The Essential Ecommerce Blog (TEEB)

BazaarBuilder Extension adds ecommerce capability to Joomla 1.0 websites.

Joomla, an open source content management system, provides powerful tools for managing a website’s content. With the new BazaarBuilder Extension, users can convert their simple Joomla website into a powerful online shop within a matter of minutes. Once connected to an existing Joomla website, BazaarBuilder’s ecommerce specific features become available to the website owner without need for setting up additional databases or programs.

To coincide with the new Extension for Joomla, a new Joomla based website design service is launched for those who are looking to set-up a CMS based website. Under the fixed price plan, businesses choose a design style they like and the BazaarBuilder web development team will build a complete website, ready to be handed over to the business owner.

See Simple Demo

CMS based Website Design Packages

Installation Process of the BazaarBuilder ecommerce Extension

Simple steps to install BazaarBuilder with your existing joomla package.
1.Download Extension.The download will consist of a zipped folder of files that must be uploaded to your server after editing with your own account settings as shown in step 3.
2. Sign up for a 10 day trial of the FREE BazaarBuilder Shopping cart (Plus Version is available for larger stores or those requiring additional features such as stock control) After the 10 day trial reconfirm that you intend to continue to use the software. This helps us keep our systems clean of unused trial accounts

3. When you signed up with BazaarBuilder, you will have chosen a username which must now be inserted into the BazaarBuilder account settings file that you have already downloaded in step 1. To make this change open file com_prod/ws_files/account_setting.php, insert your own BazaarBuilder username in place of “BBjoomla” which is inserted set as default.

4. Recreate a zip folder of “com_prod” so it becomes “com_prod.zip”. This folder should contain the edited account_settings.php file containing your own BazaarBuilder username.

5. Log in as an administrator on Joomla Control Panel and select Installers/Components Menu item from toolbar menu. Browse for “com_prod.zip” package which you created in step 4 and press “Upload File & Install” button.

[Alternative Method if you don’t want to create zip files for step 4 is to use FTP. Here carry out step 1+2 first and then go straight to step 5 missing out steps 3+4. In step 5 simply upload the downloaded folder “comp_prod.zip” without making any modification. After completing step 5 use your FTP client to download the com_prod/ws_files/account_setting.php from the joomla components folder of your web server and edit it as described in step 3. Then uplaod just this account_setting.php file back to the original location on your webserver. ]
If the above process has worked you should be able to view your online shop by typing ;
http://www.your-own-domain-name.com/index.php?option=com_prod&task=products
directly into the browser. After this you will need to add the relevant shopping cart links on to your website. A quick and fast method is listed below which will create a single ’shop online’ type of link within your website’s menu system. To do this login to the Joomla’s own admin control panel and link your BazaarBuilder store with your Joomla site by following these steps;
1. Click Menu >> Main Menu from Joomla admin section.
2. Select “Link-URL” under “Links” then Press Next.
3. Enter text for your menu item: for example ”Online Shop” or “Online Store”
4. Enter index.php?option=com_prod&task=products against “Link”.
5. Press Save.
To setup your product categories, products and other online shop related options, login to BazaarBuilder’s own secure control panel (see step 2 above ). This control panel will be used for all day to day management of your online store.
http://www.bazaarbuilder.com/login.htm
Use your username and password you chose while registering with BazaarBuilder.

Welcome to the new Essential Ecommerce Blog from BazaarBuilder.

With the hectic Christmas online trading period just coming to end and dawning of 2008 it may be a good time to review your ecommerce website’s recent performance. We list five key areas that you could perhaps have a look at;

1. Check that the website’s design, functionality and usability are uptodate and according to some of the latest best practices in your market sector. If possible speak with some of your customers to gain further insight into what they think about your website. Also go thru the past year’s customer Help Request emails and update your FAQ’s, Forms etc.
2. Review carefully how customers interact with your online product catalogue. Visitors should be able to search products ‘by category’ as well as from a ’search box’ where they type-in specific product name. Visitors who search for product by typing into a search box are far more likely to go onto make a purchase. The checkout process should be highlighted on your product pages to route buyers easily to the checkout pages. It may be worth reviewing product images and descriptions. Poor quality product images can put people off so any effort to improve their quality is well worth doing. Make sure that shipping and packaging charges are clearly shown or explain exactly how these charges will be calculated during the checkout process.
3. Check and update the website’s shopping cart system. Look closely at customer comments and problems that they faced during the checkout process. Look for ways shorten the shopping cart process as much as possible to minimize customers who fail to complete the checkout process. Discuss how your shopping cart process an be improved with your shopping cart software provider. Often trivial changes can bring big benefits.
4. Review the website’s ranking in major search engines such as Google, Yahoo and MSN. The website should be ranking well for a wide range of phrases rather than a few. Do a fresh keyword analysis to see which keywords are being used to search for your range of products and services. If you have a decent visitor tracking software installed, this will give an excellent insight to find phrases that are converting into sales. If no such tracking software is installed get one installed asap. Google’s Analytics is one powerful solution you could deploy.
5. Review performance of Pay Per Click campaigns with Adwords etc. Replace those keywords that do not generate a sale despite generating visits with fresh words and phrases that do convert. Make use of visitor tracking software to maximise sales.

Of course these are just a few general areas that need reviewing at regular basis. We will be looking at these and hundreds of others in more detail in future.

So, you’ve been busy finding different ways to get people to visit your ecommerce website. You probably learned about how to optimise the website so that it ranks higher in Google for relevant “keywords” and “phrases”. More than likely you are also using some pay per click programs (adwords / yahoo / msn ) which may have generated some sales as well. But when you review the website’s visitor statistics to gain an insight into how your visitors arrive at your website, you notice that a very large proportion of the visitors do not buy anything at all. Ok some of these visitors just may have been lost souls wondering about in the websphere, but why are some of the more interested visitors-who came to your website with a definite interest-not buying from you? What stopped them from making a puchase from your website? As a successful internet merchant you will want to know exactly why they didn’t make a purchase so that appropiate steps can be taken to minimise the loss of business. In this article we discuss how we can improve an ecommerce website’s efficiency in converting more of the visitors to firm buyers of your products.

New Features are being added to Bazaarbuilder shopping cart on a regular basis. What new features would you like to see added?