How To Create An Online Book Store Marketplace In WordPress
eCommerce business has become so popular that you will hardly find a type of store that is not online yet. From Apparel store to travel site everything has its online version. Being no different, an online book store is a common thing that developers look to create for their clients.
If you own a physical book store or simply want to create a book store website, this blog is for you. However, we will try to show you something unique, a multivendor digital product store that allows you to sell any type of digital product including books, PDFs, Software, Applications, etc.
Today we will explore the possibilities of creating a full-fledged online bookstore marketplace using the world's most popular content management system, WordPress.
How to Create A WordPress Book Store Marketplace
At first, you will need the following things –
- Domain & Hosting
- WordPress Site
- WooCommerce Plugin
- Dokan Multivendor Marketplace
- A Suitable WordPress Theme for Your Store
Configure Domain, Hosting & WordPress
If you are familiar with websites and WordPress, you may already know about the domain, hosting, and WordPress installation.
A Domain is basically the IP Address of your website. For example, https://www.yourwebsite.com/. When someones enter the domain address into their web browser they will end up landing on your website. On the other hand, hosting is the storage or server that holds the directory of your website.
When you have your own domain and hosting configured, you need to install WordPress.
Related: How Much Does It Really Cost To Build A WordPress Website?
Adding eCommerce Capabilities to Your Website
WooCommerce is the most popular eCommerce plugin for WordPress that powers 42% of the world's online stores. Installing WooCommerce to your site is a piece of cake. Simply, head to your Admin Dashboard and navigate to the Plugins menu. From there you can add new plugins. In the search box, type ‘WooCommerce'. You will find the plugin. Now, click on Install Now and then Activate.
After a successful install, you will find a setup wizard that lets you configure your store easily. Simply follow the steps and change what you need to.
Turning WooCommerce Into A Multivendor Marketplace
WooCommerce creates a single store for your website. You can create products and manage orders from the backend. As we are trying to create a marketplace, we will require multivendor features.
Dokan Multivendor extends the features of WooCommerce and turns it into a multivendor marketplace. Installing Dokan is similar to any other plugin. You will have to install the lite version first which is FREE.
However, if you need advanced features and frontend capabilities, you will require the Pro version. You can use Dokan Starter for $149 and there are other packages as well.
After downloading Dokan Pro, install and activate it. Dokan also has a setup wizard that lets you configure your marketplace easily. Follow the simple steps and start creating your products.
In the configuration process, as a marketplace owner, you have to define the commission that you want to give the vendors. When vendors sell their products, they get a commission from the store. This is how you earn from your marketplace.
Take help from below to configure your Dokan plugin with all the essential settings:
Related: How to Earn with Dokan Plugin Using Different Vendor Commissions
Individual Online Book Store for Vendors
Dokan lets your vendors create their own individual stores. The vendors can customize their stores and also manage it as their own.
Vendors get a dashboard from where they can perform specific actions that lets them get the best out of their stores.
Read this doc to learn more about vendor stores & dashboard
Creating Your Digital Products: Books or Apps
WooCommerce allows you to create products from the backend. Using Dokan, you can bring that capability to the frontend for vendors using Dokan.
A vendor must log in to their account and navigate to the vendor dashboard. After setting up their store, they need to create their products from the Product menu. While creating a product, they must select Downloadable products in the product type section. This will enable digital product features.
After putting all the details, they should add the downloadable file and its name. When everything is done, they can publish the product.
When the product is published, it will be listed in their store and also on the homepage of the marketplace. This way multiple vendors can create their products and sell them in the marketplace.
Buying & Selling of Digital Products
In your newly created WordPress Bookstore or digital store, you can create any type of digital product and showcase it on the store page. Any vendor can register and create their own stores if the admin enables this feature.
On the other hand, your customers visit your store and add the product they want to buy to the cart. From there they can checkout using various payment methods including PayPal, Credit Cards, Bank Transfer, etc.
When a customer successfully pays for the product, they can download it from their accounts. Admin get the full amount and vendors can withdraw their earning from their dashboard.
Wrapping Up
Creating any type of eCommerce store is easy as pie thanks to WordPress & WooCommerce. And for a multivendor marketplace, Dokan is the best solution. If you are planning to create a bookstore marketplace, you can easily do that by following this tutorial. The simple workflow to develop your own online book store is –
- Fix domain and hosting
- Install WordPress & WooCommerce
- Set up your store & create products
- Sell products & earn
- For marketplace, install Dokan
- Let vendors register and set up their stores
- Vendors add products and sell them
- Admin get the amount and gives vendors a certain commission
- Vendor withdraws the amount and earns
It's a long process, but quite easy. If you are not familiar with coding, you can still create your own store as there is no coding involved.
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Share your thoughts and experience with us. Cheers 🙂
