OpenCart supports categories, sub-categories, manufacturers, individual products, product reviews, payment handling, shipping handling, multiple languages and multiple currencies out of the box. What’s more, unlike some other Open Source carts (I’m looking at you, Magento) , they actually work straight out of the box!

2. Ease of use for developer

OpenCart is  ridiculously easy to set up. A developer can get a basic cart with a few products and categories up and running within an hour Most of the setting up can be done in the lovely backend. See a demo of an unmodified OpenCart admin area to see how simple and intuitive it is.

3. Ease of use for client

Ease of use for clients is highly important. Most small to medium sized businesses don’t have the funds to hire a full-time “webmaster” so the maintenance of websites usually falls to a member of staff with an interest in the web or I.T. For a client, the admin area is also highly intuitive. Clients can quickly add products, product photos, categories, define SEO keywords (for SEF URLs), configure shipping options and integrate popular payment options. All out-of-the-box! See a demo of an OpenCart admin area.

4. Easy to template

OpenCart has a large selections of templates (both free and commercial), but if you are a developer, it is very easy to make a new one from scratch or simply modify the default template until it does what you want (I may post a tutorial on this if anyone would be interested). Anyone with some  basic CSS, HTML and Firebug can learn quite rapidly how to skin OpenCart sites with unique designs.

5. Extensions and Modules

The OpenCart website has a large selection of extensions (both free and commercial) for the cart system. The commercial extensions are not always GLP compliant (so buy with caution), but free extensions are and so are easy to modify and customise to your needs.

The types of extension available include language packs to support multiple languages for your OpenCart site. At the time of writing there are 92 language extensions, which means that only takes a few clicks to present your site to an international audience. There are 95 payment gateway extensions outside of the 15 that come with the cart so integrating most payment gatesways is a simple affair. There are 35 additional postage options, such as DHL and FedEx, that allow integration with these companies’ online services for shipping, or simpler weight-based or zone-based shipping options.

There are almost 200 modules, which have greatly ranging functionality from a simple calculator or a tag cloud to a live chat area or even an OpenCart blog. They can add a lot of functionality to your site without too much hassle.URL

6. The online community

When I first started using OpenCart nearly 2 years ago, the cart was less stable , had less functionality and was harder to use. The OpenCart community was always quick to provide options and potential solutions to my problems. They wouldn’t write the solution for you, but would point you in the right direction so that you could write one for yourself, share it with the community and even have your work improved upon by other forum users.

Today the forums are highly active and as long as you don’t approach them with an entitled attitude or demanding a complete solution to a problem specific only to your business then they will be happy to help. Remember OpenCart is Open Source and as such needs contributions from developers to grow and improve. Treating the forum users like your own personal workforce isn’t going to help (also see Stop Complaining about Opensource and Contribute) but approaching with an open mind will.

7. It’s Open Source

OpenCart is a Open Source. This means that the entirety of the core system is modifiable. This makes implementing extensions and customisations to the cart relatively easy. This makes changing how it works fairly straight-forward and not the impossible/expensive-logistical nightmare that would result in  attempting to do this with proprietary carts.

8. MVC (Model View Controller) structure

MVC is a very useful structure to use for a cart system as complex as OpenCart because is separates the presentation of the website’s functionality from the logic of the website’s functionaliy. With MVC architecture, the model manages the behavior and data of the application , the view  renders the model into an appropriate user interface and the controller receives input and initiates a response by making calls on model objects. A controller accepts input from the user and instructs the model and viewport to perform actions based on that input.

This is what makes OpenCart so easy to template, but it is also what makes it so cusomtisable. Simplifying or re-formatting how data is displayed, how pictures are displayed, which fields are displayed where etc can all be done by modifying the appropriate tpl file. It would be easy, were one so-inclined, to make a shop site that was not recognisably OpenCart.

Conversely, you could change how things are calculated and what results will be given without touching the View files, thus keeping the appearance the same. A good example would be with calculating delivery costs or tax and their regional variations.

9. Out-of-the-box SEO

OpenCart has great SEO support out of the box. Metatags, meta description and meta keywords can all be defined per product and per category by the developer or the end user. OpenCart also comes with  Search Engine Friendly URLs, which contributes to SEO.

In addition to this, it is easy to integrate Google Analytics and similar services and if you want to go all out for $15 there is an expansion that will integrate Google Analytics E-Commerce.

10. It’s Free!

Its free, which means lower set-up costs and the ability to sell it to clients for a more competitive price.

Instead, it ended up with the majority of content being submitted from members of the board of directors, who were not subject to such a strict editorial process. There were blog posts, opinion pieces and stories of successful client wins. However, we found the number of staff actually reading the content was very low when compared to other Intranets I (and other contractors) had developed.

Why the lack of interest?

The problem, according to some members of staff, was that they didn’t like being preached to. Many of the posts were telling them that they should follow specific guidelines, push certain products or use out-dated methods that didn’t relate to the day-to-day reality of their work.

The situation was further exacerbated when, because of a lack of content, managerial staff and directors started to use the Intranet to promote their own side-projects to members of staff. This included one article strongly encouraging members of staff to buy a director’s self-published book because it would “help their education”.

I realised that the project was in dire straights when I was asked to compile a list of everyone who hadn’t accessed the Intranet recently so that they could be “dealt with”.Traffic had decreased and management even sent reminder emails asking everyone to read the Intranet.

Why did it get to this state? What was done wrong and why weren’t the staff interested?

Top-Down does not engage. Peer to peer does.

If  a company wishes to communicate successfully, communication must be a two-way process. You may get a member of staff to read an article about how, for example, they should lay out web pages, but you risk alienating them if you give them no option to reply or offer alternative solutions. It is also likely that the views of upper management, while important, may be deemed out-dated by members of staff still working in that area on the “front-line”. Without encouraging discussion and debate you risk future posts being ignored.<!–more–>

An Intranet is meant to facilitate internal communications. This can range from news on when the sandwich van will be arriving to the latest HR policies on sick days. Whatever the reason, trying to control content too much can discourage content submission. If even a simple post on someone giving away cakes in the kitchen needs to go through an editorial process then most staff members will simply not bother.

However, peer to peer discussions on your Intranet will aid communication. Staff can help each other, share knowledge and discuss or refine their ideas. Allowing them to submit information to a knowledge base will help others who have encountered similar problems to solve them quickly, thus making them more productive. Building online forums will encourage discussion between staff, which can only benefit the productivity of the company.

We are in the age of Social Networking

Many employees are used to using sites like Facebook in their spare time. Facebook allows people to share stories, information and photographs. It allows them to organise events, co-ordinate mass communications and make their opinion known to friends and colleagues. Other sites also integrate with Facebook to further facilitate communications with their readers.  With many using sites like these on a daily basis, your Intranet can seem old fashioned and restrictive in comparison.

These advanced methods of communication should not be ignored and any fears of senior management about dissent or inappropriate use can be overcome by issuing guidelines for conduct on the Intranet.

Controversy generates discussion

While the company discussed in this article was against any controversy on their Intranet, it is true that controversy does generate discussion and can instigate change. One of the biggest fears of the directors and senior management was that staff would be critical of them or some other aspect of the company. Rather than encouraging staff to point out when they thought something was wrong, the directors wished to silence them, as if open discussion would cause a company-wide mutiny.

This is a fear held by many businesses but my experience has shown that this is not the case. Open discussions can lead to positive results because staff feel appreciated and valuable if an opinion of theirs is acknowledged by senior management and is discussed by their peers.

I will get back to you shortly.