New Zone Based Vendor Shipping for Dokan Multivendor
Dokan V2.8.0 release is right around the corner. We are excited to tell you that there are multiple great features, enhancements to look forward to. But we couldn't hold ourselves back anymore!
You will be happy to know that we have revamped the whole shipping system for both Admin & Vendor in Dokan.
Shipping is a very complicated process to handle even for the experts!
So, we thought why not make better shipping with an easier user interface for our marketplace owners.
Introducing The New Dokan Vendor Shipping
With the latest release of Dokan Pro V2.8.0, we are gonna completely change the old way of configuring the shipping of the store products for the vendors(though the old shipping settings will still be available for customers). Using the WooCommerce zone wise shipping system, Dokan will provide a better frontend solution for the vendors when they want to set their shipping prices.
This time around, you don't need to enable Dokan Shipping from the WooCommerce shipping settings separately. It is on by default.
Note: If you want to use the old frontend shipping settings simply enable Dokan Shipping from the WooCommerce shipping settings. See more from here.
The new user interface provides a better representation of the WooCommerce shipping settings that you can set from the backend. Your vendors will be able to select the Shipping Zone and add the methods separately from their own frontend dashboard.
How To Let Your Vendors See The New Frontend
Since the release of WooCommerce V2.6, it introduced Shipping Zones. The admin could select the zone they want to set to fix the shipping. There are three methods under a zone they selected. You have to choose from
What the new Dokan Vendor zone wise Shipping adds is a new option when choosing a Shipping Method for WooCommerce shipping zone. The new option is called Vendor Shipping. It enables the WooCommerce zone wise shipping feature.
Go to wp-admin → WooCommerce → Settings → Shipping → Shipping Zones → Created Zone → Add Shipping Method
When selecting a shipping method you will find Vendor Shipping. Add it to your shipping method to enable your vendors with zone wise shipping. After adding it your vendors will be able to see all the zones you selected if they go to their dashboard.
Note: You need to set shipping method as Vendor Shipping for each zone to let your vendors see the new options.
Things Admin Can Configure
The new Dokan Pro plugin brings a frontend shipping zone configuration for each vendor. Admins must select the zone for the vendors to see them. They will not be able to set the shipping zone which will be seen by the vendors unless the admin sets the shipping method as vendor shipping.
As an admin, you will be able to select the shipping zone, select the shipping methods for that zone, set shipping classes for a similar group of items. The great thing about this update is the workload for the administrator is greatly reduced. Just configure a few settings and all the rest can be configured by the vendor themselves.
What The Vendor Sees And Can Do
After successfully configuring all the settings your vendors will be able to see the new shipping settings from their store frontend dashboard. It will show the previously configured shipping zone that the admin set.
The vendors will need to go to Dashboard → Settings → Shipping
Once they click on a zone they will be able to see the detailed configuration they can do for that particular area. They will be able to see
- The zone name: Predefined zone by the admin
- Zone location: Location of that zone
- Toggle button to enable limit zone location: Vendors can limit their zone location using a postcode
- Add shipping method button: Vendors can set their own shipping method
When they click on the Add Shipping Method will see the three methods to choose from.
There are three options.
- Flat Rate
- Title: The title of the method
- Cost
- Tax Status: Option to set if tax applicable or not
- Description: General description of the method
- Shipping Class Cost: Group a particular set of products for a separate shipping price
- Large item shipping class cost
- Small item shipping class cost
- No shipping class cost
- Calculation type:
- Local Pickup
- Title: The title of the method
- Cost
- Tax Status: If it is eligible for tax or not
- Description: General description of that method
- Free Shipping
- Title: The title of the method
- Minimum order amount for free shipping: The least amount of order that will support free shipping
The great thing about this feature is that the vendor won't have to be limited to the predefined settings by the admin. They have full control over the rate, cost, title and all other features they can set.
Excited? So Are We!
The new v2.8 of Dokan comes with many exciting features, enhancements, etc including better shipping from settings from the frontend that we are sure will benefit our customers the most. We tried to listen to our users had to say and act accordingly to develop our product.
It will be released soon so you don't have to wait too long to make your marketplace even better
