How to Make a Multi-Vendor eCommerce Website Create Amazon-like Marketplace using WordPress

Making a simple blog or website has a straightforward approach .

You sign up for a hosting service , purchase a domain , create your blog with an attractive theme and you are pretty much good to go while creating an e commerce website .

Has some additional tests related to payment , shipping , etc making a multi vendor e commerce site is even more comprehensive .

You need to have a proper system to manage vendors , products , shipping , payment and so on .

In this video tutorial , we will see how to make a multi vendor e-commerce website .

Step by step , we will look into the core requirements and how to go about building your multi vendor store .

We will create our website using wordpress , Woocommerce and Woocommerce supported multi vendor plugins like do on multi vendor plug in by WES and product vendors by Woocommerce .

We will explain the multi vendor set up process for each plug in separately .

You can find links to the plug ins in the video description .

The whole process is largely broken into five steps .

We will start with an overview of setting up a Wordpress website with Woocommerce and then go on to build a multi vendor set up the first step to resign on the web is to own an address in it .

Here's where domain name comes in .

You need to purchase a domain name from a hosting service provider .

While most of the service providers offer web hosting and domain names together , you have the option to purchase both from different service providers as well .

The domain name is an address to a digital space from a hosting service provider .

It is the same address that a user enters into the URL section of the browser to access your site .

The address of the other pages in the site are followed .

After the domain name , you can also create sub domains that have an individual identity but are eventually a part of the parent domain .

You should note that domain names are unique names and cannot be duplicated .

Hence , there is an increasing demand to own unique domain names now that you have an address on the web , it needs a digital space too .

Hence , in the second step , you need a web hosting service for this web hosting gives you a platform to create any type of website .

It is a place where all your website files will be stored .

There are many hosting service providers that provide decent web hosting services to you .

Since we are creating our site with wordpress , you can watch our video on the best 11 web hosting for wordpress .

Due to its large popularity , service providers offer managed wordpress .

Hosting that cater to the special needs of a Wordpress website .

You could choose the desired hosting service based on your requirements .

In the third step , you need to install wordpress on your site to do this .

You need to log into your C panel on your web hosting account .

The C panel interface is pretty much the same for all web hosting services .

There is detailed documentation for each service provider on how to install wordpress on your site .

Here's a sample documentation from name chief dot com .

The steps are simple and straightforward where you need to install wordpress , choose a directory to install , provide database details and so on .

In addition to this , you also need to provide a website name , optional description , administrator , user name and password .

If everything goes well , wordpress will be successfully installed on your site .

Next up , you need to log into your wordpress site .

Once you have logged in successfully , you will end up in the dashboard section .

You can access all the settings themes and plug ins from the left side bar menu .

In the fourth step , we need to install Woocommerce .

Woocommerce is a popular e commerce plug in that lets store owners sell physical as well as digital products with ease to install the Woocommerce plug in , go to plug ins and click add new in the search bar placed on the top right corner .

Enter the search term woocommerce .

Next click on the install button to start installing the plug in .

After the installation process , click , activate to activate the plug in .

You will be presented with a quick set up wizard that is essential for setting up a store .

First , you need to enter your store address .

Next , you can choose to use the stripe squarespace or paypal payment methods that come with woocommerce or choose to skip this step to configure it later .

You can also choose offline payment methods like check payments , bank transfers or cash on delivery method .

Click continue to proceed further .

Next up is shipping .

If you are availing a third party shipping carrier service like DHL USPS or UPS , you can straightaway , skip this step and move ahead or you can configure some flat rates for the given regions for demonstration purposes .

Let us add a flat rate of $10 for all the regions .

You can also choose the desired dimensions for the product .

In the next step , you will be provided with some recommended features that could help you enhance different aspects of your store .

Let us disable all the features for this demonstration .

You can follow up on the next steps to activate the plug in and click on the visit dashboard button to go to the wordpress dashboard to view the front end of the store hover to the dashboard option and click on the site link or you can copy the website URL and paste it in a new browser tab .

The site look is pretty basic .

Hence , you can change the theme of the site .

There are tons of free and premium wordpress themes in the market .

Follow the link in this video description to read our articles on the best Woo commerce themes .

In the final step , we will install and configure the doon multi vendor plug in for installing the product vendors plug in by Woocommerce .

You can replace these steps with the ones explained later in this video .

The do con plug in is one of the most popular and functional multi vendor solutions in the wordpress space to install this plug in .

Follow the traditional method of installing a word press plug in .

You can use the free version or rather purchase the pro version for more useful features .

We will be making use of the pro version for our demonstration to use the pro version .

You need to upload the downloaded zip file on the site install and activate the plug in to completely activate this plug in .

You need the free core plug in as well .

Hence you can click on the install now button to complete the set up process .

After the plug in is activated , you are presented with a quick set up to configure the basic set up of the store .

You can skip this step to configure the plug in in detail later or click .

Let's go to get started first , you need to enter basic details like store URL where the vendor store name will be appended after this text shipping fee and tax fee recipient that allows you to choose who should pay for the shipping and tax .

The next settings are related to selling .

You can choose to allow all new vendors to start selling their products or enable this setting manually for each vendor .

From the back end .

The commission type setting provides two methods for commission for the store admin .

You can either set up a percentage type commission or choose flat commission and enter the desired amount .

Let us keep a 10% commission .

The next setting allows vendors to change the order status .

You could choose to disable or enable this setting .

Let us keep it disabled in the withdrawal .

Set up the store admins can configure how the payments have to be withdrawn .

You can enable the desired payment methods , set minimum withdrawal limit and choose the order status for withdrawal .

This means the vendor can make a withdrawal request only when an order moves to one of these statuses .

Let us keep a minimum withdrawal limit as $100 and choose the completed order status for withdrawal .

Next , you will receive plug in recommendations from dol con .

Let us uncheck these plugins and proceed further .

Your do con multi vendor setup is now completed and you are ready to get started .

Click on the visit Doon dashboard , you can view all the do con plug in settings in the wordpress , left sidebar menu in this way , there are various settings related to a draw store vendors making announcements to the vendors , refunds , sales and performance reports and the modules that give you additional functionality and useful add ons for your store , which we will discuss later in the video .

First , let us go to the settings dashboard to configure some basic setup .

Although we have already configured some of these settings with a quick set up wizard .

Let us look into some of the other settings in the general setting .

The plug in allows you to configure some site options that are reflected in the vendor sign up process .

It allows you to update the store URL logo terms and conditions , reviews dimensions of store banner and so on .

We have already set up seller settings .

You can also configure additional vendor capabilities as well .

Similarly , we configured the major withdrawal , set up the page settings allows you to choose the desired page for the dashboard orders as well as the terms and conditions page .

In the apparent settings .

You can enable Google maps on your store by providing the Google map API key , select an attractive banner image for vendors set up store timings and so on .

Additionally , you can update your store's privacy policy which will be applied to all the vendors .

You can also set up seller verification by providing the app settings of the required social media websites .

Also , you can verify the vendors via S MS .

You can provide all the A P details .

Doon comes with Nemo and Twilio support .

You can use either of the applications to send the verification SMS .

Similarly , you can also configure email settings for verification purposes .

The social API allows you to enable social log in .

You need to provide the required API details to use this service .

Now that most of our major settings are ready .

Let us go ahead and see how this website works .

First , let's create some vendor accounts to do this .

Let us open our site in a new guest window and click on the my account page on the menu .

Next , the vendor needs to enter his email address and choose the vendor option instead of the customer .

This feature only appears due to the Doon plug in further settings reveal where you need to provide more details like name , the shop name , shop RL and phone number .

Let us enter these details and register for an account .

After the registration , the new vendors need to provide more details .

This is accepted using the Doon quick set up wizard .

Vendors need to configure product page , set up , provide the store address and choose to show the email address on their store .

If the vendors need to set up a custom flat rate for shipping , they can enable their store shipping and provide the shipping cost .

They can set default shipping cost which will be applied to all their products per product .

Additional cost which will be charged for additional products from their store and per quantity additional cost which will be charged for additional quantity of a product .

Vendors can also define the shipment processing time for the packages .

If you are using a shipping carrier plug in to access real time rates and services , then you don't need to set anything here .

Next .

Since we have not set up any payment option , the vendor can skip this step to configure later .

The vendor is now ready with his store .

When you move to the marketplace , you can see that no product is added yet .

Click on the my account page link to view the account details .

You can see there is an additional button that points to the vendor dashboard .

All the vendors can view and manage their store from this dashboard .

You can notice that the vendor has shown an error message that his account is not enabled for selling as configured in the settings .

The store admin needs to manually activate the selling status .

The site administrators can view all the vendor profiles in the vendor's dashboard .

Toggle the status to allow the desired vendor to start selling the store .

Admin also needs to add a payment method for this .

We will make use of Doan's paypal adaptive payment method to configure this go to modules and scroll down to find the paypal adaptive payment module .

This is an advanced payment method that splits payments to vendors once you have enabled this module go to the Woocommerce payment settings , enter the paypal email address and select parallel payments .

You also need to provide API credentials .

Now , coming back to the vendor dashboard , the main dashboard section shows the performance report of their store .

The product dashboard allows vendors to view and manage their products and the orders .

Dashboard shows all the orders associated with their products .

Vendors can also create coupons for their customers .

The report's dashboard shows sales reports with several filters .

The review section allows you to view and manage all the reviews related to your products .

The withdrawal dashboard allows vendors to place withdrawal requests , view current balance and so on .

The generic setting is sub settings in itself .

You can go ahead and add a suitable banner image and profile picture to the store configure payments and shipping settings as well as provide links to your social media accounts .

In addition to this , vendors can optimize your store page for seo as well .

You can enter an seo optimized title , meta description and meta keywords .

You can also provide a custom title description and image for social media accounts .

Finally , it's time to add products to do this .

Vendors can go to the products dashboard and click on the add new product button located on the top right corner .

The vendor can start adding the product name , price , image and select predefined categories from the drop down list and add product tags .

Click create product to create this product or click create and new to continue adding products .

We have added some sample products for this vendor to view all the vendor shops .

Go to the store listing page .

This page is automatically created when you install Doon multi vendor plug in the customers can view all the vendor shops on this page .

Here's how a vendor shop looks with the vendor details and products .

Customers can add multiple products from different vendors easily .

In addition to this Doon provides several other modules that cater to different needs of the website .

For example , the vendor verification module helps store owners accept only verified vendors .

The vendors need to provide id and address verification .

The store owner will then check the documents manually and verify the vendor from the back end .

Another useful module is the vendor staff module that allows vendors to add staff to their store .

Once the staff account is created , vendors can manage permissions that can make one set of staff to only manage orders to create products , analyze reports and so on .

If you are setting up a subscription based store , the vendor subscription module would come in handy .

Similarly , there is Woocommerce , booking integration , stripe connect , single product , multiple vendor live search and much more .

You can refer to the Doon multi vendor plug in documentation for all the modules and its usage .

Now let us see how to set up our multi vendor store using product vendors plug in by Woocommerce .

This is another popular option for a multi vendor set up and is developed by Woocommerce itself .

You can explore the complete features of the plug in on the product page .

The link for which is given is the video description .

First , let us go ahead and install the plug in the installation and activation process is the same as any other word press plug in .

Next , we need to set up some vendor settings which are available under the Woocommerce product setting .

The first set of settings is related to payments .

The payout schedule settings allow store admins to choose the frequency for vendor payment .

They can choose to pay manually weekly , biweekly or monthly .

If you are using paypal mass payments , you need to select the required payment environment and enter client id and client secret in the respective fields .

You can also specify the default commission rate in terms of percentage or fixed value .

The display section shows some quick settings that allow you to show or hide the vendor name for each product , vendor review logo and profile picture .

After configuring all these settings , click save changes .

The next step is to create vendor accounts .

There are two ways to create vendor accounts .

The store owners can either let the vendors register for an account from the front end of the store or they can create it from the back end .

The products vendors plug in by Woocommerce majorly comes with two vendor roles , vendor admin and vendor manager .

It also comes with a pending vendor role which is a temporary role waiting for the store admin to be assigned to the vendor admin or vendor manager role .

To let vendors register for an account , you need to create a custom registration page by adding this short code to the page .

Once you publish this page and place the link on your site , vendors can access this page and register for an account .

Vendors need to provide details like name , log in user name , email address , vendor name , which should be a unique name to identify their brand and a description of the company and their products .

Let us enter these details and register a vendor account .

Once a vendor registers for an account , a wordpress user account is created and the store owner receives an email notification .

The store owners can view all the vendor accounts in the vendor's dashboard that is listed under the Woocommerce products menu .

Another method to create a vendor account is from the dashboard itself to do this .

The vendor needs to have an existing account on the store admin site or the store admin can create a new account in the wordpress .

User set up the store admin then needs to open the vendor's wordpress profile from the wordpress users dashboard and scroll down to find the user role setting .

As you can see it is now assigned as pending vendor .

The store owner needs to change to either the vendor admin or vendor manager .

Next , if you scroll down further , you can see the vendor management settings .

These settings provide some privileges to the vendors .

The store admin can choose to allow the vendor to add and publish their products directly or wait for their approval .

In addition to this , the store owners can choose to let vendors manage their customers and create new customers of their own .

Now , to create a vendor account , the store owner needs to go to the vendor's dashboard .

They need to enter the vendor name , set up the slug and click on additional settings , link to reveal further settings .

The store owner can then enter private notes , upload vendor logo as well as profile image , a description of their business email address and needs to select a vendor user account which was created .

In addition to this , you need to set up a commission rate that can be provided in a percentage value or a fixed amount .

The instant payout method will pay the commission to the vendor instantly after the customer makes the payment .

This is possible with the paypal mass payments option .

If you use this payment method , you also need to provide a respective paypal email address .

You can set time zones and also set per product shipping rules .

With this setting , a vendor can set shipping rates for each product .

We will understand more about this feature later in the video .

Lastly , if you offer a booking service on your store and are using the Woocommerce bookings plug-in .

You can enable this setting for the vendor after you have configured all the settings , save them moving to the per product shipping setting to configure this , go to the Woocommerce shipping settings .

You can see a new section called vendors per product shipping tick this checkbox to enable per product shipping for vendors .

This section also has some global settings that will be applied to all products in your store .

You can set a custom method title that will be shown in the cart and choose to apply tax on the custom shipping rates .

Next , you can set a default product cost that will be applied for all products for which no cost has been defined similarly , you can specify the handling fee per product and per order .

The last setting allows you to choose the region where you want to offer the shipping method .

Once these settings are configured , save them .

Now let's move to add products to the store .

Vendors can log into their account and move to the My accounts page .

They can click on the vendor dashboard to get started .

The product adding process is similar to the usual woocommerce product method .

The vendors can add and edit their products once a vendor has added a product or will be pending for a review from the store owner depending on the settings configured by the store owner .

If store owners add products to the store , they can see three additional settings in the Woocommerce products page in the general tab of the product data meta Boxx , they can enter a fixed commission rate if they want to pass the shipping and tax rate for the product , they can enable the settings to do so .

The store owners can also see an additional meta Boxx called vendors that allows them to assign the required vendor for the product .

When customers access your multi vendor website , they can see a specific vendor shop page in this way .

Therefore , these are the steps to set up a multi vendor store with the product vendors plug in by Woocommerce for choosing the best multi vendor plug in .

Among these two , you can check out the respective product pages .

You can also read our blog article on the comparison of these plug ins .

When it comes to Woocommerce product vendors , you are assured the quality of the plug in as it is developed by Woocommerce itself and you can expect instant support in any issues .

One of the highlights of this plug in is the per product shipping feature that offers advanced shipping functionality .

Also this plug in is compatible with Woocommerce bookings plug in which can be quite useful if you are offering a booking service in your store .

When it comes to the Doon multi vendor plug in , it provides some free and premium modules that help you enhance your store even better .

The vendor interface is better compared to the Woocommerce product vendors plug in as vendors can access all the settings from the front end screen .

Hence , in this way , you can easily make a multi vendor e commerce website .

Although vendor payment is sorted with advanced paypal payments , the shipping is still in conflict if you offer third party shipping carrier services .

But some developers like al extensions have come up with a multi vendor support add on for their shipping plug ins that allow customers to see shipping methods separately based on vendors .

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