OpenCart

What Is OpenCart?

OpenCart is a free open-source eCommerce platform. It works like a store management system, allowing online merchants to create and develop their commerce business. 

Using OpenCart, you can create an online store from scratch. And many different types of users find the software helpful - whether that be professional web developers or just regular users who want to take advantage of the user-friendly interface.

What’s more, OpenCart has many stellar features that enable users to customize their eCommerce store however they like! With its various tools, you can drive your online store to its full potential.

Best Features of OpenCart

• Countless categories
• Unlimited products and manufacturers
• Enables you to sell digital products
• Supports many currencies and languages
• Product reviews and product ratings
• Can extend it with templates (designs)
• More than 20 methods of payment 
• More than eight shipping gateways
• PCI compliant
• Multiple tax rates
• Shipping calculations (weight and size)
• Discount coupon system
• Backup and restore tools
• Printable invoices
• Sales reports

Why Should You Use OpenCart?

OpenCart lets you launch your store, efficiently manage products, and help keep your customer data organized. And since the platform is open source, all the features are accessible to users for free, and you can modify the modules as you wish.

It also comes with a report about any critical metrics you may want to keep track of, such as sales, customers, and more. And one of the best parts is that it lets you organize multiple stores from a single interface! In turn, you can set products for different stores, change and customize themes for each, and localize your sites.

Specifically, it has more than 13,000 modules and themes - which means you can build a unique site appealing to your customer base.

These shops usually look professional, scale incredibly, and assist the admin with a plethora of features -  including 20 different payment methods.

That aside, OpenCart is also very flexible when it comes to product options and attributes and allows you to add extra product variables easily. In a way, it’s an expanding marketplace of themes, plugins, gateways, and more!

Finally, the OpenCart community and support is also a great perk that implies eCommerce sellers will always have the help they may need.

Advantages of OpenCart

Here are the core advantages of OpenCart:

• Highly customizable (because it’s open-source)
• Many available integrations
• All features are free of cost
• It does not come with any consistent development costs

Disadvantages of OpenCart

That aside, there are also some things that may rank OpenCart lower than other eCommerce platforms on the market:

• Customization option isn’t always the easiest to implement
• Limited built-in marketing features
• Time-consuming to use it 
• Self-hosted nature implies you’ll have to manage the hosting, development, maintenance, etc.

Key Takeaway

Overall, OpenCart is an excellent professional tool for online merchants and businesses. It has steadily grown in popularity over time, and because of its easy-to-use features, as long as you know how to take advantage of customization, you can create a store that’s unique and attractive to your audience.