This is the 1st line on abantecart.com:
The Most Powerful eCommerce Platform to Sell anything-Our FREE shopping cart application is suitable for every business
This is the 2nd line:
You Can Sell on Your Existing Website Quick and Easy-It is as simple as copy and paste your products into your blog, article or any web page
This the 4th item in the content area: t’s easy to learn and simple to use. There is no special training or knowledge required to start selling your products online using AbanteCart. The voice controlled and easy-to-use intuitive interface makes your eCommerce management a breeze.
I did not read those items and believe them. I knew better. I already had experience with WP & joomla, enough to know that a custom look requires learning and using the software system.
However, you complain that 90% of non-coders expect quick and easy site. Why complain? This is exactly what you advertise.
You should change your face.
Stop using the word 'free' in your advertising. Don't use it anywhere. Use the term 'Open Source' often enough, and explain one time in a central location that there is no financial cost associated with download, use, or update of the software.
"Abantecart is a fully responsive and highly capable e-commerce site building framework. Advanced features include all cart functions plus user login, guest checkout, search, language selection, image management, product categorization, specials, featured products, new products, inventory tracking, sales tracking, seo optimization, site backup, list more features here until the list is huge.
Abantecart has a user-friendly back-end interface that allows a quick and organized approach to stocking your store, setting up your storefront, and basic customizing of store appearance.
New users should realistically expect to spend a few days reading the software manual and becoming familiar with the system before spending another few days building their first site. Functional aspects of the site and cart are all readily available and simple to use within the admin backend interface.
As with any other website building system, users who wish to significantly customize the standard site layouts to achieve unique appearance or layout should realistically expect to spend at least another week delving deeper into the code and css stylesheets.
Our free support forum has a large and growing archive of user contributions from those who have succeeded in publishing e-commerce sites with Abantecart, and we look forward to seeing your contributions there as you learn Abantecart and build and publish your own site. "
I recommend something along the lines above.
As stated before, I'm using the cloned template extension approach to customize a site. The style is "elegant and simplified", very popular now among small shop owners with small inventory of products to sell.
My site currently has categories arrayed on home page in content area. i don't need category menu nav.
My biggest issue right now:
How to get a small simple navbar menu located under the header. The category menu has a great look: contrast color and pagewide.
I need that, but in a simple navbar with menu to home, about, policy, contact.
I plan to make the menu navbar scrolling-sticky: it locks at page top after header has scrolled up.
I plan to introduce more media breakpoints, so that the menu does not collapse until small screen.
In your system, collapse events begin to happen too soon. Many things collapse at medium screen, which means that the majority of site users will never see the "full" look of your site. Desktops are already the minority among online shoppers.
Also - your collapse bar is the only aspect of your system that actually surprised me enough to comment about. It is ugly. Really ugly. I'm surprised it wasn't fixed years ago. The simple blue bar with hamburger, which is apparently despised by many, but also universally understood by users, is waaaaay better than your ugly skinny rectangle with "Click here" or whatever it says.
Also, the logic behind what is contained in your collapse dropdowns is unclear.
Your collapse dropdowns contain more links than the pre-collapse menu, which is scary and bewildering.
This is one area that T3 was really really good at: a back-end menu page that lets the user specify exactly what goes into each menu, and which block to place the menu in, and how to customize the both the full and collapse menus. There was no uncertainty.
Side note: "Menus. Huh. So simple, and yet so critical to intuitive site design."
I'll be reading about custom blocks and custom menus this weekend, and try to sort this out. Help me. Links. Tips. How-to?
Once this "simple elegant" extension is done, I'll donate it to your directory. You need some free extensions.