Basic Ecommerce store

based on Zencart open source software to include the following :

1 years hosting                                            Normal Cost   £50/year
Domain based emails
Full Cpanel and Database Access
Unique Basic Template                                  Normal Cost   £175
(Written by Rainbow Studios)
Logo Creation                                              Normal Cost   £75
Full support from Rainbow Studios

Ability to take payment via credit/debit card using Paypal as a Payment Processor as standard

Seo Url Mod
Xml Site Map
RS Thumbnails *exclusive to Rainbow Studios*

Total Cost                                                     £300

RSSBN Members Price                                     £250

Store Features *taken from Zencart Official Site

Zen Cart™ Features

Why should you choose Zen Cart™ to power your e-commerce site? Let’s face it. There are 100?s of shopping cart programs around, all with different strengths and weaknesses. Zen Cart™ is superior to most in ease-of-use, features and price.

Zen Cart™ is built for entrepreneurs by entrepreneurs. The program is built by programmers and designers who understand the online selling process from start to finish. Zen Cart™ has included all the necessary tools required to build a successful online store and we are constantly improving and upgrading the software based on our users requirements.

Below is a list of the major features included in Zen Cart™.
Easy Installation

* checks the database and server for requirements before installing
* installs using a built-in installation tool
* prepopulates the basic store information
* optional demo products

Global E-Commerce Ready

* multiple language support
* multiple tax support
* multiple shipping methods
* multiple currency support
* multiple payment methods

Customer Status Modes

* unrestricted shopping
* must register to view prices
* must register to view prices and merchandise
* showroom only

Catalog Status Modes

* showcase mode without prices
* showcase mode with prices
* normal shopping mode
* down for maintenance mode

Categories and Products

* unlimited category depth
* physical merchandise
* downloadable virtual products
* products can reside in multiple categories
* product options as dropdowns, radio buttons, checkboxes, and text input

Customer Retention Tools

* periodic newsletter in plain text or HTML
* order status emails and records in the customer account
* referral tools
* gift certificates

Promotions, Sales and Discounts

* individual special prices
* global sale reductions
* category-wide sale prices
* discount coupons
* customer group discounts
* quantity discounts
* one-time charges
* minimum and maximum purchases per product
* prices by attributes

Powerful Administration Tool

* configure your minimum and maximum values, image sizes and customer details
* choose which layout settings to use for the spotlight listings
* pick which details to show on your product details page
* edit your policies pages with HTML (if desired)
* add, delete, move, link or copy your products
* create and manage your product attributes
* manage product reviews, featured products, specials and storewide sales
* shipping and payment module installation and management
* price and taxation control
* banner advertising controls
* newsletter creation and sending
* content management tool, easily add new content pages

THis is a video tutorial created to teach you how to create a custom zen cart template from scratch and explain the process , from the beginning, you will first be shown how to recreate the correct template structure ,this tutorial will show you how to create a basic white template for zencart compatible with the latest zencart version release, it covers most of the questions you would have about such a task.
This tutorial is rather lengthy but its a very good base for the future tutorials we are planning to release to enable you to further customise your zencart.

Are you building an e-commerce store selling pet products?

Having trouble finding a zencart template ?

Rainbow Studios have just uploaded a new Premium Pet Template available to download from the Ecommerce store

Complete with expanding menus and a custom button set this zencart template has been   made from scratch for your zencart store.

To see this zencart template in action please visit our zencart template store .

We have many free zencart templates on offer to choose from too that you can edit yourself. As well as a growing range of premium zencart templates in a range of new styles that are not available any where else.

If you would like  a unique zencart template from Rainbow Studios then please feel free to contact Rainbow Studios by  dropping  a comment into the comment box or send us an enquiry using the ‘little bird’ at the top of this page who will fly your message to us.

Use the subscribe to rss bird at the top of this page to keep up to date on all new zencart template releases, and the zencart add-ons and graphics that are being developed.

Rainbow studios are now offering an installation service for Zen Cart add-ons and modules, we realise that some of the modules and add-ons offered for Zen Cart can be somewhat confusing when it comes to installing them, if you arent used to the file structure of a ZenCart site and are nervous of installing modifications yourself then take advantage of our installation service. Our Add-ons page contains modifications that have been tried and tested by ourselves as beneficial to both the functionality and in some cases the look of your e-commerce store, general information on the modules and the changes that may be required to install them can be found here too.

Our prices are based on time taken to install and configure the add-ons.

Allows cross selling at a discount; a product can be linked with another specific product, another product from a specific category, or any other product, with an associated discount (in dollars or % off) if both are purchased together. The associations must be hard coded, but once they are, generic logic can be added to the product_info page to display any available better together discount.

Give your customers a choice of free gifts when they spend x.xx in your store.
Dangling Carrot allows you to specify which items are gifts, set a discounted, or zero price for them, and then set a threshold at which they are eligible for the gift.

right, you have installed zencart, what next?

first you will need a good FTP client like filezilla, you can download this for free here
http://sourceforge.net/projects/filezilla/

and here is a video tutorial on how to use filezilla
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yr_u2iKfAt0

now you have filezilla and have an idea how to use it, heres what you need to do to customise your zencart,

first things first, if your a UK seller you will probably want to change zip code to post code, state to county etc, on the register page,
here is how you do that
depending on whether you are using the classic template or another template you have installed, you will need to edit one of these files,

/public_html/includes/languages/english.php
or if you are using a different template to the classic green one that zencart comes with it will be,
/public_html/includes/languages/YOUR_TEMPLATE/english.php
YOUR_TEMPLATE would be the name of the template you are using, eg cool_steel or sexy_pink or whatever the template is called

ok, in english.php find this piece of code

define('ENTRY_POST_CODE', 'Zip/post code:');
  define('ENTRY_POST_CODE_ERROR', 'Your zip Code must contain a minimum of ' . ENTRY_POSTCODE_MIN_LENGTH . ' characters.');
  define('ENTRY_POST_CODE_TEXT', '*');
  define('ENTRY_CITY', 'City:');
  define('ENTRY_CUSTOMERS_REFERRAL', 'Referral Code:');

  define('ENTRY_CITY_ERROR', 'Your City must contain a minimum of ' . ENTRY_CITY_MIN_LENGTH . ' characters.');
  define('ENTRY_CITY_TEXT', '*');
  define('ENTRY_STATE', 'State:');
  define('ENTRY_STATE_ERROR', 'Your State must contain a minimum of ' . ENTRY_STATE_MIN_LENGTH . ' characters.');

and change all the text from zip/post code to post code, state to county,  it should look like this when you have finished

define('ENTRY_POST_CODE', 'Post Code:');
  define('ENTRY_POST_CODE_ERROR', 'Your Post Code must contain a minimum of ' . ENTRY_POSTCODE_MIN_LENGTH . ' characters.');
  define('ENTRY_POST_CODE_TEXT', '*');
  define('ENTRY_CITY', 'City or Town:');
  define('ENTRY_CUSTOMERS_REFERRAL', 'Referral Code:');

  define('ENTRY_CITY_ERROR', 'Your City or Town must contain a minimum of ' . ENTRY_CITY_MIN_LENGTH . ' characters.');
  define('ENTRY_CITY_TEXT', '*');
  define('ENTRY_STATE', 'County:');
  define('ENTRY_STATE_ERROR', 'Your County must contain a minimum of ' . ENTRY_STATE_MIN_LENGTH . ' characters.');

make sure you keep the single quote marks arount the text like this ‘Post code:’
if one of the single quote marks are left out, it will cause the template to break, small details like this can have a massive impact on php the slightest error can leave you with a blank white screen where your website should be, so pay attention to how the code is entered, before changing anything, and always save an unaltered copy of the file you are editing, to your computer, just incase you need to replace the file with the original, if somthing does go wrong.

save the edited file and upload it back to the server

ok, your login/register page is now suited to a UK buyer, next the look of your website

the classic template will still have “Congratulations! You have successfully installed your Zen Cart” across the top of your main page,
here is how to remove that, go into
/public_html/includes/languages/english/index.php or if you are using a different template it will be
/public_html/includes/languages/english/YOUR_TEMPLATE/index.php (YOUR_TEMPLATE being the name of the template you are using)

and at the bottom of the page look for this code

// This section deals with the "home" page at the top level with no options/products selected
/*Replace this text with the headline you would like for your shop. For example: 'Welcome to My SHOP!'*/
define('HEADING_TITLE', 'Congratulations! You have successfully installed your Zen Cart™ E-Commerce Solution.');
} elseif ($category_depth == 'nested') {
// This section deals with displaying a subcategory
/*Replace this line with the headline you would like for your shop. For example: 'Welcome to My SHOP!'*/
define('HEADING_TITLE', 'Congratulations! You have successfully installed your Zen Cart™ E-Commerce Solution.');
}

and replace both lines of the “congratulations” text with what ever message you want, making sure you keep the single quote marks at either end of the phrase you are entering

save the edited file and upload it back to the server

if you want to change the “Sales Message Goes Here” or “Tagline Here” text, here is how to do that
go into
/public_html/includes/languages/english/header.php or if you are using a different template go into
/public_html/includes/languages/english/YOUR_TEMPLATE/header.php
and find this code

define('HEADER_SALES_TEXT', 'Tagline Here');

and change the ‘Tagline Here’ to any text you want to see on your site, keeping the single quote marks at each end of the phrase
then upload the edited file back onto your server

you may also need to go into includes/languages/english/classic/header.php
to change the ‘Sales Message Goes Here’
find this code in header.php

define('HEADER_SALES_TEXT', 'Sales Message Goes Here');

and change  ’Sales Message Goes Here’ to what ever you want, again keeping the single quote marks
then upload the edited file back to your server

ok, you might want to change the colours and maybe the width of your zencart, heres how you do that,

changing the width, if you feel that the template you are using is to skinny, (like the classic green really is) go into
/public_html/includes/templates/classic/css/stylesheet.css       or if you are using a different template go into
/public_html/includes/templates/YOUR_TEMPLATE/css/stylesheet.css

and find this code

/*wrappers - page or section containers*/

#mainWrapper {

	background-color: #ffffff;

	text-align: left;

	width: 720px;

	vertical-align: top;

	border: 1px solid #202020;

	}

and change 720px to what ever width you would like the center of the page to be, somthing like 900px is a good size
save the changes and upload the file back to the server,

header logo,
the easiest way to do this is by using just the logo and getting rid of the header background image,
to remove the header background image go into here
/public_html/includes/templates/classic/css/stylesheet.css       or if you are using a different template go into
/public_html/includes/templates/YOUR_TEMPLATE/css/stylesheet.css
and find this code

#logoWrapper{
	background-image: url(../images/header_bg.jpg);
	background-repeat: repeat-x;
	background-color: #ffffff;
	height:75px;
	}

and remove the ../images/header_bg.jpg just leaving ()

save the file and upload it back to the server,

its always best to leave the code for the background-image and just edit out the file path, just incase you want to add an image in there at a later date, the code is still there for it

then to add your own logo, create a logo the same width as you set your zencart (as above)
say you set your site to 900px then your logo should be 900px wide, make it any height you like, 150px, 175px somthing like that
upload it to
/public_html/includes/templates/classic/images or if you are using another template
/public_html/includes/templates/YOUR_TEMPLATE/images

then you need to go into
/public_html/includes/languages/english/classic/header.php or if you are using a different template go into
/public_html/includes/languages/english/YOUR_TEMPLATE/header.php

and find this code

define('HEADER_LOGO_IMAGE', 'logo.gif');

and change logo.gif to the name of the logo you created and uploaded
save the file and upload back to the server

colours,
how to change the background colour,
/public_html/includes/templates/classic/css/stylesheet.css       or if you are using a different template go into
/public_html/includes/templates/YOUR_TEMPLATE/css/stylesheet.css
find this code

body {
	margin: 0;
	font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;
	font-size: 62.5%;
	color: #000000;
	background-color: #e5edf5;
	}

simply change the #e5edf5 to what ever colour you want,
here is a list of colours you can use
http://www.w3schools.com/html/html_colors.asp

changing the box headers, now there are two ways to do this,
the easy way to do this is to copy the tile_back.gif to your computer, you will find that in
/public_html/includes/templates/classic/images or if its a different template
/public_html/includes/templates/YOUR_TEMPLATE/images

use what ever photo editing software you have to change the colour of that image, and upload it back to the same folder it came from,

you can get some free image editing software from here
http://www.gimp.org/

the other way to change the box headers is to find all references to tile_back.gif in the stylesheet.css you are using for your template and delete the ../images/tile_back.gif just leaving the () and change the background-color: #abbbd3; and enter what ever colour you would like inplace of the #abbbd3

here is the code you need to change

#navMainWrapper, #navSuppWrapper, #navCatTabsWrapper {
	margin: 0em;
	background-color: #abbbd3;
	background-image: url(../images/tile_back.gif);
	padding: 0.5em 0.2em;
	font-weight: bold;
	color: #ffffff;
	height: 1%;
	}

and

#navEZPagesTop {
	background-color: #abbbd3;
	background-image: url(../images/tile_back.gif);
	font-size: 0.95em;
	font-weight: bold;
	margin: 0em;
	padding: 0.5em;
	}

and

.leftBoxHeading, .centerBoxHeading, .rightBoxHeading {
	margin: 0em;
	background-color: #abbbd3;
	background-image: url(../images/tile_back.gif);
	padding: 0.5em 0.2em;
	}

and

.productListing-rowheading {
	background-color: #abbbd3;
	background-image: url(../images/tile_back.gif);
	height: 2em;
	color: #FFFFFF;
	}

its always best to leave the code for the background-image and just edit out the file path, just incase you want to add an image in there at a later date, the code is still there for it

theres a start for any one wanting to customise thier zencart.

We at Rainbow Studios were tasked with the job of giving the Carisma Discount Store a lick of paint, the aim to create a warmer more inviting atmosphere for ladies that like their lingerie.

Simply Gorgeous Dropshipping Service

Just a quick update to the new ranges now available to dropship using a fancy dress dropship or lingerie dropship account from Simply Gorgeous.

New ranges added to their already large range available for dropship now include Leg Avenue Burlesque range , a must for all those Divas out there and new lines from the Dreamgirl Lingerie range….. Dead sexy dropshipping available to you now !!

Interested in dropshipping? View our article on how dropshipping could work to increase your range and target audience for your e-commerce store.

We have ready made sites available for sale on a monthy option of £14.95 over twelve months, or an immediate buy now price of £175 this includes the website, domain name and a years hosting, with on going support.

The website includes a ready stocked store, a blog both with a custom template, and email accounts.

Either option gives you full ownership of the store, and you are free to move the whole website to another hosting provider as soon as the 12 month period is over, or if you buy the site out right, you are free to move the site straight away.

The website will be registered to you, the domain will be transfered into your name.

See the sites we have on offer below

Grease monkey tools

dark embrace the gothic fantasy

More Sites Coming Soon

We decided it was time to offer our supporters and followers a bit of a special offer, to celebrate our 2000th uniques visitor to our website we are now offering 25 % off our header graphicsfor both zencart, prestashop and wordpress. Order before 28th March to qualify for a discount.

Go on have a mini make over on us give your site a lift and the beginnings of a whole new look.

Rainbow Studios have decided that it’s about time we started to issue some basic templates for download.

The first few we are offering will be basic colour change templates for zencart, each has a header image included.

Rainbow Studios Yellow Free Template for Zencart Download

For further information and quotes regarding zencart customisation and zencart templates, including custom design please contact us.

We are proud to reveal the latest release in our Portfolio ~ and it really is a break from the norm …

With a complete split store that appears like 2 sites under one roof each having its own design elements.

The Saints Store

The Sinners Store

And with the addition of a drops down log-in and account screen this site really is one of the best designs we have put out so far in my opnion.

In association with 2 of the best dropshippers in the uk sexshop365 and simply gorgeous wholesale.

We at Rainbow Studios were delighted when we were asked to makeover Nemesis Gifts, home of Nemesis Now! Gothic Fantasy giftware including collectable fairy and dragon figurines, and Alchemy Gothic T-Shirts and Jewellery .
Its given us the chance to get all gothic fantasy with the graphical elements too which always makes a change from the standard colour change templates, we wish the owner the best of luck with her new look and look forward to working with her again in the future. It was a pleasure!!

Free WordPress Metalic theme.

Here we have two free WordPress themes for you to download and use,
created by us at Rainbow Designs.

These themes have a fully widgetised footer, three colomns, all widget enabled.

free wordpress theme

click the image above to view the themes in our test area

To use one of these themes simply download the zip file of the theme you want, extract the contents and upload the
rainbow-m or rainbow-mb folder (depending on which theme you have downloaded) and its contents to /wp-content/themes/ and activate the theme in
admin > Appearance > Themes
or upload the zip file via your wordpress admin panel,
admin > Appearance > Add New Themes

Click here to download the Metalic theme as a .zip file

Click here to download the Metalic Blue theme as a .zip file