Site Profile
Description: In our web shop we sell computers, laptops, digital cameras and components and write in-depth reviews of new products, but also offer tips on smart buying.Case Study: Our first web site was made back in 1995, that is, if a single web page with contact information and a few animated gifs can be called a site. At the time it certainly could, and today hardly. But those were the first days of both the Internet and the web in Montenegro, a small country in south-eastern Europe, then still a part of Yugoslavia. We even made several simple sites for clients, but were soon prevented from becoming serious web designers by a surge in demand for computers, printers, scanners and components. Although we stick to our main business of selling computer equipment, we also continued to make small improvements to our site and by 2001 it went dynamic, based on Microsoft FrontPage and asp technology. It existed for 7 years without any major modifications before we decided to completely redesign it. What we had in mind was a web shop, but instead of insisting on asp we switched to php. The main reasons were much lower initial cost and availability of two very popular shopping cart scripts: Virtuemart and Oscommerce. After searching the Internet for pros and cons and much deliberation, we chose the Joomla extension and never regretted. Yet, many obstacles were to be passed. The first was language. There were no translations we could use out of the box as Serbian and Croatian languages, though very similar to Montenegrin, also have many differences. Besides, the quality of those translations was disappointing. So, we had to make our own language files not only for Joomla but also for Virtuemart and a number of other components. The process of translating was speeded by Translation Manager and Virtuemart Language Manager.
The next big issue was related only to Virtuemart. We had to find a way to efficiently transfer product information from Microsoft Access application we use in our day-to-day job to the web server. Several new modules were added to the application in order to make sending product names, descriptions, prices and pictures as easy as possible, thus making it a kind of back office for Joomla and Virtuemart. Again, the task would be much heavier if it wasn't for another component: CSV Improved.
Since 2001, when we introduced the option of subscribing to our newsletters, a great number of visitors added their email addresses to out mailing list. Porting it to the new system required not only another component – Acajoom, but some programming in the back office as well.
Much time was spent browsing the web in pursuit of a suitable template. From half a dozen available on the market we narrowed our selection to two, when, just at the right moment, Joomlart released Mesolite. Incorporating our logo was not difficult since blue was already our color.
All this time the site was up and running, but only on our staging server. The time has come to choose a reliable web hosting. At first we thought that the distance between our target audience, which is local, and web server was of utmost importance. Then we learned, however, that in the case of dynamically generated pages, the speed of web server is more important. So, following a recommendation on a forum, we decided on Medialayer, which is located across the ocean, in New York. We never had an issue with them. They are doing their job perfectly.
Till this point the whole process took about four and a half months. But the work wasn't done then, nor is it now. We doubt it will ever be. We are constantly making improvements, mainly in Virtuemart and the template, but in a few other components as well. Recently, though, we updated Joomla to the latest version and were surprised to find it an easy job since no involved files had been changed on our part.
The bottom line is the number of visits: it is fifteen times greater then in the days of the old site. Though we are far from satisfied, and would maybe be with another 15x increase, the web site has already become our main marketing tool.
bypcavanagh on June 4, 2009
Thanks for writing up a detailed case study. I do much work in Microsoft Access so I will need to check out CSV Improved. Acajoom, too.