Hi there.
I need some help. I have noticed a HUGE amount of mobile traffic on my site from visitors using their Android, iPhone, and Blackberry devices.
I added the mobile addon that was provided through a third-party company and I notice what it does is take my categories and products and display them through a specific mobile-friendly layout. The problem is, this is NOT a skin where I can add blocks and banners, etc.
The homepage is very dull. It lacks colors and banners and graphics that my FULL site has.
I notice the benefits of an add-on. It uses the same cart as the original site, allow you to administer just one site.
I believe that I would need to create a separate website. Right now, if my store is shop.com, I would create m.shop.com (sort of like how bestbuy.com has m.bestbuy.com for mobile visitors to their site). I would then uploaded and install CS-Cart software @ m.mysite.com and active a theme. Thing is, I need to find a CS-Cart mobile theme (or skin) that is designed for mobile viewing (not an addon).
Does anybody know of any CS-Cart skins that are built for mobile browsing? I’m very flexible on the layout as long as I can add blocks, although I wouldn’t be against a cool feature like a slideshow! 
Every time I search GOOGLE for CS-Cart Mobile Themes, I simply get CS-Cart themes designed with a look to sell mobile phones. This is not what I need. Can anybody help me or recommend somebody? I really like CS-Cart software and would like to continue using it, even on the mobile version of my website, but it just may not work.
You just need to purchase this…the only one to use in my opinion http://www.cs-cart.seonid.com/index.php?dispatch=categories.catalog#products.view&product_id=6
Anyone know if seonid's mobile skin will work with upcoming 3.0?
I think I read a post by them a week or so ago saying that once 3.0 comes out, they will have the mobile skin ready within 48 hours or so. It would obviously be good to check with them first, but I'm pretty sure that is what I read.
Thanks,
Brandon
[quote name='brandonvd' timestamp='1331684855' post='133079']
I think I read a post by them a week or so ago saying that once 3.0 comes out, they will have the mobile skin ready within 48 hours or so. It would obviously be good to check with them first, but I'm pretty sure that is what I read.
Thanks,
Brandon
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Thanks. I'm considering purchasing their skin it seems pretty solid. Anyone who used it I can see your site? Have you had any “issues” with it. Will it work with a customized skin? I assume you have to add some code to your skin to recognize the mobile browser or maybe they just use hooks probably for that.
[quote name='AmitP' timestamp='1331666368' post='133062']
You just need to purchase this…the only one to use in my opinion http://www.cs-cart.s…ew&product_id=6
[/quote]
Thanks for the link but that is what I have purchased. Unfortnately, it isn't doing what I need. As I stated before, that is more like an add-on that takes my categories and products and arranges them into a friendly layout for mobile visitors. Thing is, the layout lacks a lot of the pop that a real FULL site has including rotating banners, etc. It's very strip down. Now, if you have visited a company's FULL CS-Cart site and then see their mobile addon on your cell phone, the structure is great because familiar visitors can quickly find a product, add it their cart and check out. What it lacks is design and attitude, which is what you'd get with an actual SKIN and not simply an add-on.
That is all I am saying.
Best Buy has a really nice mobile layout that has some cool features like “Mobile Deal of the Day” banners simply for mobile users. Pretty easy. You could do this if you could assign blocks to the mobile addon.
I really don't understand why CS-Cart has to be formatted for mobile themes or skins, but then again, I don't know much about the technology used to develop CS-Cart either. It's just that I see mobile themes for Wordpress and they pretty much take a standard layout that would be, let's say 1200 X 800 and instead make it 350 X 1000 or whatever it needs to be to fit on the device screen of a iPhone, Blackberry, Andriod, etc. I would think as long the theme is formatted to fit a certain size, it would be designed to fit a certain sized screen.
No offense, but I would bet that if you invested as much money on your site as Best Buy does you could probably have something similar. Most of us here are stuck with a somewhat smaller budget or we probably would not be here in the first place. Just sayin.
For those who want to look at the mobile site on seonid, you may want to go to seonid.com and not seonid.org as suggested above. The direct link is…
[url=“http://cs-cart.seonid.com/demo”]http://cs-cart.seonid.com/demo[/url]
Dear ckad79, I understand your ideeas and I have to admit that I agree with them.
We thought about this for a long time and we planned an update which will allow you to install it on a subdomain such as m.domain.com
However, things are not quite as simple as you think. It is quite complicated, you have to use all information from cs-cart, from users, categories, products, pages everything, and, adjust position for every element to fit a mobile interface.
About sizes, you cannot say “1200 x800”, you have to think about it in a dynamic way, so that interface should perfectly addapt to all sizes, not just one.
And the hardest part is, compatibility with mobile OS, from windows mobile, apple OS, android, blackberry.
And even between versions from the same company there are problems. So you have to make the compatibility with each version.
We will continue to update and make the compatibility with new versions of cs-cart, and also we will try to add more features and more configuration options for our skin.
At the moment we are waiting for cs-cart 3.0 at least a beta version, because the release candidates are too buggy.
I think what he is referring to is “responsive design” which takes your site and and responds to the screen size and adjusts accordingly.
That’s a nice goal but would take a lot of work.
You can read more about it here:
Thanks for everybody’s response and I hope SEONID got a nice plug out of this thread.
Again, I just wrote SEONID and they said that the newest addon when it comes out, should have what I need.
what newest addon? new mobile skin?
No. I wrote seonid and he said that he plans on revising his mobile addon for CS-Cart when CS-Cart releases their latest version which allow for me many of the updates I'd like to see. In all honestly, I love his module but when customers FIRST visit my FULL site they see all these colorful banners, colors, etc and it grabs them and brings them in!!! In fact, I am turning 3% of my customers on my FULL site into sales. On my mobile site which is just a white background and black text and nothing really pops or flashes, I close 1%! That is a HUGE difference!
When I go to most mobile sites this is what I see.
When you go there, you know “this is BEST BUY, no doubt about it!” It looks professional, colorful, etc. When I got the mobile CS-Cart version using the module, this is what I get:
Here, I am sort of unimpressed. There isn't much going. I actually had people who looked at my FULL site and later went to my mobile site and left, thinking they had the wrong place.
And as far as people saying, “well, if you had BEST BUY money than you could do an AWESOME site like that” but seriously I think this could easily be achieve with BLOCKS. As long as you could add blocks to the MOBILE addon, you could request to put a banner or two just on the mobile site.
That's it.
Seonid said that he is working on doing this and that the new cart technology will allow for me. I am eager to see it.
That is all.
I agree a true customizable mobile skin would be great!
[quote name='solesurvivor' timestamp='1342462585' post='140886']
I agree a true customizable mobile skin would be great!
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CS-Cart 3 doesn't have responsive design either?
Lucian at seonid is happy to develop a custom skin for you .
Remember that he is providing a generic product which needs to be able to run on every site.
While it may not be optimal for every site, it will work.
But to get a good customer experience, you will need to have them develop a custom skin for you.