WCFM Marketplace

Overview#

WCFM (WC Frontend Manager) runs your marketplace: vendor sign-ups, vendor dashboards, your storefront, and the commission each vendor is owed. On its own, WCFM holds each sale in your account and pays vendors later — you (or a schedule) run “withdrawals” to send each vendor their share after the fact.

Split Pay changes when and how the money moves. With the WCFM integration active, each vendor’s share is sent instantly, at the moment of the sale, straight to their own Stripe account. You never hold their money and there are no withdrawals to process. WCFM still owns everything else — vendors, dashboards, registration, and the commission numbers it displays.

WCFM, Split Pay, and what the integration adds#

Each piece does something the other can’t. The integration is the glue that makes them work as one system.

On its own	What it does	The catch
WCFM alone	Runs the marketplace — vendors, dashboards, registration, and commission tracking.	Pays vendors later through its own withdrawal system. The money sits in your account until you pay everyone out.
Split Pay alone	Splits a Stripe payment and sends each share instantly to a vendor’s Stripe account.	Has no idea who your vendors are. You’d hand-attach the right Stripe account and percentage to every single product yourself.
The integration (the glue)	Teaches Split Pay who WCFM’s vendors are. Vendors auto-onboard to Stripe, their products auto-link to their account, and Split Pay can pull the commission rate straight from WCFM.	Requires Split Pay 3.8.0 PRO and the WCFM plugin family. That’s it.

What the integration adds, concretely:

• Instant, direct payouts. Each vendor’s share lands in their own Stripe account the moment a sale is paid — you never hold it, and there are no withdrawals to run.
• Automatic vendor onboarding. New WCFM vendors get a Connect with Stripe button in their WCFM dashboard and are given the Split Pay vendor role automatically.
• Automatic product linking. When a vendor saves a product, it’s linked to that vendor’s connected Stripe account for you.
• Commission rates from one place. Split Pay can reuse the rates WCFM already knows — including membership tiers — so you set the split once, not twice.
• Double-payout protection. Split Pay watches for WCFM’s own payout system being switched on at the same time, so a vendor can’t accidentally get paid twice.

Compatibility#

• Split Pay: v3.8.0 or later, PRO. The marketplace behaviour (auto-onboarding, auto-linking, membership commissions) is a premium feature. See Activating PRO.
• WCFM: the WCFM family from WC Lovers — WC Frontend Manager (core), plus WCFM Marketplace for multi-vendor. WCFM Membership is optional and only needed if you want commissions to follow membership tiers. Split Pay detects each module separately and shows you which are present.
• WooCommerce + Stripe gateway: WooCommerce with the official WooCommerce Stripe Payment Gateway (or Payment Plugins for Stripe). Split Pay reads the Stripe charge the gateway creates and transfers from there. See Quick Start.
• WordPress: the same requirement as Split Pay (currently WordPress 6.0+).

Setup#

Choosing where commissions come from#

The Commission source setting on the WCFM card decides where each vendor’s transfer percentage comes from. Pick the one that matches how you already run your marketplace:

Choose…	When you want…	How the split is decided
Split Pay rules (manual / global)	To set splits yourself in Split Pay — one global percentage, or per product.	Your Split Pay global or per-product transfer values apply, exactly as on a non-marketplace store.
WCFM membership tier	Commissions to follow the tiers you already configured in WCFM Membership, so you maintain rates in one place.	Each vendor is paid 100 − their plan’s commission %, resolved at order time. A plan that takes a 15% commission pays the vendor 85%.

What WCFM controls when membership mode is on#

When Commission source = WCFM membership tier, the membership tier becomes the single source of truth for every vendor product. To stop you from typing split values that silently won’t apply, Split Pay makes the override visible on every screen where you might otherwise set one.

On a vendor’s product#

The per-product transfer fields become read-only, with a note pointing back to the Marketplaces settings. The value you’d normally type here is resolved from the tier at order time instead — even a fixed-amount split is converted to the membership percentage, so a vendor can’t be over- or under-paid by a stray manual value.

Shipping is separate. The membership tier governs only the product commission split, so the shipping transfer fields stay editable — decide how much of each vendor’s shipping fee they keep as usual (per product, or via the global shipping transfer). Those shipping values still apply in membership mode; only the product split is taken over by the tier.

On Global Transfer Settings#

The main Global Transfer Settings tab shows a banner clarifying that vendor products are paid at the membership percentage, and that the global value applies only to your own (non-vendor) products and as a fallback.

In the Bulk Editor#

The Bulk Editor shows the same warning, so a bulk change you make won’t quietly skip your marketplace vendors.

Vendor onboarding (Connect with Stripe)#

Because vendors are paid directly, each one needs their own Stripe account connected to your platform. With auto-assignment on, every WCFM vendor gets a Stripe Payouts tab in their WCFM dashboard with a Connect with Stripe button — no work from you.

Once a vendor finishes onboarding, the same tab confirms the connection — and from then on their share of every sale is transferred instantly.

Disconnecting#

A vendor can disconnect from the same Stripe Payouts tab. Disconnecting removes only the local link between the vendor and their Stripe account: Split Pay stops transferring to it and the vendor’s products are unlinked, so no payout can route to the old account until they reconnect. The Stripe account itself is not deleted — the vendor still owns it in Stripe — and reconnecting re-links their products automatically. After disconnecting, that vendor shows up again under the card’s Vendors connected to Stripe count so you can see who still needs to connect.

You can also onboard vendors yourself, or use the platform-agnostic [split_pay_vendor_connect] shortcode on any page. Both routes are covered in Connecting Vendor Stripe Accounts. The Marketplaces card’s Vendors connected to Stripe status check tells you, at a glance, how many of your vendors still need to connect.

Avoiding double payouts#

WCFM has its own payout system (scheduled withdrawals, the WCFM Stripe gateway, auto-disbursal). If that is left on and Split Pay is paying vendors instantly, a vendor could be paid twice. Split Pay detects this and surfaces it on the card as a double-pay risk. The WCFM payout coexistence setting decides what Split Pay does about it:

Mode	What Split Pay does	Best when
Detect & warn (default)	Only watches and warns you on the card. Changes nothing in WCFM — the least invasive option.	You want to review the situation and adjust WCFM’s settings yourself.
Reconcile	Marks the matching WCFM commission as paid after Split Pay transfers, so WCFM’s ledger reflects that the vendor was already paid.	You want WCFM’s reports to stay accurate while Split Pay does the actual paying.
Guard	Neutralizes WCFM’s automatic payout gateways so they can’t disburse on top of Split Pay.	You want a hard guarantee that only Split Pay moves money.

Recommended setups for common goals#

Your goal	Commission source	Coexistence	Notes
“Pay vendors instantly; I set one flat split for everyone.”	Split Pay rules (global)	Guard	Set a single global transfer percentage; leave auto-assign and auto-link on.
“Different vendors earn different rates by membership tier.”	WCFM membership tier	Guard	Maintain rates in WCFM Membership; Split Pay follows them. Watch the “no resolvable membership %” check for vendors on a flat-fee or no plan.
“I’m migrating from WCFM withdrawals and want to watch first.”	Either	Detect & warn	Run both side by side in test mode, confirm Split Pay transfers look right, then move to Reconcile or Guard before going live.
“Keep WCFM’s commission reports accurate.”	Either	Reconcile	Split Pay pays instantly and marks the WCFM commission paid so WCFM’s ledger matches reality.

Limitations and known issues#

• PRO only. The WCFM behaviour (onboarding, linking, membership commissions, coexistence) requires Split Pay PRO. On the free version the WCFM card still detects WCFM, but the automation does not run.
• Membership mode needs a resolvable percentage. If a vendor has no active membership plan, or the plan’s commission is a flat fee rather than a percentage, Split Pay can’t derive a split from it and falls back to your manual / global value. The card’s status check counts these vendors so you can fix their plans.
• Vendors must connect Stripe to be paid. A sale for a vendor who hasn’t finished Stripe onboarding can’t be transferred to them. The “Vendors connected to Stripe” check shows how many still need to connect.
• Test and live are independent. Connecting a vendor in test mode does not connect them in live mode. Each Stripe mode is configured end-to-end separately.
• Cross-border transfer rules still apply. Stripe’s minimum transfer amount and same-country / supported-corridor rules are unchanged by the integration. See International Transfers.

Troubleshooting#

• No WCFM card on the Integrations tab. Confirm WC Frontend Manager and WCFM Marketplace are installed and active, and that you’re on Split Pay 3.8.0 or later.
• The card’s automation controls are greyed out. The marketplace automation is PRO. Activate your license; see Activating PRO.
• A vendor’s products aren’t getting paid. Check the Vendors connected to Stripe count — the vendor likely hasn’t finished Stripe onboarding. Use Back-fill vendor links on the card to link existing products after a vendor connects.
• Membership mode pays the wrong amount (or the global fallback). Confirm the vendor has an active WCFM membership plan with a percentage commission. Use Re-check membership % on the card after changing a plan. Remember the vendor is paid 100 − commission %.
• A vendor got paid twice. WCFM’s own payouts are still active. Set WCFM payout coexistence to Guard, or disable WCFM’s automatic withdrawals/gateway. See Avoiding double payouts.
• A test sale created no transfer. Re-check that you pasted your Stripe platform keys (with Transfers: Write) and synced webhooks, and that the product belongs to a connected vendor. See Quick Start.