Zen Basics

Configuration

If you've used SWCP's webapp installer (available from the Members section) your Zen cart has been installed and the database has been setup. You should receive an email message with your admin login information. The admin panel for zencart is located in the admin subdirectory of your zen cart installation. For example, if your cart is installed at http://www.mydomain.com/zencart/, then your admin panel is at http://www.mydomain.com/zencart/admin/.

Some Basic settings

Starting with "Configuration" you'll find of information. There are several items you'll want for getting started:

1. Store Name (Configuration --> My Store)
2. Store Owner (Configuration --> My Store)
3. Contact Info (Configuration --> My Store)

Zen Cart Assumptions

Its important to understand what Zen Cart's model is in order to make it work for you, instead of against you.

 All customers have logins in order to check out. 
 These can be setup at checkout time.
 
 Your catalog is made up of Categories, Product types, and Products. 
 Categories can hold other categories and you can move entire product lines
 by moving the category that they belong to.
 
 Products may have attributes, such as color, size, gender, type, etc.
 An attribute may be included in the base price or have an additional fee.
 Attributes may be represented as images, i.e. color or pattern.
 
 Products are displayed either in a category side-box, a tab menu, or in
 category pictures on the main page.
 
 Zen Cart supports downloadable products, such as ebooks, music, or software.
 
 Offline credit card processing: in order to not violate most merchant account
 agreements, zen cart will not store an entire credit card number. It will store
 half the number, and send an email to the store owner with the other half.

Getting Started

The first thing you'll want to do in setting up your Zen Cart is make a list of your products, arranging them by categories, subcategories, and product types. Zen Cart has a wonderful set of options for selling things including multiple shipping models, the ability to do promotions and discounts and on the fly currency conversions, but it can be overwhelming to get started. If you set up your product structure before worrying about shipping, discounts, tax rates in multiple locales, or the look and feel of the catalog you'll be way ahead of the learning curve.

Defining a catalog with Zen Cart

Related Articles

Setting up Look and Feel for a Zen Cart Site

Reference Books

We recommend e-Start Your Web Store with Zen Cart by Goh Koon Hoek. available from Lulu. It's the most comprehensive book available on Zen Cart that we've seen, and it's recommended by the Zen Cart developers.