OpenCart Advantages and Disadvantages
WHAT IS OPENCART?
OpenCart is an online store platform. Can be install on any web server that supports PHP and MySQL. It is not commercial and is distribute free of charge under the GNU General Public License. OpenCart is built on MVC principle and supports multi-shop.
Design directly for creating an online store with a full range of functions and requiring minimal effort to install and configure, as well as very easy to administer, because. does not have unnecessary components, so it may not be suitable if the online store is part of the main site. The code in OpenCart follows the basic principles of the Model-View-Controller pattern, while the structure is very simple, being an excellent framework for creating an online store of any complexity.
CONVENIENT AND PRACTICAL FOR SEO
The CMS also has good functionality for the search engine optimization of an online store for search engines, for example, the ability to manually write the URL of the page. For any product or category, you can add a title tag, meta tags and headings. It is also very easy to sign photos.
INTEGRATE PAYMENT SYSTEMS
Several payment systems are also integrate into the CMS, including WebMoney, but there are also capabilities for the integration of 2CheckOut, PayPal, Authorize.Net, iPayment, RuPay.
PHOTOS OF GOODS
Uploading images may not seem very convenient to some, but the automatic imposition of a watermark on a product photo more than compensates for many of the inconveniences associate with photographs.
PAYMENT AND DELIVERY SYSTEM
Support for numerous types of payments (checks, payment orders)
Tax calculation, as well as delivery base on weight, product price and delivery area.
REPORTING SYSTEM
OpenCart has its own reporting system: you can set up detail reports on orders made, returns, and the most popular products.
OpenCart has a significant number of settings that allow you to effectively present products in an online store, link discounts and promotions to specific products, as well as create an affiliate program and prescribe various delivery options. In addition, your own sales statistics are not an unimportant advantage for analytics of online store sales.
MULTI-CURRENCY PAYMENT SYSTEM
OpenCart has a built-in multi-currency payment system, which is important for those online stores that work with more than one currency. The exchange rate is indicate by the administrator and changes automatically.
Multilingual
support Support for a large number of languages cannot be pass by, because it may not be the most popular feature for online stores, but its presence is good news.
ONLINE STORE FOR CUSTOMERS
Customers of the online store can view the history and statuses of their orders, and a temporary basket for guests and a permanent one for customers, in addition, a customer can have several delivery addresses in his address book.
THE MAIN DISADVANTAGE OF OPENCART
One of the most serious shortcomings can be consider the CNC. problems happen to him. The problem with the 404 code – the 404 error is simply not returned by the page, as a result, the search engine still perceives the deleted page as real and continues to index it. That is, from the point of view of search engine optimization, there is a danger that the index of your site will be cluttered with “garbage”. The work with SEO is not fully debugged (the ability to view the same pages at different URLs, but the problem is solved by installing the seo module seo_pro, which is already included in the assembly of the Russian opencart community – ocStore) (most problems can be solved using additional extensions).
THE MAIN ADVANTAGE OF OPENCART
The main advantage of the OpenCart engine is by far the import to Excel.
THE ADVANTAGES OF OPENCART OVER COMPETITORS
It is possible to install Google Analytics for the user, without affecting the code.
Simplicity in the settings of reports on receive orders, returns of goods, etc.
In addition to all of the above, OpenCart has the ability to issue discount coupons and gift certificates, link discounts and promotions to specific products, and create your own working affiliate program to expand your business.