Carrie Smaha

If you are an online shopper, you have probably used coupon codes before. Coupon codes can be a great motivator for customers to actually make a purchase on your website. Coupon codes can be a series of letters and numbers the customer enters during the checkout process to receive a discount on their order. This Read More >

In the previous tutorials we learned how to use the sales report and the products purchases report. The products viewed report shows what products were viewed by your website’s visitors, how many times each product was viewed and the percentage of total views. Accessing the products viewed report is done through your OpenCart Dashboard. Log Read More >

OpenCart has reporting tools built into it and in the previous tutorial we showed you how to use the sales report. The next report you may find helpful is the “Product Purchased” report. Accessing the products purchases report is done through your OpenCart Dashboard. This report will show you the breakdown of how much revenue Read More >

OpenCart has some great reporting tools built into the OpenCart dashboard. The sales report is an easy way to see how well your e-commerce website is performing. The sales report will allow you to look at your sales revenue for any given day, week, or month. Accessing the sales report is done through your OpenCart Read More >

When processing the orders in your OpenCart shopping cart you may want to include an invoice in the package for shipping. This is wise, so your customers can review the order once it’s received and they will have an invoice for their records. You can print customer invoices in the OpenCart Dashboard. Customers can view Read More >

Sometimes it may be necessary to delete an order within your OpenCart shopping cart. If you need to delete an order you can do this in the OpenCart Dashboard easily. You can also delete multiple orders at once if needed. Log into your OpenCart Dashboard Go to Sales > Orders Check the box next to Read More >

Once orders are placed on your website, you’ll need to process them. When an initial order arrives, it will have the status of “Pending”. You’ll want to make sure the payment for the order is completed, and then update the status. Anytime you update the status you can notify the customer. This keeps your customers Read More >

Now, that you have tested OpenCart by placing a new test order you can see how to process an order in the OpenCart Dashboard. It’s important for you, as the administrator of your OpenCart store, to understand what to do with orders once you receive them. Orders will be processed through your OpenCart Dashoboard. Log Read More >

In the previous tutorial we showed you how to create customer groups. In this tutorial, now that you have created your own customer groups we’re going to show you how to assign your existing customers to your groups. Assigning customers to groups is accomplished through your OpenCart Dashboard. Log into your OpenCart Dashboard Go to Read More >

OpenCart allows you to create different groups to assign customers into. This allows you to better organize specific groups of customers. By default there are two groups created when you initially set up the shopping cart (default and wholesale). Groups can be handy when contacting customers since you’ll be able to send emails to specific Read More >

It’s important to test your OpenCart shopping cart to be sure it functions as you have intended it. At this point you should have already set a product price to a penny and set “flat rate” shipping to a penny. Now, you’ll want to purchase the product and process the order. This will allow you Read More >

Once you have configured the payment gateway, you’ll want to test your site to be sure it is functioning properly. If you have not configured your payment gateway yet please review our article on setting up PayPal. The easiest way to test your OpenCart shopping cart is to process an order. You’ll want to do Read More >

Since OpenCart is open source it can be a target for hackers since they already know the basic file structure and how the core code works. One of the easiest methods of securing your OpenCart dashboard is to rename the /admin/ folder.  This will ‘hide’ the folder from scripts and hackers specifically looking for the Read More >

While open source shopping carts are great, one of the downsides is that everyone can access the core code to understand how it works. In a few simple steps, you can improve the security of your store from hackers without affecting your site’s ability to function. Security Steps After installation, you should remove the /install/ Read More >

Creating a custom page for 404 errors in OpenCart can help you secure your shopping cart. Anyone attempting to access something inappropriately will be automatically re-directed to this page. It’s best practice to provide links back to your store, in case someone reached this page in error. Simply create a 404.html file in the root Read More >

Google analytics provides in-depth data into who’s visiting your website and what they are doing once they are there. If you have not already set up a Google Analytics account, you’ll need to do so. Once you have your Google Analytics code log into your OpenCart Dashboard Go to System > Settings Choose your store Read More >