Multi Vendor Marketplace

Created OnNovember 5, 2020

Last Updated OnJuly 26, 2021

Multi Vendor Marketplace addon allows independent service providers (vendors) to register to your website, define their availability by setting working hours and holidays, add and edit their biography, confirm and edit/manage their bookings. Addon provides a registration form with configurable fields, creates a bio post/page with booking calendar, calculates and lists commissions.

Required and Recommended Addons

As all vendors are service providers, Service Providers addon is always required. For rescheduling and editing basic booking details Front End Edit addon, for changing every aspect of bookings Front End Booking Management addon is recommended.

Please note that these addons and all the others are included in WP BASE Developer Package.

Registration Options

When a user is registered as a vendor, both WP BASE Vendor (wpb_vendor) and WP BASE Provider (wpb_worker) WordPress user roles are added to their existing roles. You can use one or more of the following methods for registration:

Manually adding on admin side: When a user is added with role WP BASE Vendor or an existing user’s role is changed as WP BASE Vendor, he/she is automatically registered as vendor. This can be done in WordPress Add User page or better, in WP BASE Vendors page.
Automatically assign all new users as vendor: If you set default role as WP BASE Vendor, all new users will be registered as vendor
By using a membership plugin: Multi Vendor Marketplace addon supports several membership plugins. When user is registered or promoted to WP BASE Vendor role, he/she is registered as vendor
By using shortcode: Multi Vendor Marketplace provides app_register shortcode to create a registration form. Users who apply using this form and verifying their emails will be registered as vendor.
By BuddyPress Member Type: When set so, existing and/or future users of certain BuddyPress member types can be assigned as vendor. To do so, activate BuddyPress/BuddyBoss Integration in Vendor Settings page and select desired member type(s) in Global Settings > Advanced > BuddyPress tab. In the same tab, Also Assign Existing Members setting also allows you to assign existing users of the member type as vendor.

Registration Settings

On Vendor Settings page, the following registration setting fields are provided:

Registration Page: This is the WordPress page where app_register shortcode is added. This page shows registration form for not logged in visitors. Also user is redirected to this page when they verify their email. Note: As BuddyPress is using the same registration system, ensure that BuddyPress registration page is different than this setting.
Registration Form Fields: Tick the check boxes that will be used on the registration form. All selected fields will be required to be filled by the applicant.
Services Provided by Vendor: This is the list of services that vendor is willing to work for. Select the services that applicant allowed to select. If you do not select any service, user will not see a selection menu on the form. Note: A service is always required to define a service provider. Therefore when no services are selected here, provider/vendor will be assigned to the first service in the list of services.
Auto Approve Vendor: If this settings is Yes, applicants who activate their account will be saved as status approved. If setting is No, their status will be pending and admin is expected to approve their application. Here is a list of vendor status and their meanings:
- Approved: This is the normal status of a vendor. A vendor is a service provider who has a record in Service Providers page, usually having a bio page on which clients can make a booking and an account page on which they can manage their bookings, edit their working hours and change their settings.
- Pending: is the status of a vendor who is waiting for approval from the admin. A pending vendor may have a bio page depending on Create Post for Pending Vendors setting. They are not service providers yet and therefor they cannot edit their working hours, but they can edit personal information and bio page content.
- Declined: If a pending vendor is declined while in pending status, they will be in this status.
- Suspended: A vendor can be taken to suspended status manually or by a membership plugin integration, when membership of the vendor expires. Bio page of a suspended vendor will be taken to draft status so that vendor cannot be booked by clients. Existing bookings will be valid.

Registration Settings – Adding Custom Fields to the Registration Form

All default registration fields are of HTML text type and they are fixed. If you want add more or different type of fields to the registration form, for example user’s birthday, native language, gender, etc., you can achieve this by User Defined Fields addon:

Visit Display Settings → UDFs page
Add New UDF if required
Tick Register? check box
Tick Required? check box if the field is required
Click Save UDFs button

Selected UDFs will be displayed in the registration form.

Registration Process – User Experience

When the visitor fills all the required fields and submits the registration form, submitted data is saved in a special database table called signups. This is the same table that WordPress multi site and BuddyPress are using during their registration process.
He/she receives an email asking to activate their account. The template for this email can be edited on Global Settings → Email → Validation tab. It is imperative to keep ACTIVATE placeholder which creates the activation link in the email.
As user clicks the link in the email, he/she is redirected to the same page and a success message is displayed.
As the account is activated a WordPress user account for him/her is created and previously submitted data is moved to user meta table.
If Auto Approve Vendor settings is Yes, user can start to use his account now. If setting is No, he/she needs to wait admin approval.
Admin is notified about new user registration by email.

Registration Process – Admin Actions

Admin can follow unactivated submissions on Vendor Settings → Unactivated Signups page.
The table on this page includes applications where user correctly filled the form and a validation email was sent to them, but they did not validate their email address by clicking the link in the email for some reason, e.g. email delivered to spam folder of the user.
Addon has integrated spam bot protection without the need to use a Captcha, but no protection is possible against human spammers. Admin should decide if the application is genuine.
Admin can resend activation email, manually activate the account or delete the application in bulk or one-by-one.

Registration Process – Admin Approval

When a vendor is created, admin receives a notification email. Then he can check the application on Vendors page, make changes if required and approve or decline the application. Optionally he can send email to the user by ticking the Send Email check box.

Manually Adding and Managing Vendors

Using Vendors page, admin can register a person as WordPress user and vendor at the same time, or assign an existing WordPress user as vendor. To do so:

Click Add New button on Vendors page. An empty vendor record will be displayed.
To register a new person as WordPress user and vendor, leave Select or Register User as Vendor setting as Register new user as vendor and enter at least User login, Password and Email fields. The other fields are optional. Click Add as Vendor button.
To assign an existing WordPress user as vendor, select the user from Select or Register User as Vendor menu. User’s current data will fill the fields. Optionally make any changes, assign service and click Add as Vendor button.
You can edit an existing vendor by clicking Edit link below their names. Please note that relevant fields, e.g. Display name and Services Provided will be synchronized with the values seen at Business Settings → Providers page.