How Zen Cart Integration Add Value To Your Online Store?

A flourishing online business considers the websites implemented for the purpose are highly customized and integrated. Zen cart is a user-friendly ecommerce tool that allows easy management of online shopping carts and web stores, and facilitates easy payment gateway in order to ensure high returns on investment.

The process of Zen Cart Web Development starts with Psd to Zen Cart conversion leading to turn an image format based files into a running ecommerce website. It stands out to be an ideal way to create an online store which represents a perfect combination of design and functionality.

Easy Product Management

PSD to Zen Cart helps in developing like-minded websites providing well organized Catalog option under its Administration Menu for better visibility. Aside from adding categories, sub categories to products and add new products and edit various products, it also lets you carry out changes to Product listings, Attributes, Pricing and Customers Reviews in a much simplified manner.

Template Customization

PSD to Custom Template conversion is a powerful tool with the help of which you can obtain customized designs of your website. Despite the changing locations, it allows effective and convenient content posting and organizing providing many other advantages like improved cross browser compatibility, accessibility, secure hand coded themes and many more. Besides, ecommerce tools like Zen cart, OsCommerce and Magento also helps in obtaining custom ecommerce templates.

Multi Language Support

Zen cart include multiple language support, newsletter management, discount coupons and many more. All that requires is to download the language from Zen Cart Downloads or create it through cPanel’s file manager/FTP to install the preferred language. 


Excellent Shipping Management and Multiple Payment Modes:

Whilst it supports various payment processors such as PayPal, Authorize.net, etc, it handles every aspects of shopping cart development from shipping, billing, tare, weight, etc. Plus, Zen Cart also offers support for multiple carriers.

All the above mentioned features encourages business to avail for PSD to Zen Cart conversion that can combine to make an eCommerce site functionally oriented and user friendly.

4 Fool-Proof Trends for Your Web Application Design

Web application development is ever-changing as we enhance a user-friendliness, beautiful, fastness, and extremely useful for the end user. Driven by trends, here is what one should consider before coding yourself into irrelevance.

1. Data Probability

Internet being the classic walled gardens of the web, since the inception of Web 2.0 development, developers have made a  been a gradual shift toward portability and many of the once guilty parties are taking steps to enable you to take your data with you wherever you choose. When Facebook got hip to data portability, this became a true trend considering a death knell to any web app hoping to make a buck while keeping user data proprietary.

2. Preparing for HTML5

If you're not preparing for HTML5, then you are sure to be obsolescence. With many features like Video playback, geolocation, drag-and-drop media and more make many of the oldest bastions of web plugins redundant- this is the future of web. Even the World Wide Web Consortium ratifies the HTML5 standard makes way for talk of Web 3.0.

3. Flat Web Design

The look of web applications is changing with respect to people wanted text with shadows, the 3D effects and elaborate fonts and design elements. One of the important aspects of using this is because it helps users scan a page and quickly find what they need without the interruption of design elements getting in the way. More the “flat” design used, the looks getting cleaner, lines being bolder and the colours richer.

4. Focus More Mobile Functionality

With time, web apps and mobile apps are becoming indistinguishable from one another with a click to installation on to your Android or iOS device. But some of the best mobile implementations have avoided coding unique apps and focused on the mobile functionality of their web apps.

All the above mentioned trends help keep visitors on a web page longer because they’re curious and it’s a novelty.

Web Design Trends Companies Should Watch For, 2014

As the trends keep changing every year, the concept of web design is growing less complex, more streamlined and much cleaner web interface. In this post, we shall discuss on various trends that fall under the broad category of simplicity from bold colours to parallax scrolling.

Parallax Scrolling For Virtual Retreat

Quite famous in the world of animation, Parallax scrolling is observed when your foreground text moves faster than the background image. This trick, if used in the right manner, will give a strong user-engagement and will come across a great experience.

Importance to Context

Google recommends focusing more on quality and updated content that has to be increased by leaps and bound. Why people follow certain brands on social media? Not only to show off but expecting interesting and more unique content. The result of this approach is well understood that is to get an interactive data visualization. You can easily crawl them up and down and are found through a search engine easily.


Clean Icons

Flat design talks about easy or simple designs. But what trending more in these days is clean icon which is not referring to flat design. The new iOS 8 design interfaces has come out as an inspiration for the designers so as to create clean, and elegant interface with minimal techniques. Opt for simple icons that can be identified easily cross color wheel and platforms. 

 

Infographics

Making use of brilliant infographics in an eye catchy manner can indulge more and more number of visitors and eventually businesses. To make it even better, typography, bold colors, bar charts and graphics could be the best tools to draw much attention.


Videos an Integral Part

Videos are being preferred by more and more numbers of businesses to interact with customers instead relying on images and icons to convey information to the user. It is estimated that by 2017, videos are going to be the largest engagement of customer internet traffic. Web designers have to consider videos as part of the design process and this can be disruptive.

We recommend that a decent design should serve both practical and aesthetic purposes that should meet user’s needs and apply best practices.

The Future of Mobile Payments: Apple Pay vs. Google Wallet

Mobile electronic wallet has been around for a decade, the newly unveiled Apple Pay seems to be different and signs are visible that the latter might be able to pull it off.

Only this week did Apple confirmed that the iPhone will have near-field communication (NFC) functionality that facilitates customers to pay for in-store purchases using their device, thus eliminating the need to carry around cash and credit cards.

But how is Apple Pay compared to its closest mobile payment system rival- Google Wallet? Read On

Google Wallet

Set Up: Google Wallet allows you to add to the cart simply by either signing into the Google Wallet website and use the Settings menu in the mobile app or log in through your bank's website.

Check Out: It uses NFC technology and during check out, it requires you to hold your phone near the contactless reader. Besides, you’ll need to wake up your screen and enter a PIN to complete the purchase.

Why Google Is Different? Despite the fact that both Apple Pay and Google Wallet lets you pay for both online and offline purchases, the latter one offers even more ways to pay and send money online.

• Aren't limited to major credit and debit cards

• Use your Wallet Balance (the amount stored in your Google Wallet or Google Wallet Card) to pay for purchases

   
Apple Pay

Set Up: Adding credit and debit cards to Apple Pay which are all stored in Passbook has many ways. If you are a new user, either take a photo of the card or enter the information manually. For those already registered, use the credit or debit card associated with your iTunes account by entering the security code.

Check Out: In order to speed up checkout, Apple Pay combines NFC technology and the iPhone's Touch ID fingerprint reader. All it requires is to simply hold your iPhone near the contactless reader with your finger on the Touch ID; the phone will vibrate and beep when checkout is complete.

Why Apple Pay Is Different? Many steps are taken to make Apple Pay safe and secure.

• Assigns each credit and debit card with a unique, encrypted Device Account Number to process payments

• Can disable or wipe your phone remotely with Find My iPhone in case you ever lose your device.

Companies have taken chances to turn the phone into a mobile wallet. Now it’s time for Apple and if they continue to execute on it, it'll really reshape the way people buy.

Striving To Improve Your Joomla Website? 5 Security Metrics to Get It Done

 Hackers are everywhere. But nothing to fear! All it takes is a few steps to strengthen your security and turn your Joomla website into a fortress. Infact, for all good reasons, more than 2.5 percent of websites are running on this CMS despite businesses of all sizes.

As the admin you have the daunting task of ensuring your CMS is properly patched. Here we shall show you how to guard against the most common exploits and hacks that this open source CMS faces.

1. Nothing More Critical Than Hosting and Servers

Many a server errors can be attributed to unpatched servers. So,

• Make sure you are using a well-known secure host and that you stay current with your server patches.

• Host your site on a server that runs PHP 5.2 or better

• Ensure that you are using the latest Apache version and that your Apache configuration doesn't allow browsing/indexing.

2. Enable and Use the htaccess File:

Even though the htaccess file is not in use, ensure you rename it from “.htaccess.txt” to “.htaccess”

3. Consider an Incident Management Plan

"Back up early and often"- this takes a lot of the pressure off your shoulders when your site be hacked to ensure you can restore your site without significant downtime or loss of data.

4. Manage Third party extensions

What make Joomla CMS so wildly popular is that every extension is considered to be another item that you have to ensure is updated / patched.

5. Use SSL Certification

Induce Joomla into SSL mode for all logins. Be aware that you must have a properly configured SSL certificate for your site's domain rather than a shared SSL certificates.

Joomla security depends on a number of things that have to be maintained and updated on a regular basis. Need to stay on top? Know your site and stay current with patches and extensions, as well as cleaning things up from time to time. Good luck!

Determining When Responsive Web Design Is a Good Idea: A Few Harsh Truths

With increasing web traffic on mobile phones and tablets, most of the firms have come to the point to optimize their online business sites to almost all devices, browsers, and screen resolutions. Well, thanks to the great idea of responsive design but again optimizing for the mobile Web isn't a simple task.

Before you get to step in, understanding RWD's simplicity and convolution will help you decide when to leverage it to meet their customers' mobile needs.

Pros for Using RWD

• RWD website from an adaptive site, using which it is possible to build one website with different implementations for different devices.

• Includes a single code base thus makes it developer’s desire.

• Reduced maintenance time and

• A single device-agnostic URL structure which doesn’t requires two or more domain names as used for mobile website.

Here, The Question Of The Hour Is When Should You Pull The Trigger On Going RWD?

Here Are 5 Strategies To Help You Make That Decision.

1. Greater the number of different presentation venues, more chances for RWD arguments.

2. The cost factor may be an issue if it eliminates the need for a company to build different sites for desktop, tablet portrait, mobile portrait and mobile landscape, etc.

3. How many unique page formats are there? If to reuse templates and other components- RWD certainly aggravate.

4. Top notch skill sets for HTML, CSS and JavaScript are required.

5. In case your project’s life span is short, it might not be worth the time and cost.

The sum of your answers shall determine where your project falls on the scale between standalone mobile site and responsive site. Responsive web design is a good step not only to the device of the visitor but a call-to-action for all designers out there. Aside from responding to the device or the browser of the end-user, a true design means responding to the end-users.

How to Regulate the Rising Security Risks for Online Shopping

Some of the most successful elements of an ecommerce website in general are: displaying clear product information with pictures, to offer multiple payment options, to include postage & GST in purchase price, proper customer support, and most importantly a secure platform.

People look for trust and integrity, besides the first impression. And, for this very reason website development companies have surpassed mainstream security measures set in place to properly regulate online commerce and prevent consumer identity fraud. 


Fundamental Security Tips in the E-Commerce World

1. Share Only That Is Required

• Sellers need to create online checkout forms but including highly sensitive personal information such as social security or driver's license numbers are irrelevant.

• If you have a digital wallet app, sharing without taking basic precautions is just asking for a problem down the road.

• No all shared Wi-Fi networks are safe for your sensitive data.

2. Verify Urls For Secure Connections

Many fail to check URLs for "https" security when making transactions online, especially when making purchases on the mobile Web. Though it can thrive off ease-of-use and convenience, ensure to take time to check the URL.

3. Ensure You Transact With Legitimate Sites

Aside from checking the URL for validity, there is a simple two-step process to ensure authenticity.

• Firstly, check the shopping cart site has a valid "About us" or "Contact us" page with contact information listed.

• Secondly, confirm the company has some type of social media presence. Fraudulent sites are likely to show up in Google results with consumer complaints, BBB warnings, or other scam indications.

4. Protect Your One Online Identity

No matter how cautious you are in the ecommerce sphere, having a Facebook account for instance can be the best way to protect yourself to monitor your online identity actively. With 50 % of Web sales projected to occur via social media by 2015 your social media presence defines your digital footprint to the point to combat online payment fraud in the near future.