[Music]making a simple blogger website has astraightforward approach you sign up fora hosting service purchase a domaincreate your blog with an attractivetheme and you are pretty much good to gowhile creating an e-commerce website hassome additional tasks related to paymentshipping etc making a multi vendorecommerce site is even morecomprehensive you need to have a propersystem to manage vendors productsshipping payment and so on in this videotutorial we will see how to make a multivendor ecommerce website step by step wewill look into the core requirements andhow to go about building your multivendor store we will create our websiteusing WordPress WooCommerce andWooCommerce supported multi vendorplugins like dokkan multi vendor plug-inby we devs and product vendors byWooCommerce we will explain the multivendor setup process for each plug-inseparately you can find links to theplugins in the video description thewhole process is largely broken intofive steps we will start with anoverview of setting up a wordpresswebsite with WooCommerce and then go onto build a multi vendor setup the firststep to resign on the web is to own anaddress in it here's where domain namecomes in you need to purchase a domainname from a hosting service providerwhile most of the service providersoffer web hosting and domain namestogether you have the option to purchaseboth from different service providers aswell the domain name is an address to adigital space from a hosting serviceproviderit is the same address that a userenters into the URL section of thebrowser to access your site the addressof the other pages in the site arefollowed after the domain name you canalso create sub domains that have anindividual identity but are eventually apart of the parent domain you shouldnote that domain names are unique namesand cannot be duplicated hence there isan increasing demand to own uniquedomain names now that you have anaddress on the webit needs a digital space too hence inthe second step you need a web hostingservice for this web hosting gives you aplatform to create any type of websiteit is a place where all your websitefiles will be stored there are manyhosting service providers that providedecent web hosting services to you sincewe are creating our site with WordPressyou can watch our video on the besteleven web hosting for WordPress due toits large popularity service providersoffer managed WordPress hosting thatcater to the special needs of awordpress website you could choose thedesired hosting service based on yourrequirementsin the third step you need to installWordPress on your site to do this youneed to log into your cPanel on your webhosting account the cPanel interface ispretty much the same for all web hostingservices there is detailed documentationfor each service provider on how toinstall WordPress on your site here's asample documentation from namecheap.comthe steps are simple and straightforwardwhere you need to install WordPresschoose a directory to install providedatabase details and so on in additionto this you also need to provide awebsite name optional descriptionadministrator username and password ifeverything goes well WordPress will besuccessfully installed on your site nextup you need to log in to your WordPresssiteonce you have logged in successfully youwill end up in the dashboard section youcan access all the settings themes andplugins from the left sidebar menu inthe fourth step we need to installWooCommerce WooCommerce is a populare-commerce plugin that lets store ownersell physical as well as digitalproducts with ease who install theWooCommerce plugingo to plugins and click add new in thesearch bar placed on the top rightcorner enter the search term WooCommercenext click on the install button tostart installing the plug-in after theinstallation process click activate toactivate the plug-inyou will be presented with a quick setupwizard that is essential for setting upa store first you need to enter yourstore address next you can choose to usethe stripe Squarespace or PayPal paymentmethods that come with WooCommerce orchoose to skip this step to configure itlater you can also choose offlinepayment methods like check payments banktransfers or cash on delivery methodclick continue to proceed further nextup is shipping if you are availing athird-party shipping carrier servicelike DHL USPS or UPS you can straightaway skip this step and move aheador you can configure some flat rates forthe given regions for demonstrationpurposes let us add a flat rate of $10for all the regions you can also choosethe desired dimensions for the productin the next step you will be providedwith some recommended features thatcould help you enhance different aspectsof your store let us disable all thefeatures for this demonstration you canfollow up on the next steps to activatethe plugin and click on the visitdashboard button to go to the wordpressdashboard to view the front end of thestore hover to the dashboard option andclick on the site link or you can copythe website URL and paste it in a newbrowser tab the site look is prettybasic hence you can change the theme ofthe site there are tons of free andpremium WordPress themes in the marketfollow the link in this videodescription to read our articles on thebest WooCommerce themesin the final step we will install andconfigure the dokkan multi vendor pluginfor installing the product vendorsplug-in by WooCommerce you can replacethese steps with the ones explainedlater in this videothe dokkan plug-in is one of the mostpopular and functional multi vendorsolutions in the WordPress space toinstall this plugin follow thetraditional method of installing awordpress plugin you can use the freeversion or rather purchase the proversion for more useful features we willbe making use of the pro version for ourdemonstration to use the pro version youneed to upload the downloaded zip fileon the site install and activate theplug-in to completely activate thisplug-in you need the free core plug-inas well hence you can click on theInstall Now button to complete the setupprocess after the plug-in is activatedyou are presented with a quick setup toconfigure the basic setup of the storeyou can skip this step to configure theplug-in in detail later or click let'sgo to get started first you need toenter basic details like store URL wherethe vendor store name will be appendedafter this text shipping fee and tax feerecipient that allows you to choose whoshould pay for the shipping and taxthe next settings are related to sellingyou can choose to allow all new vendorsto start selling their products orenable this setting manually for eachvendor from the backend the commissiontype setting provides two methods forCommission for the store admin you caneither set up a percentage typeCommission or choose flat Commission andenter the desired amount let us keep a10% commission the next setting allowsvendors to change the order status youcould choose to disable or enable thissetting let us keep it disabled in thewithdraw setup the store admins canconfigure how the payments have to bewithdrawn you can enable the desiredpayment methods set minimum withdrawallimit and choose the order status forwithdrawalthis means the vendor can make awithdrawal request only when an ordermoves to one of these statuses let uskeep a minimum withdrawal limit as $100and choose the completed order statusfor withdrawalnext you'll receive plug-inrecommendations from dokkan let usuncheck these plugins and proceedfurther your dokkan multi-vendor setupis now completed and you are ready toget started click on the visit dokkandashboard you could view all the dokkanplug-in settings in the wordpress leftsidebar menu in this way there arevarious settings related to a drawlstore vendors making announcements tothe vendors refunds sales andperformance reports and the modules thatgive you additional functionality anduseful add-ons for your store which wewill discuss later in the video firstlet us go to the settings dashboard toconfigure some basic setup although wehave already configured some of thesesettings with a quick setup wizard letus look into some of the other settingsin the general setting the plugin allowsyou to configure some site options thatare reflected in the vendor signupprocess it allows you to update thestore URL logo Terms & Conditionsreviews dimensions of store banner andso on we have already setup sellersettings you can also configureadditional vendor capabilities as wellsimilarly we configure the majorwithdrawal setup the page settingsallows you to choose the desired pagefor the dashboard orders as well as theterms and conditions page in theappearance settings you can enableGoogle Maps on your store by providingthe google map api key select anattractive banner image for vendors setup store timings and so onadditionally you can update your storesprivacy policy which will be applied toall the vendors you can also set upseller verification by providing the appsettings of the required social mediawebsites also you can verify the vendorsvia SMS you could provide all the APIdetailsdokkan comes with next MO and Twiliosupport you can use either of theapplications to send the verificationSMS similarly you can also configureemail settings for verification purposesthe social API allows you to enablesocial login you need to provide therequired API details to use this servicenow that most of our major settings areready let us go ahead and see how thiswebsite works first let us create somevendor accounts to do this let us openour site in a new guest window and clickon the my account page on the menu nextthe veter needs to enter his emailaddress and choose the vendor optioninstead of the customer this featureonly appears due to the dokkan pluginfurther settings reveal where you needto provide more details like name theshop name shop URL and phone number letus enter these details and register foran accountafter the registration the new vendorsneed to provide more details this isaccepted using the dokkan quick setupwizard vendors need to configure productpage setup provide the store address andchoose to show the email address ontheir store if the vendors need to setup a custom flat rate for shipping theycan enable their store shipping andprovide the shipping cost they can setdefault shipping cost which will beapplied to all their products perproduct additional cost which will becharged for additional products fromtheir store and per quantity additionalcost which will be charged foradditional quantity of a product vendorscan also define the shipment processingtime for the packages if you are using ashipping carrier plugin to accessreal-time rates and services then youdon't need to set anything here nextsince we have not set up any paymentoption the vendor can skip this step toconfigure later the vendor is now readywith his store when you move to themarketplace you can see that no productis added yetclick on the my account page link toview the account details you can seethere is an additional button thatpoints to the vendor dashboard all thevendors can view and manage their storefrom this dashboard you can notice thatthe vendor is shown an error messagethat his account is not enabled forselling as configured in the settingsthe store admin needs to manuallyactivate the selling status the siteadministrators can view all the vendorprofiles in the vendors dashboard togglethe status to allow the desired vendorto start selling the store admin alsoneeds to add a payment method for thiswe will make use of dole cons PayPaladaptive payment method to configurethis go to modules and scroll down tofind the PayPal adaptive payment modulethis is an advanced payment method thatsplits payments to vendors once you haveenabled this module go to theWooCommerce payment settings enter thepaypal email address and select parallelpayments you also need to provide APIcredentialsnow coming back to the vendor dashboardthe main dashboard section shows theperformance report of their store theproduct dashboard allows vendors to viewand manage their products and the ordersdashboard shows all the ordersassociated with their products vendorscan also create coupons for theircustomers the reports dashboard showssales reports with several filters thereview section allows you to view andmanage all the reviews related to yourproducts the withdraw dashboard allowsvendors to place withdrawal requestsview current balance and so on thegeneric setting is sub settings initself you can go ahead and add asuitable banner image and profilepicture to the store configure paymentsand shipping settings as well as providelinks to your social media accounts inaddition to this vendors can optimizeyour store page for SEO as well you canenter an SEO optimized title metadescription and meta keywords you canalso provide a custom title descriptionand image for social media accountsfinally it's time to add products to dothis vendors can go to the productsdashboard and click on the add newproduct button located on the top rightcorner the vendor can start adding theproduct name price image and selectpredefined categories from the drop-downlist and add product tagsclick create product to create thisproduct or click create and new tocontinue adding products we have addedsome sample products for this vendor toview all the vendor shops go to thestore listing page this page isautomatically created when you installedolkhon multi vendor plug-in thecustomers can view all the vendor shopson this page here's how a vendor shoplooks with the vendor details andproducts customers can add multipleproducts from different vendors easilyin addition to this dokkan providesseveral other modules that cater todifferent needs of the website forexample the vendor verification modulewill help store owners accept onlyverified vendors the vendors need toprovide ID and address verification thestore owner will then check thedocuments manually and verify the vendorfrom the back end another useful moduleis the vendor staff module that allowsvendors to add staff to their storeonce the staff account is createdvendors can manage permissions they canmake one set of staff to only manageorders to create products analyzereports and so on if you are setting upa subscription-based store the vendorsubscription module would come in handysimilarly there is wool commerce bookingintegration stripe connect singleproduct multiple vendor live search andmuch more you can refer to the dokkanmulti vendor plugin documentation forall the modules and its usage now let ussee how to setup our multi vendor storeusing product vendors plug-in byWooCommerce this is another popularoption for a multi vendor setup and isdeveloped by WooCommerce itself you canexplore the complete features of theplug-in on the product page the link forwhich is given is the video descriptionfirst let us go ahead and install theplug-in the installation and activationprocess is the same as any otherWordPress plug-in next we need to set upsome vendor settings which are availableunder the WooCommerce product settingthe first set of settings is related topayments the payout schedule settingsallow store admins to choose thefrequency for vendor payment they canchoose to pay manually weekly bi-weeklyor monthly if you are using paypal masspayments you need to select the requiredpayment environment and enter client IDand client secret in the respectivefields you can also specify the defaultcommission rate in terms of percentageor fixed value the display section showssome quick settings that allow you toshow or hide the vendor name for eachproduct vendor review logo and profilepicture after configuring all thesesettings click Save Changes the nextstep is to create vendor accounts thereare two ways to create vendor accountsthe store owners can either let thevendors register for an account from thefront end of the store or they cancreate it from the back end the productsvendors plug-in by WooCommerce majorlycomes with two vendor roles vendor adminand vendor manager it also comes with apending vendor role which is a temporaryrole waiting for the store admin to beassigned to the vendor admin or vendormanager role to let vendors register foran account you need to create a customregistration page by adding thisshortcode to the pageonce you publish this page and place thelink on your site vendors can accessthis page and register for an accountvendors need to provide details likename login username email address vendorname which should be a unique name toidentify their brand and a descriptionof the company and their productslet us enter these details and registera vendor account once a vendor registersfor an account a wordpress user accountis created and the store owner receivesan email notification the store ownerscan view all the vendor accounts in thevendors dashboard that is listed underthe WooCommerce products menu anothermethod to create a vendor account isfrom the dashboard itself to do this thevendor needs to have an existing accounton the store admin site or the storeadmin can create a new account in theWordPress user setup the store adminthen needs to open the vendors wordpressprofile from the WordPress usersdashboard and scroll down to find theuser role setting as you can see it isnow assigned as pending vendor the storeowner needs to change to either thevendor admin or vendor manager next ifyou scroll down further you can see thevendor management settings thesesettings provide some privileges to thevendorsthe store admin can choose to allow thevendor to add and publish their productsdirectly or wait for their approval inaddition to this the store owners canchoose to let vendors manage theircustomers and create new customers oftheir own now to create a vendor accountthe store owner needs to go to thevendors dashboard they need to enter thevendor name set up the slug and click onadditional settings link to revealfurther settingsthe store owner can then enter privatenotes upload vendor logo as well asprofile image a description of theirbusiness email address and needs toselect a vendor user account which wascreated in addition to this you need toset up a commission rate that can beprovided in a percentage value or afixed amount the instant payout methodwill pay the commission to the vendorinstantly after the customer makes thepayment this is possible with the paypalmass payments option if you use thispayment method you also need to providea respective paypal email address youcan set time zones and also set perproduct shipping rules with this settinga vendor can set shipping rates for eachproduct we will understand more aboutthis feature later in the videolastly if you offer a booking service onyour store and are using the WooCommercebookings plug-in you can enable thissetting for the vendor after you haveconfigured all the settings save themmoving to the per product shippingsetting to configure this go to theWooCommerce shipping settings you cansee a new section called vendors perproduct shipping tick this check box toenable per product shipping for vendorsthis section also has some globalsettings that will be applied to allproducts in your store you can set acustom method title that will be shownin the cart and choose to apply tax onthe custom shipping rates next you canset a default product cost that will beapplied for all products for which nocost has been defined similarly you canspecify the handling fee per product andper order the last setting allows you tochoose the region where you want tooffer the shipping method once thesesettings are configured save themnow let's move to add products to thestore vendors can log into their accountand move to the my accounts page theycan click on the vendor dashboard to getstarted the product adding process issimilar to the usual WooCommerce productmethod the vendors can add and edittheir products once a vendor has added aproduct or will be pending for a reviewfrom the store owner depending on thesettings configured by the store ownerif store owners add products to thestore they can see three additionalsettings in the WooCommerce productspage in the general tab of the Productdata meta box they can enter a fixedCommission rate if they want to pass theshipping and tax rate for the productthey can enable the settings to do sothe store owners can also see anadditional meta box called vendors thatallows them to assign the requiredvendor for the product when customersaccess your multi vendor website theycan see a specific vendor shop page inthis way therefore these are the stepsto set up a multi vendor store with theproduct vendors plug-in by WooCommercefor choosing the best multi-vendorplugin among these two you can check outthe respective product pages you canalso read our blog article on thecomparison of these plugins when itcomes to WooCommerce product vendors youare assured the quality of the plug-inas it is developed by WooCommerce itselfand you can expect instant support inany issues one of the highlights of thisplug-in is the per product shippingfeature that offers advanced shippingfunctionality also this plug-in iscompatible with WooCommerce bookingsplug-in which can be quite useful if youare offering a booking service in yourstore when it comes to the dokkan multivendor plug-in it provides some free andpremium modules that help you enhanceyour store even better the vendorinterface is better compared to theWooCommerce product vendors plug-in asvendors can access all the settings fromthe front end screen hence in this wayyou can easily make a multi vendorecommerce websitealthough vendor payment is sorted withadvance PayPal payments the shipping isstill in conflict if you offerthird-party shipping carrier servicesbut some developers like el extensionshave come up with a multi vendor supportand on for their shipping plugins thatallow customers to see shipping methodsseparately based on vendors checkoutlearn woot.com for more articlesresources and videos related toWordPress WooCommerce Shopify and bigcommerce go follow us on our socialmedia channels and subscribe to ourYouTube channel for more informativevideos related to WordPress andWooCommerce
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