KoraBuy and OurDeal UK: How I Built Two Dokan Marketplaces
A case study of two real marketplaces built on WooCommerce and Dokan. KoraBuy brings many industries onto one platform, and OurDeal UK sells refurbished Apple products. Here is what each needed, what I built, and what I learned.
Most posts on this blog explain how to do something. This one shows what it looks like on a real project.
KoraBuy and OurDeal UK are two marketplaces I built on WordPress, WooCommerce and Dokan. Both let many vendors sell on one site, but the businesses behind them are very different. Looking at them side by side shows how the same tools can be shaped to fit very different rules.
You can see both in my projects.
The Two Projects at a Glance
| KoraBuy | OurDeal UK | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A multi industry marketplace | A marketplace for refurbished Apple products |
| Main challenge | Vendors selling very different kinds of products on one platform | Keeping vendor money, refunds and reporting accurate |
| Built on | WooCommerce and Dokan, built from scratch | WordPress, WooCommerce and Dokan Pro |
| Key custom work | Vendor onboarding, split payments, checkout | Vendor reports, statements, balance controls, refund flows |
KoraBuy: One Platform for Many Industries
The problem
Most marketplaces sell one type of product. KoraBuy needed vendors from different industries to sell side by side. A product in one category needs completely different details from a product in another, and the vendors themselves don't all work the same way.
A standard Dokan setup assumes every vendor is roughly alike. On KoraBuy that assumption didn't hold.
What I built
- A category structure for many industries. Categories were planned first, so each industry has a clear place and customers can find products without wading through unrelated items.
- Custom vendor onboarding. The sign up flow collects what the marketplace needs to know about each vendor before they start selling, instead of letting anyone open a store and fill in the gaps later.
- Split payment logic. When an order includes products from several vendors, the payment is divided correctly between them and the marketplace.
- A secure, clear checkout. Customers buying from several vendors at once still get a single, simple checkout.
- Front end work so the store feels like one brand, not a collection of separate shops.
The lesson
On a multi industry marketplace, structure is everything. Time spent planning categories and the vendor onboarding before building saved far more time later, because vendors added products in the right place from day one.
OurDeal UK: Getting the Money Right
The problem
OurDeal UK is a marketplace for buying and selling refurbished Apple products. These are high value items, so every order matters to the vendor and to the customer.
In this kind of marketplace, the hard part is not listing products. It is the money. Vendors need to trust that their balance is correct. The admin needs to see what is owed, what has been paid and what has been refunded. Out of the box reporting was not enough for that.
What I built
- Vendor reports. Clear reports so each vendor can see their sales and earnings without contacting support.
- Statements. A record of each vendor's activity over a period, so balances can be checked line by line.
- Balance controls. Admin tools to manage vendor balances accurately, so payouts match what each vendor actually earned.
- Refund flows. Refunds that update the right vendor balance, so a refunded order never stays counted as earnings.
- Custom storefront logic on a fast, responsive front end, so customers can browse and buy easily on any device.
The lesson
Vendors will forgive a plain design. They won't forgive a balance they can't explain. On any marketplace that handles real money, reporting and refunds deserve as much attention as the storefront. I wrote more about this in my guide to Dokan commission and vendor payouts.
How I Approach a Marketplace Build
Both projects followed the same process, even though the end results are very different.
- Map the business rules first. Who are the vendors, what do they sell, how does money move, and what happens when something goes wrong.
- Use what Dokan already does well. Vendor dashboards, product management and commissions are already solid. There is no reason to pay for rebuilding them.
- Write custom code only where the business is different. On KoraBuy that was onboarding and payments. On OurDeal UK it was reporting, balances and refunds.
- Test with real scenarios. Multi vendor orders, refunds, payouts and edge cases, before real vendors and customers arrive.
- Keep it fast. Custom features should never slow down the storefront.
If you are planning your own build, my Dokan marketplace launch checklist covers what to test before launch.
What These Projects Have in Common
Neither marketplace needed to be built from nothing. WooCommerce and Dokan did a large part of the work. The value came from knowing where the standard setup stopped matching the business, and building exactly that part well.
That is usually the difference between a marketplace that works on launch day and one that is still being fixed six months later.
Final Thoughts
If you are planning a marketplace, or you already run one and it doesn't quite fit how your business works, I would be happy to look at it. See more of my work on the projects page, check my services, or send me the details through the contact form below.
