Joomla is the CMS to take advantage of and to build world-class websites, having the number of extensions on the Joomla provides a path to achieve what you can dream of creating a website.
So in this article, we are discussing two most popular eCommerce Joomla extension which is used to create an online store on your Joomla website.
Let’s Go ahead and get started.
VirtueMart Vs Hikashop
VirtueMart
VirtueMart is the most popular eCommerce extension for Joomla. It’s Easy to use for experts and beginners, and it has thousands of features built in to create your store professionally.
To make your business unique. You need a particular feature don’t you? Using Virtuemart helps you in great deal…possibilities to extend the functionalities of VirtueMart by adding Components, Templates, Plugins and Modules helps you with everything.
There are so many add-ons available for Virtuemart which can be used for enhancing the functionality of your online store. We developed a Virtuemart extension called ASMV ( Advance Search Manager for Virtuemart) to help admin managing order from the admin panel. Simply in Virtuemart, it is very hard to manage orders but with the help of ASMV ( Advance Search Manager for Virtuemart) you can manage them in a very simple way.
Features
Parent and Child categories
- Easy to manage SEO with meta tags.
- Manage Categories with description and media
Shopper-Groups
- Set pricing for Shopper-groups accordingly.
- Display price depending on Shopper-groups
- Manage payment/shipment depending by Shopper-groups
Shopper
- Customize customer input form to your choice.
- Adding functionality where we can add registration form at the time of checkout or shipment
- Feature where user can check out as Guest, no registration is required
- Address book
- Set default Bill-to and Ship-to address.
- Set default payment and shipment method.
Products
- Easy to manage Meta tags for SEO
- Add short and long description for the products.
- Functionality to add dimensions (weight, size) for the products
- Add multiple media (Images, videos, pdf)
- Unlimited child products and derivate levels
- Product pattern (Parent product used as model for child products)
Inventory/Stocking
- Manage inventory using single control
- Add warning messages when product is out of stock
- Virtual stock (ordered but not finally bought)
Prices
- Choose currency according to your need. (Euros, Dollars, etc…)
Real multi-currency
- Auto updating rates
Manufacturer media handler
- Default Integrated Product reviews and ratings for SEO/SEF
- Discounts based on time, category, Shopper-group, country, and state
- Tax based on category, time, Shopper-group, country, and state
- Add discounts and taxes per product.
- Option do multiple payment and shippings.
Check out function
- Guest checkout
- Ask customer to register at the time of checkout
- Create Multipage checkout
Order handling through backend
- Payment/shipment workflow
- Every payment made is secure we have of history of single payment made and an option to modify it
Order handling frontend
- Track Order for users.
Template handling
- We can use different templates depends on Categories/Products
Marketing promotions and tools
- Functionality to add coupon
- Recommend a product to friend link.
Phew!! Functionalities to die for right? Stand By we have one more extension to die for. Let’s talk about it.
Hika-Shop
Hika-Shop is another complex e-commerce platform. It is built to be simple and flexible. Hikashop makes great use of Joomla’s MVC structure, with the ability to edit views of the component in their administration panel.
Features
Product
- An option to set access levels on products, variants, categories, prices, discounts and coupons
Currency
- Auto- updates Currency format.
- Geolocation helps to set default currency.
Geolocation
- Black- listing of zones using geolocation
- Geolocation information for users and orders.
Fields Customization
- Custom fields for orders, items, and entries as well as a custom file type.
Files Importer as a Product
- Upload products using import option. (Pdf, zip etc…)
Notification functionality
- Out of stock notifications
PayPal payment Integration
Vote & Comment functionality
Affiliate functionality
- Affiliate functionality will only work when Affiliate plugin enabled.
Wish-list
- In Wish list functionality customers can share their wish list with another person.
RSS feeds functionality
Tough isn’t it!! Hope comparison helps you to select what is best for you. Still Confused? Don’t worry read the conclusion it will surely help you in a bit.
Recommended
Conclusion
Virtue mart is the most popular extension. It’s the best solution for Joomla e-commerce. Hika shop is good e-commerce component but we believe in Virtue Mart e-commerce platform…Because Virtue mart has a responsive design, highly conversion shopping cart. Virtue Mart is a perfect solution for Joomla. Both are written in PHP and can be used in typical PHP/MySQL environments. A major advantage of CMS compatibility is that… it requires almost no technical skill or knowledge to manage. one more reason over Hika Shop, because of Virtue Mart has it more developed community, forums, posts, supported sites…
Credit : Abhishek Chaturvedi (PHP Developer)
Rahul Ahluwalia (Quality Analyst)
Can We Help You?
Yes, we can help you to integrate Shopping Cart extension and setting up your online store within a few span of time. Contact Us.
