a very well established and responsive community to offer support and the majority of followers to prefer using it.
Magento and osCommerce – what’s behind each of them?
Recently, TemplateMonster has partnered with osCommerceManuals.com to sell the user-friendly osCommerce Manuals series of eBooks. These manuals are currently available on our website for purchase along with the most popular eCommerce Templates namely osCommerce, Magento, Zen Cart, and CRE Loaded templates. As we all know eCommerce platform is rather complicated to work with, such step-by-step books therefore are simply a godsend for non-technical people.
The authorship of the above mentioned eBooks belongs to Kerry Watson – the author of the fourteen books on open source ecommerce programs – who was invited to write a special chapter for the TemplateMonster customers. So, the final versions of the manuals that are exclusively available on our website contain an extra chapter on How to Install a TemplateMonster template. On the whole, each user manual is based on a full installation and setup of a real live store, and is chock-full of actual screenshots.
From now on, guys, you can obtain these eBooks along with the purchase of one of our eCommerce Templates of a respective type. Besides, these osCommerce Manuals series of eBooks are currently available at a 25% discount – a big deal for those who put high value on their precious money assets! So hurry up to squeeze this nice opportunity and snatch something truly indispensable to handle eCommerce easily!
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