Multi-visitor store possible?

Hi,

I'm exploring a unique feature for my nopCommerce setup and could use your expert advice. I want to enable a functionality where visitors can create their own stores within my nopCommerce platform. These visitor stores would not just select from the main shop’s inventory but also customize their store’s design and manage their storefronts independently.

Here are some key aspects I'm looking to implement:
1. **Store Creation by Visitors**: Allow  members (visitors) to  design their own stores. Membership functionality is not important since they're already members of our club.

2. **Product Selection and Management**: Visitors should be able to choose which products from the main inventory they want to display in their stores.

3. **Customization Options**: Provide tools for visitors to customize the layout and design of their stores.

4. **Independent Store Management**: Each visitor can share their store via specialized url.

All sales, carting system and payments can go directly to the main store and ve handled from there. So the visitor-store need minimal functionality, ie only showing chosen products.

I am unsure whether existing plugins support this level of customization or if I would need a custom solution.
Has anyone implemented something similar, or could you point me toward plugins that could be modified to achieve these functionalities? Any guidance on potential development challenges or considerations would also be greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance for your insights!

Ps. This is for a non-profit charity organization aimed toward kids and youth, so the budget is very limited Ds

Hi,
By the looks of your requirements, NopCommerce's multistore can be used and customization has to be made on top of it to handle your requirements.

There are a few challenges though
1. **Store Creation by Visitors**: Does this mean all the visitors who visit the site can create a unique store for them? In this case, how many visitors/members do you expect the site to have? If there are lots then the NopCommerce store may require a very powerful server configuration.

2. **Product Selection and Management**: Does this mean all the members have access to the admin panel? The nopCommerce's admin panel is the same for all the admin so configuration changed by one admin may impact another store so the store's admin and their products may need to be isolated with customization else it will be very risky. So, a specific interface may need to be created to allow the member's user to enable/disable product or NopC's multi-vendor functionality may need to be incorporated along with the Multi store

3. **Customization Options** : In what depth a member can customize their stores? Just select one of the available themes or can they change every component of a page? If it is the former then we can install a bunch of themes and allow the members to select one of the themes.

Hi, thank you for your answer.  
Please read my answers below:

More background info for your understanding:

The concept involves an e-commerce platform designed to support nonprofit organizations by selling products, services, and subscriptions. We list items on a central shop, specifying the price and the percentage of sales that will go to the organization. Organizations then choose which products they want to feature in their customized shop and promote these internally.

The functionality includes:

Organization/member sub-shop
   - Organizations select products to sell in their customized shop (add them to their product arsenal).
   - Design and customize their shop based on their specific needs and identity. (this is not a requirement since we can make the design for them, OR, they can choose between some templates)
   - Share unique and custom links to the shop or specific products on social media to increase sales.

Purchasing Process
   - Buyers access the shop through the links as provided by the members, add products to their cart, and complete purchases with various payment options in the mastershop.

Delivery Options
out of scope



"Does this mean all the visitors who visit the site can create a unique store for them? "
Not ALL visitors. Some prespecified members(organizations) are allowed to create their own sub-shops.  Note that the sub-shop does not need to be isolated or have full functionality, since all the checkout can be handled in the mastershop. The sub-shop is actually just a light-weight page that lists all the chosen products, and have unique custom url's that can be used to populate the mastershop.

When a customer adds a product to the cart in the sub-shop, they can actually be making the order in the mastershop in the background.  The only thing we need to keep track of is which subshop the orders came in from. That's it.

I'm primarly looking for a plugin or a pre-built solution
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Your questions:

"Does this mean all the visitors who visit the site can create a unique store for them?"
Just a light-weight page to show the products and assign them unique URLs
(i.e. https://xxxx.com/store/?shopID=123&productID=987)

"Does this mean all the members have access to the admin panel?"
NO, they don't need access to admin panel

"In what depth a member can customize their stores?"
Change the name and upload a logotype would be sufficient for starters

Thanks for the details.

Looks like most of your requirements will be satisfied by properly configuring the store with a proper access control list and the multi-store setup.
https://docs.nopcommerce.com/en/getting-started/advanced-configuration/multi-store.html . The documentation may help get things started.

RE: "I'm primarly looking for a plugin or a pre-built solution"
It does not exist.  You will need to customize.
You will use the multi-store feature, but I do not think that making your members Administrators and using Access Control will work.

RE: "The sub-shop is actually just a light-weight page that lists all the chosen products, and have unique custom url's that can be used to populate the mastershop."
Yes, that's the customization that's needed.  The controller for that page would insert/update Store records, and General Settings to set store specific theme, and insert/update Product records with "Limited to stores".

RE: "(i.e. https://xxxx.com/store/?shopID=123&productID=987)"
You won't need query string parameter "shopID=123".  The /store/ will internally set the StoreId that is saved on the Order.

RE: "specifying the price and the percentage of sales that will go to the organization.
You can probably use a Product's "Old price" or "Product cost" to be able to set those, and then calculate percentage on the member page.