The more clicks and actions you make the user take, the more likely they are to abandon your cart and buy nothing. The success screen that appears after a user creates their account is virtually worthless. The following modification will send your user straight to the shipping checkout screen if they have contents in their cart. If they don’t, then they’ll see the success screen
(Note, this is for version 1.3.x +)
Locate includes/modules/create_account.php
Find the following line, it will be towards the bottom of the page
zen_redirect(zen_href_link(FILENAME_CREATE_ACCOUNT_SUCCESS, ”, ‘SSL’));
Replace it with the following
if($_SESSION['cart']->contents) {
zen_redirect(zen_href_link(FILENAME_CHECKOUT_SHIPPING, ”, ‘SSL’));
}else{
zen_redirect(zen_href_link(FILENAME_CREATE_ACCOUNT_SUCCESS, ”, ‘SSL’));
}
And that’s it!
Your conversion rate will tell you how many visitors are taking a certain action – it could be completing a purchase (obviously, the ultimate goal) but could also include completely a contact form, signing up for a newsletter, etc. You can measure this by setting up goals within your analytics program. This will give you valuable statistics and metrics which you can use to measure against and help improve your business.
You need to optimize the functionality of the cart. The more clicks you make a visitor perform in order to get to the end result, the more likely they are to leave without doing anything. “Abandoning the process” is a big problem in ecommerce.
Below are ways you can optimize and improve the cart and shopping experience for the customer:
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Josh,
Between selling an idea or service and selling a product on the internet, which one has the largest potential for buyers and to make the most profit?
Thanks,
Taylor
Hi Taylor,
I think it depends on what kind of service or product you’re selling. Generally, a service will require your constant effort – for example, if your service is building websites, you’re going to have to consistantly be working on getting new clients and doing the work to get paid. If you’re selling a product, for example, a book or a piece of software, you’re creating a passive stream of income. The product will keep selling and earning you money without your constant effort. If you created a new passive stream of income each month for a year, you’d have 12 different products, each earning you money, and only requiring your maintenance or marketing efforts.
If you have a question, ask Josh
e017 is a comparatively new CMS with lots of features, and ease of use. It has hundreds of plug-ins through which you can extend its capability. You will find a plug-in to bridge with Zen Cart too. Bridging through this plug-in is easier for the layperson.
This plug-in is available at: http://plugins.e107.org/e107_plugins/psilo/psilo.php?artifact.178. Download it, unzip it and copy the zencart_bridge folder in your e107 installations e107_plugins folder. Then, install the plug-in from the administration panel’s Plugins | Plugin Manager. You will see the list of installed and available plug-ins. Click on the Install button beside the ZenCart Bridge plug-in. It will be installed without any prompt.
Once the Zen Cart bridge is installed, you will see the list of installed plug-ins in the main administration panel. You can also access configuration options by selecting Plugins | ZenCart Bridge. You have to configure the following options:
- Try to create ZenCart user account on e107 signup event: Selecting Yes will create a Zen Cart user account when a user registers on e107 CMS.
- Try to update existent ZenCart user account when found on e107 signup event: Select Yes if you want to update the existing user account in Zen Cart when a user registers with the same name in e107. For example, suppose that a user registers with the name ‘borhan’ in e107, and Zen Cart has an account named ‘borhan’. Zen Cart bridge will update user ‘borhan’ in Zen Cart. If the password chosen for e107 user is different from that of the Zen Cart user password, the password in Zen Cart will be changed for that user.
- Try to update existing ZenCart user account on e107 profile update event (Zen Cart password will be synchronized only if the user changes his or her e107 password): Select Yes if you want to update the Zen Cart user profile from e107. Whenever a user in e107 changes profile information, including password, the user profile at Zen Cart will also be changed.
- Go online-Try to synchronize e107 and ZenCart user sessions on e107 login/logout events: Select Yes if you want to keep e107 and Zen Cart user databases synchronized always. Selecting Yes in this field will automatically synchronize user accounts when the user logs in or logs out from e107.
- Synchronize e107 site admins as well: Selecting Yes for this option will also synchronize administrative accounts in e107 with Zen Cart. If you want the administrators to be the same for both e107 and Zen Cart, select Yes in this field.
- Gender: This field indicates what will be the default value for the Salutation field in Zen Cart while synchronizing the accounts between e107 and Zen Cart. If the account in e107 does not have a gender indication, this default value will be used.
- Disable ZenCart Newsletter (no matter the user’s choice): Both e107 and Zen Cart have newsletters. While registering, you may decide to use only e107 newsletters. Selecting Yes in this field will disable Zen Cart newsletters for the user accounts. Select Yes only when you use e107 newsletter for advertising your products.
- Default value for missing Extended User fields: If your e107 users have extended fields, specify the defaults for those.
The main configuration for bridging e107 and Zen Cart is configuring the database options. However, it is also automated, and can be used easily. You can configure the Zen Cart database connection from Plugins | ZenCart Bridge | ZenCart Connection.
The following are the options for the database configuration:
- ZenCart server root path for auto-detection: You can use auto detection for Zen Cart database connection settings by mentioning the Zen Cart installation path. For example, if your Zen Cart installation is in the /shop directory of your webserver root, then you have to type http://yourserver.com/shop/ in this field. Then, click the auto-detect button. It will locate the configuration.php file and read the database connection information from this file. Once it is detected, you are done.
- Host: If auto-detection does not work, type the database host name, for example, localhost, in this field.
- User: Type the database username in this field. This username will be used to connect to the database. So, make sure that this user has permission to do so.
- Password: Type the password used for the above user account.
- Database: Type the name of the database. If you are using cPanel and a shared Linux server, remember that the database names are prefixed with usernames. For example, if you have an account named bob, the database will be named bob_zencart.
- ZenCart Table Prefix: Your Zen Cart tables may use a prefix. If so, type the prefix in this field. Generally, for separate databases, table prefixes are not used. But when you are using the same database for separate CMSs, table prefixes, such as zen_ are used.
The Zen Cart Bridge works well with e107. However, it acts only as bridge. Using e107, users can also login and purchase products from the Zen Cart shop. This kind of bridge is good when you have kept the shop as a linked site with the e107 site.
For better performance, it is suggested that you use the same database both for Zen Cart and e107. But, don’t forget to use the zen_ prefix for the Zen Cart tables.
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