Now that I’ve had my ZenCart stores up for a few months, I’ve found the weakest link to be the shipping module. Unlike some other shopping carts, ZenCart is *extremely* limited in what it lets you set up for shipping.

1. Shipping Choices Apply to All Products
   My store sells a pet exercise wheel that weighs 3 pounds and is 12"x 12" x 16".This will obviously be shipped in a box and some normal choices would be UPS, FedEx, USPS Parcel Post, etc. But I also sell an accessory that is tiny and fits in a 6" x 9" padded envelope. This should be shipped in plain old First Class mail.
   
   But I can’t set it up so that my small item only shows the choice for First Class mail and my big item only show the package options. Both items will show all the shipping choices, which looks a little stupid.
   
   Here’s another example: another store I have contains mostly items that are drop shipped from a supplier that only ships UPS. But I also have one item stocked at home. I would like to offer USPS Priority Mail for that item since it is the cheapest and is the simplest way for me to send it, but I can’t because I don’t want someone to pick Priority Mail for any of the other items.


2. Can’t Limit Shipping Based on Quantity or Weight
   The Post Office has some pretty unreasonable limits for box size. If your box is bigger than 12" x 12" x 12", it is considered a "large box" and extra charges apply. Instead of something costing 7.00 to ship, it can be up to 30.00!
   
   If someone orders one of my exercise wheel, it will fit in a normal-sized box. However if they order two or more, it is now considered a large box with USPS. But the shipping estimator on my site, calculates as if it is a normal box, so the customer has not paid me any of the extra charge and I have to eat it.
   
   The only thing I can do is set it up so that ZenCart will create a new box if the weight is over a certain limit, so two of my wheels will be shipped in two separate boxes. Not ideal since it will probably cost more than just shipping the two in one box and use FedEx instead.


So, it’s good to be aware of these limitations.

Posted by susb8383 under My Zen Cart Store | No Comments »

Even though the StoresOnline thing didn’t work for me, I haven’t given up on the idea of selling things on the internet. On to plan B…

I decided to put up a new store using Zen Cart and sell something totally different.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with it, Zen Cart is shopping cart software that is open source. This means it is absolutely free. I like free. And it has an enormous support base.

My webhost (A Small Orange) lets me install it with just a couple of clicks, which is what I did.

I must admit that the setup after install took me a couple of months. Some time I’ll post the specific steps I took.

But now my site is up: Critter Wheels. It’s a site that sells exercise wheels for small pets. Since I have pets rats (Priscilla, Hoot, & Annie), these items are near and dear to my heart.

So, I think it’s a nice little site. It loads quickly; I made it red because I read on a post that red is a color that makes people want to buy.

I’m buying traffic using Google Adwords.

So here’s my numbers:
It has been live for 9 days
I’ve had 21 people click on my ad
I’ve 12 or more people get to my site in other ways
I’m competitively priced with other sites

You know how many sales I’ve had?
0.

D’oh!

Why?
No idea.

But I really want to find out. My next step to try to put up an exit survey which I will post about separately.

Posted by susb8383 under My Zen Cart Store | 1 Comment »