Amazon Shopping Cart is a package of Joomla extensions based around our AmazonWS plugin, that allows you to create a complete Amazon store on your Joomla website. Our AmazonWS content plugin has long been one of our most popular extensions: it allows you to embed product information from the Amazon Product Advertising API into your Joomla articles and other content, using the article metatags, or some simple embedding code. It can be used with any Joomla content that supports content plugins, for example K2 or Virtuemart, and is compatible with Joomla versions 2.5 and 3. The product information includes your affiliate links to Amazon: when a customer uses the link to visit the Amazon site and buy a product, you get paid.
The AmazonWS plugin can be used as a standalone plugin, and offers a simple yet powerful way to include Amazon affiliate links in your site. We think that this is the best way to integrate Amazon products into your Joomla site. The days are long gone when thin affiliate sites could rank well in Google: now Google demands unique content for your site to rank well, so using an content plugin is the natural way to embed Amazon affiliate links. However if you want your site to function more like an e-commerce store it can do this: you can make each Joomla article into a product, and use the plugin to add the product information.
However the AmazonWS plugin does have some limitations due to the fact that it is implemented as a content plugin: it cannot support multiple views, so all product links must lead directly to Amazon. The result is that it is difficult for customers to browse on your site for more than one item at a time.
The Amazon Shopping Cart package is designed to extend the AmazonWS plugin so that it offers a much more complete shopping experience. Customers will be able to browse on your site, search for products, and add them to their shopping cart, all on your own website. They only go to the Amazon site to check out and pay. Within the cart the customers can have multiple items, can modify the quantity, delete items, or save them for later. If they are logged into your site the cart can also be stored for up to 90 days: useful for people who want to go "window shopping" but are not ready to buy yet. The advantage for you is that customers may buy more stuff using your affiliate links, and the source of the purchase will be more directly traceable to your site (what Amazon consider a "qualifying purchase" in their terms).
What Does Amazon Shopping Cart Consist Of?
It consists of the following extensions:-
- AmazonWS content plugin - handles embedding the product information into your Joomla content;
- AmazonWS component - provides extra views, handles the shopping cart functions;
- Amazon Shopping Cart module - provides a "mini-cart" module, allowing customers to see the current contents of their cart
- Amazon Product Search module - allows customers to search for products and see the results on your site
- Amazon Shopping Cart user plugin - handles saving carts for logged in users
- AWS Product editor plugin - provides a Joomla editor button that allows you to search for and select products directly when editing an article, and will automatically insert the code for you into your article
- Amazon Country Selector module - for multi-country sites
- Amazon Similar plugin and module - provide the ability to display similar products to the ones currently being viewed
These extensions are supplied as a single package, which you upload and install to your Joomla site in the normal way.
What If I Just Want the Content Plugin?
The AmazonWS content plugin will continue to work as a stand-alone plugin, and will continue to be available to purchase as a single plugin. What's more, if you change your mind and later decide that you want the complete Amazon Shopping Cart package, we will refund the cost of the content plugin if you have purchased it from us within the previous three months, so that you will never pay more than the cost of the complete package. You will need to buy the package first, then request the refund, supplying proof of your original purchase of the plugin from us (usually your order number will be sufficient).