So, you have decided to launch an online store. Then, you're definitely on the crossroads: Which e-c...

1. Joomla vs Magento - Which Is a Reasonable E-commerce
Solution?
So, you have decided to launch an online store. Then, you're definitely on the crossroads: Which e-
commerce solution to choose, whether you need a content management system (CMS) or developing
a simple website will be enough. The choice will be determined by your needs and scale of your
business.
When You Need a CMS
A simple static website will be enough when:
You just need a description of your product/service plus a couple of easy forms such as Place an
order, Subscribe, Contact Us or the like (it is usually enough for selling e-books, music, etc.)
Your website will be a short-time internet initiative: one-time proposition, sales, giveaway, etc.
This time the project budget is rather small
You need a specialized e-commerce solution if:
Your e-shop will contain product catalogs with lots of items and/or categories, which should be
updated frequently including descriptions, photos, videos, etc.
You need effective tools for marketing, selling (catalogs and search, shopping carts, ordering,
payments, etc.) and customer relationship management
You want to be social and close to your clients, allowing them to review goods and products, leave
comments, express opinions
You have customers in other countries or even worldwide and need a multilingual support
If You Need More Than a Simple Website
The common requirements to an e-commerce solution span such aspects as to be fast, full featured,
cheap development and maintenance, with an easy learning curve.
There is a vast variety of open source specialized e-commerce solutions on the Web now to choose
from. Among them are Magento, osCommerce, Shopify, ZenCart, VirtueMart, just to name a few,
that could fit your needs. Moreover, e-commerce solutions are often built on the basis of open source
content management systems such as Drupal, Joomla!, lately more and more Wordpress, and some
others.
What to Keep in Mind When Selecting an e-Commerce Solution
Here is a short list of general requirements to bear in mind when choosing an e-commerce solution:

2. Usability, user friendlinessand intuitive navigation/functions
The system should be friendly and easy to use for both a customer and you. Essential e-commerce
functions (categorization, track inventory, importingdata from an Excel sheet, etc.) should be
comfortable to be done.Shopping cart should be easy to navigate and the checkout process must be
simple and secure.
Advanced catalogs and search
It is essential if you have a large product range or multiple categories and sub categories.
Marketing tools
A good e-commerce platform should have couponing and discounting functions. Promotions and
discounts help to improve your sales and customer loyalty.
Order and transaction history
Ability to track orders is important. The past order history improves customer relationship especially
if you have repeat clients.
Analytics and reporting
Ability to track traffic, search queries, most viewed items and have automated sale reports is
significant. Knowing who is coming to your site and how they are finding you will help to wisely
concentrate the efforts.
Search engine optimization (SEO)
It is critical for the e-shop to be visible to your prospects, which is impossible without a search
engine optimized website. E-commerce software should be able to automatically generate page
titles, meta tags, alt text and URL of every page.
Magento and Joomla!
One of the most reputed and widely used open source solutions are Magento and Joomla!. Their
popularity is constantly growing: now Magento is translated into 60 different languages, Joomla! -
into 64. Both have a huge quantity of features, extensions and plug-ins, and sometimes are even
considered to be a bit too heavy.
Magento
Magento is one of the leaders among e-commerce solutions, its usage and industry distribution is
really great (for example see http://trends.builtwith.com/shop/Magento). Magento key advantages
could be considered from both sides of a seller and a customer. Some key features include for the
seller:
Great catalog management
Marketing tools (coupons, featured items, gift cards and more)

3. Advanced shipping support
Search engine optimization
Analytics and reporting tools
For customers:
Filtering products in categories
Effective and fast search results
Easy product comparisons and reviews
One-page checkout capability
Extensive shipping options
Sometimes Magento is considered to be the most effective system, however it has several essential
minuses to keep in mind:
It has a high learning curve
Slow on anything less than a dedicated server, i.e., it needs a lot of hardware resources to work
efficiently
Plug-ins and extensions are often costly
Somewhat difficult to customize
Joomla!
Joomla! has thefollowing benefits:
Comparatively little costs for development and maintenance
User friendly administrative interface
High level of security
Simple file sharing and document management
SEO and SEM optimized
Mobile accessibility
Rather straightforward to work with in terms of tweaking
Joomla! drawbacks:
Installing and managing the "friendly" URLs do takes a lot of configurations

4. Customization requires knowledge of website design and development
Quite difficult to add categories
API (Application Programming Interface) is changed a bit too often
One more essential trait is that Joomla! is not an e-commerce solution per se and has to be
customized with the help of additional modules and shopping carts like VirtueMart, ZenCart,
Shopify, etc. It wouldn't cost much, would take comparatively less time to implement.
Joomla! - Magento Integration
There is no one-size-fits-all option to perfectly meet all requirements to an internet shop. Joomla!-
Magento integration, a solution proposed by the web communities, claims to be ideal. The
integration allows getting wonderfully elaborate functionality of Magento cushioned inside of the
friendly usability of Joomla!.
As a result, you get a friendly CMS and flexible e-commerce solution plus the following value-added
functionality:
Allows users to stay on Joomla! and still have controls over Magento
Magento products shown in Joomla!
Magento shopping cart and catalog in Joomla!
Integrated search in Joomla!
Integrating Joomla! with Magento is possible to implement, for example, by means of J!Mint (Joomla!
Magento integration tool) or MageBridge by Yireo (a bridge between the Joomla CMS and the
Magento e-commerce platform).
Of course, Joomla!-Magento integration will make your online store a bit more expensive, take
additional time to customize and you will need to put some efforts on learning how to manage both
systems or hire a professional to take care of that. But on the other hand, it could be worth these
costs because you get an elaborate e-commerce solution.
Conclusion
Before developing your online store, you should outline its scale, for example, decide whether you
need a large e-commerce solution to run the business. The next step would be to specify technical
requirements to make it easy to choose the best-fit e-shop system.
Now there are a lot of different e-commerce solutions out there. However, the analysis of Joomla!
and Magento, leaders among open source content management and e-store systems, shows that
unfortunately there is no universal answer for all cases and budgets. Therefore, the final decision is
strongly depends on your requirements and goals.
About the Author
HTMLcut is a professional PSD to HTML conversion services company. HTMLcut offers a full range

5. of PSD to HTML/CSS coding by converting .psd, .ai, .png designs into xHTML/HTML5/CSS markups,
PSD to Joomla!, WordPress, Drupal and other content management system themes.