Kumbooka is a Social Shopping site with a twist. Most sites build recommendations around the stuff we buy, kumbooka however works on the stuff we own. Users add their "Stuff" to their "Shelves" and then can become expert reviewers, on-line traders and trusted advisers.

What were the site requirements?

The strength of Kumbooka is our unique "Search & Find" engine. You can find the stuff you own by typing a few keywords or even a barcode. Our key requirement was a well structured database that we could parse the search results into, and from there, allow the user to do more with their stuff, including reviewing items they own. Data entry into the database (listings) had to be transparent to the user.

Why was JReviews chosen?

JReviews offered everything we were looking for, more or less out of the box. As Kumbooka was to be built around "Social Networking" the fact that jReviews had support for Community Builder, and JomSocial, was another deciding factor.

How is JReviews being used on the site?

Apart from acting as our database for the parsed search results, jReviews is linking our users together by the stuff they add. Although items are first added with our own "Search & Add" engine, even at this early stage, jReviews is the receiver of the data. Once added, most other "Stuff" functions are done directly from within jReviews. We have probably not yet pushed it to it’s limits, but we are using related modules, embedded into jReviews core. We are using the $customfield variables to a great extent, allowing users from different countries to have relevant product links etc. JReviews $customfield is also used to find other users that already own items being viewed, and really allows us to knit the whole site together.

What are the key advantages of using JReviews for your website or business?

The support on this product is second to none. The developer even assists with integration of other components into JReviews, whilst at the same time, observing trends in the Joomla market place. For example JReviews was ready to support JomSocial integration, almost as JomSocial launched.