You probably already know that Joomla is a great content management system, but did you know that you can also use it to set up an online store and accept payments online? We found some great ecommerce extensions for Joomla, including shopping cart solutions, payment gateways, an online donation system, and a membership manager.
VirtueMart
Want to create an online store using Joomla? Then download VirtueMart, a free shopping cart solution designed specifically for the content management system Joomla. This extension supports multiple languages and currencies, and it uses various payment gateways, including Authorize.net, PayPal, eWay, Worldpay, 2Checkout, NoChex, and PayMate. VirtueMart allows you to add an unlimited number of categories and products, and it can be used for the sale of tangible and digital items.
Easy PayPal Donation
Looking for an easy way to accept donations from the visitors to your Joomla website? Then you need to check out Easy PayPal Donation, a simple extension for Joomla which inserts a PayPal Donation button on any page of your site. The donation button is extremely customisable, so you can enter the donation amount, purpose, description, and currency. PayPal is free to join, and it allows your site’s visitors to make donations online directly from their bank accounts or via credit cards.
SimpleCaddy
Like VirtueMart, SimpleCaddy is also a shopping cart application designed specifically for Joomla, but it is a simpler alternative for users who don’t actually need a full-fledged online store. SimpleCaddy utilizes a small plugin to present an ‘Add to Cart’ function and Joomla’s standard content to display product details. This extension supports two methods of checkout: PayPal (requiring payment) and simple mail (not requiring payment). SimpleCaddy is fast and easy to install and use, making it a great option for users who want a simple shopping cart solution.
Donation Thermometer
If you use a Joomla extension like Easy PayPal Donation to accept donations on your website, then you should also download Donation Thermometer, an extension designed to show you and your site’s visitors how much money you’ve raised. This extension includes an editable image of a thermometer, enabling you to tailor the image’s appearance to your own needs. Donation Thermometer is very customisable, allowing you to use the module’s parameters to adjust the funding goal, height, width, current amount, currency, and date last updated.
Account Expiration Control – Membership Manager
Want to offer paid memberships to visitors to your Joomla website? Then download Account Expiration Control – Membership Manager, an extension designed to help you set up memberships and process payments. This extension boasts over 40 built-in payment processors, including PayPal, Authorize.net, CCBill, and Paycom, and it supports various payment plan options, including trials, paid, free, global free trials, and lifetime. This extension also offers an integrated subscription and registration process with CommunityBuilder and JomSocial, and it features over 45 MicroIntegrations.
Pay to Download XT
If you want to use your Joomla website to sell downloadable products such as eBooks, then you need to get Pay to Download XT, an extension that simplifies the process of selling digital items online. This extension will display descriptions of your products and a PayPal ‘Pay Now’ button on your Joomla site. When your customers click the button, they will be redirected to PayPal to pay for the item, and then directed back to your website to download the file. Pay to Download XT is a simple and secure way of selling downloadable items using your Joomla website.
DC MoneyBookers Payment Module
If you need a payment gateway for selling items online, then you should check out the DC MoneyBookers Payment Module, a Joomla extension that enables your customers to send you payments via debit and credit cards using MoneyBookers (it’s free to join). This Joomla extension allows you to display a MoneyBookers logo or your own text on your website, and you can choose from multiple submit buttons (i.e., Pay Now, Donate, etc.) and currencies.
Have you used any of these extensions for your Joomla website? Then leave us a comment telling us about your experience!
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Thanks for this roundup. We’ve played around with VirtueMart for some experiments with Joomla. The drawbacks seem to be that getting pricing where you want it is tricky, and that entering product takes place in a different part of the back end than Joomla’s standard content management. When we use it as an affordable website design option for clients it takes a bit of extra time to educate them, but once you get over the hurdle it works pretty well.
I’m still testing my Joomla site on a free hosting. I think the donation plugins are good, but the virtuemart plugin still give me doubt, as well as other shop related plugins. I mean, Joomla’s shop related plugins tend to have security bug and it’s freaking me out when see many Joomla based E-commerce site got hacked.
Yeah, Joomla and Drupal both have moved way beyond their original purpose. These days you can use those platforms to build just about anything. When I built my site (a roommate matching service, not a content management system at all!) I narrowed it down to Joomla and Drupal for platforms and ended up going with Drupal because it allows for more customization at this time. Joomla seems easier to use though, in time my guess is that the customization will overtake drupal as well.
Though I am not using Joomla, those extensions are great! I am sure my friend, who is a Joomla fanatic, will surely love them.
I had some of those extensions that you have mentioned when I used Joomla. And as far as I am concerned, they are really worth the try.
Joomla is definitely the best CMS ever