Drupal, one of the most loved and trusted open source content management systems, has seen 12 years of strong growth and become a top choice for building any type of website. In many areas, Drupal has become the de-facto standard, including media, government, university, and library sites.
Since 2011, Drupal has also had an enterprise class e-commerce framework available called Drupal Commerce. The fastest growing open source cart in history, Drupal Commerce already powers a large number of very impressive sites, selling products from luxury goods (Cartier), fashion (Kenzo), online learning (Open Sesame), travel (Eurocentres), to postage stamps and fishing licenses (the Royal Mail of the United Kingdom).
This book explores Drupal Commerce through the lens of the Commerce Kickstart distribution—an out-of-the-box store, completely built and ready to go, featuring the best practices for selling shipable goods online. Commerce Kickstart will not only save you weeks of work setting up your shop, it is an invaluable resource for studying what can be done with Drupal Commerce, and how.
Once you dive into the world of Drupal Commerce, you get much more than just a great shopping cart. Of all the e-commerce systems available, Drupal Commerce is by far the most flexible, leveraging key Drupal-native components such as Rules and Views to achieve much of its functionality. It is also the only system that is natively married to a content management system. In fact, Drupal’s heritage as a social collaboration tool makes it the best choice for any project that focuses on content, community, and commerce in a holistic, integrated way.
Finally, by learning Drupal Commerce now, you are making the right move at the right time. e-commerce is the quickest growing new frontier for the Drupal ecosystem. Whether you’re a seasoned e-commerce pro, or preparing for your first online shop, Drupal Commerce can enable you to address a new set of business needs and opportunities. Good luck, and enjoy yourself!
Robert Douglass
Director of Product Strategy, Commerce Guys