Online forward auctions are gaining enormous popularity these days. It is not just an easy option to sell your products quickly but also a way to clear your old stocks.
Many eCommerce sites are hosting auctions from time to time to promote their products and increase the number of visitors on their websites.
If you are looking for an easy way to set up a forward auction on your site, nothing can serve you better than a WordPress auction theme.
And, if you want to add some extra functionalities to your auction, you must go for a plugin.
In this article, we will share the most popular WordPress forward auction themes and plugins of the year.
Go through the article, and you will find at least one that will cater to your needs.
What is a forward auction?
Forward auctions are auctions in which a seller puts his items for bids to multiple buyers who compete with each other to pay the price that the seller will accept.
Best forward auction themes
WooAuction is a responsive WordPress theme that offers you almost everything that you need to create, edit, and manage an auction on your WordPress website.
The default WYG/WYS editor allows you to write auction descriptions. You can add multiple categories to the auctions you set up & schedule auctions manually.
The theme is WPML compatible and supports all modern browsers. It is SEO friendly and easily customizable.
Features
- Auction settings
- Auction customization
- AJAX bidding
- Rating and feedback
- Contact Form
Price - $23
Auction is a modern and feature-rich WordPress auction theme.
It is specially designed for car dealers, and it is an ideal theme for car listing with a modern and minimal design.
It lets you customize your website with an advanced theme options panel and a powerful page builder.
The theme offers you sliders on the homepage, side navigation for mobile, and Jquery effects.
It is SEO friendly and responsive and can be translated into any language.
Features
- Customizable auction
- Easy bidding options
- WooCommerce compatible
- Twitter Feeds widgets
- Well organized option panel
Price - $49
Adifier is a modern WordPress theme for auctions classified ads. It comes with 14+ readymade demos with each having its own layout styles.
It also offers you numerous options to set up your auction website. Along with that, it has a calendar picker with a start and end date range.
It lets you schedule your auction as per your convenience. There is a review button. With this, users can write their reviews.
The reviews can be displayed on your site only after your approval. Visitors can filter the reviews based on buyers’ or sellers’ types.
Features
- Customizable auction
- Ajax bidding
- Support for multiple currencies
- Chat & email messaging system
- Multiple payment methods
Price - $49
Essential is an eCommerce and auction theme for WooCommerce.
It has a flexible page layout, built-in Google fonts, and an easy to use theme options panel.
You can choose between two different types of homepages. There are sidebars in widget areas and Google map on the contact page.
The theme lets you slide anything anywhere with the parallax effect. It is responsive and easily customizable.
Features
- WooCommerce simple auctions
- WooCommerce bulk discounts
- Compare and wish list
- Custom login and register page
- Custom checkout page
Price - $59
iBid is a multi-vendor auction theme for WordPress and WooCommerce. It comes with 15 marketplace demos.
You can choose and import any demo with just a single click using the demo importer. There are two default layouts, grid, and list.
You can select a template as per your choice and use it on the category page.
The theme has MT megamenu, Ajax live search, and countdown features. It is responsive and retina-ready.
Features
- Automotive auctions
- Electronics auctions
- Countdown auctions
- Numismatics auctions
- Collectible auctions
Price - $69
Best forward auction plugins
WooAuction Software is an easy tool to set up a simple forward auction in WordPress and WooCommerce.
It helps you to promote auctions with starting soon, ending soon, and upcoming soon widgets.
Here, all the auction types come with a reserve price and buy now price.
The reserve price must be met to complete the auction process.
On the other hand, by paying the buy now, price one may directly purchase an item.
There is no need to go for bidding in this case. The plugin is beginner-friendly and well documented.
Features
- eBay style auction
- Escrow Payment
- Relist Auction
- Bid Watchlist
- Email notification
Price - $49
WooCommerce Simple Auctions is a feature-rich WordPress auction plugin. It lets you control the display of auctions.
There are lots of widgets to promote your auction, they have auction icons on thumbnails.
There are features for auction filtering and sorting the product list. You can see the auction history in WordPress admin.
The plugin is compatible with the latest versions of WordPress and WooCommerce.
Features
- Normal, reverse and simple auctions
- Proxy or auto-bidding
- Ability to verify credit cards and payment details
- Supports any payment gateway
- Set start and ending time of auction
Price - $29
WordPress WooCommerce Marketplace Auction Plugin allows you to set up auctions on your WordPress website with just a few clicks.
It is specially designed for multi-vendor marketplaces. With this, admin and sellers can add their products to auction, and buyers can bid on those products.
The admin and the users can see the bid list for all the auctions. The admin can see the name of the winner.
The plugin supports four types of auctions: standard, incremental, automatic, and reverse.
Features
- Apply all types of auctions to a single products
- Show the current bid on your screen
- Show all the bidders and their prices
- Automatic bidding feature
- Email notification
Price - $69
YITH WooCommerce Auction is a user-friendly WordPress plugin to implement an advanced auction system much similar to eBay on your WooCommerce shop.
It lets you sell refined products without affecting their market value by setting a minimum start price for increasing profit margin.
You can set your auctions with auto or manual bids.
The plugin even allows you to set secret auctions with hidden bids.
There are tons of widgets, blocks, and shortcodes to display your auctions wherever you want on your site.
Features
- Create auctions with “Buy now” option
- Set the star price for the auctions
- Set the start and end time for auctions
- Add countdown for each product
- Change the countdown style for all auctions
Price - $109
Ultimate WordPress Auction is a flexible and simple auction for setting up quick auctions on your WordPress site.
You can show auctions in your time-zones and add multiple product images to your auctions.
Only registered users can place their bids. The users, too, can add auctions to your site.
The plugin collects credit cards and debits automatically, transfer the charges to the auctioneers’ Stripe accounts.
It is available in both free and premium versions.
Features
- Set auctions with a reserve price
- Automatic or proxy bidding
- Reverse bidding engine
- Set auctions for future dates
- Supports virtual products
Price - $79
Conclusion
Here, we have handpicked some of the most user-friendly and best-performing themes of the year. Each forward auction plugin and theme is unique in its way.
Pick the one you liked the most, and you will be able to create your first auction within a few minutes.
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