WCFM Marketplace Review PROS & CONS (2023) – Better Than Alternatives?

WCFM Marketplace

9

Easy to use

8.8/10

Features

9.5/10

Price

9.0/10

Overall quality

8.5/10

Pros

  • Free version available
  • Ease of setup
  • Packed with features
  • Affordable price for paid packages
  • Good amount of third-party integrations
  • You can manage everything from frontend

Cons

  • Not the best support
  • There is a little learning curve

There is a significant increase in multi-vendor marketplaces. These platforms allow multiple sellers to list and sell their products. Great examples of such marketplaces are Amazon, AliExpress, eBay, Etsy, etc.

But it can take considerable time and effort to develop and maintain a successful multi-vendor marketplace. WooCommerce is one resource that site owners can rely on to build site a marketplace.

WCFM Marketplace is WooCommerce based plugin and an excellent choice for creating such sites with WordPress. In this WCFM Marketplace review, I will examine its features in greater detail and show what it offers and its pros and cons.

NOTE: Be sure to also check WCFM Marketplace vs Dokan and WCFM Marketplace vs WC Vendors comparison.

 

WCFM Marketplace Review

The WooCommerce powered WCFM Marketplace plugin has an impressive feature list. You will have everything necessary to establish and operate your own multi-vendor marketplace platform.

 

WCFM Marketplace plugin.

 

There isn’t any cumbersome admin panel to worry about. All essential tasks can be completed from the frontend. You can easily monitor sales reports, create coupons and products and get an overview of your store. No technical knowledge or experience is required to manage. You can also try the free version of WCFM Marketplace.

 

User Interface

You run all WCFM tasks from the frontend. But as the site admin, you will still need to go to the backend occasionally for tasks like plugin installations, theme change, or WordPress version upgrade. Vendors and buyers can do all of their tasks from the frontend too.

 

SEO Features

Each vendor can set some basic search engine optimization and social settings. Available WCFM SEO settings include the Twitter image, Twitter description, Twitter title, Facebook image, Facebook description, Facebook title, Meta keywords, Meta description, and SEO Title.

 

Storefront

A “Store Setup” widget will be visible to vendors when they log in for the first time. This allows them to set all essential settings like analytics, vacation mode, store invoice, store policies, customer support, SEO, shipping, payment, etc.

 

WCFM Marketplace storefront settings.
WCFM Marketplace storefront settings.

 

WCFM allows you to bulk edit product status, price, shipping class, visibility, stock quantity, store, etc.

 

Managers & Staff

Site admins can assign various responsibilities based on a staff role. They can also add as many staff members as necessary. These responsibilities can be managed at the group and individual levels through the WCFM Groups and Staffs addon.

Workloads can be split between several divisions. For example, you may want to assign tasks to certain people, such as support functions, handling accounts, inventory, and product management. These measures can help to improve productivity and profitability and save time in the process.

 

Payment Solutions

Cash pay, bank transfers, Skrill, Stripe, PayPal, or any other third-party WooCommerce payment gateway can be used as the payment option on WCFM Marketplace.

 

Announcements

Vendors and site administrators can communicate thanks to the integrated announcements feature. You can send static, read-only announcements, but there is also the option to create new topics where vendors can interact, similar to a forum.

Vendors can also receive a low stock warning via email as well as from their notification screen.

 

Earning, Sales Reports & Vendor Statements

Vendors and admins can easily access store earnings and other related data. Product sales for a given period can be analyzed using a multitude of different metrics.

 

WCFM analytics graphs.

WCFM Marketplace reports.
WCFM analytics and reports.

 

Admins will be able to view all sales information for the entire store. Vendors will see reports for their own individual stores. They cannot see or access earnings data for other stores or the marketplace as a whole. Site admins will determine the level of reports that each vendor can access.

 

Vendor Management & Commissions

Vendors can either self-register or be added manually by WCFM Marketplace site admins. Product price, vendor sales, percent + fixed, fixed, or percent are the current commission types that the site admin can set.

 

WCFM commissions options.
Setting commissions in WCFM plugin.

 

Commission types can be assigned by product, vendor, or category if needed.

 

Withdraw System

Withdrawals are the only way that vendors on WCFM sites can receive commissions. Commissions are paid automatically or manually after a vendor has made a request.

Bank transfer, Skrill, Stripe, or PayPal, are payout methods for vendor earnings. Withdrawals can be approved or disapproved according to the requested payment method.

 

WCFM withdraw options.

WCFM payout methods.
WCFM Marketplace withdraw settings.

 

Site admin can set a withdrawal limit or set a threshold for balance to be available for withdrawal. This is useful when it comes to refunds.

Withdrawal rules don’t have to be the same for each vendor. Site admin can determine if he wants to apply default rules or set withdrawal charges, a withdrawal threshold, a withdrawal limit, or allow requests to be approved automatically. The settings menu lets each vendor pick their own preferred payment method.

 

Handle Taxes

WCFM doesn’t appear to have any included tax functions. The only options I could locate are provided by third-party plugins or the default Wooommerce options.

 

Coupon Management

Vendors and site admins can create coupons from their dashboards.

 

WCFM Marketplace creating coupons.
Adding new coupon in WCFM.

 

The drop-down menu will show vendors all of the available coupon selections. Fixed and percentage are the two types of coupon discounts that can be created and used. Usage limits, certain categories or product exclusions, and minimum and maximum amounts can be used as coupon restrictions.

 

RMA Functionality

The WooCommerce Official Returns and Warranty Requests plugin (starting at $79) lets vendors on WCFM marketplaces handle return requests. This functions the same as the Dokan plugin RMA.

Added functionality that distinguishes this tool from Dokan includes RMA code format specifier and return shipping tracking. This integration is a part of WCFM Ultimate by default, so there is no need to purchase the plugin in that case.

 

Seller Verification

Another component of the WCFM Ultimate addon is its verification module. It allows you to further customize the vendor verification process. You can determine which documents for verifying ID are mandatory and optional. Vendors can have product limits until the verification process has been finalized for that specific vendor.

 

Subscription Feature

The free WordPress WCFM Membership plugin allows memberships to be sold on your online marketplace.

 

Wholesale

The plugin doesn’t come with a wholesale feature out-of-the-box. But you can use two different options that provide wholesale functionality. You can opt for the WooCommerce Wholesale Prices Premium ($59) or the free WooCommerce Wholesale Prices plugin.

 

Addons

WCFM Marketplace provides 6 premium addons.

 

WCFM Affiliate

People who want to create an affiliate marketing program that resembles eBay or Amazon can benefit from this addon. You can set different commission settings for your affiliates like new vendor registration, each sale from referred vendors, or purchasing by using an affiliate link.

All affiliate statistics can be checked from one place. The same central location can be used to monitor affiliate data.

Each affiliate can manage their information from their own dashboard. Dashboards also allow them to create affiliate URLs.

 

WCFM Delivery

Vendors with a dedicated delivery team can put the WCFM Delivery addon to good use. Vendors can assign specific delivery orders to different agents and get instant delivery notifications on their dashboards.

With the Free mobile app for delivery agents, WCFM Delivery App, this module becomes a powerful package for internally managing product deliveries.

 

Product Hub

Many companies bundle products to sell more items. Vendors can bundle their offerings using WCFM Product Hub. Frontend options allow them to create unique products to appeal to their target audiences.

 

Analytics

The ability to check company analytics is essential. Store analytics can be examined in multiple aspects. Information can be reviewed by store referrers, product categories, listings, vendors, products, and regions. You can even compare your best-selling items to see how they have performed during certain time intervals.

 

Third-Party Integrations

There are hundreds of different tools that can be integrated with WCFM. All product types and currently supported WooCommerce payment gateways are just a few possible integrations.

 

Reviews

Reviews can be approved manually or automatically. The review manage page lets you delete, unapprove and manage reviews.

 

WCFM leaving reviews.
WCFM store reviews.

 

Site admins can deactivate a vendor’s ability to manage reviews. Vendors can only disapprove reviews, while site admins are the only personnel that can actually delete a review left by a customer.

 

Shipping Management

Different shipping plugins can be integrated. WCFM provides the following shipping types for the store: Shipping by zone, Shipping by Country, and Shipping by weight.

 

WCFM shipping options.
WCFM shipping options.

 

Admin dashboards are used to assign the shipping settings globally, and vendors can overwrite them.

The vendor can select shipping by specifying the countries or the states where the items can be shipped. Postal codes, state, country, and region (or continent) can be picked in the Zone wise shipping option.

Country-wise shipping also allows vendors to choose per quantity additional price, per product additional price, and default shipping price. They can also manage the processing time of the shipment as well as the country from where the product is shipped.

When Shipping by Zone is selected, the vendor can choose local pickup, free shipping, or flat rate shipping. Vendors can use postal code, country, and state to edit their zones. The vendor can also edit the Shipping cost for each shipping method, and the vendor commission will be calculated taking into account the shipping costs.

 

Order Tracking

WCFM allows orders to be marked as shipped. Once a customer receives their products, they can verify this status.

 

WCFM order tracking feature.
WCFM Marketplace order tracking.

 

When the vendor sets them as shipped, tracking URLs can be added for orders. That URL will be available for the respective customer to view.

 

Refund System

WCFM Marketplace eases up the return policy for the vendors. The vendor can request a refund based on the support ticket decision.

The site admin can assign a period when a refund would be available for a particular order. Reasons can be given for each request, and a partial or full refund can be granted. Any payment refunds must be provided manually by admins.

 

Store Policies

Policies can be set for certain products or across the entire marketplace regarding exchanges, cancellations, returns, refunds, and shipping. The WCFM Product Policies tab is where such changes can be made.

Clients will receive a copy of the store policies along with their order invoice after the policy is set for the whole site or specified products. Policies can all be managed from the same place, and they can even be set as global defaults, site-wide, or just for certain vendors.

 

Contact Forms

WCFM Marketplace comes with a free feature called product inquiry. Inquiry dashboards are provided to customers and vendors, and there’s no need for back and forth email conversations.

WCFM supports showing responses in the same thread, and the product page is where those responses will be visible.

 

Bookable Products

WCFM provides an option to offer live bookings and bookable products. Each vendor can manage their own bookins on marketplace.

 

WCFM booking feature.

 

Store Support

WCFM provides store support feature. Queries can be submitted along with attachments. Clients can specify the particular product associated with their query, the request’s priority, and the category when opening the ticket.

 

WCFM support features.
WCFM Marketplace support feature.

 

The feature can be used for both pre and post-sale support because it is product-based and not order based.

 

Theme & App

WCFM Mobile Apps is an integrated segment of WCFM Marketplace. This option is convenient for delivery teams and vendors to help then with deliveries and managing stores at any time on the go.

 

WCFM mobile app. WCFM Marketplace app.

 

There aren’t any WCFM themes. However, WCFM should be compatible with any theme that works with WooCommerce. Check a list of themes that are fully compatible with WCFM Marketplace.

 

Pricing

WCFM provides option to purchase individual extension packages for premium features. It’s like choosing from an a-la-carte menu there are 6 options available:

  • WCFM Ultimate – starting from $49/yr for 2 sites
  • WCFM Groups & Staffs – starting from $39/yr for 2 sites
  • WCFM Affiliate – starting from $29/yr for 2 sites
  • WCFM Delivery – starting from $29/yr for 2 sites
  • WCFM Analytics – starting from $11/yr for 2 sites
  • WCFM Product hub – starting from $11/yr for 2 sites

You can also get all addons starting from $168/year for 2 sites. The plugin also has a free version.

 

WCFM Ultimate

More WCFM Marketplace features and functionality are included with the WCFM Ultimate package. It serves many different purposes and isn’t limited to a particular task or module. It comes with features such as:

  • Product Types – Supported product types include voucher, listings, tickets, lottery, event, auction, appointment, accomodation, rental, subscriptions, booking, etc.
  • Integrations List – Your marketplace can have greater potential via connections with more than 40 well-known plugins. Geo My WordPress, Elementor, ACF, all major WooCommerce addons, etc., are supported.
  • Feature List – Additional features include option to create custom badges for vendors, an admin/vendor message board for chats, a bulk stock manager and a support ticket module for all active vendors.

Check all WCFM Ultimate features.

 

WCFM Marketplace Free vs Pro

Here are the differences betweem WCFM free and pro version.

Free features:

  • Announcement
  • Bookings & announcements
  • Capability manager
  • Catalog mode
  • Email settings
  • Flexible commission types
  • Inquiry manager
  • Knowledge base
  • Ledger book
  • Listings & products for listings
  • Media manager
  • Menu manager
  • Notification
  • Product custom fields
  • Product importer/exporter
  • Refund
  • Single product multi-vendor
  • Store geolocation & radius search
  • Store article
  • Store coupon
  • Store hours
  • Store policies
  • Store review
  • Store SEO
  • Store shipping
  • Withdrawal & reverse withdrawal
Paid features:

  • Affiliate (Affiliate addon)
  • Analytics (Analytics addon)
  • Bookings & appointments (the Ultimate addon contains added features)
  • Bulk & quick edit (Ultimate addon)
  • Bulk stock manager (Ultimate addon)
  • Bundle products (Product hub addon)
  • Category Wise attributes (Ultimate addon)
  • Composite products (Product hub addon)
  • Delivery (Delivery addon)
  • Groups & Staffs (Groups & Staff addon)
  • Listings & products for listings (more features are included with the Ultimate addon)
  • Live chat (Ultimate addon)
  • Product custom fields (additional functions are found in the Ultimate addon)
  • Product importer/exporter (the Ultimate addon has more features)
  • RNB – rental & booking system (Ultimate addon)
  • Seller badge (Ultimate addon)
  • Seller verification (Ultimate addon)
  • Shipping tracking (Ultimate addon)
  • Store followers (Ultimate addon)
  • Store invoice (Ultimate addon)
  • Store vacation (Ultimate addon)
  • Support ticket (Ultimate addon)
  • WC simple auctions & YITH auctions (Ultimate addon)
  • WPML integration (Ulitmate add-on)

 

WCFM Marketplace Review Summary

WCFM Marketplace is WooCommerce-powered WordPress plugin and a great frontend tool for multi-vendor marketplace websites. It doesn’t take long to establish a diverse, unique marketplace that operates much like Flipkart, Airbnb, Etsy, eBay and others.

You can advance your site’s progress with its impressive functionality. A few noteworthy options are Stripe split pay, store inquiry and review, zone and country-wise vendor shipping, ledger book, withdrawal and reverse withdrawal, refund request, and flexible commission system.

WCFM Marketplace will take your e-commerce site to another level. But if you think this plugin is not the right choice for your needs, then I suggest you check the MarketKing review, Dokan review or WC Vendors review as those are great alternatives for creating WooCommerce multi seller site.


DISCLOSURE: Posts may contain affiliate links. If you buy something through one of those links, I might get a small commission, without any extra cost to you. Read more about it here.

6 thoughts on “WCFM Marketplace Review PROS & CONS (2023) – Better Than Alternatives?”

  1. This plugin is not fit for purpose and WCFM refuse to refund within 30 days which breaches their terms and conditions. The plugin has serious errors with Stripe connect and I am unable to use it. Company is either fraudulent or going out of business. I am now out of pocket with an unusable plugin. Buyer beware.

  2. You are lead to believe that you can have a multi vendor site with just 2 or 3 plugins, however you will find you need to add a minimum of 12-15, each costing about $79 a piece. Just to get your shipping set up, you need 3-4 apps for ONE service. They leave out important things so that you have to pay even more. For example, the the United States you need to have the ability to ship United States Postal Service. To be able to calculate shipping, print labels, and connect to real time USPS, you will have to use a 3rd party service, pay for an app AND pay a minimum of $40/mo for the service. To allow all of your venders to have shipping capabilities and split the shipping for each vendor, that’s another 2-3 apps. IT NEVER ENDS!

    And there is a language issue in their documentation and it is difficult to understand. They do not explain terminology, and gloss over many concepts.

    It is very deceptive how they lure you in with the idea that you only need one plugin, then you see you need one other, and as you are setting up, you keep needing another and another and another and another and another…. it feels like a scam. We need to change the laws on these deceptive practices. WordPress should step up and do something.

    1. Hi Inanna,

      WCFM Marketplace comes with most options you will need. With WCFM Ultimate, starting from $49/yr, you will get most things you need. But yes, if there is some feature you need and plugin doesn’t come with it, you will need to purchase additional WooCommerce extension.

      1. Untrue unless you want a store were nothing can be purchased and nothing is shipped. I would not bother writing this comment if what you say were true. The $49 plugin is virtually useless, even after woocommers is installed.

        There are many plugins and much more cost involved if you want a fully functional multivendor website like Amazon etc as is advertised. And with every plugin you must add, you will find that you need yet another one.

    2. It’s true. But to be fair that’s how it is with every app these days on the internet. Developers sell half complete app then set you up to needing a dozen more. And what is worse is they want you to pay for the original and all the additional apps, if not monthly than yearly for the rest of your life.

      The only way around it is learning CCS, JAVA and PHP.

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