How to Build a Simple Auction Website Using WooCommerce?
Just run the horses of your mind toward the word ‘auction.’ Do you instantly think of eBay? Well, most people do. Sure, this eCommerce auction platform is dominating the market. But who said there couldn’t be a healthy competition?
If you are confused about how an auction can be regulated online, know that there are plenty of auction software to help you with that. As far as defining this process goes, in simple words, online auction websites provide a unique channel of sales for both consumers and entrepreneurs.
There is no denying the fact that modern consumers have a knack for great deals. And, believe it or not, auction sites have been offering precise opportunities to dive in the quick-paced world of this lucrative business model.
On top of that, having an auction website means you get to be an auctioneer, set prices and earn a massive amount of money without having any intermediary or a third-party. Along with that, even if you wouldn’t want to sell your own products, you get to collaborate with massive organizations and run auctions on their behalf.
Now, if you are new to this world, being confused is quite normal. Although there are plenty of options when it comes to developing a website, is it possible to leverage WooCommerce power to create a successful and stable auction business?
How many online auction softwares would you need to run one website? Let’s find out here.
Types of Auctions
Based on the items that are being auctioned and the bidders’ personalities, there is a variety of auctions. Jotted down below are some of the most popular types that might interest you:
- Reverse Auction:
As the name suggests, a reverse auction is the opposite of a traditional one. Rather than consumers bidding on one item, sellers compete to offer services and products to a purchaser. Instead of increasing prices with every bid, reverse auction decreases price until a buyer is willing to pay.
- Penny Auction:
Also called bidding fee auctions, these are precise online auctions where a consumer buys the right to place a bid in the auction before it starts. With the name, it can be figured out that the bid increases by a penny.
The difference here is that the purchaser pays beforehand for a specific number of bids. Sometimes, these are also timed. Thus, once the time is up, the highest bidder gets the product.
- English Auction:
These are the most common and traditional form of online auctions. Herein, one product is put for the auction, and a starting bid is attached. Individuals place increasing bids until nobody is ready to outbid the last bidder.
- Dutch Auction:
This one is similar to the English auction but reverse. The opening price begins high and is decreased until somebody chooses to accept the price. Although the format of the auction is less popular, it is accepted well online.
Easy Steps to Build an Auction Website With WooCommerce
Now that you’re ready with a blueprint of your auction website, it’s time to build a solid platform with WooCommerce and a WordPress auction plugin. You can download it from WordPress.org without paying a single penny. Packed with a variety of features, the plugin helps you:
- Create eBay style auctions
- Set up an Escrow.com account
- Run auction with a gamut of payment methods
- Send configurable emails to participants
- Allow users to keep a tab on the bids
- Promote auctions with varying widgets
Also, before starting out, there are a few things that you’d need, such as:
- A perfect, unique domain name for your auction website
- A reliable and well-known hosting provider so that your site never goes down
- A functionality of bidding to allow customers to bid on products
- A feature to schedule a time so as to display the same on products
Once you have got all these things in place, without any further ado, let’s commence with the development. Here are a few steps that you would have to religiously follow to ensure that your site offers nothing but intuitiveness to customers:
- Create a WordPress website with the chosen domain and preferred hosting; ensure that your site is integrated with SSL as it is needed to accept payments; and is adequately optimized
- Now, you’d have to install and activate WooCommerce plugin to add products and set prices
- Next, install and activate the auction plugin to simplify the process of both creating and regulating the website
- Next, you can configure, personalize and customize all the settings according to your requirements, including safe authentication, integrating payment gateway, labelling Buy Now price, adding promotion widgets, amidst more
- And then, create a new product on your website, upload content and images; set the price as the starting bid
- If you want the bidding to last only for a certain period of time, go to settings of WPAuctions where you can find a timer to be put on the product page with starting and ending time as well as the date
- You can further customize the message for unavailability to keep the bidders informed if the bid has been closed
Follow the same process of creating new pages and uploading personalized content for each one of them for every product that you upload on the website. And that is it! You are ready to launch your own auction website.
Conclusion
Developing a WooCommerce auction business is not just a simple process but quite possible for newbies as well. On top of that, since it helps you generate a profitable income, you wouldn’t mind investing a few hours into the process, right? Although maximizing profitability and visibility needs a lot of time and efforts, WooCommerce is definitely a viable and solid platform, to begin with for both large and small auction businesses. So, simply follow the above-mentioned steps and create a newer platform.
However, if you require any assistance or are looking for premium WooCommerce development services to enhance your auction site, get in touch with the experts at CODUP.
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