How to Create an eCommerce Site on Joomla

Hello Joomlers! Hope you've been keeping productive during these troubled times. Today we've got something pretty exciting for you. As you've probably noticed, all things digital have been booming in the last few months. As a result, you can find products like groceries, clothing, or even perishables online. And what's more, is that accessibility and spread of these online delivery businesses are at its peak these days.

Even virtual products are also booming, from eLearning solutions to communication tools. All these have one underlying similarity: eCommerce. The umbrella of eCommerce envelops all of these products and sectors, and as a result, we believe you should also learn and tap into this trending sector of eCommerce. 

Why eCommerce

As I mentioned above, eCommerce is BOOMING. In the last few months where most countries have gone into partial or complete lockdowns due to the COVID-19 pandemic, consumerism hasn't died out completely. People are still buying stuff more than ever, and as a result, entrepreneurs and small business owners are starting to take their ventures online. To learn more about the benefits of taking your business online check out our relevant article here.

Why Joomla

For any kind of business, you want to keep the costs low. And you'd want it to be easy to use and operate. With a huge library of extensions, templates, and plugins available for Joomla, you can also very easily extend the functionalities of your site. You also have access to a massive user base and tons of forums that have been here for years so there's a ton of support. As opposed to creating a site from the ground up, a CMS like Joomla will not be ridden by bugs and will greatly improve your deploy times.

Tools We Will Need

To get started with a Joomla website, we need some specific tools. These tools will help you deploy in a fraction of the time!

A Unique Domain Name

A domain, put simply, is your identity on the internet. This is how your potential users will find the eCommerce site online. If you're creating a site for an existing business, use the pre-existing name of the business. On the other hand, if it's a new business, try to keep it simple and easy to remember. A ".com" domain is the most trustworthy and familiar, so it's best to use that. To purchase a domain name, you can go to GoDaddy, Namecheap, or any other popular domain name provider.

Robust Hosting

Hosting is incredibly important. After all, if your website is down at the start of a sale, how will you satisfy your customers. Honestly, I don't even try to buy something from an eCommerce store that crashes frequently, because you can't take them seriously. You can usually get hosting from the same place that provided you with the domain, or you can visit DigitalOcean, SiteGround, or HostGator for high-quality Joomla hosting. 

A Well-Designed Template

Templates jump-start your site and take a huge amount of time off of your development cycle. A well-designed template will look appealing, and also be easily customizable to fit your products and your content. For the eCommerce category, we have the perfect template for you! Meet Arino, the carefully crafted and flawlessly designed eCommerce template that will spoil you with its awesomeness! This template includes 5 home variations, ready to use cart flow design, and advanced filtering system to increase usability. To find out more about Arino, keep reading!

We've also got a ton of other Joomla eCommerce templates and we're adding more! And if you need templates for other types of sites, visit our Joomla templates page to pick out your favorite. 

eCommerce Extension

These types of extensions add functionalities to Joomla's core to enable you to create an eCommerce site with this CMS. Fortunately, we have J2Store, one of the best eCommerce extensions bundled together with our template, Arino, so you don't even need to worry about it!

Start Creating Your Website

Now, it's time to build your website using the template you picked! The basic instructions for building a Joomla website can be found here. We do not suggest having Joomla and the template installed separately! Download your selected template QuickStart pack from our website, and get your Joomla site to run with the template in no time. See how to get a QuickStart pack installed here. You can also contact our support staff, or refer to the documentation for more assistance.

J2Store Dashboard

The dashboard is the central area for your eCommerce store. This allows you to monitor your statistics, orders, and gives you reports on your recent orders

Products Page

The Products page allows you to view details in a compact view and monitor their state. You can also add new products using the “New” button or delete existing products from here. You can also go to inventory to view and edit your product inventory, but that does require J2Store Pro to be installed. 

Orders Page

The orders page allows you to monitor all the current and pending orders from customers. You can use this to coordinate with your delivery system to deliver your products. You can also edit or create new orders but that also requires J2Store to be installed.

After you've added your products and deals, and you're ready to launch, all that's left to do is to publicize your new eCommerce website. The best way to do that is to use social media sites like Facebook, Twitter as well as email newsletters to your entire mailing list. Let the world know you've created the next best thing!

Post Launch Check List

After you've launched your Joomla eCommerce site, your work isn't done yet! You have to constantly monitor and work to grow your website. Here's a few bullet points you should keep in mind after launch to keep a steady growth

• Track website performance using traffic analytics tools like Google Analytics
• Plan a marketing strategy, share using custom social snippets
• Use affiliate marketing to break into new audiences
• Boost traffic by publishing SEO friendly blogs about your sector's hot topics  

Also check out our pro tips on maintaining a Joomla site for further knowledge of post-launch website maintenance.

Wrapping Up

This pandemic has given us a lot of perspective about our lifestyle and our buying habits. And as a result, the industry has gained a massive influx of users while also retaining all the previous ones. With so many things going your way, we believe this is the best time to pull the trigger on creating your next eCommerce site using Joomla. So, what are you waiting for, start building your online empire today!

Download Arino   View Demo