Be prepared to upgrade

Hi @arthurdaly,

Thanks for your valuable feedback.

Unfortunately, we are unable to agree with you that the free version of the Dokan plugin is unusable without the vendor shipping feature.

The free version of the Dokan plugins includes all of the necessary features for launching a multivendor marketplace business. As a startup, a marketplace owner does not want to put their business at risk. Giving the shipping functionality directly to the vendor may increase the risk of mismanagement, and a minor mistake could put a startup business at risk.

However, no two businesses will be the same, and they hope to create a marketplace with a wide range of features. As a result, we consider the vendor shipping feature to be advanced, which is why it is included in the premium version of the Dokan plugin.

So, we believe the features available in the free version are adequate for a limited-scale multivendor marketplace.

Regards!

Hi Tanjir, I agree that no startup would like to place their business at risk. Maybe I have misunderstood. If a vendor is based in another location, how is it possible that the shipping costs provided in Woocommerce will be able to be used by the vendor? E.g. the vendor is based in US, and wants to send using US Mail domestically. This isn’t set up as a shipping option because the store owner isn’t based in the US.

Does the owner need to restrict the vendors that register to their own location? Or do you just set flat rate shipping that all vendors can use? The vendor is the one shipping the product, so I think the only way is that they would set their own shipping rates. I am also wondering about how to ensure the vendor is accountable for shipping the item. Actually I’m just starting to use the plugin, but I hit a major hurdle with trying to set the shipping rates in testing.

Hi @arthurdaly,

As I mentioned to you earlier, the free version of the Dokan plugin is only for a limited-scale marketplace where vendors and marketplace owners are expected to be from the same country. The business model you described is an advanced multivendor marketplace model where vendors might be from outside the platform/marketplace country.

In a limited-scale marketplace, the marketplace owner is supposed to manage the shipping. In that method, vendors will send their products to the marketplace warehouse, and the products will be shipped from there. Since the marketplace owners manage the shipping, they will receive the shipping costs during orders.

But if you want to get the advanced shipping feature in the Dokan plugin, you need to upgrade your plan.

Regards!

The plugin is called “Dokan – Best WooCommerce Multivendor Marketplace Solution – Build Your Own Amazon, eBay, Etsy”. It seems to describe the “Advanced version”. In the Simple Version the owner needs a warehouse, but in the Advanced Version vendors can ship their own orders. Seems like it’s going to cost a lot more to open a warehouse than to provide the vendor the ability to ship their own orders. It should say Build your own “Limited Scale Marketplace”. Ebay and Etsy both allow vendors to ship their own orders, as does Amazon, although they have warehousing as well. Given that it’s taken multiple forum posts and hours of reading documentation to work this detail out, I stand by my assessment that the free version of this plugin is not what it claims to be, and is probably really only good for testing.

Hi @arthurdaly,

I think you did not read the plugin description properly. Dokan did not promote that you will get everything in its free version.

eBay, Etsy, and Amazon are also not free solutions. You have to pay to get their advanced features.

We have mentioned adequately what features are available in the free version and what is not.

It is mentioned that vendor shipping is a premium feature. You can have a look at the screenshot – https://snipboard.io/Dsrcdu.jpg

If your business model does not fulfill with the free version, that does not mean it is only useable for testing purposes.

I hope you get it

Regards!