Dokan Subscription

This module allows you to create subscription packs for your vendors before they can start selling their products. Generally, vendors buy your subscription packs so that they can start selling their products and receive commissions.

You can define how many products they can sell with each subscription packs, how much it will cost, how long it will be valid, and how many times the billing will recycle. You can also create as many subscription packs as you want.

How it works

This document describes how a vendor can activate the desired pack and the admin role behind it.

1. Admin goes through the settings
2. Admin creates packages
3. Vendor buys the package or Admin assigns the package
4. The vendor is notified before the package ends
5. After subscription end, the products go into the draft mode
6. Why you should brush up products for non-recurring packs

Installation

Navigate to your WP Dashboard->Dokan->Modules. Find Vendor Subscription and turn on the toggle button on the top right to activate this module.

How to Create a Subscription Product

Subscription packs are stored as regular products although they will not show up on your website to your customers. To create a subscription, simply go to WordPress Dashboard → Products → Add Product.

Important: you will have to do this from the WordPress dashboard (wp-admin, backend) of your site.

In the Product Title and Body, give your subscription pack a name and a brief description.

When done, scroll down to the Product Data and select “Dokan Subscription” from the drop-down menu, as shown in the screenshot below.

In the Regular Price field, enter the price of the subscription pack you’re about to create. Then in Number of Products field, type in the number of products the vendor will be able to publish using this subscription.

Next, you can select the validity of the subscription pack. By default, subscriptions will have a validity of 30 days. You can increase or decrease it by typing in a custom number of days you want this subscription pack to be valid for.

You can also add different vendor commission for different subscription pack. Just enter the value in percentage (%). From v1.2.0, you can specify the allowed categories for each subscription. Click on the Allowed Category field and you will view available categories of your marketplace. If you want to include all categories, just leave the field empty.

There is also an option for Recurring Payment. You can enable this feature if you want an automatic payment from your customers.

Package type

There are two types of subscription package :

1. Recurring
2. Non-recurring

Recurring

The recurring pack will charge the user automatically after the expiration of the package. If you set the billing cycle per 1 month then after 1 month the user will be charged. You have to know some important rules for the recurring package –

1. The recurring package will charge automatically
2. The package should have a price (it is not possible to create a free package for the recurring system)
3. A recurring package can be purchased via Standard PayPal and Dokan Stripe-connect.
4. A recurring package is not available to assign from the user profile.

Non-recurring

If you want user vendor to charge for a limited time frame then you can use non-recurring package. You can set a selected time frame like as 1 month or 1 year as the package validity.

1. A non-recurring pack can be assigned from the user profile.
2. You can use any gateway to purchase non-recurring package.
3. You can create a non-recurring free package.

Menu Order for Subscription Packs

You can also specify menu order for your subscription packs in the vendor dashboard from your Dokan admin panel. You can edit menu order for each subscription and rearrange them according to your requirements.

This option is in the Advanced tab of WooCommerce Product Creation page. You have to input the order number for each subscription to rearrange them.

Step 1: Enable Subscription by Admin

Navigate to- WordPress Dashboard → Dokan → Settings → Product Subscription

Check the Enable Product Subscription option. There are some other options for better management. You can check them as well.

Step 2: Vendors can now View and Buy Subscription

To see the available subscription packs and buy one, a vendor must go to Vendor Dashboard → Subscription.

Please note that the vendor may not buy a subscription pack along with any other product from the marketplace. Due to restrictions in payment gateway, the vendor must only purchase the subscription pack at a time, and do other shopping in a separate cart at a later time. See the FAQ section for more information. Also, you cannot buy a subscription by bank, cheque or cash on delivery methods.

Step 3: Activate the Package Bought by the Vendor – Admin

When a subscription pack is purchased, the admin has to activate it for the vendor. For activating admin have to go to wp-admin → WooCommerce → Orders and approve the purchase order of the vendor.

The alternative to Step 2 & 3: Assigning a Package Manually by Admin

An admin can even manually assign a package to a vendor. To do this admin must go to WordPress Dashboard → Users and pick the user. Then at the bottom of that page, you will find something like this.

Select the desired subscription pack from the drop-down menu and hit Update User. The user will get the pack activated instantly.

Or you can assign the package from WP-Amin–> Dokan–> Vendors–> Edit,

NB. Only non-recurring packs can be added this way.

You will be see all the subscriptions in Dokan–> Subscriptions,

Now the Vendor gets a Confirmation

To check validity, the limit of a package vendor can simply go to Dashboard → Subscription, something like this will appear.

Before they can purchase a subscription pack, you need to create one (or more). So let’s check out how to create a subscription pack.

Subscription packs are extremely customizable. You can choose how many products a vendor can publish under a subscription, how long until the subscription expires, whether or not the subscription will be recurring, and if yes, for how many billing cycles the subscription will recur.

Advanced Section

Enabling Recurring Subscription Payment and Billing Cycle

Alternatively, you can also choose this to be a recurring subscription. To do so, simply click the checkbox titled “Recurring Payment.”

Clicking on the Recurring Payment checkbox will reveal three new fields.

First, two will let you set the billing cycle for this subscription. In simpler words, this is “How long the subscription will be valid for before it is automatically renewed.” For example, if you set 3 months, it will mean the subscription will be valid for three months and then it will be automatically renewed.

Billing Cycle Stop

Billing Cycle Stop is whether you want the subscription to be continuously running or end after a certain number of cycles. By default it is set to Never, meaning the billing cycle will be recurring until the vendor stops. However, since the subscription packs are highly customizable, you can choose to stop the recurring billing after a while.

In the example above, you can see we have set billing cycle for 1 month, which means the customer will be charged for 1 month, and the cycle will keep recurring 12 times. So this subscription pack will charge per month and will run for 12 months.

However, you can also set it like the following:

There you see the billing cycle has been set to 1 year, and the billing cycle is set to stop after 1 time. That means the subscription pack will be valid for 1 year.

You can customize the subscription pack to your liking. As you can see the subscriptions are highly customizable.

Dokan Pro Updates

Dokan Subscription Product

In this version of Dokan, the admin will be able to allow vendors to add unlimited product under the Dokan Subscription settings just by putting ‘-1’ in the ‘Number of Products’ field as instructed below.

To get to this option, navigate through the WP Admin DashBoard→ Products→ Add New and scroll down to select Dokan Subscription from the drop-down menu to reveal the option.

This field was always available in the settings of Dokan Subscription for Product data as seen above but for the admin, the option to enable the vendors to be able to add unlimited products by putting -1 in the Number of Products field is just introduced from the v2.9.4 of Dokan.

Subscription Cancellation Notification

From Dokan Pro version 2.9.4 onwards, the admin is getting email notification of any subscription cancellation by the vendors.

So at any point of time, if a vendor cancels any subscription pack then a cancellation notification will be sent to admin similar to the image above.

Dokan 3.0 Updates

Dokan Subscription “Allowed Product Type”

In this version of Dokan, the admin will be able to restrict vendors to add particular product types to a subscription pack. Here is how you can do it:

To get to this option, navigate to the WP Admin DashBoard→ Products→ Add New and scroll all the way down to select Dokan Subscription from the drop-down menu of product data to reveal the option. Finally, select a product type from the “Allowed Product Type” you want to allow for.

Here, for example, we have selected the “Simple Product” type. Meaning that the vendor can only upload simple products on the store.

Dokan Subscription “Restrict Gallery Image”

In this version of Dokan, the admin can also restrict uploading image for the products under a certain subscription pack.

To get to this option, navigate to the WP Admin DashBoard → Products→ Add New and scroll all the way down to select Dokan Subscription from the drop-down menu of product data to reveal the option. Finally, check the “Restrict Gallery Image Upload” option.

Dokan Subscription (Trial Period)

From this release of Dokan, the admin can set the trial period for the subscriptions. Meaning that the vendors can vet the quality of the subscription during the free trial period. If the vendors think that the quality is not good then they can cancel buying the package.

To get to this option, navigate to the WP Admin DashBoard → Products→ Add New and scroll all the way down to select Dokan Subscription from the drop-down menu of product data to reveal the option. Next, check the “Recurring Payment” option. After that, you will have to check the “Enable Trial” option.

Now you will get two dropdowns to set the trial period on a weekly, monthly and yearly basis.

In the screenshot above, we have created 5 days trial period for the package.

• Note that if a vendor purchases this pack on 1st March. Then he or she can cancel it on 5th March. If the vendor doesn’t cancel rather keeps using the package then he/she will be charged with the value of the subscription pack.
• Suppose a pack is worth 40 dollars which has validity for 1 month and the trial is for 5 days.
  Now if a vendor buys the package on 1st March. Then the vendor has to pay the money on 6th March as the trial period exceeds on 5th March.
  And the next recurring payment will be incurred on the 31st March (as 1 month equals 30 days).

Note: The module supports Auction and booking products as well. You can restrict gallery image upload for booking and auction products.

Here is how the vendor sees the trial subscription package from the frontend.

Dokan Version 2.9.12 Update

Switching Plan for Dokan Subscription

In the latest 2.9.12 version of Dokan, the vendors can now switch to a different subscription in the middle of using another subscription. This is applicable for all the old users also.

To switch between the subscription packs, go to the Subscription page on your account.

Suppose, you are using the Non-recurring Pack subscription. Now, to switch to the Recurring pack, click on the switch plan button on the bottom of the pack.

You will see a page like this.

Choose a delivery system and click place order. You are done!.

Upgrading Packs

Suppose, one of your vendors switches from Non-recurring to Recurring or any other package, then, the vendor has to pay the full amount of that package.

For example, if your vendor switches from $70 Recurring package to another $80 Recurring pack then he/she has to pay the full amount of $80 of that package. However, because he/she upgraded from the $70 package, the extra $10 will be adjusted on the next billing cycle.

Also, a point to remember that the Upgrade package will only work with Dokan Stripe Connect.

As the Recurring has a limit of 70 products, after upgrading to Recurring pack, the vendor can add 15 more products according to his preference.

Downgrading packs

If a vendor switches from Recurring to Non-recurring, then again the remaining amount will not be adjusted.

Also, in this case, all the products of the previous package (which had more products) will be kept in the draft. The vendor can prioritize which products to showcase in the new package as per the package’s limit.  

For example, suppose a Recurring package, worth $80, has a limit of 85 products for 2 weeks and a Non-recurring package, worth $60, has a limit of 60 products for 60 days. If a vendor switches to the Non-recurring package from the Recurring package then the price will not be adjusted.

But, all (85) the products will be kept in the draft as soon as the vendor switches to the Non-recurring package. Then the vendor will choose 60 products from the 85 drafted products to showcase in his/her store.

FAQ

Here are some answers to the most frequently asked questions about Dokan Subscription module.

Q. Subscription pack disappears from the cart when purchasing.

A. Subscription pack needs to be purchased alone. The vendor may not purchase a subscription pack and another product from your shop at the same time. In short, if you’re a vendor, you need to buy a subscription pack, proceed to checkout with the cart, finish the transaction and then buy any other product you want to purchase.

Q. Unable to add new products.

A. vendors need to purchase a subscription before they can add any new product to the marketplace. If your site is in development, you will need to disable Dokan Subscription settings from the settings. See an overview of Dokan Subscription settings here.

Q. Vendors can add products without purchasing a subscription pack.

A. Make sure to enable Dokan Subscription pack from wp-admin → Dokan → Settings → Product Subscription → Enable Product Subscription.

Q. Will deleting a published product count against my quota?

A. Yes. If your subscription pack allows you to publish 10 products, you can only publish 10 products. However, if you delete one or more products after publishing them, your quota will be restored by the amount you deleted. So that if you delete two products, you can publish 2 products again.

Q. Where can I see the remaining number of products I can add?

A. The remaining number of products you can add will show up on your vendor dashboard.

Q. What will happen to a vendor’s published products when their subscription expires?

A. You can choose what happens to the published products after the vendor’s subscription expires from the settings. Go to WordPress dashboad -> Dokan -> Settings -> Product Subscription -> Product Status and choose the status from the drop-down menu.

Q. When does the vendor get to start adding products after buying a subscription pack?

A. As soon as the checkout is completed via PayPal, the vendors will be automatically enabled to add products according to the pack to which they subscribed. If they choose bank transfer or other method, you can manually go to your WooCommerce Orders and complete their subscription purchase. However, this will not work for recurring subscription pack purchases.