5 Best Free OpenCart 2.0.x Compatible Themes

OpenCart 2.0.x comes with a pretty solid default theme that serves as a good starting point for setting ground to your online business ventures. For everyone looking forward to starting their business on a tight budget, we have compiled a list of free OpenCart themes compatible with the most recent OpenCart 2.0.3.1 (at the time of writing this blog post). You are more than welcome to go through the list and let us know what you think of it.

Mobile Shop - Price FREE
 

Tile-based layout, implemented OpenCart modules for displaying bestsellers, specials, latest items, etc. Intuitive navigation allows seamless browsing around the site and offers a pleasant & easy shopping time. Light coral accents against the clean layout stimulate viewers interest and push them forward to making purchases. Choose this design to bring your shop to the web, and drive more clients in.

Cosmetics Store - Price FREE
 

Consider this clean theme featuring a contemporary design approach and spiced up with rich animations. Emphasis on visuals is the central design feature of this template, perfectly tailored for starting or redesigning online stores. It can be beauty, fashion, wedding, gifts, books, music stores or any other you want to turn into modern and vibrant. Background video, Parallax and Lazy Load effects work for effective visual presentation of the whole spectrum of store goods.

Kingstore Lite - Price FREE
 

Kingstore Lite is very easy to fall in love with. Featuring very summerish colors the theme could be a proper fit for any type of business - from clothing to jewellery and from gadget store to kids store. It offers a lot of neat features that you get for free under the hood such as: a revolution slider, multilingual support, cloud zoom, quick view module and many more.

Balloons - Price FREE

Looking for some fresh ideas to build a powerful and modern online store? You will definitely find a number of pro solutions in this OpenCart free sample. It is loaded with a variety of awesome features that ensure a striking look and unmatched functionality. The sample is fully responsive so it will automatically adapt to any screen resolution.

ThemeGlobal Lite - Price FREE
 

ThemeGlobal Lite is a lightweight responsive OpenCart theme that is a suitable fit for any business. It has a lot of neat features that you get for free under the hood such as a revolution slider, multilingual support, cloud zoom, quick view module and many more.

If you enjoyed the article please drop us a line and let us know which theme you downloaded and how it worked out for you.

How to Use Google Sitemap in OpenCart 2.0.x?

Creating a sitemap of your OpenCart store allows Google and other search engines to crawl more intelligently through the pages of your website. In case your site is linked properly, a map would increase the discoverability of the content of your store. This is why OpenCart has a special feature that makes the whole process of creating a Google sitemap a lot easier and this step-by-step tutorial will guide you through it.

Here is how to do it:

1. Login to the Admin panel of your OpenCart store and open the Extensions -> Feeds menu. Install Google Sitemap and enter the Edit Google Sitemap menu. Change the status of the sitemap to enabled and copy the Data Feed URL.
   
   
2. Go to Google Webmaster Tools at https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools .
   • In order to use the Google Webmaster Tools, your website should be registered with your account. To do this, sign in to the Google Search Console, click the ‘Add a site’ button and follow the instructions to claim your ownership of the website.
3. Proceed to Crawl->Sitemap menu. This is the menu where you can see the sitemaps of your websites.
4. To add a new one select the ‘Add/Test Sitemap’ button and paste the Data Feed URL, you have copied from OpenCart. Remember to modify the pasted URL, leaving only the path to the sitemap page and removing the domain, as it is already predefined by Google.
5. Click ‘Submit map’ and the process is finished. You can see if the sitemap is correctly created or check if there are any error messages after you refresh the   Crawl->Sitemap page ​

Congratulations, you have now setup a sitemap for your e-commerce website! A well linked website with a good sitemap would be easier to discover for search engines and this will almost certainly attract new customers to your store. 

How to solve the duplicate content issue in OpenCart?

Imagine this - you are the administrator of the imaginary OpenCart store http://myshinystore.com and you have just set up your store to use SEO URL’s.

As a result your category links look something like this:

http://myshinystore.com/parent_category/child_category (instead of http://myshinystore.com/index.php?route=product/category&path=11_3)

Similarly, the product links look something like this:

http://myshinystore.com/product_link (instead of http://myshinystore.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=7)

Looks great, right? No more ugly long URLs - only meaningful paths from now on.

So what?

Well, there is one small thing which could impact your website ranking in search engines like Google or Bing. Take for example the category link above. The same page can be accessed from:

http://myshinystore.com/child_category (instead of http://myshinystore.com/parent_category/child_category)

This is a problem because even though both links lead to absolutely the same content, the search engine will regard them as different pages on your website - the so-called “Duplicate content” issue. More information about it here:

https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/66359?hl=en

So, how do we solve this?

Since there is no setting in OpenCart to resolve this, we will need to get our hands dirty and modify a bit of code in your store. The modification will be made as an OCMOD extension to avoid changes to your core files.

Note: Please keep in mind that the changes we are about to make might cause conflicts with other third-party extensions on your store. If this happens, feel free to disable the modifications in order to return to the previous behavior.

Note: Also keep in mind that these modifications are developed for OpenCart 2.x.

Step 1 - Prepare the file.

Without further ado, let’s begin! Using your favorite text editor, create a new file calledduplicate_url_fix.ocmod.xml.

There are generally two ways in which the duplicate issue can be resolved. Use only one of the approaches below, depending on your preference.

Step 2, Approach 1 - Modify the store to use only the short versions of the links.

This will make OpenCart convert all of the SEO links to only a single word (without any paths). So as a result all links to child categories and products will look like this:

http://myshinystore.com/child_category (instead of http://myshinystore.com/parent_category/child_category)

Add the following contents to the newly created file duplicate_url_fix.ocmod.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<modification>
    <name><![CDATA[Duplicate Content Fix]]></name>
    <code><![CDATA[duplicate_content_fix]]></code>
    <version><![CDATA[1.0]]></version>
    <author><![CDATA[iSenseLabs]]></author>
    <link><![CDATA[http://isenselabs.com]]></link>
    <file path="catalog/controller/common/seo_url.php">
        <operation>
            <search><![CDATA[parse_str($url_info['query'], $data);]]></search>
            <add position="after"><![CDATA[
                $has_product_id = false;
                $has_path = false;               
​                foreach ($data as $query_key => $query_value) {
                    if ($query_key == 'product_id' && !empty($data['route']) && $data['route'] == 'product/product') {
                        $has_product_id = true;
                    }                    if ($query_key == 'path') {
                        $has_path = true;
                    }
                if ($has_product_id && $has_path) {
                    unset($data['path']);
                } else if (!$has_product_id && $has_path) {
                    $path_parts = explode('_', $data['path']);
                    $data['path'] = $path_parts[count($path_parts) - 1];
                }
            ]]></add>
        </operation>
    </file>
</modification>

 

Step 2, Approach 2 - Modify the store to always use the long versions of the links.

This will make OpenCart convert all of the SEO links to the longest path possible. So as a result all links to child categories and products will look like this:

http://myshinystore.com/parent_category_1/parent_category_2/child_category (instead of http://myshinystore.com/child_category)

Add the following contents to the newly created file duplicate_url_fix.ocmod.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<modification>
    <name><![CDATA[Duplicate Content Fix]]></name>
    <code><![CDATA[duplicate_content_fix]]></code>
    <version><![CDATA[1.0]]></version>
    <author><![CDATA[iSenseLabs]]></author>
    <link><![CDATA[http://isenselabs.com]]></link>
    <file path="catalog/controller/product/category.php">
        <operation>
            <search><![CDATA[$category_info = $this->model_catalog_category->getCategory($category_id);]]></search>
            <add position="before"><![CDATA[
                $this->session->data['last.entered.category'] = $category_id;
            ]]></add>
        </operation>
    </file>    
    <file path="catalog/controller/common/seo_url.php">
        <operation>
            <search><![CDATA[class ControllerCommonSeoUrl extends Controller {]]></search>
            <add position="after"><![CDATA[
                public function findParentPath($category_id) {
                    $found_path = array($category_id);                   
                    do {
                        $category_result = $this->db->query("SELECT * FROM " . DB_PREFIX . "category WHERE category_id = '" . $category_id . "'");
                        $category_id = (int)$category_result->row['parent_id'];
                        if ($category_id > 0 && !in_array($category_id, $found_path)) {
                            array_unshift($found_path, $category_id);
                        }
                    } while ($category_id != 0);                   
                    return $found_path;
                }
            ]]></add>
        </operation>        
        <operation>
            <search><![CDATA[parse_str($url_info['query'], $data);]]></search>
            <add position="after"><![CDATA[
                $has_product_id = false;
                $has_path = false;               
                foreach ($data as $query_key => $query_value) {
                    if ($query_key == 'product_id' && !empty($data['route']) && $data['route'] == 'product/product') {
                        $has_product_id = true;
                    }                   
                    if ($query_key == 'path') {
                        $has_path = true;
                    }
                }               
                // Calculate full path
                $parent_categories_paths = array();               
                if ($has_product_id) {
                    // Find the true path based on the product_id                   
                    $parent_categories_result = $this->db->query("SELECT * FROM " . DB_PREFIX . "product_to_category WHERE product_id='" . (int)$data['product_id'] . "'");                   
                    foreach ($parent_categories_result->rows as $parent_category) {
                        $parent_categories_paths[] = $this->findParentPath($parent_category['category_id']);
                    }
                } else if ($has_path) {
                    // Find the true path based on the last category_id                   
                    $path_parts = explode('_', $data['path']);
                    $category_id = $path_parts[count($path_parts) - 1];                   
                    $parent_categories_paths[] = $this->findParentPath($category_id);
                }               
                if (!empty($parent_categories_paths)) {
                    $last_entered_category = !empty($this->session->data['last.entered.category']) ? (int)$this->session->data['last.entered.category'] : 0;                   
                    $data['path'] = implode('_', $parent_categories_paths[0]);                   
                    $has_path = true;                   
                   foreach ($parent_categories_paths as $parent_categories_path_candidate) {
                        if (in_array($last_entered_category, $parent_categories_path_candidate)) {
                            $data['path'] = implode('_', $parent_categories_path_candidate);
                            break;
                        }
                    }
                }
            ]]></add>
        </operation>
    </file>
</modification>

 

Step 3 - Uploading the file

Almost there. Now save your file and install it with the OpenCart Extension Installer. Make sure after you upload the file to click Refresh in Admin > Extensions > Modifications in order for the changes to get applied.

That’s it!

Congratulations! The changes you made will help avoid the duplicate content issue. Note that this is not the only way to resolve this issue - another totally different approach would be to use canonical URL’s in your pages. More information about canonical URL’s can be found here:

https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/139066

If you want to use canonical URL’s in your website, there are a few ready modules in the OpenCart Extension store:

http://www.opencart.com/index.php?route=extension/extension&filter_search=canonical

I hope you found the information above useful. Let us know if you have any questions in the comments below.

How to set-up BirthdayReminder in OpenCart 2

This blog post is focused on these customers who have OpenCart 2 and use the iSenseLabs moduleBirthdayReminder.

First, let’s explain what is BirthdayReminder. BirthdayReminder is an easy-to-use module that prompts new users to enter their birthdays upon registration or checkout. The main purpose of the module is to set up automatic emails which will be sent according to administrator’s preference. You can include unique discount codes in the emails for the customers who have upcoming birthdays.

Installation

The installation is quite easy since OpenCart has an integrated Extension Installer in OpenCart 2.

You just need to download the module from our site and follow the steps below:

1. Extract the .zip archive
2. Go to your store’s administration > Extensions > Extension Installer
3. Click on the button Upload and you have to find the archive that you just extracted. There is another zip inside with the name birthdayreminder.ocmod.zip. Click on it and upload it.
4. Go to Extensions > Modules and click on the Install button (green plus icon) which is next to BirthdayReminder.
5. That’s all.

Note: Some customers are questioning where is the vQmod/OCMOD file. Since version 2.2 BirthdayReminder for OpenCart 2 is OCMOD free!

What’s new

In order to see the BirthdayReminder settings, you need to click on the blue pencil icon. You are getting this view:

In the previous versions of the module, we had to add the birthday field via vQmod/OCMOD modification and edit the registration/checkout page manually. Now, In OpenCart 2 you can easily add new fields in the customer registration form or on the checkout page and we wanted to include it in BirthdayReminder and take advantage of it. This is why we added one new field Select custom field.

If you are an old customer and you are already using BirthdayReminder, maybe you will notice that the field for choosing date format is missing. We did that, because the module is using the defaultcustom fields in OpenCart and the date format depends on the OpenCart settings.

Adding a custom field

Since version 2.2 of BirthdayReminder, you cannot use the module without creating a custom date field. In order to do that, go to the administration page of your store and navigate to Sales > Customers > Custom Fields.

How to disable product reviews in OpenCart 2.0.x

OpenCart is very powerful, useful and rich, and it also comes with a lot of predefined settings and options, both for the customers and the admins of a store. However, as a store owner, the decision what functionality your website has, rests on your shoulders. In this article, we will show you how to manipulate the product review section of your store, specifically, how to enable/disable it.

Let’s get started!

• Login to your admin control panel. 
• Go to System → Settings and click on Edit. 
• Go to Options.

​

• ​Under the section Reviews, you will see three options: Allow Reviews, Allow Guest Reviews and New Review Alert Mail.

​

Allow Reviews and Allow Guest Reviews represent our interest. If you disable Allow Reviews, even if Allow Guest Reviews is enabled, no one would be able to post reviews on your website. If, however, you enable the Allow Reviews, with Allow Guest Reviews you can toggle whether guests will have the right to review your products.
You should also keep in mind that when disabling product reviews, you also disable the AddThissharing buttons in the products page, which are responsible for quick sharing of content on social media.

With product reviews:

Without product reviews:

​

Another thing to watch out for is the fact that if a client wants to compare some products, the reviews will no longer be in the categories for comparison.

Product comparison with product reviews:

Product comparison without product reviews:

​

Conclusion

There you have it! You are the master of product reviews on you website. Your OpenCart knowledge just got even wider. In case you are wondering, the same method applies to OpenCart 1.5.x with the difference that Allow Reviews is  located in the section Products in System →Settings → Option. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to post a comment below.

Best budget OpenCart extensions to grow your business

From payment gateways to analytics tools, shipping modules to language modifiers, the OpenCart Extension Directory is packed with integrations that empower your online business, or maybe just make day-to-day business functions run a little smoother. At the time of this article, the OpenCart Extension Directory has over 16,000 extensions to choose from, not only making the search tedious, but intimidating. 

What’s the point of an OpenCart extension anyways? Is it wise to simply go through the most popular ones and implement them all on your online store? 

The answer is no. 

Although these extensions offer powerful functionality, it’s similar to installing way too many apps on your iPhone. This just clutters your interface, slows down your phone, takes up precious storage space and leaves you to only using a handful of the apps. 

The main goal with OpenCart extensions is to locate and use the ones that truly help grow your business. These are the extensions that are proven to bring in more customers, convert those customers and create further interaction with those customers down the road. 

The goal is to make more money by implementing just a few carefully selected extensions that will push you to your online business goals. That said, keep reading to learn about the best OpenCart extensions to grow your business. 

Facebook Shop

The Facebook Shop extension is one of those options that lets you branch out to find additional revenue streams. The idea is to import your current store into Facebook, so you can sell those exact same products without having to import them one by one. 

The extension offers a beautiful layout for your Facebook followers to browse and purchase through a medium they are most comfortable with. Not only that, but since people in general are going to spend much more time on Facebook than they are on your website, it opens up the opportunity for exposure and sending more traffic to your site. 

GoToMeeting for OpenCart

A huge part of growing your business is reaching out to new employees and business partners. Unfortunately, with an online business, many of these people are working far away, or you just don’t have the time to speak with them in person.

That’s where the free GoToMeeting extension comes into play. View expressions, and host meetings with numerous people, directly through your OpenCart site. The idea is to configure a GoToMeeting widget button in your sidebar to provide quick access for partners, customers, clients and employees. 

Mailchimp Custom Popup Subscription for OpenCart

This premium extension goes for $16, but it’s certainly worth it, considering you must start building an email list if you plan on growing your business. 

The extension reveals a popup on your website, prompting users to type in their email addresses. The cool part is that it links directly to your MailChimp account, bringing you the perfect integration for sending out promotions and newsletters. 

Not only that, but the extension lets you place videos in the popups, and you can customize the design to fit your own brand. 

ShareThis

The ShareThis extension is one of the more simple options you will find on this list, or the entire OpenCart directory for that matter. Although it may seem like something you can pass up, you should never underestimate the power of social sharing for your eCommerce seo.

The extension assists in boosting traffic, because when a customer finds something they like on your website, they can then share it on Twitter, Facebook or whatever social platform they like best. It even supports RSS feeds and YouTube.

Zopim Live Chat

A live chat module serves as a wonderful way to start treating your customers well, and although there are also several other live chat solutions to choose from, the Zopim developers really know what they are doing. 

In short, the extension reveals a popup box, showing your customers that you are willing to guide them through their shopping experience. If they have any questions you can reply to them from the comfort of your mobile device or computer. It even gives you details on the customers who are currently on your website. 

Yotpo Product Reviews

Social credibility is a powerful motivator, and in order to improve your sales you can quickly implement an extension like Yotpo Product Reviews. The module provides an area below your products where users can tell other people what they think about the item. 

A full ratings and review system is included, giving you a valuable feedback mechanism, and a way to steer customers towards the items that are considered most popular. After all, consumers are more likely to buy from you when other people are doing it too. 

Magic Slideshow

On its surface, the Magic Slideshow extension may just seem like a way to show off some cool photos, but don’t confuse this as another clutter-making extension. In order to grow your business you not only need to discover your best selling products, but guide your customers to them immediately.

That’s what a slideshow does. It also allows for a clear gateway into promotional pages and other specials you may have on your site. The overall idea is to bring full attention to the pages and products you make the most money from. 

OpenCart Canonical URLs SEO Extension

Although it has improved over the years, the OpenCart SEO tools have never had the best of reputation. 

Not to worry though, since the OpenCart Canonical Tags extension is here to help you out. The extension sells for $5, and it’s the best five bucks you’ll spend, considering people find your website and pay you money based on your search results. 

If you don’t show up high in Google rankings, you can’t expect to expand your business. Therefore, the Canonical Tags extension adds these tags to your homepage and category pages, drastically improving your exposure to search engines. It also has a few features that prevent URL duplication, along with a tool for solving SEO problems if a product is in multiple categories. 

Attributes Filters for OpenCart

Focusing on search engines is a wise plan for growing your online business, but don’t forget about the customer experience. The Attributes Filters extension improves the speed and ease in which your customer can make a purchase, since it helps you generate filters.

The extension assists in cutting down on the time it takes you to make these filters, and your customers are more likely to locate the product they want in a shorter time when they have little checkboxes to get them there. As a bonus, search engines also recognize that you have a useful filtering system, further pushing you up the search engine rankings. 

That’s it for the best OpenCart extensions for growing your business. Let us know in the comments section below if you have any questions or suggestions for other online business owners.

Sales Techniques That Work: Up-sell, Cross-sell, Down-sell

In this article, I will introduce you some techniques which will help you to increase your sales and help your business to grow. You have probably heard before for up-sell, cross-sell and down-sell, but do you really know how to use them? No? I will try to explain you shortly in this article.

Up-sell

This is a marketing technique which involves selling more expensive product to a customer, convincing him that he will get bigger/better/extra product for additional small amount of money. The seller should prove to the customer that there is a bigger benefit from getting the bigger product than the smaller one. This is a technique which is used by many companies.


I will give you an example with McDonalds: I suppose that everyone have ever been in McDonalds and ordered a cheeseburger for $2 and after giving additional $1, you are receiving double cheeseburger. You probably accept this offer, because you know that buying just the double cheeseburger costs $4 itself.


If you are owner of an OpenCart store, you can use the module PopupUpsell, which is created mainly for this purpose. You can select which product to be up-selled and how to be presented to the customer. You can increase the amount of sales just by creating custom upsell offers.

Cross-sell

Cross-sell is another marketing practice of suggesting related products to a customer who is about to buy something. If you are ordering food from a restaurant, before the checkout you may be shown a list of beverages that match with your dish. Also, maybe someone else bought the same main course with this salad and you may like the same combination.


In this case, the most suitable module is AlsoBought, which does exactly the same as explained above. It uses intelligent cross-selling algorithm which allows you to recommend products based on the times they were bought together.



Down-sell




Down-sell is another technique which you have to use when a customer is trying to back down from a purchase. This time you have to conform customer’s budget and give him the best (cheaper than suggested before) price for a product/service which has familiar features like the other before that. In this case, you have to offer cheaper product, which has a better chance to be accepted, because selling something is better than nothing.


For example, you are about to buy a house and an agent shows you one which you cannot afford. The agent will certainly give you another options which will cost you less. This is called down-selling.
In conclusion




If you have never used these techniques before, I suggest you to start using them, because you are losing sales and valuable customers. You should show them that there is always a profit from buying from you and that they cannot miss the opportunity of getting better product for a small price.

How to drive revenue by improving user's post order experience

The goal of every business is to generate revenue. You are a successful online store owner and your business is heading upwards. In order to keep the momentum, you have to offer your customers something worth coming back for. The tricky part here is that unlike real life shopping, when someone purchases something from your online store you don’t get to see them in person. One of the best ways to keep the interest in your website constantly growing is to deliver one of a kind user experience. To achieve that, you need to pay special attention to little details.

According to a 2014 RJMETRICS Ecommerce Benchmark Report, 43% of the revenue generated by typical online stores comes from repeat customers. The immediate questions here is how to get your customers to keep coming back. If you are selling something that can’t be found anywhere else this shouldn’t be an issue for you, but most of the time that is hardly the case. What are the options? Here are some ideas that can help you solve this.

After your clients complete an order they are redirected to the order success page. In OpenCart the default success page is simple and is serving the purpose of informing you that everything went well and your order will be processed. That is absolutely enough. But if you want to stand out this is the right place and time offer something more than the standard.

Improving the whole experience after your customers complete the checkout would be a nice way to distinguish yourself from the crowd. The order success page is often neglected for its value to the customers. But if you think twice there is an unused potential here. 

What could be changed? The default “Thank you” message could be a good place to start. Keep the customers’ attention with a more personalised approach. Show them that you understand the importance of their choice to do business with you.

Give them a summary of what they just bought. 

Adding social buttons so your customers can share their newly purchased product with their friends and colleagues would not only benefit the customer but mostly your business. More popularity equals more customers. 

Last but not least - promote the rest of your products. Use this page as an up selling tool and offer related or predefined products. Many people think that upselling is a risky technique. But when applied properly it could be beneficial for both sides of the purchase. Basically what you do when offering additional product or higher versions of the one which is already in the cart helps your customers gain more value from your business and respectively help your business get more loyalty and revenue from the customer.

Unfortunately, the default OpenCart functionality doesn’t include the option to edit the order success page according to your needs. Not to worry. OrderSuccesPage is an OpenCart extension which includes all of the above mentioned functionality and much more. Visit the demo page and see how easy it could be enhance the user’s experience of your website.

So far, so good. We’ve proven that the customer’s decision to choose your store in the first place wasn’t in vain. You’ve showed personal approach and that helps to build loyalty. But should you stop here? Is your job done? 

Custom email campaigns has proven their effectiveness on improving users attitude and opinion towards the businesses that use them. According to a survey conducted by Remarkety, a well executed email campaign containing a discount coupon results in three times higher conversion rate than a standard marketing email campaign. 

Your customer is going to receive an order confirmation mail, which by default is pretty standard. This is the moment when you should keep the momentum and offer more than expected. 

Think of the feeling a customer will get if besides the ordinary information about product details, shipping cost and dates they receives yet another message containing a small discount as a sign of loyalty and appreciation. Yes, that would definitely make a person think twice before choosing another store instead of yours. 

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OrderFollowUp is a simple tool which will help you in this task. Use it to design as much email templates as you wish and deliver an unmatched user experience worth remembering. Take a look at the admin panel of the extension to get a better idea.

eCommerce is growing rapidly and is getting more and more competitive. Whether you are just starting your business endeavour in online retailing or have years of experience, in order to become successful and stay this way, you need to adapt quickly and try to deliver the best experience your customers could get. We hope our ideas could help you achieve that.