If you’re looking to offer your users the option of buying and selling things on your site, you can either go the theme route or find a plugin that you can use to integrate into your current theme.
If you want to make your website a full-scale classifieds marketplace, then you’ll want to check out a classified ads theme.
There are many themes and plugins you can use for that you can use for this purpose, so I’ve listed a few themes and plugins that I recommend – what you decide to go with (a full theme or plugin) is based on the scale that you are looking to achieve.
Classifier WordPress Theme (Theme)
The Classifier WordPress theme doesn’t just add great functionality to your website, but it also comes packed with an ideal framework for you to make some great designs.
Since users that browse classifieds are moving to mobile along with everyone else, this theme’s responsive design is a huge selling point. If you’re looking to tweak your theme a bit, it is easy to do this with shortcodes and widgets can be added with the simple drag-and-drop function.
Thumbnails are also incredibly easy to resize using their provided tools.
Furthermore, SEO can sometimes be a concern for these types of themes, so an SEO management option is also included. One of the coolest things about this theme is the ability to create membership packs, giving you the opportunity to show special offers to your members.
ClassiPress (Theme)
ClassiPress is really easy to configure and has a lot of cool features. One of its major advantages is that it has great support from development community meaning that someone will always be able to answer a question that you may have about your theme’s functionality.
ClassiPress allows you to customize your front page, edit and upload your own banner and logo.
The theme also includes an advanced search option that incorporates auto-complete and auto-suggest functions, which is critical if you are looking to build a site like this. ClassiPress also allows users to sign up for membership via Facebook or Twitter.
An additional advantage of ClassiPress is that it allows you to build coupon/discount modules for your users. Of course, this lets you follow your users’ stats so you can analyze what is working and what isn’t.
ClassiCraft (Theme)
If you want to give your marketplace a Craigslist-like theme, then ClassiCraft is for you.
ClassiCraft has a one click auto install option, so it’s one of the easier themes to install and customize. It’s very functional, colorful and easy to customize to fit your brand’s appearance.
It will also offer you the ability to add videos, premium, popular and recent ads to your widget area. And of course it looks great on a mobile device. You can add a membership package, and can also have integrated PayPal support with multiple currencies.
Your users will be able to easily submit a classified ad and can even use Google Maps integration to make their ads more informative.
ClassifiedEngine (Theme)
ClassifiedEngine is another theme with powerful tools to edit and customize your websites’ classifieds design.
It has a dedicated mobile version specially developed to ensure a flawless experience on all mobile devices. Customers can add their own advertising content, location, price, description of product and photo gallery. All you need to do is to approve or reject the submissions.
The theme also has built-in search functionality, built-in breadcrumbs, listings by seller, location, category and much more. Support is also guaranteed.
Another WordPress Classified Plugin
If you choose to use a classifieds plugin rather than a theme, then Another WordPress Classified Plugin offers great features, and it’s free.
At over 240,000 downloads, this plugin also has a large, supportive community of users.
With this plug-in you can easily add a classified ads section and enable your customers to search ads by location or keyword. There are also several features that can be added if you install the premium version, such as PayPal Pro support, regions control (restricting users from viewing ads that aren’t within a reasonable distance from them), and the ability to offer coupons,
SOFA Front Post (Plugin)
SOFA Front Post lets you, as an admin, predefine categories and allow your customers to publish ads for free, or for a certain fee.
This plugin even allows you to automatically delete certain ads after a period of time, or hold some ads in quarantine and not publish them until the customer pays required fee.
All payments are handled by PayPal, so you’ll need an account to use this plugin effectively. Every ad has a Google Maps location attached to it, and the plugin authors offer 24/7 support that may come in handy when needed.
Business Directory WordPress Plugin
One of the more popular plugins for adding a classified ads area to your site, the Business Directory Plugin is fully customizable and allows you to create multiple fee plans.
Support for reCAPTCHA will save you from spammers, and it is SEO-friendly. This plug-in also includes a Google Maps module, location based filtering and ZIP code searches. It will also allow you to build different style directories and address book. Best of all, this plugin is free to use!
Classifieds (Plugin)
Classifieds is a powerful plugin designed by WPMU DEV, who has a great history as a development team.
You can add a classified section to your website and display your data with a set of great looking widgets. Just like SOFA Front Post, you can set limit time for the ads to expire, and enable credit system to charge your users for each ad they place.
It’s also perfectly integrated into BuddyPress, giving users a special page in their profiles for viewing and posting classifieds. You can also set up signup credits for all users or send individual users a set amount of credits.
Conclusion
Hopefully with this post you will be able to launch an awesome classifieds section for your website using WordPress. Let me know if you use any of these themes or plugins and what your experience has been like so far.
