How to create a multi-vendor marketplace with WooCommerce

Decide who can apply as a vendor, whether you approve each vendor and product, what commission you keep, when vendors are paid, and who handles refunds, taxes, shipping and customer support.

Decide whether vendors share one checkout or need separate payment accounts. This matters because some extensions process every payment through your store gateway and pay vendors later, while other setups support split payments through a compatible payment service.

WooCommerce does not include vendor accounts, vendor dashboards, commission tracking or marketplace payouts. Install one multi-vendor extension and run its setup wizard. Product Vendors, Dokan and WC Vendors are examples of extensions built for this job. Product Vendors adds vendor management, commissions and vendor product controls to WooCommerce.

Do not install two marketplace extensions at the same time. They can create duplicate vendor roles, dashboards, commission records and checkout behaviour.

Set the pages used for vendor registration, the vendor dashboard, the vendor store and vendor terms. Configure whether registration is open to everyone or requires your approval, then create a test vendor account.

Check the permissions carefully. A vendor should be able to manage permitted products and orders without being given administrator access. If the extension offers product or vendor approval, leave approval enabled until you have reviewed the workflow.

Set a default percentage or fixed commission, then check whether vendor-level or product-level rules override it. Confirm how refunds, cancelled orders, shipping charges, taxes and payment fees affect the vendor balance.

Configure a payout method and schedule. With Product Vendors, sales are processed through the store owner's payment gateway and vendor earnings are paid as commission; automated payouts require the supported PayPal setup, so manual payouts may be necessary.

Choose whether vendors can create products directly or whether every product needs your approval. Set the product fields vendors may edit, including price, stock, images, variations and downloadable files.

Test shipping with products from two vendors in the same cart. Separate origins can produce separate shipping packages or unexpected rates. Write clear rules for fulfilment, tracking, returns and damaged goods before vendors start listing products.

Create two vendor accounts and add products for each one. Place a customer order containing products from both vendors, then check the checkout, order split, stock reduction, vendor notifications, commission calculation, shipping charge and payout record.

Also test a refund, cancelled order, failed payment and vendor product approval. The common Friday problem is a marketplace that works for one vendor but miscalculates shipping or commissions when one order contains products from several vendors.

For the quickest launch, use a purpose-built marketplace extension for the vendor layer and a marketplace-ready theme for the storefront. Martfury can provide vendor-style shop pages, product filters and AJAX search, but it does not replace the multi-vendor extension that handles vendor accounts, commissions and payouts.

After installing the theme, import or configure its marketplace layouts, connect the vendor dashboard pages supplied by your extension, and repeat the two-vendor checkout test before launch.