Hey readers, in this article we will debate and show you how to build an auction website with WordPress. You might ask why you would want to do that ? The answer is quite simple, because wordpress is very easy to use and also quite cheap and effective compared to other solutions (eg: reactjs, vuejs, php laravel, python). I dont want to minimze the importance of the other tools, because we use those in very big projects, but all we are saying is that WordPress is a cheaper and faster way to start than the traditional tools. Build your MVP with WordPress.
Also for additional resources about build auction websites you can follow other articles we have published here. Like “how to build an auction website like ebay” and cost control: “Build an auction website for $400 or less“.
Gathering information about auction websites
Before you even start, you need to ask yourself if you need an auction or a multi seller auction website. If you are looking for a similar idea that eBay has, where people can post their items for selling or for auction, then you are on the right track, and indeed you need an auction or a multi seller marketplace website. Luckily this article will walk you through the process of planning to the execution of your auction website.
We settled that you indeed need an auction website build. Now, the next thing to do is what stack of technology or programming you should use ? In 2022, there are so many options that a person like an entrepreneur, which only wants to have the job done, and without too much technical background, will feel overwhelmed of the multitude of options that he has when building an auction website. We detail a bit more on this subject below:
What kind of stack should I use ?
Choosing a stack for your auction website is not simple due to the fact that you have so many options available. First is the traditional ways of building the auction website from scratch or using some prebuild frameworks like php laravel, python django, and reactjs or vuejs for the front end. These are good options , but will require more budget and more specialised full time programmers working for you.
In the current article, we propose building the auction website using wordpress. For the past 10 years , wordpress has grown a lot, and now it powers around 35% of the websites on the entire world’s internet, which makes WordPress the popular and cheaper way to launch your auction website. We offer the wordpress auction theme for this and we think is the best theme on the market for this purpose, because it comes with amazing support from our team, and the best features out there.
What kind of features does it need to have ?
The main feature would be an e-commerce feature, and to be able to post things for sale and for auction. Let your customers buy the products straight through your website. Let them do live auction. Also some other features would include: anti snipping, buy now feature, make an offer feature, payment gateways (authorize, PayPal, Stripe and others), customer themed area and others.
How can we monetize an auction site ?
There are several methods to make money with an auction website which can bring a great ROI. In this list of methods we have: listing fees, featured listing fees, commission fees, percent commissions, category fees, processing fees, membership fees, buying bid tokens for auctions and many more.
How much does it cost ?
As detailed in other posts, like this one here, the cost can be under 400$ or even less to get started. But for an actual mvp, taking the wordpress route, could mean even a decrease of 50% or more compared to the regular way of doing things (react, vue, python) . So realistically speaking, for having an MVP ready to present to some investors or going to market, you could get away with a few thousand dollars USD, rather than spending over 10k just on the software itself.
