Running an online marketplace is a popular and profitable way to make money online.
Unlike a single online store, a marketplace lets you invite other vendors to sell on your site. You can earn a commission from each sale, even if you don’t have your products.
But what about the development cost? Can a non-technical guy create an eCommerce marketplace?
Of course, you can.
Today, we’ll show you how to launch your marketplace using WordPress, from installing all the necessary tools to promoting your site. We aim to keep all things simple and easy for you.
Is Marketplace Business Profitable?
Before starting, let’s recheck the facts.
Since people’s buying behaviors are shifting online, eCommerce businesses are also booming. You can also try your luck in this field by creating an online marketplace in your preferred niche.
According to Statista here is an estimation of eCommerce growth over the years-
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If you are worried about manufacturing products, let me tell you-
The biggest eCommerce platform Amazon also doesn’t have any products. It’s just a platform to bring sellers and buyers together. You can also build a platform like Amazon or eBay, enabling several vendors to sell products online.
There are several benefits to creating a marketplace instead of a traditional online store.
First and foremost, you can create a one-stop shop for customers by attracting multiple vendors to your platform. The availability of a variety of products will attract more customers.
When shopping online, 65% of U.S. consumers say they often buy from an online marketplace. (Source)
Another benefit is the reduced risk and overhead costs. You don’t need to hold inventory or manage shipping logistics as a marketplace owner.
Instead, you can focus on providing a seamless user experience and building trust between buyers and sellers.
Additionally, you have a steady income stream by taking a commission from each sale without investing heavily upfront.
Whether you’re expanding an existing business or starting from scratch, an online marketplace offers significant opportunities to build a profitable online business.
Understanding the Concept of a Marketplace
Before we dive into the technical aspects of creating a marketplace, it’s important to understand the concept of a marketplace.
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A marketplace is an online platform where multiple sellers can offer their products or services to potential buyers. It acts as an intermediary, connecting buyers and sellers, and enables transactions.
The top U.S. marketplaces are Amazon, eBay, Walmart, Offerup, and Wish.
Think of it as a virtual shopping mall where multiple vendors sell their products or services. As the marketplace owner, you provide the platform for these transactions and earn a commission or fee for each sale.
Initial Steps to Create A Marketplace
Before starting a marketplace, conduct thorough market research to understand your target audience, competitors, and potential challenges. Then, create a detailed business plan outlining your goals, strategies, and financial projections.
Here are some initial steps to help you get started:
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Market Research
Market research lets you reduce risks and increase the success rate. It helps you identify potential opportunities, competitors, and gaps in the market. You can start by understanding your target audience’s needs and pain points. Then analyze existing marketplaces in your niche.
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Business Plan
Create a detailed business plan outlining your marketplace’s mission, vision, and objectives. Include information about your target audience, revenue model, marketing strategy, budget, and projected financials. The business plan will guide your marketplace’s development and growth.
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Niche Selection
Decide on a specific niche or industry for your marketplace. It’s better to pick an industry you have deep knowledge and passion for.
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Identify Target Audience
Clearly define your target audience based on demographics, preferences, and behavior. Understanding your audience will help tailor your marketplace, considering their needs and preferences.
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Select a Marketplace Model
Choose the most suitable marketplace model for your business. Standard models include B2C (Business to Consumer), B2B (Business to Business), C2C (Consumer to Consumer), and B2B2C (Business to Business to Consumer).
Now, you are ready to proceed with your development process. Below you’ll find the steps to build a marketplace using WordPress.
How to Create an Online Marketplace Using WordPress (6 Steps)
Creating a fully functional marketplace could be difficult, but you can make it easy with the right tools and resources.
WordPress and its rich library of helpful plugins diminish the challenges of developing and running a niche-based marketplace.
Using WooCommerce, you can instantly activate all the eCommerce features on your WordPress site. But it doesn’t enable marketplace features on your site.
Fortunately, there is another plugin, Dokan. Using this multivendor marketplace platform, you can easily turn your single store into a marketplace within a few clicks only.
Dokan is a fast and feature-rich multi-vendor marketplace plugin powered by WooCommerce. It helps you build a unified platform so multiple vendors can create their mini-stores and sell their products on your platform. You, in turn, can earn money from each sale.
Prerequisites for Launching an Online Marketplace in WordPress:
- Buy a domain name and get web hosting
- Install and set up WordPress
- Install and activate WooCommerce
- Set up Dokan multi-vendor marketplace plugin
- A Suitable WordPress Theme
Once you are ready with these essentials, follow the below steps to build your marketplace step by step-
- Step 1: Install Dokan on Your WordPress Website
- Step 2: Configure the General Setting of Dokan
- Step 3: Activate A Suitable Marketplace Theme for Your Website
- Step 4: Setup Admin Shop & Upload Products on Your Marketplace
- Step 5: Optimize Your Marketplace with Dokan Advanced Features
- Step 6: Allow Vendors to Sign Up on Your Online Marketplace
- Step 7: Promote Your Marketplace
Step1: Install Dokan on Your WordPress Website
Your WordPress site is ready. Now it’s time to install and activate the required plugins.
First, you need to install WooCommerce. WooCommerce activates all the basic eCommerce functionalities on your site. However, it’s a single store. You need a multivendor plugin like Dokan to turn your single store into a multivendor marketplace.
To install Dokan, log in to the admin panel of your WordPress site. Then go to Plugins → Add New.
In the search option, insert the plugin name Dokan. Click Install & Activate. After activating Dokan, you’ll get a multistep setup wizard screen. So you need to fill out the wizard carefully.
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Alternatively, you can install Dokan using the downloadable ZIP file. In that case, you must download the ZIP file from WordPress.Org and then upload it to your website.
You can read the documentation about Dokan Admin Setup Wizard for further assistance.
Or check the video tutorial:
Step 2: Configure the General Setting of Dokan
Now it’s time to configure the general setting of the Dokan multivendor. Dokan facilitates you with several unique features and essential functions. Depending on your niche type and other requirements, you must customize the platform accordingly.
From your WordPress dashboard, navigate to WP Admin→ Dokan→ Settings.
Here you’ll find different options to define your marketplace functionalities.
- Setting up store categories
- Allowing sellers to display their products
- Creating necessary tags
- Choosing the new product status
- Selecting withdrawal methods
- Setting minimum withdrawal limits
- Setting commission terms and rates.
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Under every tab, you’ll find several setting options to personalize your marketplace. Here you’ll get a complete overview of Dokan multivendor plugin settings.
Don’t forget to click the Save Changes button once you’ve done with all the changes. Or you will lose all your setups.
Step 3: Activate A Suitable Marketplace Theme for Your Website
You’ve activated the essential marketplace functions on your WordPress site. However, making your website visually appealing is equally important to attract vendors and customers to your site.
Fortunately, WordPress supports a wide range of eCommerce themes in different niches. And Dokan is compatible to work with almost all the themes available in the WordPress repository.
Choose a beautiful theme that fits your requirements and activate it on your site.
We recommend the Dokani Theme for your online multivendor marketplace. This trendy theme will make your website look professional and engaging.
However, there is nothing to be worried about as WordPress lets you change the theme unlimited times. So you can change your site’s look whenever you want.
But changing your themes frequently is not an intelligent approach. It may hamper your users’ experience.
Step 4: Setup Admin Shop & Upload Products on Your Marketplace
[This is not a mandatory step. It is required only if you also want to sell your products]
As an admin, there are two ways from your online marketplace-
- Manage your marketplace & earn only from the commissions
- Sell your own products as well as get a commission from other vendors’ sales
To enable yourself to sell products, go to WordPress Dashboard → Dokan → Vendor
Then, toggle the Status bar. It’ll enable the admin to add products to the marketplace.
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Next, follow the steps below to design your mini store and upload new products.
- Go to Vendor Dashboard → Settings. Here you’ll find options to design and customize your store design. Update your store name, address, banner, logo, opening & closing time, etc.
- To upload products from the front end, go to WordPress Dashboard → Visit Vendor Dashboard → Products.
- Click on Add new product and update your product information.
- Alternatively, you can add products from WordPress Backend → Products → Add New.
As an admin, approve the product status from the backend. After your approval, products will be visible on the site.
Suppose you’re creating a marketplace for organic products. Your mini store might look like below-
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Step 5: Allow Vendors to Sign Up on Your Online Marketplace
Congratulations! You’ve successfully created your first multivendor marketplace and created your mini store.
Now it’s time to take a big step and open your marketplace for third-party vendors.
Go to WP Admin → General → Settings. Enable the option “Anyone can register” and save all the changes. This will open the default registration form for vendors to sign up.
Now vendors can fill up the registration form to register in your marketplace.
You can also create customized registration forms with the necessary fields considering your brand identity or customer preferences.
When any new vendor signs up on your site, go to Dokan → Vendors and enable the selling status. It allows them to start selling.
Also, if you want the vendors to upload their products, you should change the product status from Dokan → Settings → Selling options.
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Enable the status bar New Vendors Product Upload.
Step 6: Optimize Your Marketplace with Dokan Advanced Features
As we’ve already mentioned, Dokan Lite is a free WordPress plugin that allows you to create a multi-vendor marketplace. It comes with all the basic features you need to get started. But if you want to add more advanced features, you can purchase the Dokan Pro plan.
Dokan Pro offers a variety of modules to customize your marketplace with niche-specific functionalities. Such as booking, Geolocation, Auction, non-adaptive payment gateways and many more.
Dokan has 35 exclusive modules to empower your marketplace to the next level. Here are some of the popular modules of Dokan:
- Dokan Product Addon: This module allows vendors to include additional products under a particular item. It helps you with several marketing techniques like upsells and cross-sells. It could be a great way to increase sales and improve the customer experience.
- Dokan Live Chat: This module lets vendors chat with customers in real-time. It will increase customer satisfaction and resolve issues quickly.
- Dokan Vendor Review: Enables customers to leave reviews for vendors. Reviews from real customers can drastically increase your customer trust.
- Dokan Store Supports: Vendors can offer customer support from their store pages. Therefore, it will reduce the workload on the marketplace admin.
- Return and Warranty Request: This module lets vendors offer customers customized return and warranty facilities for products they have purchased.
- Dokan Vendor Analytics: Provides vendors with detailed analytics about their sales, traffic, and customers. Vendors can use this data to improve their marketing strategies and make better business decisions.
- Dokan Seller Badge: Allows vendors to earn badges for their achievements, such as the number of sales, number of reviews, and positive feedback. This feature helps build trust and credibility for vendors, and it can also help customers identify reputable vendors.
As you can see, Dokan multivendor premium modules offer a wide range of features to improve the functionality and performance of your marketplace.
If you’re looking for ways to enhance your marketplace, we recommend checking out all the premium modules of Dokan.
Dokan also provides a cloud solution to make your marketplace more dynamic and robust. Check Dokan Cloud functionalities here.
Step 7: Promote Your Marketplace
Promoting a marketplace can be tricky for you as an admin. You must craft strategies to attract vendors and customers to your site.
There are several ways to promote your online store. Here are some of the most effective methods:
Digital Marketing:
- Social media marketing (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn)
- Email marketing campaigns to attract buyers and sellers
- Content marketing with blogs, articles, and guest posts
- Influencer marketing to leverage famous personalities in your niche
Promotions and Discounts:
- Offer limited-time promotions or discounts to attract new users.
- Run seasonal or special event promotions.
Offline Marketing:
- Participate in relevant industry events and conferences.
- Distribute flyers or promotional materials in local areas.
Measure and Analyze Results:
- Use analytics tools to track marketing performance.
- Focus on strategies with the best return on investment (ROI).
It is important to use a variety of marketing channels to promote your marketplace. So you can reach a wider audience and generate more traffic.
Be consistent with your efforts and continuously adapt your marketing approach based on the latest trends and user feedback.
Final Words
Starting a new business can be exciting, but it also brings so many challenges to your life. The good news is that you can overcome the obstacle and achieve the goal with the right tools and proper guidelines.
To start, define your marketplace’s products or services and plan how it will work. Choose a suitable WordPress theme and plugins that support multi-vendor features and secure payment options.
Dokan multivendor could be the best weapon to build and manage your online marketplace.
Following the steps outlined in the guide, you can easily set up your marketplace, customize its look, and add essential features. Dokan’s user-friendly interface makes it simple for sellers to add their products and for buyers to purchase.
Once your marketplace is ready, promote your site to attract vendors and buyers. Use social media, advertising, and partnerships to reach your target audience. It’s also important to monitor user feedback and analytics to improve your marketplace over time.
So, what are you waiting for?
Start your journey today and unlock the potential of eCommerce with WordPress!
