Streamlining the Zen Cart Checkout
There’s no question that the Zen Checkout can be improved but it’s the little things that matter. I’m always a fan of minimal mods – those that don’t change the core files. So here’s some suggestions to streamline your checkout.
First, you can turn on split page login.
That’s a admin configuration setting located in admin > Configuration > Layout Settings > Use split-login page. This reduces the the amount of clutter shown on the login page, thus making the options more evident. You then have a login box and a link to register.
Oops, then you’ve added another click for folks to checkout! My solution is to change that login page to a split login page to start with, so you always have split login but with the create account possibilities on the login page. That’s some special coding that I’m making available in a new mod to be published shortly.
Secondly, turn on PayPal Express.
If you are using PayPal Ipn and not express, you need to change that. If you don’t have a paypal account, get one for heavens sake! There’s lots of folks who own carts and take paypal and they are ready to easily spend their PayPal money from earnings! Forget the cost of it – it’s a way to generate income and with PayPal express, it’s almost a check out without account option.
Third, turn off the sideboxes for the entire checkout process.
If you have both left and right sideboxes, turn on the right at least for the login. You get more space to display the options and so reducing the clutter and buyer distractions. They can more easily focus on buying – checking out! This is easily done by adding a line of code to one file: templates/your_custom_template/common/tpl_main_page.php. Just add
$center_column_only = array(‘login’, ‘account’, ‘checkout_shipping’, ‘checkout_payment’, ‘checkout_confirmation’);
to the file before this:
?>
<body id=”<?php echo $body_id . ‘Body’; ?>”<?php if($zv_onload !=”) echo ‘ onload=”‘.$zv_onload.'”‘; ?>> (lines 59 – 60).
If you want to keep the sideboxes on any of those pages – such as login, remove ‘login’, from the line.
And fourth, make those checkout steps more visible.
The default Zen Cart checkout does have the steps listed on each page of the checkout – at the bottom next to the buttons. They need moving to the top and graphically played out for visibility – just like the Checkout Without Account mod does now:
Top Of CWOA pages
Now I’m not saying to run out and install the CWOA mod right now. That mod like all the other checkout mods change core files.
I pulled just some language, template and CSS files from that contribution and voila, instant fix. I have created a mod called the Efficient ZC Checkout which is now available at ZenCartDelia.com.
It’s all about making sure the buyer has enough clues to know where he is and where he is going.