Children categories
Instead of "showing off" what nowadays a browser can do, the passion of your webmaster should be directed to user friendly usability and good functionality of the shopping cart.
Threads on Zen Cart forums about recommended modules come around very often, but what is most intriguing about them is the wide range of "must-have" modules and the disagreements about what they are.
Since modules (plugins and addons) inhibit and raise the cost of upgrading, I strongly recommend that you use them only to solve problems or needs that you have on your site, to make your management easier and/or faster; and not because somebody else thinks they're a good idea or solved something for them.
Every year I upgrade our website design and scripts. I'm hoping to show off our new design in the next 2-3 weeks (including main site). Usually I'm questioned by customers why I do this. I'm not talking about the regular maintenance you give your website in a daily or weekly basis, I'm talking about the major improvements that don't take just one day to be done. Here are the 3 main reasons we (sometimes my team is involved) upgrade and/or upgrade our site at least once a year and why you should consider doing the same:
You are probably sucked in everyday with so many things to do. Between your email, meetings, RSS feeds, and social networks you can get lost and even waste a lot of time. You might feel occupied, pulled in hundreds of directions, but reality is that you aren't getting anywhere or getting anything done. No steps forwards are done for yourself, your team and/or your business.
The way to play this is to have a plan for every day, where you set priorities and stay focused on the things you planed are important to get done that day. You have to be disciplined and focused to get the priorities done and dismiss any distraction that will take you away of what you are doing (even your internal thoughts.
It is important to understand that the same principles that apply to traditional marketing will also pertain to those of your Zen Cart Custom Design.
Instead of flipping through catalogs, magazines and newspapers, they’re browsing websites and searching for information and online reviews about the products and services they want. They’re throwing to the garbage direct mailers and checking their email for coupons instead. What about phonebooks? Very few people under 70 use them.
More...
CMS (Content Management System) scripts are popular for developing various types of websites through the years. Even though they were started to create blogs easily, now there are from portfolios to full service business sites being created based in Joomla, Wordpress, Zen Cart, etc.
A difficult question from Paddy Moogan in the UK: "Hi, what are your opinions on optimizing an Ecommerce website where the main pages or products may not necessarily be rich in content?" That's a tough question, right? Essentially, you're saying here's a place where you can buy products and there's not a lot of content or maybe the content is duplicated from a bunch of places. So, my short answer is, you know, put on your user hat.
When your mechanic sends you a coupon for a discount on an oil change, or your local coffee shop rewards you with a free cup of coffee every tenth time you buy, you're seeing a promotional program in action.
A promotion is a planned strategy for increasing sales over a short period. A promotion adds value to the product or service offered. It stimulates sales for reasons other than the product's inherent benefits.