E-Commerce solution

[gammo]

First of all, I'm a total ignoramus on this subject matter (I?m more of a designer then programmer) and thus I apologise for the unstructured post you are about to read;

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I want to integrate a robust, scalable E-Commerce solution into a Joomla CMS powered site. (That has not been built yet)

What is the best solution for my clients needs;

• -Mid-Level Business
  
• -200 to 300 products (Will grow, but slowly)
  All products have a series of photos and an item description.
  
• -Spare parts for those products (May be a bigger list then the product list itself)
  

Ultimately I wanted something that pulls info from the clients local Database, in particular from the warehouse for item stock quantaties.

At the moment they have NO Database to speak off, nor do they store any of their clients info on any sort of contact management software and they have no stock tracking software. They only have MYOB. That and Windows Live Mail, which has all their clients and suppliers listed.

So I need to revolutionise their office and while I?m at it, move their catalogue online and put it to work.

I?m still undecided on what Database to use for them Access, FireBlade, Filemaker, etc... (I'm open to suggestions on a better choice in view of the overall project). They will only have thousands of records not millions. So I don't want to get too complicated with it, even thou the Database will control everything;

Customer information, sales and service, item information, order processing, warehousing, shipment, etc?

But what E-commerce solution is out there, that pulls info from any of those databases and is 100% compatible with Joomla, it will need to handle;

• -Inventory (Item Master, Stock Location/Warehouse, Quantity)
  -Sales (Customer Master, Sales Order Processing, Pricing)
  

I?m not sure about these functions, these would be done on the local db, I think?

• -Accounting (G/L, AP, AR and Reporting modules)
  -Purchasing (Vendor Master, Purchase Order Pricing, Material Control)
  

I?m a little lost here, I need some help in making sense of this.

Have any of you had similar challenges, what is the best solution you found?

I looked at;

http://virtuemart.net/

It looks quite capable but I really wanted to hear from people that have actually implemented an e-comm solution to a similar problem set. Also it does not have to be "free" as such, my client is willing to spend money on a dedicated turn-key solution, if any.

Is there a better way to go about this, is this the right approach to getting my client into the 21st century? To solving their problems;

To bring their stock and inventory into a database that integrates their financial, warehousing sales, orders, warranties and contacts into a single platform, that in turn is used to keep their online presence updated.

What concerns me is this the right approach to this project. Any help and advice will be greatly appreciated, thank you.