WooCommerce Marketplace with Multiple Shipping Carriers using Product Vendors

In this article, we will guide you to set up a successful WooCommerce store with multiple shipping options and vendors using the WooCommerce Multi-Carrier Shipping plugin and WooCommerce Product Vendors.

Using the two plugins together will help you set up a WooCommerce marketplace store where different vendors would be able to display real-time shipping rates from UPS, FedEx, USPS, Stamps.com, and DHL. Let’s see how these plugins work to give the best shipping experience.

WooCommerce Multi-Carrier Shipping Plugin

The WooCommerce Multi-Carrier Shipping plugin acts as a complete shipping solution for your online store and helps you display real-time rates from shipping carriers like FedEx, UPS, USPS, DHL Express & Stamps.com (USPS) at the cart page. Using this plugin you can configure your shipping accounts for the following shipping carriers,

• FedEx
• UPS
• DHL
• USPS
• Stamps.com

Store owners can show the shipping rates from more than one shipping carriers. Also, there is no restriction for the customers to choose the shipping services provided by the store owners. It gives them the flexibility to choose the shipping service they prefer.

Using the WooCommerce Multi-Carrier Shipping plugin, store owners can easily create shipping rules based on various factors like the product weight, the price of the products in cart and the number of products the customer has purchased, etc.

WooCommerce Product Vendors

WooCommerce Product Vendors converts your store into a multi-vendor marketplace. The main features of this plugin include

• Each vendor has a dedicated page where products are listed
• Assign existing products to vendors, or vendors can add their own
• Admin has total control of the amount of commission paid to each vendor
• Set commissions to vendors once the order is completed.

How do the two plugins work together?

The WooCommerce Multi-Carrier Shipping Plugin is compatible with the WooCommerce Product Vendors plugin, which allows the plugins to operate together seamlessly.

Setting Up Vendors

• Head to Vendors under the “Products” section of your dashboard. You can add the vendors by entering the details like store name, email id, etc.

• Once the vendors are added, a Vendor Admin has to be assigned to each of the vendors since the shipping process is handled by the Vendor Admin.

• Make sure that the address and other details are entered correctly for each Vendor Admin.

• Once the vendor admin is set for each vendor, you can see that under the Users section of your dashboard.

Note: You can set multiple vendors for each Vendor Admin.

• Creating Products for Vendors – The Store Vendor can assign products to the vendors.

• Once the above steps are completed, you can see the changes in the Vendors page as shown below.

Setting up Multi-Carrier Shipping plugin on your WooCommerce

Setting up the WooCommerce Multi-Carrier Shipping Plugin can be easily done. You just have to follow the steps mentioned in the WooCommerce Multi-Carrier Shipping guide.

Install the WooCommerce Multi Vendor Shipping Addon by PluginHive

After you have set up the WooCommerce Product Vendors plugin, you need to install the WooCommerce Multi Vendor Shipping Addon.

This plugin will act as a bridge and allows you to assign products to the vendors. It has two important features.

• This plugin will allow the Vendor Admins to add their Carrier Account details for different shipping carriers so that they can charge the shipping rates based on the carriers. The Vendor Admins just need to access their My Accounts page and click on Account Details to set up the shipping carrier accounts.

• This plugin changes the appearance of the cart based on the products selected by the customers. This simply means that the plugin has two options – Split and Separate and Split and Sum. In the Split and Separate option, shipping calculation is split and the shipping rates are added together, and in Split and Sum option, shipping calculation is split and the shipping rates are shown separately. You can find these options in the plugin settings.

If you choose the first option, i.e Split and Separate, then the rate would be shown as the sum of the individual shipping costs of the products. The image shows how the rates are displayed.

If you choose the Split and Separate option, the prices would be shown separately. The below image shows how the rates are displayed.

Once you setup the Multi-Carrier Shipping plugin with your preferred shipping rules, your customers will get the shipping rates on the WooCommerce cart and Checkout page. When a customer places an order, the order details are sent to the vendors via e-mail. Now, the vendors have to send the package to the Admin, who will then handle the fulfillment process.

Conclusion

The combination of WooCommerce Product Vendors and WooCommerce Multi-Carrier Shipping plugin along with the WooCommerce Multi-Vendor Shipping addon could surely help you achieve your multi-vendor business case.

If you need any help in setting up multi-vendor shipping on your WooCommerce store, then feel free to contact our customer support. They will definitely be able to help you solve any issues.