One of the most powerful and popular capabilities of a Joomla website is the ability to deliver robust ecommerce solutions. While there are a growing number of options for ecommerce in Joomla, the pioneer and still the most popular shopping cart option is the Virtuemart shopping cart extension. It has been exciting to watch how a great basket of ideas has grown to become one of the most popular engines for ecommerce on the web.
Small businesses like it because it is FREE to download, it is easy to implement and maintain and it is scalable to meet the needs of their business as it grows. Shoppers like it because it looks great, is intuitive to use and is secure for handling their transactions. Developers like it because there are many extensions, accounting systems integrations and it is open source code so they can deliver real world business results and be the hero. Yippie everybody wins!
Let’s start with a quick overview of the core features and then I will get to some real exciting stuff that I like about this solution.
In our quest to refine our own organization and to enhance our value add to customers we are actually leveraging the same principles that we have integrated into our consulting practice. The saying “reap what you sew” holds true and is something that you can duplicate in your organization to pass greater value on to your customers.
Building a Joomla web site can be a daunting task if you realize all that the Joomla CMS framework is capable of. We have broken this down into seven easy to follow steps that can get you started in the process of achieving superior results with your new portal. We hope this can help ease your mind and provide a simple process and approach.
Step One: Defining your business goals.
The first step in this process is to clearly understand what the goals are for investing your time and money into this project. What quantifiable results do you want to achieve with this initiative and who else will be involved in the process of achieving these goals. Very much like starting any new business you want a clear understanding of your SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats).
I wrote a piece a while back about Customer Conversation Management or "CCM" which is really the essence of the new CRM 2.0 and now getting the label Social CRM. Regardless of the term you prefer to use to describe it the reality is that the customer is in charge of the engagement these days since they now have so many choices and your competition is global. I have plenty of blog articles here that further explore this concept but when I found this video, I had to put it up since it hits the core of the problem many companies have today with their customer engagements.
“Throughout the past year, I have had the pleasure of working with several members of your staff as we designed our corporate website. Each associate displayed a high degree of integrity, responsibility, competence and ambition. Their good judgment and experience ensured a logical and practical approach to our endeavor which resulted in the completion of our project ahead of schedule – exceeding our expectations.
The services which CNP provides are a force multiplier for any organization, and I am happy to give them my wholehearted endorsement.”
Copyright 2009 Creative Networks Protocol Inc. DBA CNP Integrations Notice: The Joomla! ® name is used under a limited license from Open Source Matters in the United States and other countries. JoomlaDesignServices.com is not affiliated with or endorsed by Open Source Matters or the Joomla! ® Project. CNP Integrations is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Joomla Project Open Source Matters. The Joomla logo is used under a limited license granted by Open Source Matters the trademark holder in the United States and other countries. Web Site: www.joomla.org