The OpenCart system is a tool for creating a full-fledged online store. Since its introduction in 1999, the kit has managed to enter the top ten most popular, convenient and popular CMS. This was partly due to the growing popularity of online trading, but no less important was the undemanding nature of system resources, ease of configuration and extensive customization options for the tasks and assortment of a particular store.
OpenCart History
The idea of creating a multifunctional content management system came to Christopher Mann’s mind back in 1998. The first customer was a software supplier from California. In the spring of 1999, it released to a wide audience.
Initially, OpenCart written in Perl, but the project did not meet the developer’s expectations. A year after the release of the product on the market. Mann announced that he did not intend to engage in further work on it.
However, the initiative was quickly intercepted – the Briton Daniel Kerr decided to use the idea. And the results of his predecessor’s work to build OpenCart again, but on a different software core. A full-fledged PHP product released in early 2009.
In the fall of 2014, CMS recognized as the most popular product for organizing online commerce in China. And a year later, almost 6.5% of all online stores in the world worked on OpenCart. In the top of the most popular systems. OpenCart took a confident third place, ahead of the recognized giants of the industry.
Advantages of OpenCart for the owner of an online store
The modern, easy-to-use platform allows you to implement all the functions necessary for the full-fledged conduct of commercial transactions online. Installation, configuration and launch do not take much time – you can start as quickly as possible in order to make a profit in a short time.
Designing a store and equipping it with additional modules is either free of charge (if you have the appropriate knowledge), or inexpensive. At the same time, the owner receives a full-fledged kit, including the possibility of SEO optimization and promotion, as well as security guarantees for the entire system.
Functionality
The CMS is ready to work immediately after installation. All that required to launch the store is to select the design and add the product. The shopping cart, as well as a number of other user functions – already configured and do not require further development.
Licensing
Today, OpenCart can be found in the GitHub file storage. Where the CMS distributed under the GNU General Public License v3.
Advantages for buyers
It is convenient that you can register – and in the future have at hand the entire order history, as well as saved delivery parameters. CMS displays the status of all shipments in real time – no purchase will lost on the way.
- A temporary basket is provided for guests to collect a large order. After registration it is modified into a permanent one.
- A convenient search function allows you to search for a product by several parameters at once, as well as use group filters.
- Multicurrency-the store is configured to accept payments in any currency, which expands the boundaries for online commerce.
Finally, it is convenient to “travel” around the site on OpenCart – navigation is intuitive and ergonomic.
Benefits for the administrator
The system works with physical and virtual goods – the buyer can download it later from the store after the payment is made.
- A convenient control panel – all information displayed on the main screen, you can track statistics, the status of transactions, the number of completed sales.
- Mailing lists based on the email addresses of users or subscribers. You can send them information about discounts, promotions, and assortment updates.
- The ability to configure access rights to sections of the site allows you to streamline the site management process.
- From one admin panel, you can manage several stores at once – with different products, prices and customers.
- The ability to add different attributes and parameters to each product to facilitate the search for the desired model by the consumer.
- Quickly configure coupons, discounts and promotions to increase sales.
There is no need to worry about the safety of data – the package includes a backup system, thanks to which you can restore information at any time.
Search engine optimization and promotion opportunities
Automatic creation of a site map, support for meta tags, the ability to index each page in all popular search engines.
Opportunities for collecting statistics
By default, the system collects information about sales (you can view reports for the day, week or last month), views of individual categories and types of products, and also makes a rating of the best-selling positions.
Advantages for the programmer
OpenCart is fully compatible with PHP 5+ and MySQL 4+, 5+. The open source code allows you to configure the system in accordance with the needs of customers. Besides that:
- Compliance with the MVC-L principles;
- The ability to use it with any browsers;
- Built-in support for 40 languages of the world;
- No restrictions on the number of created sections or products;
- The OpenCart API helps third-party applications to build a dialogue with the online store;
- Convenient development of extensions with Virtual Quick Mod.
- Extension of the standard functionality
And, of course, worth mentioning the possibility of connecting both ready-made modules, design templates, add-ons. And those that were developed for a specific task by the programmer himself.