Storefold - Multivendor Marketplace for WooCommerce documentation

Storefold Pro turns a WooCommerce shop into a multivendor marketplace. Sellers apply, you approve them, and they manage their own products and orders from a vendor dashboard on your site. Customers check out once. Each seller receives only their part of the order, and you keep a commission.

The Pro edition contains the complete free edition, so you do not need both. On top of it, Pro adds commission rules per product, per vendor and per product category, seller membership plans, Stripe Connect automatic payouts, an earning hold period, several sellers per product, categories open to vendors, custom questions on the application form, staff accounts, identity verification, per-vendor shipping, customer disputes, an activity log, signed JSON webhooks, CSV vendor import and an installable vendor dashboard with new order alerts.

Storefold is for store owners who want other sellers to sell through their WooCommerce store while keeping control over who sells, what they sell, how much commission you take and when sellers get paid.

Storefold Pro needs WooCommerce, so install and activate WooCommerce first. Pro is a standalone plugin: it already contains the free edition. If the free edition is active when you activate Pro, the free edition is switched off automatically and all vendors, orders, commissions and settings carry over.

Storefold > Overview is the home screen of your marketplace.

At the top, four cards summarize the current month:

• Marketplace sales this month: everything customers spent on vendor products.
• You earned this month: your commission from vendor sales.
• Vendors earned this month: what your sellers made after commission.
• Active vendors: stores currently able to sell.

Needs your attention lists everything waiting on you, for example products waiting for review when you require product approval. When nothing is waiting, it says so.

Marketplace health runs a set of checks and marks each one OK or Check:

• Marketplace pages: the Dashboard, Stores and Become a Vendor pages are published.
• Pretty permalinks: store pages at /store/ work.
• Vendor payouts: at least one payout method is enabled.
• Marketplace emails: how many marketplace emails are enabled.
• Vendor accounts: no store is linked to an administrator or shop manager account.
• Vendor shipping: whether vendor shipping is added to your shipping zones.

Quick links takes you to the Become a Vendor page, the store directory, the vendor dashboard, the marketplace emails and the help pages.

Storefold > Vendors lists every store with its Store, Owner, Status, Balance, Verification, Commission, Joined date and Actions.

Use the links above the table to filter by status: All, Pending, Approved, Suspended, Rejected and Verification pending. Use the search box and Search stores to find a store by name.

Vendor statuses:

• Pending: applied and waiting for you.
• Approved: can sell.
• Suspended: products can no longer be bought and the vendor dashboard shows a notice. Use it for temporary problems.
• Rejected: application declined.

Add a vendor

Open Add a vendor, enter a Store name and Owner email. If an account with that email exists, it becomes the owner. Otherwise a new account is created and emailed a link to set a password. Administrators and shop managers cannot be vendors, because every product their account creates would count as that store's. To test the vendor side, apply with a separate account.

Manage stores

• Use the Suspend, Reject and Delete buttons in the Actions column for one store, or tick several stores, choose a bulk action and click Apply.
• Click a store name to see its balance, lifetime earnings, application answers and full money ledger, and to rename the store. From there you can also adjust the balance with a reason, for example a bonus or a fee charged outside the store. The vendor sees the entry and reason in their earnings history.
• View store opens the public store page.

Deleting a vendor removes the store and the vendor role and cancels open withdrawal requests. The user account, their products and all commission and ledger history are kept, because they are financial records.

Storefold > Commissions shows one row per sold item: what the customer paid (Item total), what the vendor keeps (Vendor keeps) and what you keep (You keep), with the Order, Vendor, Product, Status and Date.

Commission is calculated per sold item, on the item total after coupons, when the order is placed. The rule used is saved with each commission row, so later changes to your settings never rewrite history.

Statuses:

• Pending: the order has not yet reached your earning trigger status.
• Earned: the vendor order reached the status you chose under Vendors earn their money when, and the vendor balance went up.
• Reversed: the amount was taken back, for example after a refund.

Filter the list by vendor, by status and by a From and To date, then click Filter. Click Export CSV to download the commissions.

Vendors ask to be paid on Storefold > Withdrawals. Each request shows the Vendor, Amount, Method, Payout details, Requested date, Status and an Action.

To pay a request:

1. Send the money with the method the vendor chose. For PayPal the vendor has entered their PayPal email. For bank transfer they have entered the account holder, bank name, account number and routing or IBAN.
2. Record the request as paid with a reference, so everyone has a receipt.

To handle several requests at once, tick them, choose Mark as paid or Reject and click Apply to selected.

Use the Pending, Paid, Rejected and All links to switch between requests.

When Stripe payouts are enabled, Storefold creates a Stripe transfer for withdrawals you mark as paid. See Earning hold and Stripe payouts in the settings below.

Storefold > Announcements lets you post a message to every vendor. Vendors see it on their dashboard.

1. Enter a Title.
2. Write your message in the Write your message to vendors box.
3. Click Publish announcement.

Published announcements are listed under Published with their Title, Date and an Action.

Storefold > Disputes collects problem reports from customers. Vendors can reply to each dispute.

Read both sides, then decide:

• Refund the customer. The vendor earnings for the refunded amount reverse automatically.
• Side with the vendor.

Use the All, Open, Vendor replied, Refunded and Rejected links to filter disputes.

Storefold > Activity is a log of everything that happens on the marketplace, newest first: applications, approvals, products, orders, money, disputes and settings changes.

Each entry shows When, Who, the Event code (for example vendor.registered or order.split) and Details.

To narrow the list, pick a type in the event dropdown and click Filter. The types are Vendors, Products, Offers, Orders, Withdrawals, Commissions, Disputes, Verification, Plans, Slot packs, Staff, Stripe and Settings.

Storefold > Import vendors creates vendors from a CSV file. Use it when you move from Dokan, WCFM, WC Vendors, MultiVendorX or a spreadsheet: export your sellers to CSV and import them here.

The file needs these columns:

• Required: email, store_name
• Optional: phone, address, bio, website, paypal_email, status (approved or pending)

Click Download the sample CSV for a template.

To import:

1. Click Choose File and select your CSV.
2. Leave Email new accounts a password setup link ticked if new sellers should receive a link to set their password.
3. Click Preview only (no changes) to check the result without changing anything.
4. When the preview looks right, click Import now.

Existing vendors are skipped, so running the same file twice is safe. Nothing financial is touched.

Storefold > Settings holds all marketplace options, grouped in boxes. Every option has a short explanation and a Learn more link to the matching entry in Help and docs. Click Save settings at the bottom when you are done. The full field list is in the settings reference below.

Vendor rules

Decide who can sell and whether new products need your review. With manual approval, applicants see an "application received" screen and wait until you approve them under Storefold > Vendors. With Wait for my review before going live, new vendor products are saved as Pending and you publish them from Products. Edits to already published products stay live. Tick Applicants must accept the seller terms and choose the page under Seller terms to add a required checkbox to the application form.

Commission

Choose a percentage, a fixed amount per item, or both. Your cut is never more than the item price. The Live example line updates as you type. You also decide who receives shipping charges and taxes, and when vendors earn their money. Commission is never taken from shipping or tax. When a cart has items from several vendors, shipping is split in proportion to each vendor's item total.

Pro also supports commission rules per product, per vendor and per product category.

Payouts

Under How vendors can get paid, tick PayPal, Bank transfer and, with Pro, Stripe (automatic transfer). Vendors pick one in their dashboard settings. Minimum withdrawal amount is the smallest payout a vendor can request.

Earning hold and Stripe payouts

Hold new earnings for keeps earnings on the vendor balance but blocks withdrawal for the number of days you set. Match it to your refund policy. For Stripe payouts, enable Connect for a platform or marketplace in your Stripe dashboard, copy the secret key from Developers > API keys, paste it into Stripe secret key and tick Stripe (automatic transfer). Vendors then click Connect with Stripe in their dashboard settings. For security, the saved key is never shown again.

What vendors can sell

Tick Let vendors sell products that already exist in the catalog, with their own price and stock to show a "More sellers" box on product pages. Under Categories open to vendors, tick specific product categories to limit where vendors can list and sell. Tick nothing to allow every category.

Vendor application form

The form already asks for store name, description, what they sell, contact details and address. Click Add a question to add your own, with a Question, Answer type, Choices (dropdown, comma separated) and Required flag. Answers appear on each application.

Seller plans

Click Add a plan to create membership plans with a Plan name, Price, Billing, Product limit (0 = unlimited), Existing-product limit (0 = unlimited), Your commission % and Only these categories. Plans can be free or paid, monthly or yearly, with pro-rated upgrades, renewal reminders with one-click renewal and a grace period. Under Extra product slots, set Slots per pack and Pack price to let vendors on a limited plan buy more product slots. Slots are a one-time purchase and stack on top of the plan limit. Set either field to 0 to turn this off.

Vendor shipping

Pro supports per-vendor shipping rates with an exact shipping split per vendor. Click Add vendor shipping to all zones so vendor rates are charged in your WooCommerce shipping zones.

Verification and vendor app

With Vendors must be verified before their products can be bought, vendors upload an ID or business licence under Settings in their dashboard. Documents are stored privately and only marketplace managers can open them. Verified stores always show a badge. The vendor app option lets vendors install the dashboard on their phone and get new order alerts while the dashboard is open.

Integrations

Enter a Webhook URL to send signed JSON events (vendor, order, withdrawal, dispute and plan details) to services such as Zapier, Make, n8n or your own system. Each request carries an X-Storefold-Signature header: the HMAC SHA-256 of the raw body with your secret. Tick Generate a new secret to replace the secret.

Storefront, Marketplace pages and Data

Control the "Sold by" labels and store reviews, choose the page used for each marketplace role, and decide whether marketplace data is deleted with the plugin.

Storefold > Setup wizard asks four quick questions to get your marketplace running: the kind of marketplace, your commission, how vendors get paid and how much you want to review. Everything can be changed later under Storefold > Settings.

The first question is What kind of marketplace are you building?:

• Physical products: makers and resellers shipping goods.
• Digital downloads: files, templates and software. Earnings release as soon as payment clears.
• Services and bookings: local pros and freelancers selling their time.
• Local multi-store: a city marketplace with pickup and delivery.
• Wholesale or B2B: businesses selling to businesses in bulk.

Pick one and click Continue to move to the next question.

Storefold > Help and docs explains every option in plain language, right inside WordPress. Use the Contents list to jump to a topic. The Learn more links on the settings screen open the matching entry.

Topics include getting started, each settings group, managing vendors, orders, commissions and refunds, withdrawals, the vendor dashboard, emails, shortcodes and store pages, security and privacy, developer notes, each Pro feature and troubleshooting.

Storefold adds its own emails to WooCommerce > Settings > Emails. Their names start with Marketplace:, for example:

• Marketplace: new vendor application: sent to the marketplace team when someone applies to become a vendor. It lists the application details and links to the full application so you can approve or reject it.
• Marketplace: store approved: sent to a vendor when their store application is approved. It links to the vendor dashboard and the public storefront.

Each email has the standard WooCommerce options: Enable/Disable, Subject, Email heading, Additional content, Email type, Cc(s) and Bcc(s). Emails sent to you also have Recipient(s). The subject and heading fields show the default text as a placeholder and accept placeholders such as {site_title} and {store_name}.

Use Email preview to check the email on desktop or mobile, and Send a test email to receive a copy. Click Save changes to keep your edits.

Storefold adds three pages to your site on activation: Vendor Dashboard, Become a Vendor and Stores.

• Stores lists every store as a card. Shoppers can type in Search stores and click Search to find a store, then click a store name to open its store page.
• Each store has its own page at /store/store-name/. Customers can rate a store from its store page. If you turn on Only customers who bought from a store can review it, only customers with an order from that store can leave a review.
• With Show the store name on product pages, shop listings, cart, checkout and orders turned on, shoppers see "Sold by" and the store name under the product title, a short "by" line in shop listings, a "Sold by" line in the cart and checkout, and the store on order lines in their account and in emails.
• When vendors can sell products that already exist in the catalog, product pages show a More sellers box so the customer can pick a seller.
• Verified stores show a badge.
• Become a Vendor shows the application form, and approved sellers use the Vendor Dashboard page to run their store.