VirtueMart is an Open Source E-Commerce solution that is used together with a Content Management System (CMS) called Joomla!

VirtueMart provides you with a powerful, full-featured shopping cart:

•    the built-in catalog search feature makes it easy for customers to find what they're looking for
•    you can easily create unlimited categories and subcategories if you want to make your cart unique
•    you can have category and sub-category description pages
•    you can turn off categories and products with the click of the mouse
•    you can easily assign products to more than one category by linking the products together (a very handy little feature!)
•    put your products on sale or mark them as inactive or out of stock with the click of a mouse
•    thumbnail images pop up to show larger images automatically so you only have to upload one image
•    breadcrumb navigation makes it easy to get around in the site
•    easily display a section of featured products on home page.
•    easily display a section of new products for current year on home page
•    easily display a list of best sellers for the entire site on the home page and for each category the customer clicks on
•    You can offer your current customers a discount using coupon codes.
•    if you wish to do so, you can sell gift certificates as virtual products - the customer puts in a code to redeem online (great for gift-giving!)
•    ability to cross-sell products with others (so - if a customer buys the Laundry Detergent, you could show the Stain Remover, Magnet Ball and Dryer Balls)
•    Shopping cart has sales tax calculator that you can set for your own state or province

You get statistics reporting:

•    you can generate a variety of sales reports from the admin area of your site to monitor your growth over time
You get built-in email marketing:

•    Joomla has built-in Newsletter management with a customer-subscribe option.  Build customer loyalty by sending a newsletter to your customers in text or html to let them know about upcoming specials, news, etc.
The best part about the Joomla Newsletter manager is that it is a very high end system. Unlike Newsletter managers on systems like Zen, you are not limited on ours as to how many users you can send to.

Neat Features for Customers:

•    if you choose to do so, you can give your buyers the ability to specify a shipping address different from billing - this is great for gift-giving!
•    the ability to choose how many of a product to add to your cart - this seems silly - but most Norwex carts don't offer this, so if you want - say - 3 of something, then you have to go back to the same product 3 times and re-add it. This is very annoying for shoppers and can make them decide not to buy.
•    Product Reviews - If you choose to use this feature, it allows your customers to make reviews of your products.  You are able to approve the reviews before they are published to the site
•    Order Tracking - If you choose to use this feature, your customers can log in to their accounts to view their order status, or you can keep the customer up to date on the status of their order from the time it is order until the time it is delivered
•    a customer order history available to both you and your customer

Other Nifty Features:
•    you can change the look of your website by moving information around - done with the click of your mouse
•    there is a built-in site map feature if you want to use it
•    a built-in banner manager that allows you to put text & image-based ads, recommendations, etc. on either side or bottom
•    you have your own password protected administration area that you can set up with your own unique password
•    if you wish, you can generate invoices for customers
•    Joomla is an extremely fast-loading program (this keep people from clicking away and onto the next site)
•    And much more!  Joomla is ever-evolving and new modifications are available regularly.

Search Engine Optimization:
Joomla is extremely search-engine friendly (so your site can get found!) - each product can be individually meta-tagged
Ease of Use:
Joomla is extremely easy to learn to use. It is an intuitive program, and its features have been well-documented with step-by-step how-to information.