We just released a new major version of zCart multi-vendor eCommerce platform. The new version is packed with a few exciting features like category-based product attributes, custom CSS styling, customer wallet system, and more. This version also has some improvements and bug fixes. In this article, I’ll describe the new features and show you how they can add value to your zCart powered marketplace
The straightforward answer is options that are relevant to a product like colors, sizes, materials, etc. Product attributes are key to finding desired items in the increasingly crowded eCommerce marketplace. It's also an important way to group products by using attributes. When shoppers are looking for a product they need to attain information about it readily and be able to easily compare and find the right fit among all the available options.
In zCart product, attributes were previously available but now attributes are category-specific. So it's now easier to assign attributes to all items in a category. It is important to list the product attributes that will matter most to your prospective buyer.
In zCart 2.5.0 we added this amazing feature “Filter Products by Attribute”. That allows you to select a specific attribute when choppers visit a category items page. Customers can filter products in your marketplace based on the attribute. For example, if you’re selling clothing, two logical attributes are “color” and “size”, so people can filter items in the clothing category for a color they love and clothing available in their size.
In zCart 2.5.0 Custom CSS Editor allows you to customize the appearance of your theme without touching the code. Now you've full freedom to change your marketplace look & feel as creatively as it can be. You can customize any frontend element by adding your own CSS rules. You can change the background color, text color, size, button color, size hover effect, and so on that, you want exactly. Now it’s completely your choice how you want to decorate your site.
This is an advanced option for users who wish to take advantage of CSS extensions like variables and mixins. CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) is used to style and layout web pages — for example, to alter the font, color, size, and spacing of your content, split it into multiple columns, or add animations and other decorative features. Cascading Style Sheets is the technology used by most websites to create visually engaging web pages, including aspects such as the layout, colors, and fonts.
Because of the numerous advantages and benefits, most of the people say they prefer online shopping over conventional shopping nowadays. Buyers are also making more direct purchases online and via their smartphones, never stepping foot into traditional brick-and-mortar locations. The internet makes doing business much easier and faster. It’s led to changes in the way people do business with a rapidly growing worldwide trend towards online shopping or e-commerce.
A digital wallet makes online shopping more reliable and faster. This offers the customer a new way of paying for goods. digital wallets eliminate the difficulties of making payments online and that means more conversation on your marketplace. We released a wallet plugin a few months back but that was limited to vendors to pay subscription fees for the marketplace and payouts their money. Users can do all different types of transactions using the wallet balance like deposits, purchases, payouts, customer to customer, and merchant to merchant wallet balance transfer. The customer can easily add the credit amount, get refunds, view transaction details in the wallet system
In zCart 2.5 we added some most demandable features to the wallet plugin. Now customers can also have a wallet. The wallet owner can add money to their wallet using various payment methods set by the admin. And now customers can checkout using the wallet balance. When a customer gets a refund, initially the refund will be adjusted into the customer's wallet balance. And later on, the customer can use that balance to make a purchase again. The wallet module allows the admin to receive all the order payments by customers. When an admin takes the order payment, then the order amount will be added to the vendor’s wallet balance to get paid later using the payout feature. Vendors can request a payout from their wallet balance. Admin will get the request to approve or decline the request.
OneCheckout is a plugin that allows shoppers to purchase from different vendors and checkout using a single checkout process. The OneCheckout plugin now supports checkout using the zCart digital wallet balance.
There were a lot of different elements that played a role in building trust, but the most important factor was having trust badges displayed on the website. A whopping 48% of respondents said that trust badges reassure them that the site is secure and trustworthy.
“A trust seal is a seal granted by an entity to websites or businesses for display. Often the purpose is to demonstrate to customers that this business is concerned with security and their business identity. The requirements for the displaying merchant vary, but typically involve a dedication to good security practices, or the use of secure methods for transactions, or most importantly verified the existence of the company.”– Wikipedia
Trust badges are there to increase the trust your store visitors have in your store. There are people that will abandon their carts if they have security concerns. Adding trust badges is one of the easiest ways to increase trust and even conversion rates for your e-commerce website. In zCart 2.5 you can get this option to upload and show the trust badge image in the footer of your marketplace, and you can also have them listed on your payment page. That is meant to instill trust in your potential customers.
zCart multi-vendor eCommerce marketplace application a PHP script based on the Laravel framework. This application helps to build a product-oriented online marketplace where various merchants can list their products for sale and the admin can control the marketplace from a well-designed dashboard. Hope customers now will be happier with those amazing features.
