How do you design your storefront (skin) with XCart?
 

As Xcart are keeping adding new functions, the software becomes very complicated. Design and modify your Xcart skins become complicated too.

i stumble thru makin changes on my own and use the forums to get answers i have trouble figuring out.....It seems to me that most of the skins and/or custom desings for sale cost too much! I saw on a 3rd party site that custom templates/skins cost $300 8O ...

CartsnTools.com have many XCart skins for sale. Our XCart skins are very easy to install and the whole installation takes only about 5 minutes.

See the examples of our XCart skins: XCart gold 4.0.x.

Happy XCarting

most all of us can do simple color changes in just a few minutes....Im talkin abotu templates with a little pizzaz.....like Cart-Lab..they have some really cool templates.....i just cant justify spending upwards of $200 for a template....(not dogging on c-l, just using as an example because i know they do good work).

but the answer to your question is Yes, if i didnt know how or didint have the time to make color changes, i would pay $29.....

In our XCart skins, the skin structures are re-organized. The correct and easy operatation, beautiful layout are our focusing. Our stuffs are senior software engineers from high tech industries and are all well trained in software engineering.

I only use X-cart for writing "add to cart" code to my own pages and for the last few pages of the process (checkout). I just take the code for my own pages and wrap it around the /customer/home.tpl template. I then modify the sub-templates as needed from there.

Well, if you pay a Graphic Designer to develop the look of your cart, $200 is quite inexpensive. Good design takes time.

Agreed.

We've jumped in as well and are still creating templates. The one's we do have start at $29.95 compatible with 4.x for now. :) http://xcarttemplates.com

To be honest, I find that spending the money to make your site look good, will potentially increase the chances of making sales. for instance:

You need a Taxi ride.
One guy has a 1070 piinto (x-cart Original Template)
and the other driver has an exotic sports car.
Bothe are going to the same place for you (carry the same products)

Which one would you rather ride in?

Funny, If the exotic sports car Taxi charges a little bit more for his ride, I would still pay the fare, would you?

Investing in a good web design (visulally) pays off in the long run.

good point
 

I like what you wrote above, it does make sence if your web site is visably
pleasing and easy to navigate around, customers are more likey to buy.
I had this one my other site, i made perhaps 1 or 2 sales a month.
I sat down for the afternoon and messed around changing backgrounds
font colours etc, know i get a minimum of 5 sales a day, and its growing.
I hate the check out in xcart seems so messy, this will be the first thing i shall change, so its far easier and less painful to complete.

Re: good point
 

You'd be amazed at how many store owners don't understand that how thier site looks affects how well items sell.

If a site generates money, but looks rubbish, throw some more money at it and watch it generate more money.

Your online business should be treated the same as a real bricks and mortar shop.

Custom Templates
 

This new system of templating is so confusing. Editing exisiting templates seems straight forward when using the admin tools. But what about those of us who know HTML and CSS and want to create a template from scratch? Have any of you wrote a tutorial on how to create a template from scratch in X-cart V4.0? I read the smarty help doc but it only shows you the code but not how to apply it.

I would even pay $29 for a great tutorial that includes steps from Photoshop to HTML editor like Dreamweaver or GoLive to compiling with the skin installer. Is the skin system based on XML installers? It isnt' clear of the complete file list of what we need to edit outside Xcart and upload back in as a differnent skin name.

And also save you a lot of time to let you focus on your business side and make even more money ....