Vendor Guide

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

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.

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 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.

• 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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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