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Just getting started? Read my What is a Zen Cart and why would I want one? article.

My Zen Cart modifications are focused on helping you increase your shop's sales and profits. I'm developing new code all the time, so please check back often and let me know if there's something you'd like to see. And if I've helped your shop make more money, please support my efforts.

Can't get enough of my tips and tricks? Sign up for my newsletter!


Want to see a demo cart? Click here to see a cart I've set for demonstration purposes. I have installed a number of my modifications so you can see them operate in a live environment.

Another test site has been set up here to show off some other modifications.


Bug Reports


They call me ... the Duke of Discounting!

Sales and Specials done improperly just erode your profitability. My discounting software helps you upsell, cross-sell and sell more products, increasing your profitability. Take a look: Need to know more about discounting? See the Zen Cart Matrix-o-discounts.

Want to know more about the difference between Big Chooser and Combination Discounts? Read the Big Chooser vs. Combination Discounts comparison.

Do you have a discounting plan you need implemented? Summon the Duke and I'll give you a quote.

My Zen Cart™ 1.3 Contributions

My Zen Cart™ contributions are free software. The contributions listed here are original works.

Download Link to Support Thread Relevant Zen Cart Version Help
Blog Integration support thread 1.3.0 and up help page
Newsletter Discount support thread 1.3.5 and up help page
Dymo Ship To Label Printing support thread 1.3.8 and up help page
External Polling support thread 1.3.0.0 and up help page
Search Helper support thread 1.3.0.0 and up help page
Welcome Google Searcher support thread 1.3.0.0 and up help page
Giftwrap At Checkout support thread 1.3.7 and up help page
MailChimp Newsletter Sidebox support thread 1.3.0 and up help page
Local Message support thread 1.3.0 and up help page
Military Discount support thread 1.3.0 and up help page
Installment Plan support thread 1.3.0 and up help page
SMS On Sale support thread 1.3.6 and up help page
Social Bookmarking/Social Shopping support thread 1.3.0.0 and up help page
Better Together support thread 1.3.5 and up help page
Quantity Discounts support thread 1.3.5 and up help page


Other Zen Cart Contributions I Support

These are contributions written by other people that I am now supporting.

Download Link to Support Thread Relevant Zen Cart Version Contrib Version Help
Ask A Question support thread 1.3.0.0 and up 1.8 See Readme file in contribution
Invoice support thread 1.3.0.0 and up 2.0 See Readme file in contribution
Email Archive Manager support thread 1.3.0.0 and up 1.4 See Readme file in contribution



Zen Cart Forum Postings

quantity discounts
I post on the support forum under the userid "swguy."

Here are my Zen Cart Support Forum posts.



My Zen Cart Extensions

My Zen Cart extensions are shrink-wrapped software, generally priced in the $30-$60 range.

Extension Name More Details
Better Together Admin Panel Tired of having to edit the setup() function to add Better Together discounts? The Better Together Admin Panel gives you a user interface to add every type of linkage that Better Together supports.
Big Upsell Big Upsell displays your Big Chooser and Big Spender discounts on the shopping cart page and the first page of checkout. It's the "Checkout Candy" for Big Chooser and Big Spender. See Big Upsell for more details.
Big Chooser - Conditional Discounts Big Chooser uses the specification language of Big Spender to create product based (rather than dollars spent based) discounts. See Big Chooser - Conditional Discounts for more details.
Promotional Pages The promotional pages (for Quantity Discounts, Better Together, Combination Discounts and Big Spender) show off your discounting policies on a single page. A link is provided in the Categories sidebox (under Specials). See Promotional Pages for Discounts for more details.

The individual Promotional Pages are free software (but a donation is appreciated). The Integrated Promotional Page (showing all discounts on one page) is $30.
Buy The Set Buy The Set enhances Combination Discounts by providing you with a single button that will add all the discounted products in a linkage to the cart. See Buy The Set for more details.
Big Spender Big Spender allows you to offer product or category discounts (or free gifts) based on the numbber of dollars spent. Categories and products can be included or excluded, choices of products or categories may be specified, discounts can be run one or many times, and many features for promoting the discounts are included. See Big Spender for more details.
Buy Both Now Buy Both Now enhances Better Together by providing you with a single button that will add both linked products to the cart. See Buy Both Now for more details.
Combination Discounts Combination Discounts extends Better Together, allowing you to create linkages between 3, 4 or more categories or items for the purpose of discounting. See Combination Discounts for more details.
Article Manager Article Manager automatically creates an "Articles" page for you from the contents of an "articles" directory on your site. See Article Manager for more details.
Customer Password Edit Customers missing or not receiving their password reset emails? This extension allows you to reset their password to a value of their choice. See Customer Password Edit for more details.
SMS on Message Like SMS On Sale? You can also get a text message notification when someone sends you an email through your Zen Cart "Contact Us" page. The message includes their name, home country and telephone number. Useful for shop owners who are away from their computers for extended periods of time! See SMS On Sale Extensions for more details.
Checkout Candy Checkout Candy allows a shopowner to add a last minute call to action on the shopping cart page and the first checkout page. Although any desired message may be added, this module is ideally suited to interoperate with Better Together; it will display any outstanding Better Together offers based on the content of the cart. For more details, see the Checkout Candy page, or for Combination Discounts users, the Checkout Candy for Combination Discounts page.
Valid Cart Valid Cart allows a shopowner to place preconditions on checkout. Unless these conditions are met, Checkout is not permitted. Messages are displayed on the shopping cart and checkout pages, and the buttons required for a checkout are not displayed. For more details, see the Valid Cart page.
Discount Preview Discount Preview allows your customers to see the discounts they will receive on the second checkout page. It is designed to work in conjunction with Zen Cart's Group Pricing Discount feature, as well as with my Better Together and Quantity Discounts Contributions, and my Big Chooser, Big Spender and Combination Discounts extensions. For more details, see the Discount Preview page.
Quantity Discounts Extensions A variety of extensions to the Quantity Discounts Contribution are available; please see Quantity Discounts Help for details.
Better Together Extensions A variety of extensions to the Better Together Contribution are available; please see Better Together Help for details.


Custom Solutions for Your Business Needs

Some of the projects I work on are completely custom and can't be priced in advance without a deeper understanding of the specific needs of your business.

Business Need More Details
Dynamic Pricing Zen Cart attributes permit you to raise or lower product prices based on a single attribute - but what if there are inter-attribute dependencies, or if pricing needs to be based on a combination of attributes? Take a look at my Dynamic Pricing solutions.
Product Validation Zen Cart has no ability to do inter-attribute validation, and it also lacks the ability to validate text attributes. Need this capability? Take a look at my Product Validation solutions.
Price Estimation Got a product with lots of priced attributes? Customers complaining that they must "Add to Cart" to see the price of a particular configuration? My Price Estimation solution provides a client side price estimation feature that allows different prices to be displayed without a page refresh or needing to go back to the cart.
Search Customization Search not working the way you want it to? I can make it work exactly the way you want. Take a look at some past search customizations I've done.
Other Customizations Need customization to discounting behavior? To a Shipping module? I can make it work exactly the way you want. Email me your specifics and I'll give you a quote.


newsletter

Newsletter

I publish a newsletter on Zen Cart every month or two.
Here's the most recent issue:


I invite you to view more back issues or sign up for future issues.


My Zen Cart Tips and Tricks

This section is a set of tutorials which are intended to illustrate various aspects of Zen Cart and show how simple changes can be made.

To prevent your mods from being overwritten, you must follow the follow the create your custom template guidelines. Please read these before proceeding if you are not familiar with this topic. In the examples below, we will name our template "custom."

Link to Tip Relevant Zen Cart Version
Installing My Mods (Beginner's Guide) All versions
Timing Discounts with Better Together and Friends 1.3.5 and up
Category Issues with Discounting Modules 1.3.5 and up
Promotional Pages for Discounts 1.3.0.0 and up
Highlighting your discounts Any version
Making your Shipping Policy more visible Any version
Installing phpTrafficA in Zen Cart Any version
Upgrading and Maintaining Your Zen Cart Any version
Easy Giftwrapping 1.3.0.0 and up
Adding Conditional Messages to the Product Info Page 1.3.0.0 and up
Probing the Cart in the Product Info Page 1.3.0.0 and up
Adding Boilerplate Text to your Product Description 1.3.0.0 and up
Changing the Title of the Admin Page 1.2.7d and up
Checking to Ensure Javascript is enabled 1.3.0.0 and up
Adding Keywords to your <h1> tags on the Product Info Page 1.3.0.0 and up

The entire contents of this site, including but not limited to algorithms, code fragments and advice, are provided on an as-is basis, with no warranty stated or implied.


Key Zen Cart Resources




Zen Cart Services

When you host on Certified Hosts or buy support from the Commercial Help Wanted forum, you're helping to support Zen Cart™.


My Blog

blog
My blog touches on Zen Cart, but is really more about shopping carts and e-commerce in general.

It's called thecartblog.com.

You can read it as a web page, or subscribe via RSS. I use Google Reader as my RSS reader, but use whatever works best for you.



Software Updates

A variety of mechanisms are available for you to follow my work and get notified when I update something.


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