VIDEO CONTENTS: Advice on protecting your device, advice on protecting your website and general security advice.

Before you begin any project that involves downloading software, tools and transferring files between your PC and the Internet etc. I would highly recommend you watch this video for some helpful advice.

VIDEO CONTENTS: Hosting account sign-up. Registering a FREE domain name, transfer existing or point an existing domain name to your hosting account. Automatically installing the FREE shopping cart software on your hosting.

*When selecting a hosting service, you should check to see that these server requirements are provided and installed on their web servers; Web Server (preferably Apache), PHP (at least 5.2), MySQL, Curl. These extensions must be enabled for Opencart to install and work properly on the web server.

VIDEO CONTENTS: In this video I’ll show you how to Install Opencart via your control panel.

If you have hosting already and just want to install Opencart, your hosting provider may have an Application Installer or App Installer as its commonly referred to, available to you via your control panel. This video tutorial shows how to install Opencart from Arvixe’s Control Panel or CPanel as its commonly referred to. This option would also apply to you if you forgot to click the auto install of Opencart when you opened your hosting account with Arvixe.

*When selecting a hosting service, you should check to see that these server requirements are provided and installed on their web servers; Web Server (preferably Apache), PHP (at least 5.2), MySQL, Curl. These extensions must be enabled for Opencart to install and work properly on the web server.

VIDEO CONTENTS: How to install Opencart manually using FTP.

*When selecting a hosting service, you should check to see that these server requirements are provided and installed on their web servers; Web Server (preferably Apache), PHP (at least 5.2), MySQL, Curl. These extensions must be enabled for Opencart to install and work properly on the web server.

VIDEO CONTENTS: You will be shown how to set up a domain relevant email account e.g. ‘info@yourdomain.com’ or ‘sales@yourdomain.com’

VIDEO CONTENTS: Walk through the front end of the demo store that comes down with your Opencart software.

Now that you have installed Opencart’s free shopping cart software on your hosting account, lets have a walk through the pre populated demo store so we can get to grips with the basics. In this video you will learn the basic layout and features of Opencart.

VIDEO CONTENTS: Brief tour of Opencart’s Back-end or Admin Panel as it’s commonly referred too.

VIDEO CONTENTS: Removal of the demo store including categories, products etc. that comes down with Opencart when we first install the software.

When you have explored the pre loaded Opencart demo store sufficiently and if you are like me you will be itching to get started with your own online store so what I’ll be doing is completely removing the contents of the demo store and starting with a blank canvas.

VIDEO CONTENTS: Setting up a subdomain on your hosting account and installing an Opencart demo store of your own.

A great way to practise if your in unfamiliar territory is setting up your own demo store to run alongside your online shop so that you can play around with it, test functions and features etc. before applying the changes to your new store. This process involves setting up a subdomain so it’s really worth while looking at the video here Miscellaneous

VIDEO CONTENTS: Setting up store details, description & defaults including language, currency etc. Store banner/logo and general configurations.

Lets start making your website. Not every setting here is essential for now as you can revisit your system settings at any time and make changes as required. As each video is a stand alone tutorial we will be visiting the settings relevant to each lecture as we go along.

VIDEO CONTENTS: How to set up Parent Product Categories and Subcategories.

Now you can add a product category but as there are some optional options for the category that may need to be set up you can revisit the category later on via the relevant training video.

TIP: Just create one category for now as we may have to come back to the category to set up filters (refine search options) and a layout override.

VIDEO CONTENTS: How to add brand names and logos to your site.

If you want you can add your suppliers/manufacturers brand name to your products which will enable your users to search your shop by brands.

VIDEO CONTENTS: Setting up Countries.

When building any ecommerce website you sometimes have to ‘put the cart before the horse’ by this I mean before you upload your products you may need to set up various options and settings such as size, colour, applicable taxes etc. depending on your specific product requirements. Also some of these settings & options may depend on other settings & options being done first such as the first option we need to select on our product upload page ‘Tax Class’ which would only be applicable if you were charging any taxes on your product. In order to set up your tax class you first need to set up your GEO Zones which needs to have Countries and Zones up to date prior to setup.

VIDEO CONTENTS: Setting up Zones.

Zones are primary subdivisions within a country and a country must be first set up as per the previous lecture before you can add zones. Examples of primary sub divisions are states, counties, shires etc.

VIDEO CONTENTS: Setting up customised Zones for calculation of shipping and taxes known as GEO Zones.

*** *Please seek independent tax advice for your jurisdiction as I am NOT a tax advisor and the information in this video is for general training purposes only. ***

VIDEO CONTENTS: Setting up relevant tax rates e.g. V.A.T., Recycling Fees etc.

When you have set up your GEO Zones you then can set up your applicable taxes. Generally you will probably be ‘to-ing and fro-ing’ from various settings until you get the configuration that best suits your store and products therein.

*** *Please seek independent tax advice for your jurisdiction as I am NOT a tax advisor and the information in this video is for general training purposes only. ***

VIDEO CONTENTS: Setting up of Stock Statuses and showing you where to use them.

Some settings are already pre-populated with options that may suit you such as Stock Statuses but you can always edit these if necessary.

VIDEO CONTENTS: Setting up of Length Classes and showing you where they are used.

VIDEO CONTENTS: Setting up of Weight Classes and showing you where they are used.

VIDEO CONTENTS: How to set up filter groups for refine search purposed and how to set the filters up in your category pages.

Along with categories as a method of cataloguing your products you can set up refine search options for your users, particularly useful if you have a lot of products.

VIDEO CONTENTS: How to set up filter modules (refine search box) on assigned pages and how to assign filters to products.

After you set up filters you will need to display a 'Refine Search' box for visitors to your site to avail of the search options so you will need to place a filter module on the page that you want the refine search options to be displayed.

VIDEO CONTENTS: How to upload a downloadable product to your website and make it available as a product to your customers.

If you are selling a downloadable product or just supplying an instruction book etc. with your product you can make it a product or add it to your product catalog.

VIDEO CONTENTS: How to add Attributes for your products.

Adding product attributes can enhance your users experience of your website especially for comparing products and well worth doing especially for preputial products.

VIDEO CONTENTS: How to add Options for your products e.g. size, colour etc.

If applicable to your products adding options such as colour, size etc. can easily be done in various formats such as drop down menus, radio buttons, check boxes etc.

VIDEO CONTENTS: Setting up Layouts and applying them to pages of your website.

Setting up layouts for the various pages on your store can be a great way to standardise the look of your shop and to minimise the effort it takes to change the look if you revamp at a later stage.

VIDEO CONTENTS: Inserting Products to your store in a search engine friendly fashion.

Now you should be ready to start adding a product. Not every setting is essential for now as you can revisit your products at any time and make changes as required. I would recommend just adding one product or a small amount of products until you have set up all the various options & settings that may be applicable to all your product range as a quick way of adding products is to copy similar products and edit them as opposed to adding new products from scratch.

VIDEO CONTENTS: If you have all your product images here is a shortcut for uploading all the images in one go.

VIDEO CONTENTS: Brief look at OpenBay Pro. OpenBay Pro allows you to integrate your eBay and Amazon accounts with your Opencart store.

VIDEO CONTENTS: Brief look at eBay Display. eBay Display allows you to display products you have on eBay on your Opencart store.

VIDEO CONTENTS: Selling products by instalment payments or if your products are a subscription etc. then setting up profiles is the way to easily manage this.

VIDEO CONTENTS: Viewing your Recurring Profiles and actions you can do from here.