OpenCart Ecommerce Development

OpenCart is an open source shopping cart software for use in ecommerce development and is supported by SEO77.com

We look at shopping cart software in general and the OpenCart offering in particular in the following sections.

In a brick-and-mortar store, you have a physical shopping cart to which you add items that you pick from the store shelves. In an online store, there is a button that typically says Add to Cart on every product page. To buy the product, you simply click this button, whereupon the underlying software adds the product to a list that you pay for when you check out.

The virtual shopping cart at online stores is thus a piece of software that offers features that make purchase transactions easy both for the customer and the merchant. For example, customers can easily view, add or remove items in the shopping cart. Merchants are saved the trouble of manually computing the totals, taxes, etc as each item is added.

The OpenCart is open source software meaning that its code is open to developers who can modify it as needed (and also rectify any bugs they notice). Open source software typically tends to be more robust because many developers are working on it. It also allows more flexible customization.

OpenCart software can be downloaded free, and comes with free documentation in the form of free user guide and video tutorials. You can also get free support at the OpenCart community and there is also a commercial support program.

OpenCart has powerful features that allow merchants to maintain their online product catalog with:

• Unlimited categories
• Unlimited products
• Unlimited manufacturers
• 8+ shipping methods
• 20+ payment gateways
• Automatic resizing of product images

Support is available for multiple currencies and languages and shoppers can add product reviews and ratings.

It is easy for merchants to set up and administer OpenCart with its clean dashboard and menu system. The intuitive interfaces make all the tasks, such as adding products, suppliers, shipping methods and more easy to accomplish. Details can be easily updated by clicking the Edit button against each item in the relevant list.

While the backend is thus easy and intuitive, the front end that the customer sees is impressive and again easy to understand and use. Essential details and great photographs of featured products are displayed neatly. You can simply add any of these to your cart straightaway or click on the item to go to its page and get full details. The left column of the product detail page lists other categories for quick navigation.

The software is written in PHP and uses the MySQL database. It can be customized by developers familiar with these, and Web server software and commands like curl and fsock. SEO77 professionals have the required familiarity and experience and can support your OpenCart ecommerce development to the full extent.