Nowadays, most companies are using digital platforms to offer their products and services. As a result, the eCommerce industry is growing at a rapid pace. Entering the world of online sales can feel like a big step. Still, one way to make it less challenging is to share costs and audiences with like-minded businesses.

A multivendor Marketplace enables multiple sellers to offer their products on a single site. That creates a community not only between sellers but between buyers. The multi-vendor setup helps small businesses to start out. Also, since several businesses offer their products, shoppers can buy multiple items and make their purchases with only one payment.

Multi-vendor setups are beneficial not only for starters but for existing stores. They help existing companies expand their markets and attract more shoppers. One of the biggest pluses in a Multivendor Marketplace is the kinship with other sellers. It boosts your network by letting you add new entrepreneurs to your inner circle.

When you are part of a community like a multi-vendor marketplace, you can share your experiences and find better ways to overcome growth challenges. Additionally, facing sales problems and navigating through them becomes more comfortable.

If you own and manage a WordPress website, converting it to a multivendor marketplace will provide you with several benefits. First, you can have additional income from other sellers. For example, if you invite new Vendors into your marketplace and charge them a fee for each of their sales, you’ll increase your income stream. The commission rates can vary depending on the number of products they sell or the targeted audience.

Another benefit of a WordPress multivendor marketplace is that expanding your brand will be much easier. For example, if you only accept sellers with similar products like yours or vendors who sell complementary products, you can use them to boost the brand you’re building.

Sometimes, responsibility can be overwhelming when we talk about online stores. However, in a multivendor marketplace, you can share responsibilities with others and keep everything running smoothly. Creating an admin team to control the shop and deal with customers’ and sellers’ issues is an excellent choice. You’ll provide the best quality service for shoppers and sellers as well.

Turning your WordPress website into a multivendor marketplace is really easy. You can find an expert to help you achieve your goal, or you can take advantage of the plugins listed below. These marketplace plugins are among the best alternatives these days. They are simple to set up and provide you with everything you need to start your multi-vendor store.

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Dokan

Pricing: $324/year

According to their own website, Dokan is the best way to build your marketplace with WordPress. It brings entrepreneurship to your fingertips. Although there’s a free Dokan version that provides you with all the essential tools, the most popular one is the business version. The Dokan Business plan costs $324 per year and helps you create the ultimate multi-vendor store.

Dokan saves you tons of valuable time while creating an online marketplace. It’s an open-source solution that offers features like:

• Interactive UI to provide the best frontend experience
• Easy configuration options to build and customize everything you need without coding.
• World-class customer support so you can be sure you’re in good hands.
• WooThemes compatibility so all on your existing WooCommerce site will fit perfectly
• Geolocation
• Export-Import
• Vendor Review
• Seller verification
• Paypal, Stripe & Moip payments
• Staff manager
• Auction options
• WC Booking integrations
• Product subscription and more.

WCFM Marketplace

Pricing: Free

WCFM marketplace is the most feature-rich marketplace plugin for WordPress. That ensures you’ll get every functionality you need to create, run, and expand your multi-vendor marketplace. WCFM Marketplace plugin is pocket-friendly. You can start using it for free.

WCFM Marketplace offers paid extensions to help you enhance your marketplace in the future. For example, if you want to launch your affiliate program, you can pay $29 per year for an affiliate extension to get all the tools and help you need. Among the features that make WCFM marketplace the best multi-vendor store plugin for WordPress are:

• Coupon Management
• Product import and export
• Inquiry and support ticket
• Invoice and shipping label
• Membership subscription
• Shipment and delivery
• Store hours and vacations
• Geolocation and radius search to allow customers to find products near their current location
• Flexible commission types
• Store review
• Store SEO and Article
• Media Manager
• Catalog Mode
• Activity notifications for vendors and admin

WC Marketplace

Pricing: Free

This plugin provides you with customizable tools to drive your business growth at every stage. WC marketplace helps you build a user-friendly and eye-catching marketplace. Also, you can get automated commission disbursements and split payments whenever it is necessary.

To use WC Marketplace, you have to pay nothing. Even so, offered Add-ons are premium, and each one of them has different prices. For example, if you want to receive payments from Stripe, you must pay for the WCMp Stripe Add-on. It costs from $73 to $177, depending on which plan you choose.

With WC Marketplace, everyone has a benefit. Listed below, you will find most of its features.

For Admin:

• Detailed vendor’s commission report for better admin work
• A dynamic commission set up
• Set vendor’s payments
• Create percentage or fixed coupon for the whole store
• Coupon auto or manual approval
• Set social profiles for shop page
• API support to exchange data with other apps
• Receive payments from any WooCommerce supported Gateways
• Customizable vendor registration form
• Configure single product multiple vendor flow
• Report and Analytic tools to manage sales
• Set shipping methods and configure tax class

For Customers:

• Automated email notifications
• Ask button to interact with vendors before making a purchase
• Multiple products purchase in one order
• Comparing tool to check rates of the same product from different vendors
• View all products from one vendor shop
• Rate and review tools to provide an opinion about any vendor or product.

For Vendors:

• Dashboard to manage customer queries
• Geolocation tools to provide customers relevant information about stores’ physical location
• Location wise sales report
• Automated sales report on a dashboard
• Inventory management section to set inventory for products
• Product management features like GTIN number, Product tags, and category-wise product segmentation for easier management.
• Visitor traffic, Customer questions, Vendor reviews, and product stats.
• Vendor order management

WC Vendors

Pricing: $199/year

WC Vendors will help you save months of development. With all of its features, you will be able to go beyond your wildest dreams. Its free version enables you to make the first move to create your marketplace. By providing you with basic features like percent-based commissions, free updates, simple frontend, and unlimited vendors, you can start in a blink of an eye.

Of course, to get the full experience, you should pay for its most popular plan, the WC Vendors Pro plan. The pro plan costs $199 per year and offers:

• Premium support
• Plugin Updates
• Order management and Coupon management tools
• Flat rate & Table rate shipping
• Advanced commission system
• Easy settings based configuration without coding
• Individual Vendor Stores
• Discount management
• Customer & Vendor rate tools to get valuable feedback.

WooCommerce Product Vendors

Pricing: $79/year.

Since Product Vendors is developed by WooCommerce, it would be an excellent choice to start your multi-vendor journey. It allows you to turn your WooCommerce site into a full marketplace instantly. You’ll get the complete experience by paying only $79 per year. Product Vendors is made for Marketplace owners, vendors, and customers.

Product Vendors offers one year of updates and support. And, if you’re not satisfied with the results, you can get your money back by using the 30-day guarantee. Product Vendors’ specific features ensure that:

Vendors can:

• Control their public profile, manage their products, and edit shipping rules
• Add notes to customers or private notes to orders
• Receive commission payouts
• Get complete sales reports and view their orders on sales performance
• Sell physical or digital products

Marketplace owners can:

• Accept and approve application forms from potential vendors
• Integrate with WooCommerce bookings to enable vendors to sell time-based bookings
• Set up vendors’ commission and payout schedule
• Set up vendor admins to manage vendor’s information
• Enable percentage or fixed commissions on sales. They can be set individually, per-store, per-vendor, or per-product
• Make payments to vendors manually, instantly, weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly if necessary.

Final Words

Generally speaking, turning your WooCommerce site into a marketplace is the best you can do. You’ll increase your income stream, reduce admin work, and build up your brand. If you’re looking for a low-budget solution to start, you can use the WC Marketplace plugin. Nevertheless, in the long run, it might not be beneficial because of Add-ons costs.

On the contrary, if you seek to instantly turn your site into a marketplace, you better choose the WooCommerce Product Vendors plugin. It’s also low budget, and since WooCommerce develops it, you can get premium support when necessary. Additionally, it offers fantastic features for marketplace owners and vendors.