OpenCart 1.4 Beginner’s Guide
Build and manage professional online shopping stores easily using OpenCart.
- Develop a professional, easy-to-use, attractive online store and shopping cart solution using OpenCart that meets today’s modern e-commerce standards
- Easily integrate your online store with one of the more popular payment gateways like PayPal and shipping methods such as UPS and USPS
- Provide coupon codes, discounts, and wholesale options for your customers to increase demand on your online store
- With hands-on examples, step-by-step explanations, and illustrations
Q: What are the system requirements for OpenCart?
A: The following screenshot shows the minimum system requirements for OpenCart for installation and running without problems. You should contact your hosting provider if you are not sure whether these settings are set or not.
Q: What are the methods to upload files to a web host?
A: There are two common methods for uploading files to a web host:
- Using cPanel File Manager Utility
- Using an FTP Client
Q: Can we run more than one store on a single OpenCart installation?
A: Yes. We can run more than one store on a single OpenCart installation.
Q: What are GeoZones?
A: Geo Zones represent the groups of countries or smaller geo sections under these countries. A Geo Zone can include countries, states, cities, and regions depending on the type of country. OpenCart uses Geo Zones to identify shipping and tax rate price regulations for a customer’s order.
Here is an example:
Q: What if we want to edit anything in Geo Zones?
A: If we want to edit any Country and / or Zone definition in Geo Zones, we should visit System | Localisation | Zones menu in the administration pane.
Q: What is SEO?
A: SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a group of processes which is applied for websites to increase their visibility in search engine results to get more qualified traffic. For an online store, it is very important to apply at least the basic SEO techniques.
Q: Where can we find the new modules of OpenCart?
A: www.OpenCart.com contributions and forum pages are the essential sources to find new modules and/or ask for new ones from developers.
Q: What do you mean by Payment Gateway?
A: A payment gateway is an online analogue of a physical credit card processing terminal that we can locate in retail shops. Its function is to process credit card information and return the results back to the store system.
You can imagine the payment gateway as an element in the middle of an online store and credit card network. The software part of this service is included in OpenCart but we will have to use one of the payment gateway services.
Q: What are the payment methods in OpenCart?
A: The current OpenCart version supports many established payment systems, including PayPal services, Authorize.net, Moneybookers, 2Checkout, and so on, as well as basic payment options such as Cash on Delivery, Bank Transfer, Check/money order, etc.
Q: In which currency is the total amount calculated?
A: PayPal automatically localizes the total amount according to the PayPal owner’s account currency.
Q: Whats the difference between PayPal Website Payment Standard and PayPal Website Payment Pro?
A: PayPal Website Payment Standard is the easiest method to implement accepting credit card payments on an online store. There are no monthly fees or setup costs charged by PayPal.
PayPal Website Payment Pro is the paid PayPal solution for an online store as a payment gateway and merchant account. The biggest difference from PayPal Website Payment Standard is that customers do not leave the website for credit card processing. The credit card information is completely processed in the online store as it is the popular method of all established e-commerce websites.
Q: Which of the two PayPal products is recommended?
A: For a beginner OpenCart administrator who wants to use PayPal for the online store, it is recommended to get experience with the free Standard payment option and then upgrade to the Pro option.
