What & History

Designed for Online Merchants

Zen Cart™ truly is the art of e-commerce; a free, user-friendly, open source shopping cart system. The software is being developed by group of like-minded shop owners, programmers, designers, and consultants that think e-commerce could be and should be done differently. Some "solutions" seem to be complicated programming exercises instead of responding to users' needs, Zen Cart™ puts the merchant's and shopper's requirements first. Similarly, other programs are nearly impossible to install and use without an IT degree, Zen Cart™ can be installed and set-up by anyone with the most basic computer skills. Others are so expensive ... not Zen Cart™, it's FREE!

Designed for Online Shoppers

Zen Cart™ will deliver the ultimate online shopping experience to your customers. Navigating through your merchandise offerings is a breeze with Zen Cart™, the program provides several "Spotlight" lists in addition to the traditional category to product links. Once a product is added to the shopping cart, secure checkout is a simple 3-step process. After providing the billing information, your customer chooses the shipping method. (multiple shipping methods including real-time internet shipping quotes are built-in) Next, a payment type is chosen from one of the popular payment modules. (PayPal™ and AuthorizeNet™ are just 2 of the included modules) Last, the customer reviews the order, shipping and payment choices, and confirms the order. You are immediately notified of the order and your customer automatically receives an e-mail confirmation. Zen Cart™ addresses many of the goals we set:

• make the program easy to set up
• make it easy to customize
• automate tasks, such as order confirmation
• make navigation simple
• built in promotions; discount coupons, gift certificates, newsletters and product notification
• offer single item specials and storewide discounts, including group discounts and quantity discounts
• built in Search Engine Optimization tools, including per-product metatag controls
• password protect the Administration Tool
• support multiple languages, currencies and tax structures

In short, Zen Cart™ is shopping cart software the way it should have been all along.

For Web Designers

Zen Cart™ gives web designers a robust and customizable electronic storefront that's easy to keep up-to-date with new features. It provides usable, intuitive and unobtrusive purchase flows right out of the box based on proven industry best-practices - there are no major revisions required to get things right for your clients!
One of the secrets behind its power lies in our robust template system that "abstracts" the look-and-feel from the code and logic behind Zen Cart™. This enables you to give clients a truly custom solution that integrates quickly and perfectly with their existing marketing websites.

For Developers and Hosting Providers

Developers are able to deploy cutting edge solutions based on Zen Cart™'s modern standards and technologies. Combining PHP server-side technology with the ability to choose from multiple databases on the back end, results in flexible software that you can customize and modify to suit your needs.
Minimum/suggested server requirements:
PHP 4.3.2 or higher, Apache 1.3.x and MySQL 3.23.x or higher.

Philosophy

The Zen Cart™ ideals are simple:

1. keep the goals of the store owner in mind at all times
2. make everything as simple to use as possible
3. listen to and be responsive to our users
4. continue to expand the database and server options
5. strive for the perfect shopping cart

We simply want to deliver a fast and easy to use shopping cart program that's freely available to everyone under the GPL. Zen Cart's™ development team encourages feedback and contributions from the community and we invite open discussion about e-commerce solutions.

Further, the team intends to openly communicate with our users about what's going on, our goals, planned timelines for releases, and to make sure we've got the ultimate set of features that promotes profitable businesses for store owners.

It is, after all, about commerce.