Selling products using wordpress or?

[Blogger]

Hi, I would like to let my visitors to sell their product on my site which i charge certain fee per item.

Which platform should I use in this case? Wordpress or others?

[navjotjsingh]

If your only purpose is selling your own products, then you should consider dedicated shopping cart softwares which can make complete websites around a shopping cart. But if you want to add a shopping cart to existing blog, there are many plugins you can find for Wordpress.

Which option do you want btw?

[sarahG]

Use the WP eCommerce plugin. It's pretty simple but for simple, digital products, it does the job fine.

[slee]

Sarah beat me to it :) the WP eCommerce plugin is pretty good

[Blogger]

If your only purpose is selling your own products, then you should consider dedicated shopping cart softwares which can make complete websites around a shopping cart. But if you want to add a shopping cart to existing blog, there are many plugins you can find for Wordpress.

Which option do you want btw?

I wanna let my visitors sell their products on my site and charge them a fee..

Use the WP eCommerce plugin. It's pretty simple but for simple, digital products, it does the job fine.

It looks great... what is module mean in http://www.instinct.co.nz/e-commerce/wp-e-commerce-features/ ?

By the way, is this plugin that you're talking about?

Should I get a free one or paid one? Can it build something like http://www.a2armory.com/ ?

[sarahG]

Yes that's the plugin. The free version allows you to sell digital or physical products via PayPal (IPN can be used). Upgrading allows you to sell by other payment processors too.

The modules are additional modules that you pay for (at a very low price) to add in additional functionality such as multiple photos, accepting payments via other payment processors besides PayPal etc.

You can see the additional modules at http://www.instinct.co.nz/e-commerce/shop/

However, if you simply want to sell products via a WP site through PayPal then the free version should do you just fine.

Yes the site you linked to could be built with the free version.

[Blogger]

Actually, I would like to let seller to sell their product on my site not my own product on my site. I would then charge seller per item fee.

So, in this case, what would you recommend to do with my site?

I allow them to post the photos, videos and the product information. After I receive the payment, I would post their product on my site.

Should I post them like wordpress post or should I post their products in other way? They only sell one product which is my target also. Same product but different categories.

Can you guys give some suggestion?

[athlon24]

I think, it is going to be hard and it will not work out. The reason is, if you are going to charge sellers for posting their items, I think you not get much sellers because there are other sites where they can post their item and in the same it is free of charge. Maybe you should think about changing the your plan how to monetize that idea.

[Blogger]

I think, it is going to be hard and it will not work out. The reason is, if you are going to charge sellers for posting their items, I think you not get much sellers because there are other sites where they can post their item and in the same it is free of charge. Maybe you should think about changing the your plan how to monetize that idea.

You're right that some sites can submit their product to other sites but what about if I can rank high in google for the keywords that i targeted?

If I don't charge them, any other monetization?

[athlon24]

if you have a high ranking site, it is possible that you can attract customers but not as much if you will have your service free. I think, open it up for free then just have some some perks on those that are willing to pay. Because if you only have small number of items to show to your reader your will not have much readership. for our country, you can see http://tipidpc.com as an example. They are really doing well in this.

[Blogger]

if you have a high ranking site, it is possible that you can attract customers but not as much if you will have your service free. I think, open it up for free then just have some some perks on those that are willing to pay. Because if you only have small number of items to show to your reader your will not have much readership. for our country, you can see http://tipidpc.com as an example. They are really doing well in this.

Ya, I'm thinking of open for free for sometime first then when many products are in and have good selling, only I charge them.

I'm thinking of to let the user sign up as a site member so they won't need to again and again fill in the same profile. Any idea?

[athlon24]

Charging your user later is bid drawback. Most of your sellers will pull back for sure because it is very much possible that they can do buying and selling on other sites. For me, just let it be that way and eventually, if you have lots of traffic already, anyway, you can monetize it by putting up some ads and affiliate links and you'll do good in it. Direct ads is also your best option.

[sarahG]

Instead of charging a fee to add their product, why not charge a fee when a sale is made? This way the seller only pays once they've made a sale.

As for how. Again, I would still use the WP eCommerce plugin. You take the money, you take your fee off and pay the seller. This leaves you in complete control.

However, if you don't expect to have many products, then as you say, just create a category and write a post for each product and add a buy now button. You just need to agree terms with the seller. They're effectively getting a reseller deal where you're doing all the work, so they've got nothing to lose. Plenty of sellers do this. I resell templates where I charge the full price and I get 50% off with the template designer.

[Blogger]

Instead of charging a fee to add their product, why not charge a fee when a sale is made? This way the seller only pays once they've made a sale.

As for how. Again, I would still use the WP eCommerce plugin. You take the money, you take your fee off and pay the seller. This leaves you in complete control.

However, if you don't expect to have many products, then as you say, just create a category and write a post for each product and add a buy now button. You just need to agree terms with the seller. They're effectively getting a reseller deal where you're doing all the work, so they've got nothing to lose. Plenty of sellers do this. I resell templates where I charge the full price and I get 50% off with the template designer.

Good suggestion as well but my sellers' product would need the buyers to have a look first and how they buyers know that once they paid to the seller, they will get their products? This is what I can't figure out how ebay works. I mean if I paid the sellers, how am I be guaranteed that I get my product? Any idea?

Or should I be the middle man that once the buyers paid, they will meet the sellers and when it's dealt, I will release the money to the sellers minus a small fee? But that would be quite troublesome huh?

[sarahG]

What are you selling? Physical or digital products?

If it's digital, then you have two options
1. You get the money from the buyer, you pay the seller for the product, you get it and send it to the buyer. You ensure your Ts and Cs on the site state that paying for a product does not guarantee the sale until you have sent the product. If the product is unavailable you will refund the buyer in full.
2. You get the product from the seller before it goes on the site and there is an agreement between you and the seller. Every time you make a sale you will inform the seller and pay them. That way you are in full control (the better option by the way).

If it's physical products then yeah, it's a different story. Again you could go for option 1, however you would be in a safer position by telling the seller that you must have acknowledgement of receipt of the product from the buyer before you'll pay the seller, so that you're not left out of pocket with the seller saying they sent it and the buyer saying they didn't receive it.

Alternatively, instead of actually selling products, just advertise the product for a fee (which is effectively what you were trying to get at originally) and send the buyer to the advertiser's site to buy the product. Again, if this was the case then I would use a simple category for the shop, perhaps sub categories for different product categories, then a post per product.

[anhblog.net]

With Small product, you can use plugin Wordpress Shopping Cart to sell your own product.
But if you have much product to sell. I recommemder you should build a shopping to sale theme

[mrtwister]

yeah i agree with athlon24,

if your page ranking is high then it will attract more customer for that you can try directory submission, article submission, link building etc

second step is to start your free services as it will drag more customers

same reason again as many sites are providing free services for same

later on you can charge little bugs....

all the very best for your new business

[jdjohnson21]

the wordpress e commerce plug-in is great i love it and you can go to wordpress.tv and learn how to create your on