Zen Cart custom software development, Zen Cart modules, Zen Cart Expert eCommerce with Zen Cart!

The Zen Cart Expert


My name is Scott C. Wilson and I am That Software Guy. I am a Zen Cart expert. Now lots of people claim to be a Zen Cart expert (or a Zen Cart master or a Zen Cart guru or whatever), but you may want to look for supporting evidence instead of just taking their word for it. What proof do I offer? You can look at my testimonials, plugins, custom work, and GitHub commits. No one has more. And I've been developing with Zen Cart for over 15 years. I am the only independent software developer who is allowed to advertise on the Zen Cart forum.

My Zen Cart forum ad

You can see my ad on the Services tab on the Zen Cart forum.

I’m a software developer. But unlike most software developers, I have also done both product and project management. Most software developers have to be told exactly what needs to be built, but I can work with you to help you figure out what you need. Then, I can help you stack rank your todo list so that the most valuable features are done first.

Here's my interview with tech journalist Ramon Ray:


If you have - or want - an eCommerce website for your product or service business, and you sell with Zen Cart (or osCommerce, OpenCart, BigCommerce, or Shopify), you're at the right place. I have been helping small businesses improve their eCommerce operations since 2006. I create reliable, maintainable software customizations that work the way YOUR business works, and all for a reasonable price within a workable timeframe. What can I build for you? Or do you just need Zen Cart Support or a Zen Cart Upgrade? I can help there too. Talk to me and see - no one works harder for your small business selling online.

Current Status

  • Zen Cart 1.5.8 is now available. The latest update is Zen Cart1.5.8a, and all users are encouraged to update. Read the release announcement.
  • I'm getting my software updated to run on PHP 8. If you are testing PHP 8 and encounter an issue with one of my plugins, please check the plugin's help page to see if an update is available. If it hasn't been done yet, let me know and I'll get it fixed.
  • The Zen Cart documentation has been moved to Github so that anyone can update it. You can see how it looks at docs.zen-cart.com. It uses Hugo and the Docsy template on the Netlify platform. (Read more ...)

Invoice Payment Method updated

Posted June, 2023

The Invoice payment method has been updated for Zen Cart 1.5.8.

Admin Notes V2 updated

Posted May, 2023

The Admin Notes V2 plugin has been updated for Zen Cart 1.5.8.

Catalog Invoice updated

Posted April, 2023

Updates to the Catalog Invoice plugin for 1.5.8 have been posted to fix references to missing .css files.

1.5.8a Release

Posted March, 2023

Zen Cart 1.5.8a has been released! Thanks to all the community members who helped.

CSV Inventory updated

Posted February, 2023

The CSV Inventory plugin has been updated for Zen Cart 1.5.8.

Responsive Fallback for Zen Cart 1.5.8

Posted January, 2023

I have updated Responsive Fallback to be compatible with Zen Cart 1.5.8 and the new language loading procedures. And Responsive Fallback now has the option of falling back to the Bootstrap template, not just Responsive Classic. So if your desktop template is holding you back from upgrading, Responsive Fallback could be a good option for you.

PHP 7.4 End of Life

Posted December, 2022

PHP 7.4 (and thus, all versions of PHP7 and below) are now end of life. They are not receiving security fixes or any support at all. What this means to you as a Zen Cart user is that you should upgrade to Zen Cart 1.5.8 as soon as possible. Make upgrading part of your 2023 business plan, so you can avoid getting hacked or having your cart stop working.

Boilerplate for Description

Posted December, 2022

Zen Cart 1.5.8 represents a major change in how language files are handled, so some of my plugins will require updates. I just fixed Boilerplate in Description so that it would work with 1.5.8.

Support Clients - Increased Monthly Base Charge for Support

Posted November, 2022

I'm not raising my hourly rates - my rates have been unchanged since the end of 2016 - but I'm raising my monthly fee for support from $25 to $50. I monitor your site for downtime and do a monthly check (and an offsite database backup) which is included in this price, but the real value is having me on call to deal with emergencies if your site has problems. I am no longer selling software to people who are not on support so I can focus all my energy on my support clients.

Zen Cart Preview Email and One Page Checkout

Posted October, 2022

I got a report that Preview Email was not working well with recent versions of @lat9's One Page Checkout plugin. I have posted the required patches on the forum here.

Zen Cart 1.5.8 Release

Posted October, 2022

I could not be more excited to announce that more than two years after the initial release of 1.5.7, Zen Cart 1.5.8 is finally ready for general use. Here is the release announcement and the What's New document.

Change of Business Focus

Posted September, 2022

I am no longer selling individual pieces of software. My goal instead is to focus on my Zen Cart Maintenance and Support (and Zen Cart Upgrade) offerings.

Zen Cart Shipping Surcharge

Posted August, 2022

The Zen Cart Shipping Surcharge plugin has fixes to ensure zone selection is correctly applied.

Limited Grouped BOGO for Zen Cart

Posted July, 2022

The BOGO Discount got a refresh this month, with the ability to group categories for a BOGO (buy any 2 from categories A, B, C, get 1 from category A, B or C at a discount).

Zen Cart Attribute Report

Posted June, 2022

The Attribute Report plugin allows you to easily determine which attributes are being used by which products.

Zen Cart Preview Email

Posted May, 2022

The Preview Email plugin has been updated for Zen Cart 1.5.7 and to fix PHP logs for those running with E_NOTICE on.

Zen Cart Checkout Calendars

Posted April, 2022

My new Checkout Calendars page describes the possibilities for stores that need to schedule pickups or deliveries in advance.

Zen Cart Demo Sites Updated

Posted March, 2022

My Zen Cart Demo Sites have had a refresh and are now running the latest versions of Zen Cart and my plugins.
Unfortunately I had to take down the admin demos, but everything else should be working nicely.

Zen Cart Notes

Posted February, 2022

Zen Cart Notes is a new plugin that allows you to add notes to the customers, orders and products pages.

Zen Cart Define Page Anywhere

Posted January, 2022

Zen Cart Define Page Anywhere is a new plugin that allows you to show define page content on any page in your cart, including on the product info page under various conditions.
While I was doing this work, I also refreshed Boilerplate in Description with a new admin tool for managing boilerplate strings.

Zen Cart Sale Ending/Special Ending

Posted December, 2021

Zen Cart Sale Ending now allows you to display a countdown timer showing when the sale or special is ending. No more guessing for your clients or time zone conversion - just a number of days, hours, minutes and seconds (months are also shown if the end is more than a month out).

Zen Cart CSV Inventory

Posted November, 2021

Zen Cart CSV Inventory allows you to export the stock and sales levels of each of your products to a CSV file suitable for importing into a spreadsheet.

Zen Cart Per Customer Statistics

Posted October, 2021

Zen Cart Stats Per Customer allows you to view customer purchase history broken down by year.

Zen Cart Audit

Posted September, 2021

Zen Cart Audit now checks for categories which contain both sub-categories and products, a configuration which is not permitted and can cause problems.

Zen Cart Extended Family

Posted September, 2021

Extended Family has been updated to permit easier integration with the Bootstrap template.
Never seen Extended Family? It allows you to configure cross sells and integrates with Zen Cart Discount Chooser to help build your customers' baskets.

Zen Cart All Purchases

Posted August, 2021

Does your store sell food, supplies or other items that are frequently repurchased? The Zen Cart All Purchases plugin makes it easy for your customers to repurchase items they have bought in the past.

Zen Cart Shipping Surcharge

Posted July, 2021

The Zen Cart Shipping Surcharge plugin now has weight and value thresholds for the imposition of a surcharge.

Discounting/Cross-Selling Updates for Zen Cart 1.5.7

Posted June, 2021

The following modules have been updated for Zen Cart 1.5.7 and the newer versions of MySQL:

Zen Cart Quick Quantity Update

Posted May, 2021

Quick Quantity Update has been updated for Zen Cart 1.5.7.

Zen Cart Shipping Surcharge

Posted April, 2021

Do you have a few places you deliver to that have higher shipping costs? You can handle this by having multiple shipping modules, but another option is to use my Zen Cart Shipping Surcharge plugin, and just add a visible surcharge to the order.

Search Extensions

Posted March, 2021

I have been busy building search and filtering capabilities for clients. Some of this work is described in my page Zen Cart search customizations.

Zen Cart Delete Spam Customers

Posted March, 2021

Due to the ever evolving behavior of spammers, I have updated Zen Cart Delete Spam Customers to run multiple queries to find fake accounts.

Seasonal Centerbox Updates

Posted February, 2021

Seasonal Centerbox now can be configured from your Zen Cart admin.

Disabled Products Report

Posted January, 2021

Disabled Products Report allows you to easily review all of the disabled products in your store.