How to Create a Multi-Vendor Marketplace Website on WordPress in 2024 With Special Guest Haroon Q. Raja
Are you ready to take your e-commerce game to the next level in 2024? Learn how to create a thriving multi-vendor marketplace on WordPress with our comprehensive video tutorial. We’ve covered you, from selecting the right plugins to implementing effective marketing tactics! Don’t miss out on this opportunity to elevate your online business – hit play and start building your dream marketplace today.
#1 – Dokan
Prices Starter $149 | Professional $249 | Business $499 | Enterprise $999 annual plans
#2 – WCFM Marketplace
Prices 2 website 1-year License $224
#3 – WCVendors
Prices Pro $199 | Growth $399 Business $599 | Enterprises $4,995
#4 – RMA WCFM For WooCommerce
https://wpswings.com/product/rma-wcfm-for-woocommerce
Prices $79 | 5 Website licenses $169 | 10 website licenses $329 per year
#5 – MultiVendorX
Prices Starter $299 | Growth $399 | Agency $499
#6 – YITH WooCommerce Multi Vendor / Marketplace
https://yithemes.com/themes/plugins/yith-woocommerce-multi-vendor
Prices $149.99 per website
This Week Show’s Sponsors
LifterLMS: LifterLMS
Sensei LMS: Sensei LMS
BlogVault: BlogVault
The Show’s Main Transcript And Links
[00:00:17.130] – Jonathan Denwood
Welcome back, folks, to the Membership Machine Show. This is episode 61. In this show, we will discuss some of the best solutions for WordPress. Suppose you have a membership website and are looking to build a multi-vendor marketplace similar to some course marketplaces, For example, Unami. What are some of the best solutions for having multiple instructors send in their courses or other digital products or physical products on your website? The good news is there are many WordPress solutions out there. I’ve got my colleague, Harun, with me, who knows everything about this and has built several of these types of websites, and I’m sure we’ve got some great information and insights that will help you build this out. Haroon Q. Raja, would you like to quickly introduce yourself to the new audience?
[00:01:23.050] – Haroon Q. Raja
Sure thing. Thank you, Jonathan. Hi, everyone. This is Haroon, and I’ve been working in the tech industry for the past… Okay, now it’s 2024, so it’s almost two and a half decades. Yeah, in 2025, it will be 25 years of working in tech.
[00:01:42.390] – Jonathan Denwood
He started building websites, listeners, and viewers when he was five.
[00:01:47.430] – Haroon Q. Raja
I’m about to turn 40 this March. Yeah, not quite five, but I was 15 when I started writing my first HTML. I remember back in the day, I built the site with tables because I didn’t know what CSS was. HTML with HTML tables to lay everything out was a mess. But hey, coming back. We’ve been working with WordPress since around 2007 or 2008, when I did my college’s website. I convinced them to let me dry my hands while taking over their tech. That was fun. Over this journey, I worked with pretty much everyone. It’s a significant tool for most things you do with WordPress, including building multi-vendor marketplaces. That has helped me determine what’s the right fit for the particular client’s requirements, not just when it comes to marketplaces or e-commerce or multi-vendor stores, but WordPress in general, be it things like building social networking sites with Buddy Boss or Pipso and whatnot. The same goes with eLearning; the same goes with events, you name it. That’s a bit of an intro there.
[00:03:07.370] – Jonathan Denwood
Yeah, that’s great. Before we go into the meat and potatoes of this great show, I’ve got a couple of messages from our major sponsors. We will be back in a few seconds, folks.
[00:05:58.000] – Jonathan Denwood
Love them. All right, so off we go. Before we go into some of the individual solutions, what do you think are some of the critical things that people have to understand if they’re considering building a course marketplace where they are offering their courses and other instructors? Do these other individuals know a particular subject? I think you’ve got to grow your… It is a great idea, but many people consider doing that on day one. It’s just too much too early. I think they need to build their own tribe and audience a bit and get some traction before inviting other people to attempt to sell their knowledge on their platform. What are your thoughts about what I’ve just outlined, Haran?
[00:07:11.160] – Haroon Q. Raja
Completely agreed. This is not just for multi-vendor marketplaces or multi-instructor course sites; this applies to anything you want to build. First, you must develop and validate a business case for it. You have to see whether it makes business sense to do it, just not because the idea appeals to you. For it to make business sense, as Jonathan just pointed out, it’s imperative that you see whether you have that a niche, a an audience, a target market that will purchase not just from you, but from those. When you’re bringing on other instructors, you, as a platform, are endorsing them in one way or the other. If you don’t have a voice of your own in the first place, why on earth would they want to trust your endorsements if they don’t trust you? Yeah, it’s crucial. Also, clients often come to us. Jonathan has experienced that as well. I’ve experienced it as well. Everyone on the agency side or the freelance side has experienced this. Clients come to us highly enthusiastic about an idea, and that’s great.
[00:08:29.590] – Haroon Q. Raja
But they think that giving that idea to an agency or a developer and building that solution will start minting money for them. But that’s not the case. We can make you the best solution, and it’s just going to sit there and do nothing. Suppose the audience isn’t going to come to it because you haven’t built the proper business case or the right go-to-market strategy. In that case, you haven’t built suitable marketing campaigns for everything. Is this going to be there sitting doing nothing, not making you money costing you? That’s something to consider whenever you start any business, especially when you start a digital company because non-tech people often neglect this side of the business. They think that tech is going to solve every problem that they have. No, tech will only present you with an avenue to build a business. You have to make a business yourself.
[00:09:23.340] – Jonathan Denwood
I think there are great opportunities, but many people get carried away. It’s a ladder, and you’re climbing up, folks, and you got to have a plan. Unless you have already built a vast audience, or you’ve got the money to hire the best people to advise you and then use maybe paid traffic to help you with that, it will be a little bit of an odd road. But on the other hand, I don’t want to discourage people from the whole idea because, in the proper setup, it’s pretty powerful. Are you still there, Herod?
[00:10:15.650] – Haroon Q. Raja
Yeah, I’m still here. My camera just restarted on me, so I’m all right.
[00:10:21.410] – Jonathan Denwood
He’s back to the game. There we are. I was worried that I had upset him, his listeners, and viewers, and he had disappeared. I’ve had that a few times.
[00:10:31.590] – Haroon Q. Raja
I’ll need a second to ensure the battery isn’t getting an issue, so I’ll be: He’s checking his batteries now, listeners and viewers.
[00:10:42.900] – Jonathan Denwood
There we go. I have another podcast, folks, and I did a great interview with a significant influencer and trainer with a great membership website. And it’s training web designers and developers in the most modern ways of building WordPress websites. I had the interview with Kevin Kerry. He pointed out the many things that go into an effective website: UX design, copy, basic design, SEO, and marketing optimization. Somebody who started an online business has to juggle an enormous amount of balls. So trying to do everything immediately unless you’ve got a large team or can hire a large group of professionals or an agency will be difficult. So it’s better to do it in stages, folks, if you haven’t got those resources because by not doing that, you’re diminishing your chance of success, which would be a shame if you have a good idea and a good niche. Before we go into Pacific Solutions, Haru, I think the other thing is I think the resource is necessary. I think you have built some solutions combining not only eLearning and IA with a learning management system, but you’ve got a buddy boss website and a community website. Then, you’ve also integrated it with a marketplace.
[00:12:39.160] – Jonathan Denwood
Based on my experience, I would imagine that is the most demanding because we have also built some of these solutions, and people are not aware of the actual… Making them with the right tools is quite essential, but having the hosting resources, they tend to underestimate the requirements as soon as they get some website users. Have you had similar experiences, Harin?
[00:13:12.400] – Haroon Q. Raja
Agreed, agreed, wholly agreed. A few businesses for which I did build some very advanced solutions involving so many tools were very enthusiastic about launching. But one issue that I saw them do was they were waiting for everything to be built and perfect before launch. I kept on telling them to launch with phase one. At the end of phase one, we had, let’s say, a basic e-learning system and basic community features built. Launch with that. Then, launch with advanced features like events, third-party brands, and expert onboarding. Then, do the whole multi-model marketplace where you want to engage that community to sell on your platform. But they wanted to do everything together, and they ended up doing nothing because by the time everything was built. It was like they were burnt out, and they didn’t have that level of traction, and then they couldn’t take the business along, which would have been the opposite had they spent the couple of years that we spent building and refining and bringing the platform to that level. If those couple of years had been spent getting user feedback and then iterating based on that feedback, we would have rather they would have.
[00:14:34.770] – Haroon Q. Raja
I consider myself to be my client’s partner, so I say we. We would have built a pretty good business. They had a good business case. That’s something that you don’t want.
[00:14:44.700] – Jonathan Denwood
That’s a real shame, isn’t it? Because you feel for them a bit.
[00:14:49.970] – Haroon Q. Raja
It made me sad because I was so mentally invested in having built such a great solution for them. I really wanted to see it succeed. It was hard, wrenching to see it shut down simply because of a wrong execution plan.
[00:15:05.600] – Jonathan Denwood
We might be coming across this being a bit doomed laden at the start of this podcast or video, but we’re not trying to be because we’re just pointing out to you, folks, that it’s probably not the best idea if you’re starting out with your membership course journey. But on the other hand, if you have got some traction or you already got audience and you got a little bit of experience in the membership area, looking at a multivender, bringing in other instructors could be a great way of not only promoting your own website, but also getting traction for these other people that you’re bringing in. So it’s one of those scenarios where it’s a win-win for everybody, for yourself, for for the partners you’re bringing in, and also for your student base, because you’re bringing in new knowledge, new energy, which can make a big difference to the whole experience of your students, your own tribe in a way. It’s just doing it at the right time. And I agree with Harun. I call it building out the most minimum viable course. It comes from the startup community with a minimum viable product. I’d copied this from a great podcast that I listen to regularly from Rob Rowland, one of the joint founders of Drip, one of the leading email marketing platforms.
[00:16:44.880] – Jonathan Denwood
They’re very knowledgeable individuals. So I just had taken that concept from what I learned from Rob. And I think you should really apply it to every step on your journey. But do not be discouraged because Doing this at the right moment with the right partners like WP tonic, and we work with Haroon on a regular basis, having the right team will guarantee you success. The other factor, Haroon, is I think WordPress is a fabulous solution in this particular scenario, because I think not building on all these scenarios from membership, from community to marketplace, building a solution, not on somebody’s least land, having the freehold and building something which you have the maximum ownership and control in all scenario is the best. But when it comes to the investment, where You got a business that has multi-vendors building it on a platform that you have the most control over is of supreme importance. What do you reckon, Harry?
[00:18:00.440] – Haroon Q. Raja
I completely agree with that.
[00:18:01.520] – Jonathan Denwood
I’m doing well here, folks. He’s agreeing with everything I’m saying. He doesn’t normally do that. Sorry, Aaron. Go on, keep going.
[00:18:12.950] – Haroon Q. Raja
Yeah. Because WordPress is very different from pretty much everything else on the market in that you either get closed systems on one On the other side of the spectrum in which you just get the GUI and you pay them and they host everything. Then you have very limited customization. You have limited on-platform integrations. When it comes to integration with other similar SaaS tools, I’m talking about SaaS. One end of the spectrum is SaaS. What’s wrong with my camera today?
[00:18:50.140] – Jonathan Denwood
It doesn’t like the little Kharun. It doesn’t like the Jamaican little Kharun. He’s having 10. He’s going off, folks. I can hear him in the background.
[00:19:03.230] – Haroon Q. Raja
I’m here, but the camera keeps on rebooting on me for some reason, and then I have to restart OBS. Yes.
[00:19:11.760] – Jonathan Denwood
There we go. It’s a fantastic platform, but it can be extremely flaky when it gets upset.
[00:19:18.540] – Haroon Q. Raja
This is the first time it’s happening. Obs isn’t giving me any issues. It’s the camera that’s rebooting after every few minutes, and this is the first time it’s happening.
[00:19:29.870] – Jonathan Denwood
I dropped my phone. But I’ll continue until he sorted out his problems, folks. Like I said, don’t be discouraged, though, because WordPress, you do get this great benefit of digital sovereignty, that you own the platform as much as possible. And that is really important if you are investing the energy, resources, and time. That will be necessary to build this. But the great other thing is, folks, this is something you can do as a part-time hustle. You can still be in full-time employment and do this and build it up. It’s totally practical, and it’s one of the few legitimate ways that you can build something of real value that really contributes income to you and your family and enables you, if you wish, to do full-time and have a really great business and the freedom that it provides. And doing it in the right way is totally achievable. How are you doing, Harun? Is he there or not? Real technology, folks. It’s pain. Oh, he’s back again. Let’s move. Yeah, let’s hope he still likes you. Let’s move on to the list of solutions.
[00:21:09.230] – Haroon Q. Raja
I’d like to complete what I-Oh, go on.
[00:21:12.160] – Jonathan Denwood
Yeah, I’m going to be generous to let you do that, Harrod. Go on.
[00:21:16.980] – Haroon Q. Raja
Thank you. On one side of the spectrum, we’ve got SaaS platforms, which are walled gardens for the most part, and they have very limited customisations and integrating them together under one domain. All of your Your multi-vendor marketplace, your e-commerce, your communities, all of them under one domain, your event registration system, that’s just a huge pain. It usually can’t be done even. Then on the other end of the spectrum is getting a custom-coded solution built from scratch. That can be super expensive. Unless you have a CTO and a good in-house team to maintain it, it’s for a business person who’s not on the tech side, it’s prohibitively expensive and overkill to maintain. WordPress gives you a really nice middle ground. It gives you a framework, a GUI framework to build upon and to install plugins to add functionalities. Then those plugins integrate with each other so that everything stays under one domain, under one cohesive system, sharing one database while still different components specializing in doing different things. If you need some functionality that is not there in those plugins. It’s open source. You can write your own custom code or you can add a developer to do 90% of the things you do with the GUI and then 10% of those advanced features that are not available as a plugin offer by any of the plugin developers.
[00:22:45.520] – Haroon Q. Raja
You just get those built. There’s a plethora of expert WordPress developers out there that you can find on many platforms, and it’s going to be far more cost-effective. Then you can choose to host it on hosting solutions of your choice. Then that costs you based on your usage rather than paying a flat fee to SaaS platforms, regardless of how much you’re using. That’s a huge advantage. For example, if you can start off with a very basic hosting plan and then as you.
[00:23:18.320] – Jonathan Denwood
Fair enough. He’s getting enthusiastic. This start with one of the long I’ve got this running solutions, but there’s quite a few. First of all, I would be correct, all these WordPress solutions, they work with WooCommerce. Woo. Would I be correct about that? Yes. You got to install Woo. It used to be called WU commerce, and they’ve shortened it to WU. That is the main building block apart from your website But these all integrate with WU. And one of the oldest that integrates with WU and gives it this marketplace is Dukon. Dukon, I think I’m pronouncing it, correct?
[00:24:18.580] – Haroon Q. Raja
Dukon. Dukon. Dukon.
[00:24:20.660] – Jonathan Denwood
Dukon.
[00:24:21.640] – Haroon Q. Raja
All right. No, Dukon.
[00:24:23.420] – Jonathan Denwood
Dukon. All right.
[00:24:25.220] – Haroon Q. Raja
You’re supposed to stretch the air, so not kan. It’s more like kan. Dukun. Dukun.
[00:24:31.770] – Jonathan Denwood
All right. Fair enough. Got to get it right, haven’t we? He’s gone. He’s disappeared a little bit. But his screen still here. It was hopefully- Yeah.
[00:24:41.780] – Haroon Q. Raja
I’ll just remove my camera and just remove my… Let’s use the screen for now. All right.
[00:24:46.060] – Jonathan Denwood
It’s one of the oldest. What do you see as some of its strengths and also some of its weaknesses, Haru?
[00:24:58.030] – Haroon Q. Raja
There aren’t many weaknesses When it comes to this one, it’s one of the best of the best, if not downright, the best one out there. There’s a very solid team behind it. They’re among the innovators There’s a lot of multi-vendor marketplaces in the WordPress ecosystem, and they’ve just built a brilliant, brilliant product. It’s like when you think about social networking solutions for WordPress, the first thing that comes to mind is Buddy Boss. When you think of forms on WordPress, the first thing that comes to mind is generally Gravity Forms for most people, even if the user preferred another form plugin. You think about events on WordPress, first thing that comes to mind is the event’s calendar. Similarly, when you think multi Vendor marketplace in WordPress, first one that comes to mind is Dukan. They’ve built that big of a brand in this niche. Brilliant solution. 1.85 plus million total downloads, 70,000 plus active marketplaces. Their integration, especially their integrations with payment gateways. I don’t think any other option out there rivals their integrations with the payment gateways. If you’re outside the US and most of the first-world countries, getting a solution that works with a payment gateway in your country is extremely important.
[00:26:27.480] – Haroon Q. Raja
They’ve got that covered. They’ve got an excellent integration with Stripe Connect. Stripe Connect is a feature of Stripe which lets you pay vendors automatically from your platform. It connects your Stripe account as It’s a main account of the business with third-party Stripe accounts to disperse payments. Payment disbursement takes place automatically at Stripe’s level, which is great. There are lots and lots of features You name it. If it’s a feature of multi-vendor marketplaces, there’s a chance that the can either already has it or some third-party extension provider or developer has provided a code snippet for it to implement it.
[00:27:16.610] – Jonathan Denwood
What are some of the key features, one or two features that you like the most about it?
[00:27:22.400] – Haroon Q. Raja
The UX overall of building the store itself, the back-end, the back-end, it’s pretty good. It feels very intuitive. Just the sheer flexibility it gives you to do pretty much everything integrate with pretty much anything out there and integrates very well with the WhoCommerce itself. The vendor and customer dashboard that it provides, especially the vendor dashboard that it provides, that’s very powerful. It lets your vendors do a lot of… It provides them with a lot of flexibility to handle and optimize and customize their store within the limits that you’ve permitted in the system.
[00:28:09.170] – Jonathan Denwood
Of the two learning management systems that WP Tonic works mostly with, which is either Lifter LMS or LearnDash, which of those two does it work best with based on your experience, or do you think there isn’t much between the two?
[00:28:31.250] – Haroon Q. Raja
I have personally not used Dukan with either of the learning management systems that you mentioned. In the project where we implemented When we entered a multi-instructor on LearnDash, we didn’t use a multi-vendor marketplace for that particular purpose because it would have been overkill for it. We used another plugin that added multi-instructor support to LearnDash itself. That also ended up acting like a multi-vendor marketplace only for courses, but it was limited in scope because it was more specialized in scope. With Dukan, and come to think of it, you can completely do it. There’s nothing preventing you from doing it because then you would use Woocomers as the method of selling the courses. You wouldn’t use LearnDash or Lifter LMS’s own e-commerce features. You’ll use that to build courses, net courses available, and you would use Woocommerce to actually sell those courses. Other instructors can create course products of their own like they would be able to create other products of their own.
[00:29:44.560] – Jonathan Denwood
That’s great. What’s your experience about how it integrates with BuddyBoss?
[00:29:51.520] – Haroon Q. Raja
With BuddyBoss, they have a pretty solid integration. It lets the social networking audience see which vendors are posting what products in the feed. It integrates pretty well with the notification system and the profile management of the sellers, the seller dashboard, that also integrates very well with the BuddyBoss dashboard. The back-end of the user dashboard, that also integrates pretty good, pretty seamlessly with the The Buddy Boss user back-end. More like a front-end dashboard rather than the back-end, because back-end is supposed to be WP Admin.
[00:30:38.580] – Jonathan Denwood
It’s your fault. I think we’re given… Because this episode, folks, is just to give you an insight of some of the key things you need to know and some of the main plug-ins that help you achieve what you’re looking to do. It’s a 101 introduction. Let’s go on to the next one, Haru. That WCFM marketplace. What’s your experience of WCFM? That’s a mouthful, isn’t it?
[00:31:09.660] – Haroon Q. Raja
It used to be known as WhoCommerce for Vendors. Sorry, WhoCommerce for Multi-Vender or something, and they abbreviated it to WCFM. Back in the day, I remember it was called something like WhoCommerce for Multi-Vender or Multi-Stores or something like that. Then they I abbreviated it to WCFM. It’s also one of the shop options available. I didn’t come to think of it when it comes to many of these solutions that we’re discussing today. It’s Basically, depending on the scope that you want to work and depending on the number of integrations that you want to utilize, if it’s just WhoCommerce with multi-vendor marketplace features you want, then you can’t really go wrong with any of them. They’re all pretty decent solutions. It’s about how many other platforms you want to integrate with, what payment gateways you want to use with it, or what very specific niche features that 90% of people might not need, but you need for your particular use case. Then that’s when you actually start comparing based on the particular features that you require. This is also a pretty good solution. They’ve also got most of the features that most multi-vendor marketplaces are going to need.
[00:32:30.350] – Haroon Q. Raja
It’s a pretty solid install base and not as many integrations as you get with Dukon, but still a pretty solid set of integrations as well for this one.
[00:32:43.070] – Jonathan Denwood
Is there any particular Is there a feature based on any experience you’re looking at it that it has that Dukon hasn’t got?
[00:32:53.180] – Haroon Q. Raja
I think it’s the free seller app. I’m not sure if Dukon Tukan also has an app, a free seller dashboard app, but this one, they give you a dedicated app for sellers to connect with the store and to be able to manage everything from that app. Let me see if Tukan also has it.
[00:33:19.680] – Jonathan Denwood
That app, you’re talking about an OS site, OS Apple app with an Android, are you?
[00:33:28.310] – Haroon Q. Raja
Yes, I am. Tukan also gives you mobile apps, but they are, I think, more focused at the customer’s end. These apps are more focused on making an app out of your multi-vendor stores, making an Honey Express app or making an Amazon-like app for end users. What I’m talking about in case of the seller app, this is a dedicated app for your sellers so that they don’t have to log into the website. They have a very streamlined interface in a dedicated app on their phone to upload and manage their products and to see their sales and all.
[00:34:10.440] – Jonathan Denwood
All right, fair enough. But you think apart from the integration Ducan’s, these two, you could look at Eva and you wouldn’t be going too far wrong?
[00:34:21.270] – Haroon Q. Raja
Yeah, you really can’t go wrong with either of them.
[00:34:24.610] – Jonathan Denwood
Right. Let’s go on to the next one before we go for our break. Sorry, go on.
[00:34:28.960] – Haroon Q. Raja
When it comes Based on performance, in my experience, Ducan has been… Actually, based on the number of integrations, the number of features you load, the number of customizations you do, but Ducan has been very, very optimal. This one, it wasn’t bad, but it didn’t feel as optimal as the streamlined as Dugan in some ways.
[00:34:59.310] – Jonathan Denwood
Yeah. Well, I think we go for our mid break, actually, folks. When we come back, we’re going to go through some of the other solutions, and then we’re going to have a conclusion section. We will be back in a few seconds, folks.
[00:35:12.560] – Haroon Q. Raja
This podcast episode is brought to you by Lifter LMS, the leading learning management system solution for WordPress. If you or your client are creating any online course, training-based membership website, or any type type of eLearning project, Lifter LMS is the most secure, stable, well-supported solution on the market. Go to lifterlms. Com and save 20% at checkout with coupon code podcast 20.
[00:35:46.190] – Jonathan Denwood
That’s podcast 20.
[00:35:48.470] – Haroon Q. Raja
Enjoy the rest of your show.
[00:35:51.180] – Jonathan Denwood
We’re coming back, folks. We’ve had an initial feast. Harun has had a few technical problems, but he’s overcome them. I think the digital gods have not liked him today, but we have struggled a few. I like to point out that if you are looking to run something like this and you’re looking for a quality hosting partner, that specializes in learning management, buddy boss, and marketplaces like this, you should look at WP Tonic. We have an amazing platform. Not only do we offer great hosting, but email into marketing integration, plus a long list of fantastic best-of-breed plugins that you can utilize all part of one of our hosting plans. We offer a lot more value Plus ongoing advice and support when needed. You can find more by going over to WP Tonic. You can also book a chat with me. We’re a small team, but a dedicated team looking to be your WordPress partner. On we go. Wc Vendors, what do you know about these people?
[00:37:14.840] – Haroon Q. Raja
Another really good option. All the options that we’re discussing today, as I said, you really can’t go wrong with any of them. Wc Vendors is also a major name in the Woocommerce multi-vendor marketplace ecosystem. Lots of integrations, lots of features. If you even do a site-by-site comparison, it would be pretty hard best to choose one only based on the common features because they’re implemented across the board in all of them in a In a pretty standard way. You can’t go wrong with it. It’s all about those small things, as I mentioned, which one integrates better with your CRM and marketing automation platform, for instance. Which one lets you customize the entire seller dashboard experience more if you need that. Depending on your use case, you might not need that. Yeah, I think- You get that.
[00:38:26.600] – Jonathan Denwood
Yeah, I do. When it comes to pricing, a lot of these that we’re talking about, I have very similar price structures as well, don’t they, Harun?
[00:38:37.530] – Haroon Q. Raja
Yes, they do. Even WC vendors also integrates with over 100 payment gateways, which is a lot. It also integrates with the Stripe Connect. Most of them are Stripe partners. They work with the Stripe team to implement very advanced Stripe features, one of them being Stripe Connect.
[00:38:59.900] – Jonathan Denwood
Cto. On to the next one. This is a mouthful. R-m-a-w-c-f-m for Wu Cobbers. That just rolls off your tongue, doesn’t it?
[00:39:12.430] – Haroon Q. Raja
This isn’t a marketplace, by the way. This is an add-on. This is a good example of an add-on.
[00:39:20.640] – Jonathan Denwood
I think you’ve just pointed out something that I wanted to talk about, and thanks for doing it, Harun, because there’s another one at the bottom. So maybe I should have had those two together. There’s another one called comes from a great Woocommers plugin shop, Y-I-T-H, Wilcomer. It’s their base in Italy, and they’ve got a plugin called Y-I-T-H, Woocommers Multivendor. And I probably would link it with the one that we’re talking about, where some of The earlier ones we were talking about, I see as frameworks where I see these as being bolting on Pacific functionality onto Woocomers. Would you agree the way I’m linking these two separately?
[00:40:19.120] – Haroon Q. Raja
Not this one. This one is different. This one is not a direct add-on for Woocommerce to bring multi-vendor features to it. This is an add-on for WCFM.
[00:40:32.070] – Jonathan Denwood
I was wrong about that. Hold on.
[00:40:35.560] – Haroon Q. Raja
I’m glad you included this because this gives me the opportunity to discuss how the add-on ecosystem also matters. If you choose one, and you may not find that they have every single feature you need, but there might be third-party add-ons built for them that offer features that the native plugin doesn’t have. For example, RMA, which is like I don’t exactly remember what RMA abbreviation stands for, but this is about… It’s like Refund Management something. Rma is like Refunds, Returns, and Cancelation Process. It This one adds very comprehensive features for managing refunds, returns, and cancelations, and adding an e-wallet. Instead of refunding them money, giving them credit in the store that they can spend on something else. That features, which can come really handy because you may not want to give people a refund straight away. You may want to give them the option that, Hey, we can refund you the money through the payment method that you used to pay it, or we could give you store credit. Then you can use that store credit to either buy something from the same vendor on the store or from any other vendor on the store. You could give them such options.
[00:41:57.730] – Haroon Q. Raja
These add-ons can go a long way implementing these specific niche features that may come in really handy depending on your business needs, depending on your business model. This one adds these particular features. For example, as we just mentioned, e-wallet functionality, refund, return, and cancelation processes, stock availability, shipping cost, and other automated email reminders. It adds a bunch of related features regarding refunds, returns, and cancelations.
[00:42:27.080] – Jonathan Denwood
I think this is another great area in general Because it’s one of the factors that you got to understand if you’re looking at the WordPress, WordPress platform is you got your main Plugin. But there’s going to be… You also got to look at what are some of the key functionality you’re looking for because a platform, other vendors bolt on more niche solutions on top of the framework. So you really got to do a bit of a dive. That’s got to be one of the unique factors that you got to understand that a more established player will have more third-party niche WordPress vendors that bolt on add-on plugins and add-on functionality that you might need. So You got to consider that as one of the aspects, because as your journey, as you are building this, like this particular add-on, you might not be a key feature or something that you even understand about. But being able to bought a good solution on as it becomes obvious to you that this is important is something you got to keep in mind, haven’t you, Aaron?
[00:43:58.620] – Haroon Q. Raja
Oh, yes. Having built a multi-vendor store on a platform that does not offer such a feature and then later finding out that, Oh, I needed this feature as well, and then finding out that, Oh, the platform I used doesn’t even have a third-party plugin that offers this particular feature. This is going to be a nightmare. A project like this needs to be very well thought out from the start. You need to pick the right solution from the start. I can’t recommend any of these as the right solutions unless I have the list of your exact specific requirements. Because based on that, anyone, any professional, who has been there, who has used all of them, can then recommend, Okay, for your use case scenario, you go with Dukan. For your use case scenario, you go with WCFM. Because I know WCFM has this amazing RMA plugin out there that will fit all of your RMA needs.
[00:44:47.250] – Jonathan Denwood
I think that’s one of the key reasons why if you’re starting down this road, even I would like to say, you can start it at the beginning, but be aware that you’re taking on a substantial extra layer that will have to be supported with energy and resources, or you’ve already built your course. It’s best to do this in steps because you won’t be aware of what requirements you need. It’s best to get that course up and running and then get feedback and look at the solutions and then hire a higher WP tonic or Haroon to help you and advise you on what is the best platform. Let’s move on to Multi-Vendor X. This thing, to have my impression in, I might be I hope you’re on. It had one of the more modern UX looks to it. Yes. It looked interesting, but I’m really interested what your views are on it.
[00:45:57.440] – Haroon Q. Raja
This is probably the Actually, the only one on the list that I haven’t actually deployed. I’ve worked with all of the other ones. This one in particular, I haven’t worked with. But in terms of the features and all, in terms of setting them up in terms of working with them, you work with one, you work with all of them because they all operate in a similar manner. But in terms of the design aspect, in terms of the user experience aspect, I am very intrigued by them. They integrate It pretty well with the Elementor as well. I think they have the most robust Elementor integration among all of the ones that we’ve discussed. If you’re building everything in Elementor, from what I’ve seen, not from what I’ve used. Again, disclaimer, I haven’t used this one, but from what I’ve seen, user experience is the best in this one. Jonathan pointed it out before me, otherwise I would have pointed it out as the first thing upon discussing this They’re all about the UX.
[00:47:03.070] – Jonathan Denwood
Yeah, well, that’s great. Because you’re having a decent-looking environment for your user students and multi-vendor instructors who are coming into business with you is essential. I was slightly wrong about RMA, but it was a good point. The last one, which I outlined, which is… How do you put this Italian one, number 6?
[00:47:40.930] – Haroon Q. Raja
I call it Yet.
[00:47:42.620] – Jonathan Denwood
Yet, Yet.
[00:47:43.750] – Haroon Q. Raja
Yet, Yet, Yet, Yet, I got a little tip here.
[00:47:47.280] – Jonathan Denwood
It wouldn’t be truly successful as a plugin, but they are usually successful, so they don’t have to listen to me. I’m used to having something pronounceable, but maybe in Italian, it is. Yif, root commas, multi-vendor. There are a few of these. Until you put me right about how I would lump this with another one we just spoke about. There’s a number. Most of what we’ve discussed are frameworks where this has more focused on working with your commas, but it doesn’t offer that The host of elements that the other plugin frameworks that we’ve talked about, you would probably have to combine this with maybe 2-3 other WUW commerce add-ons, you seem to be agreeing with the basic outline.
[00:48:49.780] – Haroon Q. Raja
Yes. That’s the philosophy behind pretty much everything Yeet builds. They are, I think, in terms of the sheer number of add-ons, for I think they’re number one in the market. They even claim it on their side, but I’m not just taking their claim at face value. The number of add-ons for Woogomers to do one thing or the other, especially very niche things that you might not even think of at first glance, but while running your store, you might decide, Oh, this is what I need. Yates generally has a plugin for that. Admittedly, their plugins aren’t generally the best at doing what they do, but they’re there. They’re among the first ones there. Yates is generally the first place you would go and look for a WhoCommerce add-on that you can’t find elsewhere, and they’re going to have it. If you are using several other of their add-ons, all of their add-ons work brilliantly well together. Each of them isn’t going to bring you a host of features, as Jonathan pointed out, but combining a few of Yit’s add-ons might get the job done for you exactly the way you need.
[00:50:00.220] – Haroon Q. Raja
Yit is an entire ecosystem of add-ons built around Woocommerce. That’s why this one doesn’t try to do everything. It just gives you fundamental functionality to let other sellers sell on your store and let people buy from any of the sellers on your store rather than just from the store as a single unit. Well, it still works as a single unit, but every seller has a sub-store in your store. It just does that and doesn’t try to do everything under the sun.
[00:50:31.730] – Jonathan Denwood
With many things, there’s an occasion where there’s a particular plugin you don’t like or rate. But is there any special thing about using this with other focus plugins that do specific things in the marketplace area? Or instead, are there any benefits compared to going to something like MultiVender X? That’s more of a framework that’s doing many different things.
[00:51:09.410] – Haroon Q. Raja
Generally, I wouldn’t recommend it to someone unless they know that what Yet offers is what they need, and they don’t need anything beyond that. But generally, when people build multi-vendor marketplaces, in most cases, they will need things that the other frameworks offer. I’m not saying Yet is a terrible solution. It just wouldn’t be my first choice unless I know this is the right fit. It wouldn’t be my general first choice or second choice.
[00:51:44.450] – Jonathan Denwood
Well, So let’s go to our conclusion. So are there any areas you would like to point out and discuss that you think we haven’t covered in the central part? This is the introduction to the episode where we’re trying to give some guidance on the leading solutions and some of the main things you have to consider before you go down this road. But are there any things that you think that we haven’t discussed that people need to know before they go down this journey?
[00:52:20.590] – Haroon Q. Raja
I’d now go in the opposite direction of how I started. How I started was more, like, it may have sounded a bit more discouraging. Now, I’m going to be all encouraging and end on a good note. If you want to do it, by all means, go for it. But if you haven’t worked with such tech stacks in the past, from day one, involve a tech person, involve someone as a consultant on board. I’m not just saying this because I sell these services. Don’t hire me. Hire another expert if you want. But hey, if you’re going to hire me, feel free. But make sure that you have an expert on board who knows the business aspect of things and who knows the tech aspect of things. If you just have someone who’s an expert at tech, and they’re just going to build you whatever you tell them to build while not understanding your business needs or how they’re going to make the tech practically translate to your target audience, That’s just a developer. That’s not someone you bring on board as a consultant to help you make tech decisions. Have someone with you to make tech decisions while understanding your business requirements.
[00:53:37.460] – Haroon Q. Raja
That is the most essential thing that can be the difference between success and failure. Secondly, don’t let the choice of tech overwhelm you. Leave that to the professionals to choose the right tech for you. You focus on the business side. You focus on, first and foremost, establishing yourself as an authority in the industry so that others could buy from you and then bringing on board other influencers, other people with voices or other people with talent to then build and upload products, services, courses, solutions on your multi-vendor store so that Others can then buy from them. The last, but not the least, user experience. Because often, even if, let’s say, you are tech savvy, your other sellers whom you want to onboard on your platforms to sell on your platform might not be that tech savvy. You need to ensure that your platform provides them with a great user experience to upload, manage their products, see their sales statistics, promote What they store, and everything. These are the things that make a huge, huge difference.
[00:54:49.650] – Jonathan Denwood
That’s fantastic. I think it’s a good time for us to end this episode. As I said, you can either approach WP-Tonic or Harun. We work together. Harun, what’s the best way for people to find out more about you or if they want to consult with you on an individual basis?
[00:55:11.430] – Haroon Q. Raja
They can contact me on my website, hq It’s HQRaja. It’s just from Harun Q-Raja. Hqraja. Com. Over there, they can find the contact form. They can reach out to me from there. They can also find me on social networks such as HQRaja.
[00:55:29.930] – Jonathan Denwood
If you want a consultation with WP tonic, you just go to the WP tonic, and you can book a free consultation with me, and we can work together. You’ll probably be working with us and Haru if it’s complicated or extensive. We will be back next week with some insight on your membership journey, some form or another that you will find helpful, and we will encourage you to do this in 2024 because you’re missing a great opportunity if you don’t start something in the eLearning area. It’s a great business model, and there are great opportunities there. If you have the right hosting, support, and knowledge, we will be back next week, folks. Bye.
[00:56:25.740] – Haroon Q. Raja
Thanks for listening to the Membership Machine Show. Make sure you subscribe, don’t miss any future episodes, and leave a rating to support the show. Until next time.
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