Success Equation = (Joomla + VirtueMart) or (WordPress + WooCommerce)?

No doubt that choosing a right eCommerce platform for your business is one of the most important decisions that you will have to make. Naturally, merchants are looking for a complex solution to make their business run in the best possible way. That is why many businessmen decide to build their site with Content Management System (CMS) like WordPress or Joomla. CMS will allow you to simply modify your content, enable blogging opportunity, check visitor’s activity and many other things. In other words it will help you manage web pages without programming. Each system has a number of different plugins including shopping cart extensions that will allow you to built a store and sell online. However, these modules have different sets of features and it may be difficult to choose one which will perfectly suit your business needs. This review is provided for you to simplify your decision making process.

WordPress and Joomla were mentioned not accidentally. Both Content Management Systems are extremely popular with millions of people using them to power their sites. Each of them has a shopping cart plugin that may significantly improve your business.

One of the most beneficial and stable Joomla extensions for eCommerce is definitely VirtueMart. At the same time from a dozen of WordPress plugins it is worth to mention WooCommerce - the most celebrated and fast growing shopping platform.

VirtueMart is a free open source PHP based solution. The platform is probably the most spread Joomla eCommerce cart. It has been in the industry for years. VirtueMart has enlarged the army of followers gaining trust with multi-functionality, stability and wide customisation opportunities. Major upgrades help VirtueMart keep up with the times.

On the other hand WooCommerce is a fairly new shopping cart that brings the latest, most modern features to the e-Commerce table. It was launched in September 2011 and now it has become one of the most popular WordPress eCommerce plugins. Developed by WooThemes - company known for creating great WordPress templates, it was soon acquired by WordPress.com creators due to its fast spreading popularity.

VirtueMart and WooCommerce are very easy to install. Each of them provides access to HTML and CSS. But it is quite obvious that the company which developed professional templates will offer you more functions. So, with WooCommerce you will get opportunity to manage your shop front design via simple templating system which won’t require any programming skills. Moreover a number of both free and paid themes are available to download and alter.

Nevertheless, VirtueMart templates are able to meet demands of practically any business. And if you have enough skills to customize a skin via CSS and HTML it won’t be difficult to create a unique Virtuemart store front look.

Here is how the popularity levels of both carts progressed over the years according to Google Trends:

When it comes to functionality you start to feel that VirtueMart has lots of market experience. Its out-of-the-box features will allow you to start e-shop without installing any additional modules. Some of the best features include :

• Unlimited number of products, categories and customers. Orders history and inventory reports are also available.
• Establish flexible pricing rules. You may set up different prices for the same product depending on a customer group.
• Coupon and discount system along with multiple product display options (most sold, featured, newest) will allow to attract more clients to your store.
• SEO features include search engine friendly links, meta keywords and meta descriptions. So, it will help you to reach top Google ranking and bring you new customers.
• Numerous checkout options like one-page, one-click and even guest checkouts are available to make your client’s shopping experience positive.
• Platform is translated into dozens of languages and supports tax rates according to the country or state. That is why you will be able to run your business worldwide.

WooCommerce, on the other hand, has its own set of great benefits to boast of:

• Famously intuitive WordPress Interface implies you don’t have to spend time and nerves to explore all the nooks and crannies of your admin panel - everything is simple and on the surface, as in some kind of video game menu.
• Helpful business reporting will help you to check product sales and define which items make you a profit.
• Marketing tools include customer’s product reviews, flash banners and coupons systems. Moreover, WooCommerce will provide your product pages with automatic cross-sells, up-sells and related items.
• Handy customer and order management system will allow you to run your store in the most effective way.
• WooCommerce inherited all WordPress SEO features along with vast content management possibilities, so it won’t be a problem to make your shop search engines friendly.
• Numerous addons and compatibility with different WordPress themes gives you wide spectrum of design and functionality options - if you feel a lack of some features just find the appropriate extension.

In a case you are already an owner of online store and would like to migrate from ViretueMart to WooCommerce or vise versa WooCommerce to VirtueMart Cart2Cart will help you to perform fast and accurate migration.