Vendor Guide

Product Vendors 2.0x gives vendors more options and control of their store.

Registration

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Potential vendors can register via a registration form. Once a vendor has submitted the form, the Store Owner gets an email notification that a vendor has applied and a user account is created for the vendor. A status/role of Pending Vendor is assigned until the Store Owner approves registration and applies a different role. There are two possible roles:

• Vendor Admin – Has access to all settings.
• Vendor Manager – Has limited access to the Vendor dashboard.

A vendor then receives an email stating their application has been approved, along with the username and password. They can start to set up and manage their store.

Vendor Settings

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Vendors can configure settings in the WordPress dashboard as they wish, by going to the Store Settings. Vendors Settings fields, from the Vendor Admin dashboard:

• Vendor Logo
• Vendor Profile: Enter a description of you and your store.
• Vendor Email: List of email addresses, separated by a comma, that receive store-related notifications.
• PayPal Email: Email associated with the vendor’s PayPal account, to receive payments.
• Commission: This is set by the Store Owner.
• Timezone: Location of the vendor store.

The Store Owner can also edit Vendors settings by going to Products > Vendors. Vendors Settings fields, which the Store Owner can edit:

• Name: Vendor name displayed to the public.
• Slug: Based on the Vendor Name and automatically assigned.
• Notes: Enter any notes about this vendor. Only seen by store owners.
• Vendor Logo
• Vendor Profile: Enter a description of you and your store.
• Vendor Email: List of email addresses, separated by a comma, that receive store-related notifications.
• Vendor Admins: List of users who have access to manage this vendor. Added by the Store Owner only.
• Commission: This is the commission amount the vendor will receive. Product level commission can be set which will override this commission.
• Commission Type: Choose whether the commission amount will be a fixed amount or a percentage of the cost.
• Instant Payout: Pay commission to vendor instantly when order is paid. (Uses PayPal Mass Payments)
• PayPal Email: Scheduled commission payouts will be using this PayPal email to receive payments.
• Timezone: Set the local timezone.
• Show Per Product Shipping Rules: When enabled, vendor can edit per product shipping rules.
• Enable Bookings Feature: Enable to allow vendors to create bookable products such as booking classes or lessons.

Adding Products

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Adding products in Product Vendors is similar to adding products in WooCommerce, and all users who have manage access to the vendor can add/edit products. More info at: Adding and Managing Products. In Product Vendors, the only difference is vendors must have their products approved by the Store Owner. The process is:

• Vendor creates a product that is Pending Review after submission to the Store Owner.
• Email is sent to the Store Owner, notifying him/her that a vendor has submitted a product.

 Types of products

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• Simple, digital/downloadable products (note that vendors cannot create grouped products)
• Variable
• Bookable products, if the Store Owner has enabled this option. More at: Creating a Bookable Product.

Reports

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Vendors see reports similar to WooCommerce Reports, and located in the same location, for their own sales only.

Commission

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Commissions at a product, vendor or site-wide level are set by the Store Owner. If he/she has enabled Instant Payment or Scheduled Payments (weekly, bi-weekly or monthly), Vendors need a PayPal account to receive payment for commission.

PayPal Setup

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Product Vendors uses a built-in PayPal Mass Payments gateway to pay commissions. Vendors need to have a PayPal account of any type to receive Instant Payments and Scheduled Payments. Go to PayPal.com to sign up or verify that the email address is correct on your existing account. *Product Vendors has not been tested with a different payment gateway. If you’d like to use Stripe or another payment solution, this would require customization.

Roles

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Product Vendors adds a few user roles. Those roles relate to order, products and settings limited to the product vendor their account is associated with under Products > Vendors. For example, they will only be able to edit their own products. A vendor can have one of two different roles:

• Vendor Admin – Has access to all settings: Orders, Reports, Media, Products, Store Settings, Support (contacts the store admin), and Profile
• Vendor Manager – Has limited access to the Vendor dashboard: Orders, Media, Products, and Profile.

A single user with one user account can be set up to manage multiple vendors if needed, switching between vendors to which they have access.

Shipping and Fulfillment

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Vendor are responsible for fulfilling and shipping/sending orders after a customer has bought their product(s). There are two possible shipping types:

• Per Product Shipping – If enabled by the Store Owner, shipping costs are passed to the Vendor, and the Vendor has the ability to add their own rates per product. See below.
• All other shipping methods – If enabled by the Store Owner, shipping costs are charged to the customer, and payment is collected in checkout.

Per Product Shipping

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Vendors need to set up their own shipping costs per product, if the Store Owner has enabled Per Product Shipping. This is set in Product Data under Shipping > Shipping Rules. More information at: Defining Shipping Costs for Products.

Tax

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The Store Owner sets up and places vendors in the correct tax class with relevant rates, according to location.

Email Notifications

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Several emails are set up in Product Vendors for Vendors and the Store Owner.

• Vendor Registration (Store Owner) – Sent when vendor submits registration form.
• Vendor Registration (Vendor) – Sent to confirm registration form was submitted to store owner.
• Order Email (Vendor) – Notifies vendor of a new order.
• Canceled Order Email (Vendor) – Sent to notify vendor that customer canceled.
• Vendor Approval – Sent to vendors with login and password when registration is approved.
• Product Added Notice – Sent to store owner to review when product is added by a vendor.
• Order Note to Customer – Sent to customer when vendor adds a note, e.g., Tracking number, personal thank you.

Widget

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Product Vendors has a widget that displays vendor information according to settings by the Store Owner. It can be:

• Context sensitive, showing the vendor being displayed the page being visited
• General, showing a specific vendor no matter what page is being visited