VirtueMart is a Shopping Cart Application for the eCommerce. It's a Component (= plugin) for a Content Management System called Joomla (and Mambo) and can't be used without Joomla. It installs fairly easy using the automatic Component and Module installer. It's intended for use in small / mid-sized Online businesses / Online-Shops. So every user who wants to build up a Online Store can use this component for selling something to customers.
manage an unlimited Number of Products and Categories,
use it as a Shop or just as an Online-Catalog (you can even turn off Price Display)
sell downloadable Products,
powerful Web-Administration Tool (integrated into Mambo!),
Product Import & Export using CSV Files
add Images and Files (like Spec Sheets and Flyers) to a Product,
add Attributes (like Size or Color) to your Products,
manage your Customers in Shopper Groups,
assign more than one Price to a Product: each Shopper Group has its own!
display Prices either including or excluding tax (manageable for each Shopper Group)
Shop Statistics / Control Panel with a Summary of new Customers, new Orders....
manage the Stock Level for Products and Items
notify Shoppers when a Product is back in Stock
use Zone based Tax Calculation (city/state & country/region) OR
Store Owner based Tax Calculation (e.g. in european countries)
manage your own Shipping Carriers and Rates
use InterShipper, UPS, USPS or Canada Post Shipping Rate API.
complete Order Management with Order History & IP address storing
basic Reporting feature
manage Order statuses
Shoppers can add their own Shipping Addresses
let your Customers easily search for Products through a Search Form
feature specific products by setting them on special
let your shoppers know when a product is available again
Shoppers can see, in what time a product will usually ship, on product-details page (with nice images!)
Shoppers can manage their User Accounts (registration required)
Shopper can view all their Orders (and Order Details)
Order Confirmation Mail (customizable!) is sent to Shopper and Store Owner
manage different Currencies, Countries & States
use safe SSL encryption (128-bit)
capable of live Credit Card Processing
use payment gateways like authorize.net®, eWay, Worldpay, PayMate and NoChex....
extend your Shop with other Payment & Shipping Modules or just write your own!
... many more! Just browse to VirtueMart.net for more Features & Extensions
VirtueMart is a simple Online-Shop application. But it is surely no "out-of-the-box" killer application for professional companies. It's not tested in 100% secure environments. It's not meant to be 100% performant.
You will need some time to customize this application to fit your needs.
Be prepared to be confronted with bugs, which have currently not been found yet. VirtueMart has an active community and a forum where problems and questions can be discussed. (http://virtuemart.net)
Frontend Screenshots (thanks to Arthur Konze for the Template Design!)
Product Details Page
Product Details Page with Review Feature
Administrator Screenshots
Administration: Product List
Administration: Product List