This letter is directed to anyone looking at Hikashop as a solution for their storefront needs. I feel compelled to write this because you should know exactly what you are getting with this extension. I did post a review on the JED as well.
I have been building sites in Joomla for nearly 5 years. In all of that time I have found very, very few extensions that I could recommend as highly as Hikashop. The extension is robust and flexible, and so much easier to use than anything else out there. If you believe you need to use Virtuemart for your store - think again! Hikashop has a TON of bells and whistles, and should satisfy even the largest storefront needs. The administrative panel is well laid out and extremely easy to use. Everything I seem to want or need is in there. It's like the developers read my mind!!
The view-driven nature of the store display makes customization extraordinarily simple. Oh, and the same thing goes for much of the administrative display as well!! And a HUGE bonus is that every change you make to the views in the back-end are reversible with just ONE CLICK. So, make a change to the cart view that breaks something else? Just click an icon to remove the customizations and revert back to the original. Likewise, updating the extension does not break your customizations!! Very same thing for language overrides. I cannot tell you the time and headache this has saved me. If more developers thought like these guys do the Joomla world would be a much better place!
But above all of this, the most appreciated aspect of this extension is the support you will receive in the forums. I honestly don't see how Nicolas gets any sleep!! I think the absolute LONGEST I had to wait for an answer to a forum post was a few hours. Even better - they actually answer the question you asked - and accurately! No matter what your programming or Joomla skills are, these guys are never, ever condescending or arrogant. They were extremely patient with me and did not stop responding until my issue was resolved. Again, if you think this is commonplace, you are obviously VERY new to this!!!
I cannot say enough about Hikashop and the support and development teams. I was able to put together an extremely feature-rich, robust and customized ecommerce site in less than 30 days. The reviews of the site have been incredible, and I owe it all to Hikashop and Nicolas. They made me look good!!!
I have absolutely NO ties with Hikashop or it's developers. I am just so happy with this purchase that I wanted to share it with everyone here!!!
Rick Stoffiere
Ohio, USA
