Can a single VM3 website handle multiple shops?

Question

We have a client who wants to open new shops. They already have a website but can a VM3 website be made to suit multiple shops?

When the admin order confirmation e-mail arrives in the inbox, we resize it and print it with macros in Outlook and Word.

So they have a parent site which links to the VM website we manage. However what they want is when the "shop" link is clicked, the user can then write their postcode and it sends them to the relevant section on the website based on their postcode. I imagine that would be done with a PHP IF statement, but I'm not sure if VM is built to suit this all on one website. They do not want multiple websites, they want this to be done all on one website. So their current website should be able to send orders to multiple shops (multiple e-mail addresses).

Does this make sense? Can it be done?

Answer 1

It's hard to pretend VM3 is prestashop, but imagine you need to do whole custom work to change all models, views, etc. change database tables. I'm professional programmer and if you come to me the price will be higher : ) Reconsider using joomla, i'm not saying Joomla / VM3 is bad, but still hardcore gaming need hardcore gaming pc, hardcore selling needs software for hardcore selling, cache, scaling etc.

regards

Answer 2

There is an extension called "Multi Store - Multi Vendor Virtuemart" (commercial extension), that seems to be able to do what you need. The available options in the extension are explained here, but basically you can set up multiple stores. Each sub-store can have it's own domain (or subdomain), so basically you would have to set up a PHP if-else statement and redirect the user to the correct subdomain based on the given postcode or postcode range.

The redirect itself can be done in many ways, here's one option:

if($postcode == "12345") {
 echo "<meta http-equiv=\"refresh\" content=\"0;URL=http://domain1.com\">";
} elseif($postcode == "54321" {
 echo "<meta http-equiv=\"refresh\" content=\"0;URL=http://domain2.com\">";
}

You should consider if it really is convenient to have everything on a single Joomla/Virtuemart installation, as development might be considerably more complicated compared to having separate installations.

Answer 3

You could also have a look at the Hikashop Multivendor extension. To be honest I didn't pay full attention to understand your exact requirements, but I think it worths checking the extension and get in touch with the developers to ask them about what you need.

Something else that it could also do the job of multi-shops/sites, is to setup a multi-sites project.

The 2 most popular multi-sites extensions are JMS by jms2win.com and Mighty-Sites by Alterbrains.

Since you seem to want to have only 1 single database, then MightySites might be the right solution for you, as it allows to share database tables between sites. As far as I know, both VirtueMart and Hikashop are supported in db sharing on this extension.

Again, get in touch with the developers and ask them about compatibility with the e-shop extension and your requirements.