If you find the idea of building your own online clothing store marketplace a little daunting, you really shouldn’t!
Thanks to the online marketplace builders like WordPress, WooCommerce and Dokan. It’s now easier than ever to set up online marketplace – and you don’t even need to know how to code!
In this article, we’ll discuss how to start an online clothing store with no money.
Advantage of online clothing store marketplace vs physical stores
It is most often said that the numbers speak for themselves.
There are several main reason to build online clothing store marketplace rather physical stores. They are:
1. You are open to the world
One of the main advantages of having an online clothing store marketplace is that you break the physical barriers . You do not depend on the number of people passing through your store or the number of brochures you have delivered to mailboxes.
From the online marketplace you can sell to the world.
2. New Customers
Have you ever been travelling and wished that incredible shop you discovered was in your town?
With a local business you can only attract customers who come to your shop . With the online marketplace, it doesn’t matter where customers are, it only matters how good your product are.
3. New sales options
Dropshipping is an attractive option for starting a new online business and for those who already have one established.
If you have an online marketplace, dropshipping allows you to open new lines of products and diversify your revenue streams without paying a big investment . Remember that the key is to find a good supplier .
4. Lower costs
There is no doubt, the costs of opening an online marketplace are much lower than if you had to open a local business, but it depends on the platform you choose.
5. No schedules
One of the major disadvantages of physical stores versus online marketplace is this.
There aren’t any off days or closing times, your business is operating 365 days a year, 24 hours a day.
How To Build A Clothing Store Marketplace Easily
The popularity of online clothing store marketplace is increasing day by day. If you run with down stream you can easily create your own online clothing store marketplace.
You might thinking that, you have no technical knowledge, no idea about marketplace, how to start, where to start……etc. But if you know about WordPress, then this a like drinking a glass of pure water.
Yes……You can easily create your own exclusive fashion marketplace using Dokan Multivendor. There are lots of online fashion houses that are running their store quite successfully using Dokan Multivendor.
To name some few, world-class & popular marketplaces like MYMUSLIMMALL & PLAYTHEMOVE are running their online marketplace using the Dokan Multivendor marketplace.
Let’s move forward how to build……
Prerequisites For Building An Online Clothing Store Marketplace
A Domain Name
This is the name of the relevant clothing store marketplace that you want to build. For instance, fashionhouse.com. The domain name must be registered before you can use it. Every domain name is unique. No two websites can have the same domain name. If someone types in www.fashionhouse.com, it will go to your website and no one else’s. The price of a domain name typically runs between $15-25 per year.
To buy a new domain you can get that service from bellow sites,
Web hosting Account
Web hosting is a service which allows organizations and individuals to post a website or web page onto the Internet. A web hosting service provider, is a business that provides the services that needed for the website or web page to be viewed in the Internet. Websites are hosted, or stored, on special computers which is called servers. When Internet users want to view your website, all they need to type your website address or domain into their browser. Their computer will then connect to your web server and your web pages will be delivered to them through the browser.
Since Dokan is a WordPress plugin so, you will require to get a web hosting on WordPress platform. WordPress is the easiest web hosting platform to manage your marketplace. It is currently powering up more than 35% of the overall web market.
Install WordPress
The easiest way to install WordPress is to just pick a host that does it free or automatically for you. Nowadays, many WordPress-specific hosts will let you choose to have pre-installed WordPress.
Here are a few recommended hosts that offer pre-install WordPress for you:
- Bluehost – affordable and comes with pre-installed WordPress.
- SiteGround – has tons of WordPress service marketplace-specific features that make your life easier.
For further installation details Read.
Install WooCommerce
If you are WordPress regular user, you can easily install WooCommerce to your WordPress site.
Just logon to your WordPress site, then go to plugins menu and in the search box type WooCommerce, once found click on Install now and then activate.
Setup Dokan On Your WordPress
WooCommerce creates only single store for your website. To build a marketplace you require multi-vendor features.
Dokan multi-vendor plugin will give you the privilege to make a complete multi-vendor marketplace of your own.
To activate Dokan you have to follow a similar installation and activation process just like WooCommerce.
Here is the video of easy step by step guide to install Dokan.
You can also follow the complete documentation to activate Dokan.
Configure Important Settings For Dokan
It is really important to set up your online clothing store marketplace correctly. After complete installation of Dokan Multi-vendor Marketplace, you are required to change the general settings according to your online store requirements.
Change it as per your requirements or use default settings. Check out the option available in above screenshot and get an idea of all the settings you need to work with for setting up your own online clothing store marketplace.
How To Add/Edit Products
Now, you have to add and edit the products accordingly to display it in your marketplace. Simply go to the products menu of your dashboard and click on the Add New Product to add all your desired apparel and fashion products.
The below screenshot shows you how you can add a product by typing its Name tag, Price, Product tag, and Description. Simply fill up these attributes and click on ‘Create Product‘ to add the product immediately or click on Create & Add to add another product.
You can add more products like the same way at any time. This will all products will be displayed on your product list for the customers to view & buy.
To edit any particular product, simply click on the edit option under each product on display. If require, you can even change the all-important title, product type, its price range including discounted price, category, tags, description entities etc.
There are more advanced options you can edit such as the product inventory, shipping, taxes, linked up products, custom attributes and more. Just edit these options depending on the product attribute changes & demands.
After adding & editing your product this is how it displays to the customer with all the updated information of the product. The customer can now cart the items to buy or rate & write reviews about it after purchasing this product from your marketplace.
Now You Are All Set To Go
Congratulations!!! your online clothing store marketplace is all set to go. Now your customer can view all the products to buy it from your marketplace. Look!!! how simple it is to create a clothing store marketplace using Dokan.
Select a Suitable Theme For A Better Clothing Store Marketplace
You can use Dokan theme for your online clothing store marketplace. Or you can choose other Dokan Multivendor compatible themes. There are 30+ Dokan Compatible themes available in the market.
Make sure to use a suitable theme for your clothing store marketplace that best fits it.
You can try out some selective extension such as Auctions, Single Product Multiple Vendor, Subscriptions etc to attract the potential customers. This would appeal to new customers and bring existing ones back for more.
Follow up with your customers to bring them back again & again to your marketplace.
Build A Clothing Store Marketplace: Final Words
You’re now fully aware of the key settings you need to take in order to set up your online marketplace and start selling. You’re probably also relieved to find out it’s not as technical as you might’ve thought earlier!
Thanks to WordPress, WooCommerce and Dokan, you’re now able to sell clothes online without needing to know how to code and without breaking the bank.
Think of using an online multi-vendor marketplace as like making your own shirt or pant.
There is an investment of time, rather than money, and you can make it in exactly the way you want rather than having to conform to something made by someone else that doesn’t fit quite right, and that you’ll have to pay even more to correct.
Start your online clothing store today using Dokan.
