Overview and features of CS-Cart

CS-Cart is an e-commerce platform that helps people create and manage online stores. It allows individuals and businesses to easily set up their online store, display their products, and handle online transitions. With a virtual storefront, you can showcase your products, and customers can make purchases and pick what they want. 

 Also, for having various sellers in a single platform, CS-Cart Multi-Vendor simplifies the process. By providing access to the marketplace, sellers can showcase and sell their products.

Key Features Distinguishing CS-Cart from Other E-commerce Platforms

This overview will explore the unique features of CS-Cart that differentiate it from other e-commerce platforms, including the Message Center, Multi-vendor capabilities, security measures, and more.

Storefront Customization

Individuals can design a storefront that perfectly fits the brand's style. This can be done without any coding skills. CS-cart provides a few storefront customization tools that make it different from other e-commerce platforms such as the layout editor and the theme editor. 

Message Center 

Cs-Cart’s Message Center puts all customer messages in one spot on the admin panel. It makes it easy to communicate with customers. CS-Cart keeps everything in one place, however, other e-commerce platforms may spread communication tools around, making it harder for store owners to keep track and respond quickly.

Multi-vendor 

CS-Cart is known for its robust multi-vendor functionality, allowing multiple sellers to operate within a single marketplace. However, many other e-commerce platforms focus primarily on single-vendor setups, where only one seller sells products. This CS-cart feature is great for businesses that want to have different sellers in one place.

Payment System 

A wide variety of payment options make the marketplace more attractive for buyers. In different countries and regions, consumers prefer different payment methods. CS-cart integrates with over 70 payment gateways. 

Marketing and SEO

CS-Cart has its tools for marketing and getting better search results. This feature is different from some other online store platforms that offer just basic tools. CS-Cart offers a full package to help sell products and show up more in search engines. Other platforms might require some other tools or add-ons for a similar job.

Shipping system

CS-Cart helps decide how products are sent to buyers. This feature works differently from other e-commerce systems that might have limits or extra costs for advanced shipping. CS-cart allows store owners to set up their own shipping rules. This means they can choose the best way to deliver items to customers. 

Overview of how CS-Cart handles Product Management

In product management,  CS-Cart provides essential tools and features that simplify the process for sellers. This platform is designed to help sellers to organize and manage their product lists. Let’s explore how CS-Cart handles product management for its users. 

Categories

Categories: The main categories page shows the list of categories.  You can see categories like electronics, sports & outdoors, etc. Within these categories, admin panel users can add similar items.  

Category properties: With several tabs of categories like general, layouts, Add-ons, views, reward points, and reviews, CS-cart handles product management. The general tab of categories includes name, location, description, status, store, and images. It also includes metadata with page titles, meta descriptions, and meta keywords and Availability includes user groups. 

Display the Same Product under several categories: Sometimes, one product fits into multiple categories. CS-Cart allows admin to put the same product in more than one category a red shirt could be under both the "Shirts" and "Men’s clothes” categories.

Products 

CS-Cart handles product management with products and their inner main features. 

Products: CS-Cart allows the admin to add, list, and manage items they want to sell. It contains important information about each product.

Product Properties ( Fields and Settings ):  For Product management, CS-cart has different properties within products which you can see in the form of tabs. In each tab, you can fill in details related to the products. Basic information such as name, price, description, discount, shipping charges, etc. Tabs that play a significant role in managing products include general, SEO, Options, variations, shipping properties, Quantity Discounts, files to sell, subscribers, add-ons, features, product tabs, Buy together, tags, attachments, rewards points, reviews, required products, and layouts. With the help of these tabs, CS-cart handles product management effectively. 

General: 

• Name: Identify the name of the product.
• Categories: Decide which category the product belongs to. The first category will be considered as the main category.  You can recharge that. 
• Price: Cost of the product in the main currency. 
• Description: You can type a description of the product. 
• Status: 

  Active: The product is ready for customers to buy.

  Disabled: The product is not for sale.

  Hidden: Customers won’t see the products. 

• Images: Upload pictures of products in formats like JPEG, PNG, and GIF. 

Other than these settings, this general tab includes option settings, pricing/inventory with list price, number of products in stock, taxes, minimum and maximum number of items customers can buy, etc.  

• SEO: This includes metadata with the page title, meta description, and meta keywords. 
• Options: Options are extra features you can add to a product, like engraving or gift wrapping. This might change its price or weight but not its stock quantity.  
• Variations: Product variations allow you to show different versions of a product like colors or sizes.
• Shipping property: Shipping properties help you decide the weight, extra fees, free shipping options, and box sizes for sending items. This makes sure that things ship right. 
• Quantity discount: Quantity discount presents reduced prices for purchasing more of a product, and panel users can set minimum quantities and discount types like absolute or percentage for specific user groups.
• Subscribers: Customers can sign up to get an email when an out-of-stock product is available again. 
• Feature: This allows you to add specific features to a product like color or size options. 
• Tabs: These are sections in the product page, panel users can add or remove them to show different information. 
• Product bundle: Panel users can group products, and offer discounts when customers buy as a set.
• Attachment: Tab to add files or documents related to a product. 
• Rewards points: This tab allows you to decide how many points a product costs and how many points customers get when they purchase it.
• Reviews: Customers can leave feedback or ratings about a product.
• Required product: Can list items that customers must buy alongside another product. 
• Layouts: Can customize the look of a product’s page by adding or removing particular sections or blocks.

CS-Cart simplifies product management using these key tabs, Subscribers for stock notifications, Features for specific details, and Tabs for layout adjustments. In addition, it offers features like adding/editing products, creating similar items easily, showing "sold out" labels, and bulk editing. It also allows users to manage product images and thumbnails efficiently. 

Features

CS-Cart’s ‘Feature’ helps give products special information, like size or color. In the admin panel, users can name these details such as “Shoe Size.” Features can help customers search for their desired products or choose variations, like the colors of a T-shirt. With CS-Cart, users can also add pictures or descriptions specific to each feature. It makes product listings more organized.  

Filters

In CS-Cart, filters help customers easily find products by specific details like price or brand. These filters can use standard product fields or special features you set up. This allows the user to set the name, and position and decide how filters will be displayed on the online store either expanded or minimized. 

Options 

In CS-Cart, “Options” is used to add extra features like gift wrapping to products. These options can change the product’s price or weight but it does not affect the stock quantity. All these options can be managed in one place, add new ones, and can apply existing ones to many products. Admin panel users can set up these options directly from a product's settings. With this, customers can choose what they exactly want. 

CS-Cart handles Catalog Organization 

CS-Cart has one big catalog for all its stores. Imagine it like a tree: the main branches are the stores, and the smaller branches are product categories inside each store. This setup helps keep products organized and grouped under specific stores and categories.

A product in CS-Cart can be in many categories at the same time. This means it can show up in multiple stores simultaneously, giving it more visibility across different parts of the online shop.