Do you want to instantly switch between user accounts in WordPress? Sometimes when testing new features on your website, you may need to switch back and forth between user accounts with different user roles. While you can manually log out and login to the new account, it’s not the most efficient use of your time. In this article, we will show you how to instantly switch between user accounts in WordPress.
Why and When Do You Need to Switch User Accounts?
By default, WordPress allows you to add new users and authors to your website. Each user on your website has a user role assigned to them which gives them permissions to perform different tasks on your website.
You can also allow users to register on your website and set a default user role for all new users by visiting the Settings » General page.
As the site owner, you are automatically assigned the administrator user role on your website. This gives you complete control including the ability to manage all user accounts.
While testing new features on your website, you may need to see how things would look for users with different user roles and permissions. This is particularly essential when you are running a WordPress membership website or an online store. The manual way to do this is to simply log in using the credentials for each user account and test those features.
However, this would take a lot of time. Wouldn’t it be better if you could just switch to any user account instantly and then switch back when you are done testing?
Let’s take a look at how to instantly switch between user accounts in WordPress without entering passwords.
Using a Plugin to Instantly Switch Between User Accounts
Once activated, you need to go to the Users page in your WordPress admin. On this page, you will see a ‘Switch to’ link next to each user account.
User switching is only available for users with an administrator user role. Once you have switched to a new user account, you can continue testing your website logged in as that user.
Once you are done, you can switch back to your own user account by clicking on the notification displayed on the screen.
Remember how organized your WordPress admin dashboard was when you first installed WordPress? It looked so clean. So sleek…until you started adding content and installing plugins. Then, things can start to get a little messy, right? Admin Columns brings some order and flexibility back to your WordPress admin screens by letting you manage the exact ... Read moreAdmin Columns Review: Manage Columns In WordPress Admin Screens
Do you want to enable customer tracking in WooCommerce?
Customer tracking allows you to offer a personalized shopping experience based on customer behavior in your eCommerce store.
In this article, we will show you how to easily enable customer tracking in WooCommerce with Google Analytics.
Why Enable Customer Tracking in WooCommerce with Google Analytics?
Google Analytics allows you to see where your visitors are coming from and what they do on your website. In other words, it helps you track your traffic sources as well as user engagement on your website.
For eCommerce platforms, Google Analytics offers an enhanced eCommerce tracking feature. This allows you to better understand users’ shopping and checkout behavior. Plus, you can see which products perform the best and track your WooCommerce store’s sales performance.
By default, a WooCommerce store allows your customers to create an account or checkout as guest users. Creating an account helps the user save their shipping and billing information for faster checkout next time. It also helps you offer customers a personalized shopping experience based on their browsing and shopping history.
Wouldn’t it be great if you could track logged-in users with their user IDs in Google Analytics and also see the path customers took before making a purchase?
This will give you access to a treasure trove of information and insights on customer behavior. You can use it to offer a better on-site experience and boost your sales.
Let’s take a look at how to easily enable customer tracking in WooCommerce. Here are quick links that you can use to jump ahead to any section:
Set up Ecommerce Tracking in WordPress with Google Analytics
The best way to set up WooCommerce customer tracking in Google Analytics is using Monsterinsights. It is the best Analytics solution for WordPress and helps you set up tracking without editing code.
The plugin offers an eCommerce addon, which automatically detects WooCommerces and starts tracking customer behavior in Google Analytics. It also comes with a Customer Journey addon that allows you to see users’ behavior before they make a purchase.
First, you will need to install and activate the MonsterInsights plugin. For more details, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
You will need to be on the ‘Pro’ plan to access the eCommerce and User Journey addon, which we will use for this tutorial. However, there is also a MonsterInsights Lite version you can use for free.
Upon activation, you will see the welcome screen and the setup wizard. Simply click the ‘Launch the Wizard’ button and follow the on-screen instructions.
MonsterInsights also helps you set up Google Analytics 4 (GA4) property through its Dual Tracking feature. GA4 is the latest Analytics version, and it will soon replace Universal Analytics.
If you haven’t created a Google Analytics 4 property, then now is the best time. That’s because, after July 1, 2023, Universal Analytics will sunset and won’t track your website data. Setting up GA4 after the sunset date will mean you’ll have to start from scratch and won’t have any historical data for comparison.
Once you’ve configured Google Analytics on your website, the next step is to install the eCommerce addon.
You need to visit the Insights » Addons page from your WordPress dashboard and navigate to the ‘eCommerce’ addon. Simply click the ‘Install’ button, and the addon will automatically activate.
Enable Enhanced Ecommerce Tracking in Google Analytics
The next step is to enable eCommerce tracking in Google Analytics. E-commerce tracking is not enabled by default in your Google Analytics account, and you will have to manually enable it.
First, you’ll need to head over to your Google Analytics account dashboard and click the Admin option.
Next, you need to click on the ‘Ecommerce Settings’ option.
It is located under the View column.
On the settings page, click the slider under Enable Ecommerce and Enable Enhanced Ecommerce Reporting to turn it on.
Don’t forget to click the ‘Save’ button when you’re done.
Now, your Google Analytics account will start showing enhanced eCommerce reports for your WooCommerce store.
Now that you’ve set up WooCommerce tracking in Google Analytics, the next step is to enable the MonsterInsights Customer Journey addon.
The addon will allow you to see the steps a customer takes before making a purchase in WooCommerce. Plus, it also shows the time it took at each step, the pages a user visited, and more.
First, you’ll need to go to Insights » Addons from your WordPress admin panel. Next, navigate to the User Journey addon and click the ‘Install’ button.
The addon will automatically activate and start tracking your WooCommerce customer’s journey.
Next, you can go to WooCommerce » Orders from your WordPress dashboard to view the path your customers took when purchasing a product.
After that, click on the order for which you’d like to see the user journey.
On the next screen, you’ll see the path a customer took before buying the product. You get to view the pages they visited, where they clicked, and how much time they spent on a page.
This is really useful information to better understand your customers. You can see which product categories are performing the best and where customers are exiting your store during the purchase process. Using the data, you can then fix these issues and optimize your site for more conversions.
Enabling User ID Tracking in Google Analytics
While MonsterInsights makes it very easy to track customers on your WooCommerce store, it also tracks WordPress ID tracking in Google Analytics.
WordPress ID is a unique ID to identify every user on your website. The user ID is called the ‘Client ID’ in Universal Analytics and the ‘App Instance ID’ in Google Analytics.
Do remember that enhanced eCommerce tracking will enable eCommerce reporting features for your WooCommerce store. However, it does not enable user tracking by default.
Let’s take a look at how you can enable user ID tracking in Universal Analytics and Google Analytics 4.
Enabling Customer Tracking in Universal Analytics
To enable individual customer tracking, you need to visit your Google Analytics account dashboard and open the Admin page.
Now, click on the ‘Tracking info’ link under the Property column to expand the submenu.
After that, you can click the User-ID link that appears below.
On the next page, you’ll have to review and agree to the User-ID policy.
Simply click the ‘I agree to the User-ID Policy’ toggle to turn it on.
From here, click on the ‘Next step’ button to continue.
Google Analytics will now ask how you would like to configure the user-ID tracking.
Since you’ll be using MonsterInsights, there’s no need to set up the user-ID tracking code. The plugin will take care of this for you.
Simply scroll down and click the ‘Next step’ button to continue.
Next, you will see information about creating a user ID view in Google Analytics.
Go ahead and click the ‘Create’ button.
After that, you will be asked to enter a ‘Reporting View Name’, which will be used to display User ID reports.
We recommend including UserID in the name, so it is easy to remember which view has UserID tracking enabled.
There is also an option to select the Reporting Time Zone.
Next, you just need to scroll down to the bottom and click on the ‘Create view’ button to save it.
Enabling Customer Tracking in Google Analytics 4
To start, you’ll need to go to the Admin settings from your GA4 dashboard and click the ‘Reporting Identity’ option.
On the next screen, you will need to select a way to identify users on your online store.
GA4 uses multiple ways to identify customers. These include user ID, Google signals, device ID, and modeled data. For the sake of this tutorial, we’ll select the ‘Observed’ option and click the ‘Save’ button.
Viewing Customer Tracking Reports in Google Analytics
Now that everything is set up, Google Analytics will now track all your website customers. It will also be able to track logged-in users with their unique WordPress user ID.
View User ID Data in Universal Analytics
To view all your individual customer activity, you can go to your Universal Analytics account and click on the Audience » User Explorer menu.
You will see individual customer reports with a unique ID assigned to all non-logged-in users.
To view customer tracking reports for logged-in users in WooCommerce, you need to click on the Google Analytics logo on the top left corner of the screen.
This will show all your Google Analytics profiles. You will see your website profile and under ‘All website data’ you will see the UserID reporting view you created earlier.
Go ahead and click on the UserID reporting view to load it.
Once it’s loaded, you need to click on the Audience » User Explorer menu. This way, you will see a logged-in customer tracking report where each user is represented by their WordPress user ID on your website.
You can click on the user ID to view a customer’s individual tracking data.
For instance, the device category they use, acquisition date, the channel they used to arrive on the online store, and more.
View User ID Data in Google Analytics 4
In Google Analytics 4, you’ll need to head to the ‘Explore’ tab from the menu on your left.
Under Explorations, you’ll see different report templates. Simply click the existing ‘User explorer’ report.
Next, you’ll see the User explorer report in Google Analytics 4.
One thing you can notice is the Client ID will be replaced with the App instance ID.
You can click on any of the app instance IDs to view more details.
For example, the report shows the total events that were triggered, the location of the user, the time stamp for each event, and more.
Matching Customer Tracking with Their WordPress Accounts
Now that you’ve identified users in Google Analytics, you can match them with WordPress accounts. This will help you know who this customer is, and how you can create personalized offers, emails, or shopping experiences for them.
First, you need to note down the customer ID you see in your Google Analytics User-ID reporting view.
After that, go to your WordPress website’s admin area and click on the ‘Users’ menu. It will show you a list of all users on your WordPress site.
Next, you can click the ‘Edit’ link below any username in the list.
WordPress will now open the user profile for you.
If you look in your browser’s address bar you will ‘user_id’ parameter in the URL.
Next, you need to replace the value next to user_id with the one you copied from your Google Analytics report and press enter key on your keyboard.
WordPress will now load the user profile associated with that particular User ID. You now have the customer’s name, username, email address, and social media information. You can also track their orders, product views, cart activity, and more.
We hope this article helped you learn how to enable customer tracking in WooCommerce with Google Analytics. You may also want to see our expert pick of the best free WooCommerce plugins for your online store and how to get a free email domain.
If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.
Are you looking for the best WordPress survey plugin for your website? Surveys allow you to collect user feedback, so you can use it to improve your business. In this article, we will compare the best WordPress survey plugins in the market.
What to Look for in a WordPress Survey Plugin?
There are many ways you can collect user feedback on your website. You can add a contact form, create polls, ask users to leave comments, and more.
Adding a survey is a little bit more involved than that. You need to make it engaging, fun, and easy to get maximum user participation.
A good survey plugin makes your form look great, and it’s easy to use. Reporting is crucial for surveys. That’s why you need to make sure that you can store user submitted data with an option to export it, so you can use it in a spreadsheet or a CRM software.
You also need to consider how you want to share the survey results. If you want to display the results on your website, then you will need a plugin that lets you embed survey results in a beautiful format.
That being said, let’s take a look at some of the best WordPress survey plugins and how they handle all these features.
WPForms is the best WordPress contact form plugin on the market. It comes with a powerful surveys and polls addon which allows you to quickly create highly engaging survey forms.
You can combine the surveys and polls addon with other powerful WPForms features like conditional logic, multi-page forms, custom notifications, email integration, and more.
You can convert any form into a survey by simply clicking a checkbox. You can add any form field to your survey with a click including text, checkboxes, radio buttons, ratings, and the Likert scale field.
The best part about WPForms surveys is the reporting section. WPForms automatically creates beautiful reports with graphs and charts based on survey responses. You can show survey results on any WordPress page with a shortcode or redirect your users to the results page after they fill the survey.
You have the ability to export beautiful survey graphs as images to share on social media or your powerpoint presentations. You can also print the reports to include in your proposals or pitches.
Polldaddy is a famous WordPress polls and survey plugin. It is not a contact form plugin and unlike some other plugins in the list will not be suitable for purposes other than polls and surveys.
It is available as a free plugin, but you’ll need a WordPress.com account to get the API key. The free version is limited in terms of features and will also add Polldaddy logo to your survey form.
Polldaddy is easy to use with a drag and drop tool to create your survey and polls. You can change survey sharing settings, results sharing, and styling options for each survey you create. It also includes captcha to block spam and some basic IP filtering to prevent multiple responses.
Gravity Forms is one of the oldest WordPress form plugins which comes with many add-ons including one to create surveys. It is easy to use, and you can create any kind of form using the form builder with many common form fields including a survey field.
However, the survey results can only be viewed inside the admin area, and there are no charts / graphs. You can export survey results to a CSV file and display the results on your website using a WordPress tables plugin.
Note: You will need at least the Elite plan to access the survey addon.
As the name suggests, Quiz and Survey Master is designed to help you add quizzes and surveys to your WordPress site. It doesn’t have the friendliest user interface, but it is well documented and comes with many useful features.
The base free plugin allows you to create surveys with all common form fields, and you can even create multi-page surveys. You can also use it to add quizzes in WordPress with interactive answers, leaderboards, and scoring.
The plugin can also send emails after completion of the survey to thank users or redirect them to any page on your WordPress website. For reporting and analysis, you will need to separately purchase a premium add-on.
If you are looking for a simple poll solution for your users to participate, then WP-Polls is an easy free option. Unlike other plugins on this list, it doesn’t have a form builder, and you can only use radio buttons or checkboxes to collect responses which makes it quite limited.
Users are automatically shown poll results after they cast their vote. It saves user responses in the logs where you can see how registered users voted. For non-registered users, you can see IP addresses to filter out duplicate votes.
We hope this article helped you find the best WordPress survey plugin for your website. You may also want to see our guide on how to track user engagement in WordPress using Google Analytics.
If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.
Are you getting a lot of spam comments on your WordPress blog? Spam comments can become a big issue as your website grows. In this article, we will share how to use the Antispam Bee plugin to block spam comments in WordPress.
Why You Should Block or Delete Spam Comments?
Spam comments take up unnecessary space in your WordPress hosting database. What’s worst is if you accidentally approve a spam comment, then it makes your brand look bad.
There are multiple ways to block spam comments in WordPress. You can do it manually by reading and deleting them one by one, but that could take hours.
Alternatively, you can use the free Antispam Bee plugin to automatically block the spam comments based on the rules that you set.
Let’s take a look at how to block spam comments in WordPress with Antispam Bee plugin.
Once activated, you need to go to the Settings » Antispam Bee page in your WordPress admin area.
On this screen, you will see the Antispam Bee settings divided in three sections: Antispam Filter, Advanced tools and More options.
Antispam Filter
Antispam Filter settings are the basic settings that help you detect spam comments. This allows you to filter and review the comments before they show on your blog posts or website.
These settings are organized in an order which they execute. We have explained each setting in the descriptions below.
Trust approved commenters
You can enable this option to automatically approve comments from regular and trustworthy commenters. These commenters may post valid comments and generate conversations on your blog posts, so the plugin remembers them and approve their comments right away.
Trust commenters with a Gravatar
This setting will allow you to approve comments from users with a specific Gravatar image and posting valid comments. It is the same technique as approved commenters, but with this setting the plugin will remember the Gravatar of the trustworthy comment makers.
Consider the comment time
If enabled, the filter will considers the comment time. This setting is not recommended by the plugin author for blogs or websites using page caching.
BBCode is spam
It is a recommended setting to check comments with BBCode (Bulletin Board Code) links and mark them as spam. These links format are widely used by spammers to highlight words and links.
Validate the IP address of commenters
The plugin allows you to validate the IP addresses used by the commenters to check their network information like hostname. This helps in finding the online background of the commenter to decide if the comment is useful or spam.
Use regular expressions
If enabled, it helps in finding the unwanted comments with a set of predefined patterns that are useful to detect spam.
Look in the local spam database
If you check this option, it will look for the spam content on your site’s database and then treat it as you define further settings for the spam.
Use a public antispam database
This setting is linked with the Stop Forum Spam to detect IP addresses of active spammers and quickly check the history of the commenters. It works with the complete IP addresses of the senders, so the commenters from EU countries will be avoided.
Block comments from specific countries
You can add the list of specific countries to filter spam comments. The Blacklist and Whitelist ISO codes are given with this setting, so you can easily declare the country codes in the respective sections.
Allow comments only in certain language
This setting allows you to specify a language for the commenters, so comments in all other languages will be blocked or deleted as you define later.
Advanced Tools
In the advanced settings, you can further set the options to manage, block and delete the unwanted comments. There are few settings that are enabled by default however you can make changes to these settings as needed.
Mark as spam, do not delete
If you enable this setting, it will keep the spam comments and won’t delete them until you enable the settings below.
Spam-Notification by email
If you enable this option, then you will receive an email notification for every spam comment. We do not recommend this setting because it’ll become extremely annoying really fast.
Do not save the spam reason
If enabled, this setting will not store the suspicious values of a comment in a separate column. These suspicious values can be the formatted links, comment time and more.
Delete existing spam after X days
This is an important option because it allows you to define the number of days after which the spam comments are automatically deleted. It is linked with many other settings that we discussed above about deleting the comments.
Limit approval to Comments/Pings
This option will define whether you want to approve comments or trackbacks. If you limit approval to comments, then trackbacks will be automatically deleted. Similarly, if you limit approval to trackbacks, then the spam comments will be automatically deleted from your blog or website.
In case this option is not enabled, it follows the previous settings.
Delete comments by spam reasons
You can delete comments with predefined spam reasons. You can select multiple reasons from the options to delete the unwanted comments automatically.
These advanced settings will make your life easy while reviewing comments on your site.
More Options
After the advanced settings, you can take a look in the reporting options to display your daily spam updates on WordPress admin dashboard area.
These reports will help you monitor the spam comments easily, and you can also analyze between the numbers of useful and unwanted comments.
Generate statistics as a dashboard widget
If enabled, this setting will create a spam report in an interactive widget for your WordPress admin dashboard area. These statistics will give you an overview about the spam comments on your blog.
Spam counter on the dashboard
If enabled, it will display the number of total comments marked as spam in a prominent style. If you are deleting the spam comments, then it will also show the number of deleted comments in an additional column. Some new bloggers find it fun to look at this number after they first start their blog.
Do not check trackbacks / pingbacks
By default, the plugin put a check on all the comments, trackbacks and pings. You can avoid checking the trackbacks with this setting. If enabled, the trackbacks / pingbacks from any site will be automatically approved.
Comment form used outside of posts
This option will monitor comments on your archive pages.
Once you are done, click on the Save Changes button to apply these settings on your blog.
Looking for the best WordPress RSS feed plugins? These plugins can help you do something simple – like display RSS feed items via a shortcode. But some also get more advanced and can help you do neat stuff like import RSS feed items as actual WordPress posts, filter RSS feeds by keywords, and lots more. ... Read more5 Best WordPress RSS Feed Plugins To Import RSS Content
Do you know how well your WooCommerce store is actually doing? If you’re using the default WooCommerce reports, that’s not always the easiest thing to know. Don’t get me wrong – they’re functional enough for basic uses. But there are much more detailed (not to mention more usable) options out there. And I’ve collected some ... Read more6 Best WooCommerce Reports And Analytics Plugins For Your Store
If you run any type of WordPress site that accepts users, you probably know that WordPress’ default user profile system isn’t really meant for the public. That is, you can’t have regular users traipsing around the WordPress dashboard to manage their profile (at least not if you care about user experience). Instead, you need something ... Read moreProfileGrid Review: Frontend WordPress User Profiles + Lots More
Are you looking for the best testimonial plugins for your WordPress site? Testimonials add social proof to your website and help build trust among your users. In this article, we have hand-picked the best WordPress testimonial plugins that you can use on your website.
Testimonial Rotator is an easy to use WordPress testimonials plugin. It allows you create a testimonial carousel and add rotating testimonials anywhere on your website.
You can also create multiple rotators and manually enter customer information such as feedback, job title, and photo. For detailed step by step instructions, see our article on how to add rotating testimonials in WordPress.
Want to allow customers to submit reviews and display them on your website? Easy Testimonials allows you to add a customer feedback form on your website, so you can collect testimonials. You can also manually enter testimonials from your WordPress admin area.
After that, you can easily display testimonials using a simple shortcode. For detailed instructions, see our guide on how to add a customer reviews page in WordPress.
Testimonials Widget is another flexible WordPress testimonials plugin. Despite the name, it allows you to add testimonials anywhere on your website.
It comes with a sidebar widget allowing you to easily display testimonials in sidebars. Testimonials are displayed in a carousel with a beautiful slide-in and fade effects.
Strong Testimonials is one of the most customizable WordPress testimonial plugins. It comes with multiple display options including testimonial slider, grid layout, masonry layout, single column layout, and more.
It also includes a custom form allowing your customers to easily add their reviews and testimonials. If you have been getting customer reviews on social media, then this plugin can also embed Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and more.
Testimonial Basics is a complete testimonial management solution for your WordPress website. It includes multiple display styles, sidebar widget, and a feedback form to collect user testimonials.
User-submitted testimonials use Gravatar to fetch client photo. However, you can also manually upload photos directly from your WordPress admin area.
WP Testimonials is a simple yet highly customizable testimonials plugin. It allows you to easily add testimonials and sort them into categories and tags.
After creating testimonials, you can display them using a shortcode. This shortcode comes with many parameters that you can use to customize the appearance of testimonials. The plugin also comes with a widget with the same options as the shortcode offer.
BNE Testimonials is another easy to use option for adding testimonials to your WordPress site. It comes with a shortcode and a sidebar widget to easily display testimonials.
It has a slider and plain list layout for testimonials, which inherits your theme’s style for display.
Testimonial is a straight-forward WordPress testimonials plugin with simple options and the ability to choose your own colors.
It has draggable box items and allows you to choose different fonts, font-sizes, text color, and featured photo. The plugin does not have a slider or rotator, so testimonials will be displayed in grid or list style.
Testimonial Slider offers a modern WordPress testimonial slider with an improved user experience. It comes with a slider as well as plain list layout. You can also add a front-end contact form to collect customer testimonials.
You can add testimonials anywhere using the shortcode or sidebar widget. The testimonial slider is touch / mobile friendly and works great on all screen sizes.
We hope this article helped you find the best testimonial plugin for your WordPress website. You may also want to see our complete list of must have WordPress plugins for business websites.
If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.
Do you want to build an auction site like eBay using WordPress? An auction website allow users to bid on products to purchase them. This allows you to maximize profits while selling unique products. In this article, we will show you how to easily build an auction site like eBay using WordPress without any technical skills.
What Do You Need to Build an Auction Site Using WordPress?
You will need the following things to make your own auction site like eBay using WordPress.
A domain name (This will be your website’s name that people will type to find your site e.g. wpbeginner.com)
A web hosting account (This is where your website’s files are stored)
An ecommerce addon (This will turn your website into an ecommerce platform)
An auctions addon (This will add auction features to your website)
Your undivided attention for 40 mins
Yes, you can start your own auction site in 40 minutes, and we will walk you through the whole process, step by step.
In this tutorial, we will cover the following:
How to get a domain name for free
How to choose the best website hosting
Install WordPress and set up your ecommerce addon
Install and set up auctions addon
Add and manage auctions
Resources to learn WordPress and grow your business
That being said, let’s get started.
Step 1. The Right Setup
First, you need to make sure that you are using the right website platform, and since you’re on this article, you won’t be making the mistake that others do.
There are two types of WordPress software, so it’s easy for beginners to get confused. First, there is WordPress.com which is a hosting platform, and then you have WordPress.org also known as self-hosted WordPress.
We recommend using self-hosted WordPress.org because it gives you access to all WordPress features out of the box. For comparison, see the difference between WordPress.com vs WordPress.org.
First, you will need a domain name and a web hosting account. But you cannot sign up with just any web hosting company. You will need a hosting provider that specializes in WooCommerce hosting because this is the software you’ll be using as your e-commerce platform.
Usually, a domain name costs $14.99/year, web hosting 7.99/month, and SSL certificate 69.99/year.
Now, this is a lot of money if you are just starting out.
Fortunately, Bluehost, an officially recommended WordPress and WooCommerce hosting provider has agreed to offer our users a free domain + free SSL and discount on their cloud WordPress hosting.
Once you have purchased the hosting, then follow our step by step tutorial on how to start an online store for complete setup instructions.
You would now have a WordPress website with WooCommerce installed on it. By default, WooCommerce doesn’t allow you to add products for auction on your website.
Let’s change this by installing an auctions addon for WooCommerce.
Step 2. Turn Your Ecommerce Store into an Auctions Site
YITH WooCommerce Auctions is a paid plugin and a single site license will cost you 81 Euros. This gives you access to the plugin downloads, documentation, and 1 year of support and updates.
Upon activation, you need to visit YITH Plugins » License Activation page to enter your license key. You can find this information under your account on plugin’s website.
Next, you need to head over to the YITH Plugins » Auctions page to configure plugin settings.
The default settings would work for most websites, but you can still review and adjust them as needed.
Step 3. Adding an Auction Item
YITH WooCommerce Auctions makes it super easy for you to add an item for auction using the built-in WooCommerce products.
Simply add your auction item as a new WooCommerce product by visiting Products » Add New page.
On this page, you need to enter your auction item details like you would add a product. After that fill out the title, add details, and upload pictures.
Below the editor, you need to select ‘Auction’ next to Product Data option, and you will see settings for the auction item.
From here you can set an auction starting price, bid up, minimum increment amount, reserve price, and buy now price.
After that, you need to select the auction dates and time. You can also add an overtime for the auction to offer a grace period after the auction ends.
Once you are satisfied with the settings, click on the publish button to save your changes.
Your auction will now appear on your WooCommerce shop page. Auction items on the shop page will be highlighted with an icon.
You can use the auction plugin to add auction items along with other fixed-price WooCommerce products.
You can also create a separate page to only list the products available for auction. Simply create a new WordPress page and add the following shortcode.
[yith_auction_products]
Don’t forget to publish the page to make it live on your website.
Step 4. Managing Your Auctions
You can add auction items at any time, and they will start appearing on your website right away. However, the auction will not begin until the auction start time.
This allows you to publish items way before the auction begins and use this time to promote items. Once the auction begins, any registered users can bid on an item.
The plugin will show an auction timer next to the item. Users can see the current highest bid and add their own bids.
Previous bids will be displayed below with usernames partially encrypted.
You have the option to remove a bid at any time. Simply edit the auction product, and you will see all the bids at the bottom of product page.
The auction will end depending on each item’s individual auction settings.
If the auction time ends, then the highest bidder’s price will be accepted. If a user decides to offer the buy now price, then the auction will end, and they will be able to add the product to their cart.
All users who participated in the auction will receive an email notifications for each new bid, auction grace time, auction end, etc. The final email will be sent to the auction winner, informing them that they can now make their payment.
Step 5. Allowing Other Users to Add Auction Items
If you want to allow other users to add their own products for auction, then you can do that as well. However, YITH WooCommerce Auctions plugin doesn’t allow users to add their own auction items.
By default, WooCommerce assumes that you are the only seller on your website and only you can add new products. To change this you need to make your WooCommerce platform a multi-vendor marketplace.
Once you set up your website as an online marketplace, other users will be able to apply and become a seller on your website. After you approve their application, they will be able to add new products for auction. You can then approve their auctions and it will become live on your site.
Once the auction is over and the winning bidder has made their payment, you will get your commission out of the winning bid.
Step 6. Mastering WordPress to Promote Your Auction Site
WordPress is the best website builder in the world. It is very easy to learn and you can customize any feature you want.
Here are some useful resources that will help you take your auctions site to the next level.
We hope this article helped you build your own auction site like eBay using WordPress. You may also want to see our ultimate step by step WordPress SEO guide for beginners.
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