Perhaps you have recently visited one of the famous online stores (such as: Amazon, Ali Express, or Alibaba), and noticed the large and unlimited variety of products available on the store in its various forms and very large classifications, which are offered by many different sellers.
This is the idea of the multi-seller online store, as it allows sellers or merchants to create a seller account on the site, and then contribute to uploading and displaying more products. This is what we will learn about in this article so that you can create a multi-seller online store on WordPress using some plugins that It allows merchants to register with you as a seller and then have the ability to display their products under the supervision of the store manager.
Requirements for creating a multi-vendor online store
Let us summarize for you the most important things that you must have in order to create an integrated multi-seller online store, which we will explain in detail successively within the article:
- Efficient web hosting
- WordPress system
- Add Woocommerce
- A custom add-on for building an online store
These are the basic requirements you need to be able to create and customize a multi-vendor online store. Let us now move on to explaining all the important steps that you need to customize in order to properly complete your store and enable sellers to display their products to you.
1- Efficient web hosting
The first step to creating an online store or any website for you is to obtain web hosting. When we talk about creating an online store, you need more efficient hosting to ensure a better experience for shoppers. If you have not purchased hosting yet, you can view the following comprehensive guide in which we talked. About: How to choose the right hosting for you from the best service providers
. After reading this article, you will understand the important differences between different hosting companies and types, and you will have sufficient knowledge to choose the ideal plan that meets your needs from the appropriate company provider. After obtaining the appropriate plan, you move to the second stage, which is installing WordPress.
2- Install WordPress
WordPress is the most popular content system around the world for building and customizing websites in various forms and specializations. WordPress has a high degree of flexibility and readiness, as it can be customized to suit all types of businesses that need an online presence.
WordPress is certainly a good choice in the event of launching a multi-vendor online store like the one we are explaining in this article. Therefore, you must have sufficient background on the WordPress operating system and how you can perform some basic skills such as installing WordPress and installing the required template and plugins.
You can see the guide: Steps to creating a professional WordPress website . This article will help you if you do not have sufficient experience in dealing with the WordPress system and its various components.
3- Install the WooCommerce add-on
The WooCommerce add-on is one of the most important things for you when building your online store, as the Woocommerce add-on helps customize the look and components of the site to suit the requirements of the online store that you want to launch online.
Before moving to the next step No. 4, you must have the WooCommerce add-on installed correctly on your site, and you can easily see: A complete explanation of installing and making Woocommerce settings .
The previous guide will help you go directly into the most important steps of building your own store initially, and then when it is fully qualified as an integrated online store, the next stage will be to install a custom add-on to turn it into a multi-vendor store.
4- Install the Multivendor add-on
There are many WordPress plugins that specialize in setting up a multi-vendor online store. These add-ons certainly differ from each other in terms of the features and opportunities offered by each add-on and therefore the price plans. We will choose one of the add-ons to transform your store into a multi-vendor store, but first let us review for you the most famous add-ons that help you in this purpose as follows:
Rule
The Dokan add-on is considered one of the most popular add-ons that help in creating a multi-vendor online store. What distinguishes the add-on is that it is compatible with many website building tools. It is also fully compatible with the WooCommerce add-on, and it has all the options that help in creating a multi-vendor online store in a professional manner. Without having to learn a programming language.
The add-on provides a free version, which you can install and start creating sub-accounts for a large number of merchants on your site, but if you want more additional options to control the nature and system of work within your site, you will need the paid version.
2. WC Vendors Pro
The WC Vendors pro add-on is also used to customize a multi-seller online store, just like Dokan. The add-on provides many important options in customizing the online store, such as creating sub-accounts for merchants or sellers, a system for allocating commissions and evaluating sellers, as well as a system for creating discount coupons, as well as the ability to… It also adds various types of products, whether digital or tangible, but it does not provide a free version.
3. WC Marketplace
It is also one of the additions that you can rely on to transform your multi-seller online store, as it provides all the options required to provide a system that helps merchants display their products, starting with creating sub-accounts for merchants and sellers, as well as a system for allocating commissions, product classifications, discount coupons, and other options. The add-on also provides a free version and a paid version.
4. SAY
Also add-ons that provide a free version for installing and configuring a multi-vendor online store, as the add-on provides all the options required to customize an integrated multi-vendor online store, starting with creating vendor accounts, adding vendor data such as basic data as well as payment information such as a Paypal account and all control options. The site manager is involved in the actions carried out by the seller inside the store, and the addition also provides a paid version with higher capabilities.
Create a multi-vendor store with Dokan
After you have built your WooCommerce store and learned about the most popular add-ons for building a multi-vendor store, we will now continue the explanation for creating the multi-vendor store using the Dokan add-on, because the add-on provides an easy-to-use control panel, and many features in the free version that we will talk about.
The add-on also provides many experimental designs on the official website, to help you choose the desired design for your store. You will be transferred to a virtual WordPress control panel that shows you all the settings you make in order to get the same design.
Install and activate the Dokan add-on
Now the first step before us is to install the Dokan add-on and configure it correctly. From within the WordPress control panel, you go to Plugins << Add New, then type the name of the Dokan plugin in the plugins search box. The plugin, which was developed by WeDevs, will appear in front of you.
Install and activate the extension, then you will find a window asking you to start customizing the extension settings: Run the Setup Wizard
Then you will move to the steps to activate the add-on. In the first step, the welcome screen will appear and then you will click on Let’s Go
Then you will be asked to fill in your location data, as follows:
- In that box, you enter the URL that you want to appear on the sellers’ pages. You can write any name or identifying word you want to appear in the link.
- With this option, you will determine whether the seller will pay the fees and costs of shipping the products to customers, or whether you, as the store owner, will bear the shipping costs.
- With this option, you also determine who pays the additional fees and taxes on product prices: the registered seller or the store owner.
Then we follow the rest of the steps
- With this option, you can allow the seller to display and download products directly as soon as he registers without being subject to review by the site administration. Certainly not activating it would be a good option because it would be better to review the sellers’ data and confirm its accuracy before allowing them to upload the products.
- With this option, you specify the type of commission to be deducted from the seller, whether a percentage or a fixed amount.
- In this field, you can specify the percentage that is discounted on each order made by the seller, and the percentage is for the benefit of the site administration
- By activating this option, you can give the seller the authority to change the status of orders through the site (for example, change the order status from active to canceled).
Then, after selecting the previous options, you will move to specifying the sellers’ profit withdrawal data settings:
At this stage, Withdraw set up consists of 3 main steps:
- In this window, you specify the methods for withdrawing profits for sellers, meaning you specify the payment method that you will rely on to send financial dues to sellers. You can choose between Paypal, bank transfer, or Skrill, by selecting one or more than one method from among them.
- In this box, you specify the minimum payment for the merchant. For example, if you specify $100, the seller will not be allowed to receive his profits unless they exceed $100.
- In this box, you specify the status of orders in which the seller is allowed to withdraw their profits (we recommend that you choose completed, as the seller will not be able to withdraw profits until the delivery of the order to the customer is confirmed)
After completing this data, a confirmation screen will appear telling you that the settings have been completed, and you can begin logging into the Dokan add-on control panel in order to begin customizing the sellers control panel:
Now, go to the WordPress control panel, then go to Dokan, then Dashboard, and the following screen will appear:
This screen for the dokan add-on control panel is divided into two main parts:
- The first part: It contains some sales data, such as the amounts earned from commissions for orders of sellers’ products in the store, the number of sellers who have recently joined the store and need to be reviewed and approved by management, as well as the number of money withdrawal requests by sellers that are also awaiting management approval.
- The second part: It contains some quick statistics, such as the number of total product orders. You can refer to this screen at any time to see the operations taking place within your store, whether on the sellers’ side or even on the customers or buyers’ side.
Dokan plugin settings
We now continue the explanation by talking about the elements present within the Dokan add-on control panel and how to benefit from each element within it:
1- Withdraw
Through this tab, you can access the funds withdrawal requests that sellers have sent to the administration for approval, and you can choose any funds transfer process required from sellers and approve, reject, or modify it.
2- Vendors
Through the Vendors page, you can create new accounts for sellers or those who wish to start their selling journey on the store by clicking on Add new , and entering the seller’s data.
You can also control the seller accounts that appear in front of you on that page, and you can certainly enter one of those accounts and modify them or delete them completely.
Also, as the previous image shows, you can activate or stop one of the sellers within your store, as you can see in the previous image by allowing one seller to sell, and stopping another seller’s account.
3 –Announcement
On this page, you can control the alerts that are sent to sellers regarding updates that occur to the business system within the store, and you want to send a notification to all or some of the sellers.
It’s very simple, you write a title for the notice and content as well, then you can choose from the box indicated by the arrow above if you want to send this notice to all sellers on the site in bulk, or you can choose some sellers to send the notice to.
4- Additional options
There are some other tabs that we will quickly cover, such as the Refunds tab , where you can control the refunds made by sellers. As well as the Reports tab , which contains comprehensive reports regarding buying and selling operations, profits, and transactions that take place within the store.
Then the Modules tab contains some tools that add more control to the store interface. For example, you will find tools that help change colors, backgrounds, etc. Finally, Tools , which contains some helpful tools.
5 – Setting
Let me tell you that the settings part is one of the most important procedures that you need to take care of within the Dokan control panel because it contains all the tools and options through which you can control the store, members, and sellers, as well as all the operations that take place within it.
We will go to Settings and then select the first tab, General :
This interface contains some options related to general settings for the store, such as: preventing sellers and customers from accessing the site’s control panel (Wp-admin),
as well as the option: Vendor logo, through which you can upload an avatar that appears on the account of the seller who has not uploaded an image for himself. Default, as well as all other general options.
Selling options
This option contains some tasks that can be performed, such as adjusting the commission percentage from selling the seller’s products, as well as determining who bears the shipping costs and taxes, whether the store owner is an Admin or the seller himself. As well as the New product status option, which you can choose from the box next to it whether the new products will be allowed to be published directly or will they go to review to be reviewed first before publication.
Withdraw options
Which contains some options related to withdrawing funds by sellers and determining the methods of payment or withdrawal of funds allowed within the store, as well as specifying the minimum limit that must be reached by the seller in order to be able to receive profits.
page setting
Through which you can choose which pages are allocated to display some content in the store. For example, you can choose a page on your site to be displayed as a Terms and Condition page, and you can also choose another page to be displayed as a My Orders page, and thus custom pages can be created. Using one of our website building plugins and then customizing those pages in your store as you wish.
appearance
Through this tab, you will find many options that help you customize the appearance of your store however you want. You can customize the colors, display methods, and backgrounds. Within this page, you will also find options for hiding sellers’ data on the store, such as email, phone, etc.
The rest of the options in the list are not very important, but you can also browse them in order to get additional options to control your store, its appearance, and the transactions that are made within it.
questions and answers
How can I activate a seller’s account on the store to publish products directly without being subject to review?
You can activate this option by logging into the WordPress control panel, then going to Members <<, then choosing the specific member account (the desired seller), and then the page for modifying the member (seller) data will open for you, among which you will find this data:
Next to Publishing, as you can see in the red box pictures, you can mark the option inside it “Publish product directly. ” Thus, this seller will be excluded from having his products subject to review by the administration, and they will be published immediately.
How do I make registration available to new sellers in the store?
First, in order for sellers to be able to register in your store, you must first activate the ability to register members on the site, by entering the site’s control panel, then going to “ Settings ,” then allowing memberships to register:
After that, registration will be opened to everyone, and a choice will appear before the person as to whether he would like to register as a customer who buys Customer products, or register as a Vendor:
After the visitor registers, a notification will be sent to you as Administrator and you can accept or reject member registration from the site administrator.
As for the seller, after accepting his membership, he will be able to log in to the store using the data he used previously during membership registration, and a control panel will open for him in this form:
As you can see, the registered seller’s control panel contains many options through which products can be added and modified. You can also enter the Orders option, which shows the product ordering processes that have been made on his displayed products, as well as the Coupons option, which can create discount coupons from within it. The withdraw option allows him to make requests to withdraw money from it, and other options that allow him to control his account and the products he adds within the store.
As you can see, creating a multi-vendor store is no longer a difficult and complicated matter. Previously, a sufficient number of programmers had to be employed to program and write the thousands of code necessary to create a simple online store, but now using WordPress and some plugins designated for this purpose, it may not take much time. To install, create and customize an integrated multi-vendor online store in simple and organized steps.
We hope that we have explained how to create a multi-vendor online store in a simplified manner, and share with us in your comments your experience in building your own store
