Full User Guide dropshipping plugins
In this full guide, we explain how our dropshipping plugins work, from installation to synchronizing products. This guide applies to the following plugins:
- VidaXL
- BigBuy
- Van der Meer
- Matterhorn
Since all four plugins have the same functionalities and UI/UX, we decided to write one guide instead of four.
Key Features
- Product Import and Synchronization
- Bulk Product Import: Easily import multiple products from your supplier into your WooCommerce store with just a few clicks.
- Automated Stock Synchronization: Stock levels are automatically updated in real-time to match your supplier's inventory, ensuring that you never sell out-of-stock items.
Price Synchronization: Automatically update product prices in your WooCommerce store to reflect any changes from your supplier.
Order Management
- Automated Order Fulfillment: Orders placed on your WooCommerce store are automatically sent to your supplier for processing, saving you time and reducing the chance of errors.
Order Tracking: Receive updates on the status of your orders directly within your WooCommerce dashboard.
Product Customization
- Edit Product Information: Customize product descriptions, titles, images, and prices to match your store's branding and marketing strategy.
Price Markup Rules: Set price markups to ensure your profit margins are maintained even when your supplier updates its prices.
Language Support
Multi-language compatibility to cater to customers from different regions.
Regular Updates
- The plugin is regularly updated to ensure compatibility with the latest versions of WooCommerce and the supplier's systems.
Benefits
- Time-Saving Automation: Automates the time-consuming aspects of product import, stock management, and order processing, allowing you to focus on growing your business.
- Accurate Stock & Price Management: Real-time inventory & price updates reduce the risk of overselling and improve customer satisfaction.
- Scalability: Ideal for both small and large dropshipping businesses, making it easy to scale your operations as you grow.
- Seamless Integration: Direct integration with WooCommerce means there’s no need to manage separate systems or manually update information.
Download, install & activate the plugin
Get a subscription
Before you can begin working with the plugin, you need a subscription. You can purchase one at woosa.com.
Download the plugin
After the subscription is purchased, you can now download the plugin. Please follow these steps:
- Log in to your woosa.com account
- Go to the Licenses tab
- Look for the desired plugin and click on Download Plugin
- It'll download a .zip file, do not extract this on your desktop
Install & activate the plugin
Now that the plugin is downloaded, we can upload and install it on WordPress. Please follow these steps:
- Log in to your WordPress backend
- Go to the Plugins page
- On top of the page, click on Add new plugin
- Then click on Upload plugin
- Click on Choose file
- Locate the plugin in your files and click on Open
- Then, click on Install now
- Lastly, click on Activate plugin
Important: ensure the plugin is a .zip file and you don't extract it on your desktop, or installation will fail.
Activate the plugin with your Woosa license key
Get your license key
After plugin installation, we must activate it with your Woosa license key, or else it won't work. Please follow these steps:
- Log in to your woosa.com account
- Go to the Licenses tab
- Look for the desired plugin, and copy the license key
Activate the plugin with your license key
Now that you have copied your license key, we can activate the plugin in your WordPress backend. Please follow these steps:
- Log in to your WordPress backend
- Click on the plugin icon on your left navigation bar
- On the first (Dashboard) page, paste the license key in the license field
- Lastly, click on Activate
Authorize the plugin with your supplier
After plugin installation and license key, it's time to authorize the plugin with your B2B supplier. This can be either VidaXL, BigBuy, Van der Meer, or Matterhorn. We've written separate articles for each plugin on how to authorize, click on the link below to which applies:
General settings
Important: all dropshipping plugins have the same settings. However, some may differ. This will be explained for each option.
The dropshipping plugins offer a variety of options you can configure to your liking, let's go through them all. Each section represents a different tab in the plugin settings.
Dashboard
Important: any shop changes will change the shop's secret key. To fix this, contact our support team.
| Option name | Type | Explanation |
| License key | Input field | Fill in your Woosa license key, to activate the plugin |
| Debug mode | Enable/disable | Enable if you like to see advanced logs |
| Remove configuration | Enable/disable | Enable if you like to remove the plugin configuration after uninstalling |
| Shop secret key | Input field | This key is used to sign the requests to our servers |
Authorization
| Plugin | Option name | Type | Explanation |
| VidaXL | Test mode | Dropdown menu | Whether or not to authorize your VidaXL test or live B2B account |
| VidaXL | Customer email | Input field | The email address of your VidaXL B2B account |
| VidaXL | API token | Input field | The API key of your VidaXL B2B account |
| Van der Meer | FTP username | Input field | The username of your Van der Meer B2B account |
| Van der Meer | FTP password | Input field | The password of your Van der Meer B2B account |
| Matterhorn | API key | Input field | The API key of your Matterhorn B2B account |
| BigBuy | API key | Input field | The API key of your BigBuy B2B account |
Category Mapping
| Option name | Type | Explanation |
| Supplier Category | Button | Select the supplier's category to connect to your WooCommerce category |
| WooCommerce Category | Button | Select the WooCommerce category to connect to your supplier's category |
Synchronization
Categories
| Option name | Type | Explanation |
| Feed language | Dropdown menu | Select the supplier's feed language |
| Category list | List | Select the desired categories to import into WooCommerce |
General settings
| Option name | Type | Explanation |
| Send orders | Dropdown menu | Decide when the orders will be sent to the supplier |
| Preserve Stock Offset | Input field | Define a value that will be subtracted from the product stock. This will help to avoid selling out-of-stock products |
| Set products as draft | Enable/disable | Enable this to set the new imported products as draft instead to publish them automatically |
| Shipment tracking code via email | Enable/disable | Enable this to include the shipment tracking code in the completed order email sent to the customer. If the tracking code is unavailable at that time, it will be sent later via a separate custom email |
| Trash unavailable products | Enable/disable | Enable this to trash unavailable products instead of deleting them permanently |
| Manual refund order | Enable/disable | Enable this if you want to refund your shop orders manually |
| Remove "vidaXL" brand (VidaXL) | Enable/disable | Enable this to remove "vidaXL" brand from the beginning of the product title |
| Import product variations (VidaXL) | Enable/disable | Enable this if you want to import products with variations as variable products. (NOTE: Enabling or disabling this option requires removing the existing imported products.) |
| Add product type in the title (Van der Meer) | Enable/disable | Enable this to add the product type at the end of the product title in case it does not already exist |
| Currency (Matterhorn) | Dropdown menu | Select the currency |
Filters
| Option name | Type | Explanation |
| Min. B2B price | Input field | The minimum B2B price of products you like to import |
| Max. B2B price | Input field | The maximum B2B price of products you like to import |
| Out of stock | Dropdown menu | Whether or not to include out-of-stock products |
| Backorder? | Dropdown menu | Whether or not to include backorder products |
Price
| Option name | Type | Explanation |
| Use as price | Dropdown menu | Choose the price type |
| Addition percentage value to B2B price | Input field | Fill in the desired price margin by percentage |
| Addition fixed value to B2B price | Input field | Fill in the desired price margin by a fixed amount |
| Rounding up | Dropdown menu | Choose how to round up your product prices |
Tax
| Option name | Type | Explanation |
| Rate | Input field | Define here the tax rate that will be used in the price calculation as a fallback in case no tax rates are found in WooCommerce settings |
Product information
| Option name | Type | Explanation |
| Stock amount | Enable/disable | Stock amount will always be updated and cannot be disabled |
| Price | Enable/disable | Enable this if you want all prices to be automatically updated, even if you have changed them manually |
| Title | Enable/disable | Enable this if you want to update the product title automatically, even if you have changed them manually |
| Description | Enable/disable | Enable this if you want to update the description automatically, even if you have changed them manually |
| Short description | Enable/disable | Enable this if you want to update the short description automatically, even if you have changed them manually |
| Weight | Enable/disable | Enable if you want to update the weight, even if you have changed it manually |
| Attributes | Enable/disable | Enable this if you want to update the attributes automatically, even if you have changed them manually |
| Categories | Enable/disable | Enable this if you want to update the categories automatically, even if you have changed them manually |
Filter Products
| Option name | Type | Explanation |
| Filter type | Dropdown menu | Choose how to filter products |
| Add SKU's to the list | Input field | Add the desired products to filter by SKU, comma seperated |
| SKU list | Checkbox | Here you can see the added SKU's, or remove them |
Synchronize & import products
Important: in this example, the VidaXL plugin is used, but it works the same for every dropshipping plugin we offer.
To synchronize products, you'll need to select the supplier's feed language, select categories, set up and configure product filters such as price margins, include or exclude out-of-stock products, etc.
Select the feed language
Before we can select categories, we need to choose the feed language and load the category list. Please follow these steps:
- Click on the VidaXL plugin icon on the left side navigation bar
- Go to the Synchronization tab
- Next to feed language, click on the dropdown menu and choose the desired feed
- Lastly, click on Click to retrieve category list
Select the desired categories
With the category list now available, you can select the desired categories for import and synchronization in WooCommerce. Simply click on the parent or subcategories, and the selections will be automatically saved through an AJAX request without needing to refresh the page.
Configure product filters and price margins
After you have chosen the desired categories to import, you can configure product filters and price margins. Filters you can configure are already documented and explained here.
Filter Products by SKU
You can choose which products you like to include or exclude from the synchronization.
Important: make sure to stop the synchronization process before you make any changes to this.
You can set this up quickly & easily by following these steps:
Go to the vidaXL plugin settings and click on the tab Filter Products
The page has the following options available:
- Filter type
- Disabled (do not use the function at all)
- Do not import selected products (the import will skip these products)
- Only import selected products (the import will only include selected products)
- Add SKUs to the list (fill in this field with desired SKUs, separated by commas)
- Filter type
- First, select your Filter type and then fill in the field Add SKUs to the list with desired SKUs to include or exclude
- When you're done, simply click on Save Changes.
Category Mapping
Do you already have your WooCommerce categories and would like to keep using them? We've got you covered, introducing the Category Mapping functionality. With this function, you can connect your WooCommerce categories to the supplier's categories.
Important: this only works if you configure the category mapping before you import products into your shop, not after.
You can do this by following these steps:
- Log into your WordPress backend
- Go to the plugin settings
- Click on the Category Mapping tab
- On the left side, choose your supplier's category by clicking on Please select.
- The list of available categories will be displayed, we've got main categories and subcategories.
- Click on the category name to look for the subcategories, when satisfied click on Select.
- On the right side, choose your WooCommerce category by clicking on Please select and follow the same steps as before.
- Finally, click on Connect.
The supplier's categories is now connected successfully to your WooCommerce categories!
Order Processing
Our dropshipping plugins have the ability to manually or automatically send your orders from WooCommerce to your supplier. In the plugin settings, you have the following options to choose from in regards to when it should send the orders:
- Disable this, I'll do it manually
- Automatically when order status is Processing
- Automatically when order status is Completed
Disable this, I'll do it manually
In case you set it to do it manually, you need to follow these steps to send it:
- Go to WooCommerce > Orders page
- Select the desired order
- Click on Bulk Action: Send to VidaXL (or any other supplier)
- Lastly, click on Apply
The order status is now in Processsing and after a few minutes, will be visible in your supplier's B2B account.
Important: if the Bulk Action: Send to VidaXL (or any other supplier) isn't visible in the WooCommerce orders page, then the plugin's synchronization is most likely deactivated.
Please enable the synchronization and check if the button gets visible.
Send orders automatically
In case you set it to do it automatically, the plugin will only automatically send the order if the WooCommerce Order status has either Processing or Completed (depending on what you set it to).
Important: the plugin doesn't automatically change the order status to Completed, this is up to the shop admin.
Below is an image from the WooCommerce documentation on how orders are handled:
Shipment tracking code via email
Enable this to include the shipment tracking code in the completed order email sent to the customer. If the tracking code is unavailable at that time, it will be sent later via a separate custom email.
You can find this option in the plugin settings, Synchronization tab > General settings.
Tools
The plugin offers a few tools that can solve an issue, or smoothen things up. Let's go through all of them.
Heartbeat
We implemented this option in all of our plugins because we noticed a problem in a lot of shops. By default, our plugins will create a scheduled action, which runs every minute to trigger the processing of plugin tasks. This action relies on WordPress's default cron system, meaning it only runs when someone visits your website.
Scheduled action name per plugin
| Plugin | Scheduled action | Interval |
| Bol.com | bol_perform | Every minute |
| Kaufland | kfd_perform | Every minute |
| eBay | eby_perform | Every minute |
| VidaXL | vdl_perform | Every minute |
| BigBuy | bgb_perform | Every minute |
| Matterhorn | mth_perform | Every minute |
| Van der Meer | vdm_perform | Every minute |
If your website experiences a period of inactivity, the scheduled action won't run until the next visit. As a result, the plugin may not execute tasks at the intended intervals, potentially causing delays.
A solution to this problem is to create a cron job. By enabling the Heartbeat option, it'll create a cron job on our server to ping your shop every minute. Basically simulating a visitor, so that the plugin tasks will keep running.
Tools
This page has a few options in case things go wrong.
Woosa IP list
In case you have some heavy security measures on your server, please whitelist our IP addresses listed here.
Clear cache
In case you think the synchronization is stuck, for example, importing orders, you can clear the plugin cache to reset some background processes.
Action List
This page will tell you exactly what the plugin is doing. You can see the number of actions that are being active or rescheduled.
Logs
All (error) logs related to our plugins. In this way, a support agent or developer can debug when an error occurs.