Zen Cart is an open source online store management system. Support is provided for several languages and currencies, and it is freely available under the GNU General Public License.
Zen Cart branched from osCommerce as a separate project. Beyond some aesthetic changes, the major differences between the two systems come from Zen Cart's architectural changes(e.g. a template system) and additional included features in the core. Among the modules already included are a Gift Certificate/Voucher module which allows to create, send and manage the digital coupons. A module to sell downloads(pdf or other media files) is included as well.
Zen Cart's software provides everything needed to maintain an ecommerce website, from a user friendly control panel. Products, pricing, shipping, newsletters, sales and stock management are managed by the store owner through the administration area. The shopping cart is set up to receive payments from major credit cards and several payment gateway services are also provided.
Some of the key features of Zen Cart are:
- multiple customer modes
- multiple sales and discounts
- multiple display modes
- XHTML compliant template system
- multiple ad banner controller
- multiple shipping options
- multiple payment options
- newsletter manager
- discount coupons
- gift certificates
- featured products
- quantity discounts
