Zen Cart is an eCommerce business management system which is used by thousands of companies around the globe. One of the coolest features of Zen Cart is that it is open-source and free software. This means that Zen Cart is exceptionally customizable and available to virtually any enterprise, no matter how large or profitable it is. The growth of the crypto market has made many Zen Cart merchants look for a way to feature a crypto payment method on their websites. Although Zen Cart does not yet have a built-in crypto payments solution, NOWPayments solves this problem by offering a special crypto payments plugin for Zen Cart businesses.
Key Points:
- Zen Cart is used by numerous merchants around the world, and NOWPayments enables them to accept crypto.
- Crypto payments are cheaper and faster than traditional bank transfers.
- In order to start accepting crypto on Zen Cart, merchants simply need to install a plugin.
Advantages of Zen Cart payments
Fast payment settlement
Many cryptocurrencies can boast excellent efficiency, which enables them to outperform any bank infrastructure. For instance, XRP is a coin which can be transferred between crypto addresses in less than 10 seconds. Therefore, Zen Cart merchants that want to increase the speed of their operations and get their payments fast should certainly consider featuring a crypto payment gateway. Crypto payments will be particularly helpful for merchants working with foreign clients. Everyone knows that international bank transfers can take days to arrive. Cryptocurrencies can cut down this waiting time to seconds, making the shopping experience for the customer much more pleasant.
Low transaction fees
Bank transfers also have another disadvantage. Specifically, they entail considerable fees, which merchants have to pay out of their pocket. Moreover, banks often charge their clients certain sums of money even for simply having their account active or for issuing a debit/credit card. In the case of cryptocurrencies, users only pay a small fee each time they send a transaction. Crypto transaction fees are minute. For example, on the Nano blockchain, they are on average less than a cent. Zen Cart merchants that use NOWPayments’ plugins for processing their transactions also have to pay small fees, which can be as little as 0.4$ per transaction.
Anonymity
Decentralization is one of the basic ideas of cryptocurrencies, and it always implies anonymity. By featuring a crypto payment gateway on Zen Cart, businesses can provide their clients with a safe and private way of paying for their products. It is clear that some people prefer to maintain complete confidentiality when it comes to online shopping. Giving them an opportunity to make anonymous payments is a great way to enhance the customer experience. Confidentiality of cryptocurrencies also can benefit Zen Cart merchants who wish to keep their financial activities private.
True ownership
Cryptocurrencies that are kept in non-custodial wallets belong only to their owners. Traditional currencies, on the other hand, when kept in a bank, cannot be considered as belonging to their owners. Essentially, when Zen Cart merchants receive payments from clients and place the money in a bank, they risk losing all of these funds if the bank goes bankrupt. Yet, in the case of crypto, users cannot lose their funds if they store them in a non-custodial wallet.
Easy integration
Another excellent feature of cryptocurrencies is that they are easy to deploy. In order to start accepting crypto payments, Zen Cart merchants only need to download a crypto wallet and create a crypto address for the coin of their choice. Of course, Zen Cart does not have a built-in crypto payments gateway which prevents Zen Cart merchants from automating their crypto payments. Nevertheless, the problem can be easily solved by installing NOWPayments’ Zen Cart crypto payment plugin, which not only makes the crypto payment process automatic but also notifies the merchant of each transaction they receive.
Guide to accept crypto on Zen Cart
Here are the steps you need to take to deploy a crypto payment gateway on Zen Cart using NOWPayments.
- The first thing you need to do is to create a NOWPayments account here.
- Next, you will be asked to provide your public wallet address of the coin (or coins) of your choice.
- Once you enter your crypto address, generate your personal API key in the “Settings” section.
- Additionally, you will have to create your IPN secret key in the “Settings.”
- Now that you have your API key and crypto address(es) ready, go to this page and download the newest version of the crypto payments Zen Cart plugin.
- Copy and paste all of the files from the .zip file into the Zen Cart directory on your PC.
- Then, you will have to log in to your Zen Cart account and go to the Payment page in the Modules section.
- If you complete all the previous steps correctly, you will be able to see the NOWPayments module among other ones. Click on the Install button.
- The form will ask you to enter your NOWPayments API Key and NOWPayments IPN secret key, which you generated earlier.
- In the same form, you will also be able to set the Sort Order of the NOWPayments module, the Default Order Status for orders placed using the NOWPayments module. Moreover, you will also have an opportunity to specify a Payment Zone in order to restrict the availability of the NOWPayments module to certain geographic locations (for instance, countries where shipping of your products is not available).
- After adjusting all of the settings, click the Update button to save them.
- Congratulations, now you are ready to accept crypto payments from your clients.
- If you wish to add new coins to your list of available payment options, simply enter your public address for them in the “Settings” section of your NOWPayments account.
Conclusion
Zen Cart is an amazing software for both small and large enterprises that want to establish their online presence. NOWPayments provides a crypto payments plugin to Zen Cart merchants enabling them to accept cryptocurrencies and process all transactions automatically.