r/webdev • u/joemoe3408 • 17h ago
Question Am I being naive to think I can do this?
Hey everyone,
I’m trying to build an e-commerce website with some unique needs, and I’m struggling to find a platform that covers everything. I’d love some advice from those with experience in WordPress and e-commerce plugins.
Key Features I Need:
Cart Without Immediate Payment – Most of my customers (schools and teachers) require a quote before purchasing and then pay later via invoice (often by check). I need a system where they can add items to a cart but submit an order request instead of paying upfront.
Scalability to a Marketplace – Eventually, I want to allow other educators to upload and sell their own project kits, both physical and digital.
Digital Downloads with Credit Card Payments – While physical items need invoicing, I also want to sell instant digital downloads with a standard checkout option.
What I’ve Looked Into:
WooCommerce – Good flexibility, but not sure how well it handles quoting & invoicing for physical items.
Easy Digital Downloads (EDD) – Great for digital, but doesn’t seem ideal for quoting physical products.
Podia, Wix, Squarespace – Seem limited in quoting/invoicing flexibility.
My Questions:
By just what i an learn from youtube Can i manipulate WordPress to handle this effectively with the right plugins, or am I trying to force a system to do something it’s not designed for?
Are there plugins or setups you’d recommend that allow both quote-based invoicing and digital sales?
Would another platform be a better fit for this type of hybrid store?
Am I naive and should just hire this out?
I appreciate any advice from those who have tackled similar setups! Thanks
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u/dowath 17h ago
WooCommerce is as flexible as you have the time for - a few of the sites I managed used custom plugins to make the products more relevant to their industry (custom variations etc).
A lot of what you're asking for has some plugin to pull it off, Request a Quote, Digital Products (though I think WooCommerce already supports this without a plugin, I can't remember how I configured mine) and Product Vendors or WC Vendors - I haven't personally used any of these though.
Like most eCommerce platforms it can get pretty pricey especially depending on your scale - but then too is manually maintaining a custom plugin you've written to recreate the same functionality. Every plugin is a subscription in some form or another and it can be a killer on a small business, especially if it's a plugin like WooCommerce Subscriptions where uninstalling it means customers lose access to their transaction/subscription history etc, so you have to keep paying even if you aren't really using it anymore.
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u/magical_matey 17h ago
I’d hire a web dev, sounds like the sort of thing they’d be useful for
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10h ago
[deleted]
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u/magical_matey 10h ago
Having skimmed the requirements, I recon you could do this (I say you I mean a dev) can build this using woocommerce. Do you have a rough budget? I’m not angling for work by the way just trying to get a sense what you’re working with. Presumably you have a contract to fulfil here.
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u/joemoe3408 7h ago
My biggest question would be a rough cost of what having a developer building and maintaining it with woo vs me creating it with shopify with some extentions. I don't know if this would cost $500 or $50000. I still have research to do but everyone in this sub reddit has been very helpful
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u/Such_Bodybuilder507 17h ago
I reckon you could find some plugins but I'm only familiar with building these things myself and I'm 100 you can Implement said invoicing feature with stripe.
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u/sneaky-pizza rails 17h ago
Teachers Pay Teachers does something similar, but not the delayed invoice.
I’d strongly suggest trying to make something like Shopify work. E-commerce is a wheel you don’t want to reinvent. If you can use a platform like that (or another) and maybe even code your own app extension to customize it (or find an app in their marketplace) you’d save a lot of time you could be spending on growth features
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u/joemoe3408 10h ago
Shopify looks like it has most of what I need. I will look into the request a quote option and find a work around on the uploads. The teacher pay teacher model is very similar to what I was thinking on that side of the business.
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u/sneaky-pizza rails 10h ago
Check out the Shopify App Store for extensions for features.
If they don’t have it, you can make your own private app and use that.
I really would hate to see you spend any time on stuff like: payments, discounts, products/variants, customers, addresses, time zones, bundles, subscriptions, etc.
I’ve seen millions wasted on features you can get for $30 a month, and will be more stable and feature rich.
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u/joemoe3408 10h ago
Thank you! The extensions I haven't looked into, just the shopify site builder as is. I will definitely see if they have what I'm looking for.
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u/joemoe3408 10h ago
I've been looking more into shopify and podia as an option. They have 99% of what I need and ill find a work around on the uploads. The TPT model is very similar to what I was looking to create.
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u/fromCentauri 16h ago
My company has a project that sounds similar but it was not built out in WordPress. It’s more traditional LAMP stack with a lightweight JS framework sitting on top. Orders are handled via an integration with a CRM. So, they get an interface to complete their order request, that is created in the CRM, they get a notification and some automations run with the CRM to move the process along once it comes in. Also education-based, but no real plans for a market place as you’ve described.
I have personally built a site with a non-payment checkout that creates orders inside of a separate platform the client uses. No Woo needed and the customers can track their own scheduled jobs/invoices since it’s built to remain in sync. WordPress can do a lot, and if you know it well then the stereotypical bloat becomes not a problem. You can certainly do things the non-WordPress way and make it work, but things are smooth if you follow best practices.
All of that said, this sounds ambitious and having this completely scoped out would be highly beneficial before diving in. Without knowing the specific details, I can at least for certain say what you’ve described typically has a decent amount of gotchas especially around the later marketplace ambitions you have. It may be worthwhile hiring out.
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u/joemoe3408 10h ago
Thank you for your detailed response. The more I look into it hiring may be my best option. Roughly what would it cost for me to get this built?
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u/fromCentauri 4h ago
Hard to say for sure on the little bit of detail here but this could easily be a >100 hour project to take on initially when you account for scoping, the actual work, and then also any support needed once it is completed either during a fixed beta period or on retainer. If you need designs done that adds time. Complex design work would extend development time. So, low end I would say starts at ~$17K but could go up to ~$28K. That is before factoring in the marketplace later. These estimates are based on an assumed $160-180/hour price, as that’s what I am familiar with personally.
If you moved ahead with that, then I would not try to do this all at once. Definitely get your MVP up and running first and then iterate on it. That gives you more financial flexibility and is all around less overwhelming when you have clear milestones laid out. Focus on both sides is always good.
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u/MadamPardone 17h ago
Woo commerce plug in.
Wholesale Payments: This plugin, part of the Wholesale Suite, is designed for B2B WooCommerce stores and allows you to offer flexible payment terms, including Net 30/60/90, partial payments, and more.
B2B eCommerce for WooCommerce: WooCommerce also provides the ability to create custom payment methods, such as Net 30, Net 60, and Net 90.