Dokan Review – Is it the Best WordPress Multivendor Plugin?

Dokan is a popular multivendor plugin for WordPress. If you’re looking for an up-to-date Dokan review, then this article will be helpful. Because in this post, we’re going to review Dokan, and find out its pros and cons and also explore some of its features.

Creating an eCommerce website is a great business idea. The number of online shoppers is increasing gradually. In this fast-paced life, many people don’t find the time to go to the shops physically to purchase goods. They would rather prefer to have their items delivered. That’s why eCommerce sites have so much potential.

WordPress combined with WooCommerce gives you the power to create and manage your own online store. If you want to create a multivendor eCommerce site, then you can use a WordPress multivendor plugin like Dokan. But before you do, let’s first learn how good Dokan really is. Let’s dive in and start our Dokan plugin review.

What is a multivendor website?

Let’s first understand what a multivendor marketplace really is. A multivendor website is a platform with multiple sellers or vendors. These sellers have their own pages within the same website where they can sell their products to different customers.

The marketplace owner acts as an administrator who controls the website. But the other vendors can also manage their own stores. Since the vendors are allowed to sell their products on the marketplace, they have to pay a percentage to the administrator or owner. 

A perfect example of a multivendor website is Amazon. Amazon started out as an online book store which later on expanded into selling other products such as electronics, clothes, toys, etc. There are other popular multivendor websites such as Flipkart, eBay, AliExpress, etc.

If you want to create a multivendor website, then you can combine the power of WordPress with Dokan to do it. Dokan is one of the most popular WordPress multivendor plugins with 70,000+ active installations. Dokan allows you to create, customize, and maintain multiple stores in a single WordPress website. It also lets you sell physical products, downloadable products, bookable products, subscriptions, etc.

After you set up your stores, you can earn commission from the sales made by the vendors in your marketplace. You can set up the commission rates and register more vendors to expand your marketplace.

Dokan has almost all the features that you might need from a multivendor plugin and much more. We will explore more of these features and understand how you can build your multivendor website with Dokan.

How does Dokan work?

You might be wondering how Dokan turns your site into a multi-vendor website. In this part of our Dokan plugin review, we’re going to understand how Dokan works. In 4 basic steps, you can turn your website into a multivendor marketplace.

• Installation: You can download Dokan from wordpress.org. You can search for the plugin from your WordPress dashboard. Go to Plugins > Add New then search for Dokan and you’ll find it.

This is the free version of Dokan. You can use this to setup your multivendor store, but some of the best features are only available in the Pro version.

• Store customization: Now you have to install an eCommerce WordPress theme. There are several themes for Dokan that you can check out. You can build your site from scratch, but with a good theme, you can save time and make your online shop look a lot better.

• Inviting vendors: A multivendor website works when there are multiple vendors on your marketplace. So you have to invite vendors to set up their shops on your website.

• Get paid: Once you have multiple vendors registered on your site, you can set up your commission system and start running your marketplace.

The entire process does take a lot of work, but if we look from the top, these are the required steps to set up your multivendor marketplace on WordPress.

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Features of Dokan

With the introduction out of the way, we can now look at the key features of Dokan and what makes it such a popular choice for a WordPress multivendor plugin. 

Dokan comes with a wide variety of eCommerce features and specifications you need to turn your online shop into a multi-vendor website. It also has a vast compatibility that makes it easier to use with other plugins. Dokan actually has a wide variety of features and functionalities for vendors, admins, and customers. We are mentioning some of the important ones to keep this list short.

Features for admins

Let’s first discuss what features are there for the admins. As an admin, you will need to manage multiple shops. As the number of shops increases, it makes your marketplace more and more complex. There must be sufficient features to manage your entire marketplace.

Usually, multivendor plugins give the admin an intuitive dashboard through which they can manage the entire marketplace. There are many more features to assist the admins to so so in Dokan. Let’s take a look at what Dokan offers.

• Vendor Management: Admins can manage the vendors on the marketplace from this interface. Here, all the stores present in the marketplace will be visible. Other information such as the email address of the vendor, phone number, date of registration, and status is visible on this interface.

This gives the admin the power to easily manage the shops from a single section. As an admin, you’ll be able to access all this important information and manage vendor rights and capabilities from this section

• Multiple Commission Types: Dokan also has 3 commission types that you can choose from. You can either choose between, flat, percentage, and combine. You can also customize the rate of commissions and set separate commissions for the shops. You can set global commission rates which will be applied to all the shops in the marketplace. You can also choose a vendor-specific or product-specific commission rate as well.

• Admin Reports: In the reports section you can look at the overview of your store. Here you can look at the overall earnings of your marketplace by day, month, or year. You can check out how each store is doing. The reports section is very detailed and you can filter the information you need. 

• Coupon Creation: As an admin, you have the option to create a coupon for vendors or products. On the coupon creation page, you can give a name to your coupon, give a description and select the discount type. You can choose between a fixed cart discount, a percentage discount, and a fixed product discount. You can also allow your vendors to create coupons.

• Announcements: Dokan also gives you the option to create an Announcement. For example, if there’s a special day coming up, such as Christmas or Black Friday, you can create announcements and send them to all your sellers. You can also send announcements to individual sellers. The announcements will appear right on the dashboard of your sellers. Using this method you can better communicate with your vendors and let them know of certain announcements.

• Automatic Withdrawal Disbursement: Admins can schedule an automatic withdrawal disbursement for vendors. Setting the disbursement schedule to quarterly, monthly, Biweekly, and weekly is also possible.

• Product Advertising: Admins can also offer the vendors to promote their products in the marketplace. Using this method, vendors can advertise their products and increase the marketplace earning.

• Reverse Withdrawal: Admins will be able to enable the reverse withdrawal. With this you can ensure commissions from vendor-shipped orders with cash on delivery payment.

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Features for vendors

In order to create a successful WordPress multivendor website, it is essential to give your vendors the best accommodations. If you’re in search of a WordPress multivendor plugin, make sure that it has sufficient features for the vendors. Required features include the dashboard, earning reports, store management options, product was editing options, etc.

Dokan has a large number of features added to make the lives of vendors a lot easier. There are privileges that can only be assigned or controlled by the admin. This gives the admin a good control over the marketplace and also allows the sellers to manage and sell their products with efficiency. Let’s take a look at some of these features.

• Independent Store: Each of your vendors will have access to their independent store. They can customize their own stores in order to facilitate their needs. As you know, running an online store takes some work. If you have a customizable dashboard, it becomes easier to run and manage your store.
• Product Bulk Edit: This feature allows a vendor to edit multiple products instantly. Sometimes you have to edit your product status, price, discounts, etc. If you have multiple of these products, editing those individually might take some time. In that case, this feature will be really useful.
• Frontend Variable Products: Vendors can also create variations of a product from the frontend. Sometimes you have a product with multiple variations such as different sizes, colors, etc. Admins as well as vendors can create this variation of a product from the frontend.
• Shipping Management: Vendors will also be able to manage their shipping rates with dynamic settings and use popular shipping solutions for delivery.
• Social Login and registration: You may also allow users to register or login to your site using social media or other platforms. They can login with their Facebook, Twitter, Google, etc. accounts.
• Earning reports and statements: It is important for sellers to look at their sales data. This gives them the important details on which products are being sold more and which aren’t. The earning reports and statements are available for vendors right on their dashboards. This gives the vendors a real-time overview of their finances and a detailed breakdown of their earning reports.
• Withdrawal system for vendors: The admin can set a specified withdrawal amount. Upon reaching this amount the vendors can request a withdrawal.
• Order management: Vendors can easily manage their orders from the order management section. They will also be notified of new orders and able to list orders by filters, and status, add notes for tracking, and much more.
• Shipping Status: Vendors will be able to add shipping tags with products. This way, customers will be able to track their product’s shipping status.

👉 Learn More: Dokan Free vs Pro – Detailed Comparison

Features for customers

No matter how many features and functionalities you have for your vendors and admins, at the end of the day you need customers. In order to make your site shine, your marketplace should have adequate functions and features for the customers. If you can better accommodate your customers, they will come back.

Dokan has some amazing features for the customers as well. These features are essential to ensure that your customers have no difficulty searching, assessing, and purchasing the products. Let’s take a look at the features that are included in Dokan for customers.

• Email notification: One of the best ways you can ensure your customers they’re receiving their products safely is through email notifications. When a customer makes a purchase, they will receive an email notification with every order detail and status of their product.
• Multiple product categories: Customers will be able to discover the products they’re looking for by selecting the desired category. Although in order to make that possible, you have to create multiple categories yourself.
• Ajax search: Today, the Ajax live search has become very essential. Normally when you search for a product, the page needs to refresh in order to fetch your search result. With Ajax search, that is no longer required. As soon as your customer searches for a product, it will fetch results immediately.
• Follow store: If your customers like a particular store, they have the option to follow that store. So whenever there’s a new product launch, discount, news, etc. the customers who follow that store will be notified.
• RMA request: Customers can request a return and also utilize warranty facilities as well. The rules of the warranty will be set by the admins.
• Geolocation: Customers can also search for products and vendors by selecting the location.
• Product enquiry: Customers will be able to ask pre-sales questions or any other questions related to the product directly from the product page.

As you can see Dokan is a very intuitive plugin. It provides you with a vast number of features and functionalities that you might need when you’re building your own WordPress multivendor website.

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Dokan integrations

Dokan review will be incomplete if we don’t talk about the modules of the multivendor plugin. If you are building a multivendor marketplace, then you need several features and functionalities. Most of the features come built into the core plugin. In case you need something extra, Dokan has 20+ modules you can use.

However, do keep in mind, these modules only come with the Dokan Pro. But with these modules, you can add advanced features such as WooCommerce Booking integrations, Follow Store feature, Live Chat, Live Search, Geolocation, Product Addon, Product Enquiry, PayPal Adaptive Payment, Return and Warranty Request, Auction integrations, and much more.

The modules are lightweight and won’t slow your site down. With Dokan you also get vendor-independent store compatibility, a sleek dashboard for your vendors and customers, detailed reports, and much more.

For this review, we’re using the Dokan version 3.7.14 and it currently has 27 modules available. Let’s take a look at some of these modules:

• WooCommerce Booking Integrations: With this module, you’ll be able to integrate WooCommerce Booking with your multivendor store.
• Elementor: If you like using Elementor page builder, you can use this module to add Elementor widgets for Dokan.
• Follow Store: If a customer likes a particular store, he/she might want to follow the store for future updates and offers. This module adds a “Follow” button to each store. Using this, customers can stay connected to their favorite stores.
• Geolocations: Enable this module and customers will be able to search for products and vendors by targeting a location.
• Report Abuse: This adds a feature where customers can report fake products and other suspectable activities.
• Return and Warranty Request: You can manage returns and warranties from the vendor end with this module. You can of course set the warranty parameters. 
• Live Chat: This module enables live chat between vendors and customers. Sometimes the customer needs to communicate with the vendors in order to make a purchase. Customers might also have questions about a product. This is a good way to answer the questions.
• Seller Vacation: If a vendor wants to temporarily close their shop and take some time off, this module allows the vendors to do just that.

You can visit weDevs’ official website for more information on the modules. Again, these modules are not available on the Dokan Lite. You can only get these on the Dokan Pro.

Dokan mobile app

In the modern age, there’s a large number of people on smartphones. In fact, in 2023 it was seen that 49% of local website traffic is coming from smartphones. That means nearly half of the website traffic is from mobile phone users.

People make online purchases from their phones a lot. That means if you have a mobile app for your marketplace, this will allow you to widen your market’s reach and get more sales. Since we’re doing a Dokan review we have to mention the Dokan app. Dokan also has a mobile app that you can download. 

The app is available for Android and iOS. Now you don’t need to hire an app developer and spend thousands of dollars on your mobile app. The app is whitelabel and you can place your logo and branding on the app.

Now let’s take a look at some of the features of the Dokan mobile app

• The app is already built with whitelabel. You can simply add your branding and products and start selling.
• Customers can create their personalized profile directly from the app.
• Facebook login feature included for easy registration and login.
• Customers can easily apply for vouchers and check their carts before checkout.
• Wishlist page included.
• Customers can check their order list and check the order status any time.
• Customers can shop from different sellers at the same time.
• Users can easily review and rate products of vendors from the app.
• Customers can also search for products using the search option located on the top bar of the app.

All these features are super important if you want to create a mobile app for your multivendor marketplace. If you’re wondering why you need an app, then here are some reasons:

• About 90% of mobile time is spent using apps compared to browsers
• 53% of smartphone users buy from company-specific apps
• Over 50% of all internet traffic shops from mobile devices
• Conversion rates are 3 times more on mobile apps than that on mobile sites

So if you create an app for your store, it will enhance your brand and allow your marketplace to expand.

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Dokan pricing

In this part of our Dokan review, we want to talk about its pricing. Like other WordPress multivendor plugins, Dokan also has multiple pricing plans for different businesses. This is helpful for the customers to select a plan that better suits their business model.

The basic version of Dokan or Dokan Lite is free and you can download it from wordpress.org. There are 4 plans for Dokan Pro excluding Dokan Lite. The pricing has been divided into annual and Lifetime plans. The Lifetime plans are a bit expensive but you can save up to 35% and you’ll get the Dokan plugin forever.

Let’s take a look at the Annual pricing plans:

• Starter: $149/year
• Professional: $249/year
• Business: $499/year
• Enterprise: $999/year

Now let’s take a look at the Lifetime plans:

• Starter: $596
• Professional: $934
• Business: $1747
• Enterprise: $3249

In each of these pro plans, you will get an advanced frontend dashboard for vendors, admin reports, shipping management, product bulk edit, Admin coupon support and much more advanced multivendor features for your marketplace.

Dokan also has a 14 day money-back guarantee. After purchasing and using the plugin, if you feel that Dokan isn’t the plugin for you, you can get a 100% refund within 14 days of your purchase.

👉 Get Dokan for Lifetime at Discount 🔥

Support options for Dokan

A plugin as vast as Dokan should have proper support and documentation pages. Our Dokan review won’t be complete without mentioning the support system of the plugin. When you’re building your own WordPress multivendor website, there might come a time when you need assistance. In that case, there are a couple of ways you can get help.

If you’re using the Dokan Lite, then you can check out the Dokan Support Forum at wordpress.org. Here you can browse and look at any topics that other users have posted. You can also post your own topic and reply to others. Sometimes you can get your answer right here. 

Again, on the weDevs site’s Dokan page they have a dedicated “Get Help” link. There’s an FAQ section, Contact Us page, Documentation, support ticket, and more options for support.

👉 Learn More: Dokan Plugin Lifetime Deal – Is It Worth The Price? [Must Read]

You can check out the FAQ section to find the solution to your problem quickly. There are many issues that multivendor site owners commonly face. It’s best to find the solutions to these issues from the FAQ. You can also contact weDevs through email.

Dokan also has very detailed documentation. From installations to withdrawals, you’ll find everything in this document. There’s also a search bar where you can search for a topic. Sometimes the docs are just enough to solve your issues.

There’s also a contact page with a form. Here you can put in your name, email address, and your message. However, you have to select “Dokan” from the dropdown labeled “Select Plugin”. If you have a technical question, you can also submit a ticket as well.

There are various ways of getting support when you need it. So if you run into trouble, there’s no need to panic, chances are these problems are already solved. And if you can’t find the solution on the FAQ or forums, you can get in touch with the team through email, support ticket, or contact form.

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Conclusion

That concludes our Dokan review article. After looking at some of its features and exploring the plugin, we can see why Dokan is known as one of the best WordPress multivendor plugins. There are so many multivendor plugins out there, and it’s easy to get confused about which one to pick. 

Dokan does have a free version known as Dokan Lite. Although some of the advanced features are only available in the Pro version, using Dokan Lite you can get an idea of how the plugin works.

The plugin does have a lot of features and functionalities to talk about, we mentioned some of the important ones. There’s a lot more to explore but we’ll do that in the future. If you have any questions about Dokan, feel free to ask in the comment below. If you’re a Dokan user, then let us know your experience with the plugin.