According to many companies mail addresses are still a very powerful marketing instrument. One of these companies was Gratis Item (free item). They had ordered a bulk load of Chinese ear plugs and were planning to give them away for free in exchange for a mail address and some additional data of the people visiting their website. They would only be charged for the shipping costs. Before they could start their exclusive ear plug action, they first needed to build a webshop whereby people could order one item and which needed to automatically charge a small amount of money to serve as shipping costs. The client had a strong Joomla preference because he already owned multiple Joomla websites which gave him some previous Joomla experience and knowledge.
An existing template
Because this project was meant to be a test project and because the client only disposed of a limited budget, we opted for the purchase of an existing template instead of developing a unique design. This way we were delivered a ready-to-use HTML and CSS and we were only requested to convert this HTML and CSS into a fully-functional Joomla website with a Virtuemart plugin to ease the payments. Therefore this wasn’t a real PSD to Joomla project but all the more a clear HTML to Joomla project. Using a template as a basis might seem to ease our work, but because someone else has built the code it often requires more time to complete the whole process when using a design which has been built up from scratch by our own people. Using a homemade design we are perfectly aware of all features, functionalities and the underlying code. Luckily enough the client had chosen a well-built template and we therefore didn’t lose too much time figuring out the whole template.
The Joomla conversion
Because our Joomla developers have a multi-year Joomla and Virtuemart plugin experience and because this conversion process consisted of only a single page, the actual HTML and CSS conversion didn’t take too much time. Altogether we were able to deliver the whole webshop after only two working days and we were ready to request the client’s feedback. After the client had done some thorough testing and confirmed the proper functionality of all webshop items, we could install the webshop for free on his server by means of the provided server login details and our client could start recommending his free ear plugs to website visitors. After only a few days the whole new Joomla webshop was online which clearly satisfied our client because in the meantime he has regularly returned for additional PSD to Joomla projects.
