Knowledgebase

Minimum Requirements

Congratulations on joining the MAHA Marketplace! You are most welcome to contribute as both buyer and seller to network with other like-minded supporters.

Running an online store is a great way to reach a larger target market for your products & services. However, there is a minimum amount of information required from you, as a vendor, to be able to operate an online vendor store on the MAHA marketplace.

As well as this, the more information that you include with your online store, the more likely customers will find you and purchase your products & services. At a bare minimum, we require the following information from you:

The above will be the absolute bare minimum to run a functional online store. We do however recommend using this knowledgebase to build a powerful MAHA marketplace store which will help your business flourish.

Vendor Setup

It’s most important for any marketplace, how your vendors will setup their stores.

MAHA Marketplace will give you most easiest and peaceful here as well.

It will take less than 5 minutes for any seller to setup their store.

Whenever a vendor logs in to their store for the first time, they will have a “Store Setup” widget.

This will give them option to setup store essential setting at the very beginning.

If any vendor skipped the setup widget or wanted to change any store setting in future, then they can do this easily from their dashboard as well.

To find this, navigate to Dashboard -> Setting

Vendor’s setting page always shows a profile completeness progress bar top of their store setting page.

It also shows remaining setting suggestions. This will make vendor’s life easier and give them the right direction to setup their store.

Setting options are categories to give an overview which setting is for what purpose. Available setting categories are –

Store
Payment
Shipping
SEO
Customer Support
Store Policies
Store Invoice
Vacation Mode
Analytics Region

“Store” category will enable vendors to set most essential parts of their store –

Logo
Banner
Store Name
Store Slug
Store Phone Number
Store Address
Store Location

Vendor may set different type of banners for their Store.

Available Banner types –

Static Image
Image Slider
Video Banner
For video banners, only YouTube video URLs are supported.

Vendor may setup what they want to show or hide from their Store.

They may also manage “Store Name” position at their store page. Available positions –

On Store Banner
At Store Header

Vendor Payment Setup

Payment is also very much essential as without payment setting vendor will not able to withdraw their commissions.

Payment methods are available as per allowed payment options by Admin setting -> Withdrawal

Vendor Shipping Setup

Payment is also very much essential as without payment setting vendor will not able to withdraw their commissions.

Payment methods are available as per allowed payment options by Admin setting -> Withdrawal

Vendor SEO Setup

Vendor may set their store social and SEO related setting from here.

SEO Title
Meta Descrption
Meta Keywords
Facebook Title
Facebook Description
Facebook Image
Twitter Title
Twitter Description
Twitter Image

Vendor Customer Support

Vendor may set customer support information separately.

Support Address
Support Email
Support Phone

Store Policies

Vendor may setup their store policies from here –

Policy Tab Title
Shipping Policy
Refund Policy
Cancellation Policy
Policies are visible at store page, vendor’s single product page, order details and store invoice.

Store Invoices

Vendor may setup their store policies from here –

Policy Tab Title
Shipping Policy
Refund Policy
Cancellation Policy
Policies are visible at store page, vendor’s single product page, order details and store invoice.

Store Vacation Mode

Vendor may setup their vacation mode from here.

Store Analytics Region

Vendor may setup their preferred analytics region from here.

Variable products in MAHA let you offer a set of variations on a product, with control over prices, stock, image and more for each variation. They can be used for a product like a ring size, where you can offer a large, medium and small.

To add a variable product, create a new product or edit an existing one.

Go to: Dashboard > Products.
Select the Add New button or Edit an existing product. The Product Data displays.
Select Variable product from the Product Data dropdown.

Add Attributes to Use for Variations

In the Attributes section, add attributes before creating variations — use global attributes that are site-wide or define custom ones specific to a product.

Global Attributes

To use a global attribute on your product:

First create a global attribute.
Then you can choose said global attribute from the dropdown and select Add.
Choose Select all to add all values from to the variable product (if applicable).
Most importantly select the Used for variations checkbox to use these for variations.
Select Save attributes.

Custom Attributes

To add a new attribute specific to this product:

Select Custom product attribute and click Add.
Name the attribute (e.g., Size).
Set values separated by a vertical pipe, | (e.g., Small | Medium | Large).
Enable the Used for variations checkbox.
Select Save attributes.

Add Variations

With attributes created and saved to add a variation, go to the Variations section in the Product data meta box.

Manually Add a Variation

Select Add variation from the dropdown menu, and select Go.
Select attributes for your variation. To change additional data, click the triangle icon to expand the variation.
Edit any available data. The only required field is Regular Price.
Select Save changes.

Creating All Possible Variations

Select Create variations from all attributes to have your store create every possible combination of variations from your attributes and their values and select Go.

It will create a new variation for each and every possible combination of variation attributes (max 50 per run). If you have more possible combinations you can run it again.

For example, if you have two attributes – color (with values blue and green) and size (with values large and small) it creates the following variations:

Large Blue
Large Green
Small Blue
Small Green

Editing Many Variations

If you have more than 15 variations, use the buttons to navigate forward and backward through the list. Each time you navigate to a new set of variations, the previous set is saved. This ensures that all changes are saved.

Setting Defaults

Set defaults you prefer on variations. In the example, no default form values were set, so users can pick any color and size right away from the product page.

If you want a certain variation already selected when a user visits the product page, choose the default form values. This also enables the Add to Cart button to appear automatically on variable product pages.

You can only set defaults after at least one variation has been created.

Adding Variation Data

Each variation can have the following properties.

General

Enabled – Enable or disable the variation.
Downloadable – If this a downloadable variation.
Virtual – If this product isn’t physical or shipped, shipping settings are removed.
Regular Price (required) – Set the price for this variation.
Sale Price (optional) – Set a price for this variation when on sale.
Tax status – Taxable, shipping only, none.
Tax class – Tax class for this variation. Useful if you are offering variations spanning different tax bands.
Stock quantity – Shows if Manage stock? is selected. Allows to set the current stock level for the variation.
Allow backorders? – Shows if Manage stock? is selected. Allows to set if backorders are allowed for the variation; if enabled, stock can go below zero.
Low stock threshold – Shows if Manage stock? is selected. When the stock for the variation reaches this level you will get a notification email. If not set, the product-wide threshold will be used (see Inventory Management below).
Downloadable Files – Shows if Downloadable is selected. Add file(s) for customers to download.
Download Limit – Shows if Downloadable is selected. Set how many times a customer can download the file(s). Leave blank for unlimited.
Download Expiry – Shows if Downloadable is selected. Set the number of days before a download expires after purchase.

Inventory Management

Inventory for variable products can be managed on product and variation level.

Сhoose how to manage stock by toggling Enable stock management at product level on the Inventory tab

The following settings are available if you choose to manage stock on a product level

SKU – If you use SKUs, set the SKU or leave blank to use the product’s SKU.
Manage Stock? – Tick the box to manage stock at the variation level.
Stock Quantity – Shows if Manage Stock is selected. Input the quantity. Stock for the specific variation, or left blank to use the product’s stock settings.
Allow Backorders – Choose how to handle backorders.
Low stock threshold – When the stock for the variation reaches this level you will get a notification email.
Sold Individually? – Allow only one to be sold in one order. (This setting is used for the product itself. You cannot set a specific variation to only be sold once per order)

Choosing to manage stock for variations individually allows you to edit the same properties for each variation.

Set Stock Status can be applied to all variations at once to In stock or Out of stock. Bulk-update under Variations.

Shipping

Weight – Weight for the variation, or left blank to use the product’s weight.
Dimensions – Height, width and length for the variation, or left blank to use the product’s dimensions.
Shipping class – Shipping class can affect shipping. Set this if it differs from the product.

Linked Products

Upsells
Cross-sells
Grouped

If the SKU, weight, dimensions, and stock fields are not set, then it inherits values assigned to the variable product. Price fields must be set per variation.

Add an Image to the Variation

Expand the variation.
Click the blue image placeholder (screenshot).
Select the image you wish to use.
Save.

Bulk Editing

You can bulk-edit variations by selecting the specific piece of data you want from the dropdown. In this example, I want to edit prices for all variations:

What Customers See

On the frontend, when viewing a variable product, the user is presented with dropdown boxes to select variation options. Selecting options will reveal information about the variation, including available stock and price.

If the user tries to click the greyed out add to cart button before choosing an attribute, a message will appear asking them to select some attributes.

In the product archive page, Add to Cart does not display because a variation must first be chosen before adding to cart on the product page.

Functionality / behavior for more than 30 variations

If a product has more than 30 possible variations, then the customer will first have to select all available attributes before they can see if a product has stock or is available.

For example, if you have a Hoodie, available in five sizes and three colors, this produces 125 variations (five to the power of three). If you removed five of these variations, the customer would still be able to select that from the front-end but they wouldn’t see this wasn’t available until they selected the Add to cart button.

To access its power, navigate to Products > All Products, tick two or more products from the list, and select Edit from the Bulk Actions menu at the top or bottom of the list, and click Apply to enter the world of bulk editing.

An edit screen with the following fields are revealed, a change to which will affect all the selected products once you hit the Update button, visible to the bottom-right of the edit window.

Bulk Editing Fields

Below are the default product fields one might encounter, although when certain extensions are active, additional fields might also be present.

Bulk Edit – shows the currently selected products that will be affected. Click the x to remove a particular product from the active bulk edit session.

Product Categories – a list of your product categories that can be ticked or unticked to assign or remove them from the selected products.

Comments – can be set to either Allow and Do not allow

Status – reflecting the product’s published status, options include Published, Private, Pending Review, or Draft

Product Tags – once you start typing, existing product tags are offered as options to click. Otherwise, add one or more new tags, separated by commas.

Price – options include Change to, Increase existing price by (fixed amount or %), or Decrease existing price by (fixed amount or %). After an option is selected, an additional Enter Price ($) field is added to which you can add the number reflecting your choice.

Sale – option are Change to, Increase existing sale price by (fixed amount or %), Decrease existing sale price by (fixed amount or %), or Set to regular price decreased by (fixed amount or %). Selecting any of the options reveal an additional Enter sale price ($) field.

Tax status – can be Taxable, Shipping only or None.

Weight – only has one option; Change to. When selected, an additional field is added with which to adjust the weight.

L/W/H – Should the Change to option be selected, 3 additional fields for Lenght, Width and Height respectively, are added.

Shipping class – options will include No Shipping, plus whichever classes have been configured under Vendor Dashboard > Settings > Shipping > Shipping Classes.

Visibility – in reference to the product visibility in store, the option are Catalog & search, Catalog, Search, and Hidden.

Featured – simply Yes or No.

In stock – options are In stock, Out of Stock or On backorder.

Manage Stock – Yes or No.

Stock Qty – option are Change to, Increase existing stock by, or Decrease existing stock by.

Backorders? – can be set to Do not allow, Allow but notify the customer, or Allow.

Sold individually? – options are either Yes or No.

Bulk Editing Limitations

Bulk editing works best with Simple products, and cannot edit the complexities of variable, grouped, or other complicated products.

Bulk editing can only be applied to products that are visible and can be ticked for inclusion in a bulk editing session.

Options for filtering products

Increase the number of products visible on any one page by going to Screen Options > Number of items per page. Be aware the excessively high numbers of products on one page might strain your browser, and take a long time to update, so use wisely.

Filter by category, product type, or stock status by selecting the relevant attributes from the dropdowns at above the product lists, and clicking the Filter button.

Sort products by column ascending or descending by clicking on hyperlinked column headings. By default Name, SKU, Price and Data (published) columns can be used for this type of sorting.

Quick Editing

Quick editing is similar to Bulk editing, but applies to one product only. To access Quick editing, hover over a particular product to reveal its links, and then select Quick editing.

It’s exactly the same as Bulk editing, except that because only one product is involved, the product’s current values are shown in the fields instead of – No Change – as is the case when bulk editing.

Adding a product

Before adding your first product, let’s get familiar with how tags, and attributes work.

Attributes

These can be added per product, or you can set up global attributes for the entire store to use (e.g., in layered navigation).

Product Types

With attributes and categories set up and stock management configured, we can begin adding products. When adding a product, the first thing to decide is what type of product it is.

Simple – covers the vast majority of any products you may sell. Simple products are shipped and have no options. For example, a book.
Grouped – a collection of related products that can be purchased individually and only consist of simple products. For example, a set of six drinking glasses.
Variable – a product with variations, each of which may have a different SKU, price, stock option, etc. For example, a t-shirt available in different colors and/or sizes.
Auction – A product which has no set price, which enables registered users to place bids on a product, with an auction end date whereas the product will be sold for the final auction price. Auctions can be a soft close which indefinitely extends an auction time every time a bid is made within closing moments of the auction, or standard auction with a set end time and date.

SKU

SKU, or Stock Keeping Unit number, is a unique number assigned to a product for, amongst other things, the purpose of keeping track of inventory.

The SKU field can accept up to 255 characters, which can include alphanumeric values and some special characters. The input is checked using the WordPress function santize_text_field, which means HTML, invalid UTF characters, and octets will be removed when saved (an octet is defined by % followed by 2 characters with a value in the range of a-f or 0-9).

Adding a simple product

Adding a Simple product is similar to writing a post in WordPress.

Go to Vendor Dashboard > Products > Add Product. You then have a familiar interface and should immediately feel at home.
Enter a product Title and Description.
Go to the Product Data panel.

Product data

The Product Data meta box is where the majority of important data is added for your products.

General section

Price
- Regular Price – Item’s normal/regular price
- Sale Price – Item’s discounted price that can then be scheduled for certain date ranges. The sale expires at 11:59pm of the specified end date
Tax
- Tax status – Taxable / Shipping only / None
- Tax class – Choose which tax class should be applied

Inventory section

The inventory section allows you to manage stock for the product individually and define whether to allow back orders and more. It enables you to sell products and allow customers to add them to the cart to buy.

Enable Stock Management must be selected in Products Inventory Settings; otherwise, only the ‘Stock status’ option is visible in the Product Data Inventory box.

Options when stock management at product level is disabled. You are responsible for updating the Stock Status.

Options when stock management at product level is enabled.

Enter the Stock Quantity, and MAHA auto-manages inventory and auto-updates Stock Status as Stock, Out of Stock or On Backorder.
Select whether to Allow Backorders.
Low stock threshold – Enter a number upon which you are notified.
Tick the Sold Individually box to limit the product to one per order.

Shipping section

Weight – Weight of the item.
Dimensions – Length, width and height for the item.
Shipping Class – Shipping classes are used by certain shipping methods to group similar products.

Linked Products section

Using up-sells and cross-sells, you can cross promote your products. They can be added by searching for a particular product and selecting the product from the dropdown list.

Up-sells are displayed on the product details page. These are products that you may wish to encourage users to upgrade, based on the product they are currently viewing. For example, if the user is viewing the coffee product listing page, you may want to display tea kettles on that same page as an up-sell.

Cross-sells are products that are displayed with the cart and related to the user’s cart contents. As an example, if the user adds a Nintendo DS to their cart, you may want to suggest they purchase a spare stylus when they arrive at the cart page.

Grouping – Used to make a product part of a grouped product.

Attributes section

On the Attributes tab, you can assign details to a product. You will see a select box containing global attribute sets you created (e.g., platform).

Once you have chosen an attribute from the select box, click add and apply the terms attached to that attribute (e.g., Nintendo DS) to the product. You can hide the attribute on the frontend by leaving the Visible checkbox unticked.

Custom attributes can also be applied by choosing Custom product attribute from the select box. These are added at the product level and won’t be available in layered navigation or other products.

Advanced section

Purchase note – Enter an optional note to send the customer after they purchase the product.
Menu order – Custom ordering position for this item.
Enable Reviews – Enable/Disable customer reviews for this item.

Product short description

Add an excerpt. This typically appears next to product imagery on the listing page, and the long description appears in the Product Description tab.

Video embeds (oembed) may be used, as of version 3.1x.

Taxonomies

On the right-hand side of the Add New Product panel, there are product categories in which you can place your product, similar to a standard WordPress post. You can also assign product tags in the same way.

Product images

Add a main product image and a gallery of images.

Setting catalog visibility options and feature status

In the Publish panel, you can set Catalog Visibility for your product.

Shop and search – Visible everywhere, shop pages, category pages and search results.
Shop only – Visible in shop pages and category pages, but not search results.
Search only – Visible in search results, but not in the shop page or category pages.
Hidden – Only visible on the single product page – not on any other pages.

You can also set whether the product is promoted in product categories, up-sells, related products as a Featured Product. For example, you could tick the Featured box on all bundles you sell.

Other ways to set as Featured are described in the below section: Mark a product as Featured.

Adding a grouped product

A grouped product is created in much the same way as a Simple product. Grouped products are like lists of other products in your shop, and as a result do not have prices or stock numbers of their own. To create one, select Grouped Product from the Product Type dropdown.

Create the Grouped product

Go to: Vendor Dashboard > Products > Add New.
Enter a Title for the Grouped product, e.g., Back to School set
Scroll down to Product Data and select Grouped from the dropdown. The price and several other fields disappear. This is normal because a Grouped Product is a collection of ‘child products’, which is where you add this information.
Publish.

The Grouped product is still an empty group. To this Grouped product, you need to:

Create products and add them
Add existing child products

Having the choice to first create Simple products and add them to a Grouped product later; or first create a Grouped product and add Simple products later gives you flexibility to add Simple products to more than one Grouped product.

Add products to the Group

Go to: MAHA > Products > Add New.
Select the Grouped product you wish to add products to.
Scroll down to Product Data and go to Linked Products.
Select Grouped Products, and search for the product by typing
Click the products you wish to add.
Update
You can drag and drop to reorder the Grouped Products. Once you press Update, the new order will be shown on the product page.

Adding a variable product

Variable products are one of the more complex of product types. They let you define variations of a single product where each variation may have a different SKU, price or stock level.

To save time, it’s possible to use a product and duplicate it to create similar products with variations and other qualities.

Go to MAHA > Products and look through the list for a product you wish to replicate, then click Duplicate.

Deleting a product

To delete a product:

Go to: MAHA > Products.
Find the product you wish to delete.
Hover in the area under the Product name and click Trash.

Mark a product as Featured

To mark a product as featured, go to Products > All Products and select the Star in the featured column. Alternatively, select Quick Edit and then the Featured option.

Filtering products

Use the Filter function to get a product count, view products by type, or see which products are On Backorder or Out of Stock.

Go to: Vendor Dashboard > Products.
Select a Category, Product Type and/or Stock Status, or any combination of the three.
Click Filter.

Filter by category

Use the category filter function to filter products by category.

Note: When the site has fewer than 100 categories, the category filter field will appear as a dropdown. When the number of categories reaches 100, an input search will be used instead of a dropdown.

And unlike dropdown, input search will not show all categories, only categories that are tied to some product.

Sorting products

Sorting is different than Filtering, in that you can drag and drop products to re-order them.

Go to: Vendor Dashboard > Products.
Select Sorting.
Select a Category, Product Type and/or Stock Status, or any combination of the three.
Click Filter.

You can now drag and drop products in an order to your liking.

Product ID

A Product ID is sometimes needed when using shortcodes, widgets, and links.

To find the ID, go to Products and hover over the product you need the ID for. The product ID number is displayed.

Allow backorders

Select whether to allow Backorders from the dropdown, if you are managing stock on a product. You must check Manage stock to allow backorders.

When Managed stock is checked, there are three dropdown options for under Allow backorders:

Allow. This will allow backorders without any notice if the product is out of stock
Do not allow. There will be a notice on the product page that product is out of stock. If Stock notifications is checked, customers will be able to leave their email address to get notified.
Allow, but notify customer. There will be a notice “Available on backorder” on the product page.

To allow backorders, the Stock status must be set to In Stock even though the Stock Quantity is 0 or less.

When backorders are allowed, stock quantity can go below 0 following backorder purchase.

Use Advanced Notifications (separate purchase) to help notify someone other than the shop admin if backorders are placed.

Please note that in order to fulfill backorders, you would need to find the orders received for the backordered product and then fulfill the oldest ones first by searching for the product on the order screen and then ordering by date.

Product categories

Product categories are the primary way to group products with similar features. You can also add subcategories if desired.

Categories can also be reordered by dragging and dropping – this order is used by default on the front end whenever the categories are listed. This includes both widgets and the category/subcategory views on product pages.

There is a default category. Every product must be assigned to a category, so the default category will be automatically assigned if the product is not assigned to any other category. By default, this category will be named “Uncategorized”.

When you add a new product via Products > Add Product, you can select this new product category from the list.

Alternatively, you can go to Products > Add Product directly, and select Add New Product Category.

Product tags

What are product tags?

Product tags are another way to relate products to each other, next to product categories. Contrary to categories, there is no hierarchy in tags; so there are no “subtags.”

For example, if you sell clothing, and you have a lot of cat prints, you could make a tag for “cat.” Then add that tag to the menu or sidebar so cat lovers can easily find all t-shirts, hoodies, and pants with cat prints.

Product attributes

What are product attributes?

A third and important way to group products is to use attributes.

Add global attributes to product

Add the created attributes to your products.

Go to: Products > Add Product (or edit an existing one).
Select the Attributes tab in the Product Data. There you can choose any of the attributes that you’ve created in the dropdown menu.
Select Add.

Add custom attributes

Alternatively, add an attribute you only want to use for one product. This would only be ideal if you have a product with unique variations.

Go to: Product > Add Product.
Select the Attributes tab.
Select Custom product attribute in the dropdown and follow the above steps.

MAHA has a built-in product CSV Importer and Exporter.

Import, export, or update hundreds or thousands of products in your vendor store with a single CSV. This tool supports most product types, including variations.

First-time store owners get started more quickly by exporting and importing products during setup.
Existing store owners can update tens or hundreds of products with new info or place them on sale, or sync multiple storefronts.

Create your CSV

We recommend using:

Online spreadsheet editor Google Drive / Docs
Free spreadsheet app in OpenOffice
Free Calc app in LibreOffice
Numbers for macOS

If possible, avoid Microsoft Excel due to formatting and character encoding issues.

How to create the CSV?

To import new products or update existing products, you need a CSV containing your product information. You can:

Export a CSV of products from an existing store.
Download a CSV file with sample data from GitHub and replace it.
Use your own CSV. Any information you wish to include should follow the formatting and columns of the Product CSV Import Schema.

If using the built-in Product CSV Importer and Exporter tool to export a CSV, it already follows the schema and is ready to use. If using the blank and formatted CSV file, it also follows the schema; just be sure to enter the info as instructed at Product CSV Import Schema.

General guidelines

CSVs should be in UTF-8 format.
Dates should be defined for the store’s local timezone.
Use 1 or 0 in your CSV, if importing a Boolean value (true or false)
Multiple values in a field get separated with commas.
Wrapping values in quotes allows you to insert a comma.
Prefix the id with id: if referencing an existing product ID. No prefix is needed if referencing an SKU. For example: id:100, SKU101
Custom meta is supported/imported but only plain text – no support for JSON or Serialized data.
Taxonomy term hierarchy is denoted with >, terms are separated with commas.
Draft products are not exported, only published and privately published products.
It is not possible to assign a specific post ID to product on import. Products will always use the next available ID, regardless of the ID included in the imported CSV.

Images

Images need to be pre-uploaded or available online to import to your store.
External URLs are supported and imported into the Media Library if used.
You can define the filename if the image already exists in the Media Library.

Import

Adding New Products

First-time and existing store owners using MAHA can use the CSV to add new products with one upload.

1/ Go to: Vendor Dashboard > Products.

2/ Select Import at the top. The Upload CSV File screen displays.

3/ Select Choose File and the CSV you wish you use.

CSV delimiter (Advanced option): Generally CSV elements are separated by a comma. If you are using a different delimiter in your file, you can set it here.

4/ Continue.

The Column Mapping screen displays, and MAHA automatically attempts to match or “map” the Column Name from your CSV to Fields.

5/ Use dropdown menus on the right side to adjust fields or indicate ‘Do not import.’

*Any unrecognized columns will not be imported by default.

6/ Select Run the Importer.

7/ Wait until the Importer is finished. Do not refresh or touch the browser while in progress.

Update Existing Products

Store owners can use the CSV Importer tool to update existing products with new info, e.g., Adding a brand, changing a tax class, bulk-update for a special sale or event, etc.

1/ Make a CSV file as indicated in Create Your CSV, using the IDs and/or SKUs of products you wish to update.

The importer uses the ID and/or SKU to auto-match and auto-update whatever info you enter on each line.

2/ Go to: Vendor Dashboard > Products.

3/ Select Import at the top. The Upload CSV File screen displays.

4/ Select Choose File and the CSV you wish you use.

5/ Tick the checkbox for Update Existing Products.

6/ Continue.

The Column Mapping screen displays, and MAHA automatically attempts to match or “map” the Column Name from your CSV to Fields.

7/ Use dropdown menus on the right side to adjust fields or indicate ‘Do not import.’

*Any unrecognized columns will not be imported by default.

8/ Select Run the Importer.

9/ Wait until the Importer is finished. Do not refresh or touch the browser while in progress.

Converting existing simple product to variable product

Store owners can use the CSV Importer tool to convert the existing simple product to a variable. In order to do that, the following steps need to be taken:

1/ Create a simple product that has a price and SKU.
2/ Export product via built-in CSV Exporter on the All Products page.
3/ Open CSV file and convert the simple product to a variable. Steps that need to be taken for it (for example to convert to a variable product with 1 attribute and 2 variations):

Add 2 new rows
Add 4 new columns after the last column:
Attribute 1 name
Attribute 1 value(s)
Attribute 1 visible
Attribute 1 global

In our case, we are adding Size variations so our new 4 columns look as follows:

Change the type of the product from simple to variable and add type variation to variation rows (2 new rows that you created). Add SKU to variation rows. Give it a name as well. It looks like this in our example:

Update the following columns as well (and any other columns if needed):

Very important – add SKU to all fields in the Parent column – this is to map parent product with its variations:

4/ Save a new CSV file.

5/ Import the updated CSV file back to the site using built-in CSV Importer on All Products view.

6/ Select to update existing products before import since we want to update the
existing product on the site.

7/ Proceed with import (nothing to be mapped).

8/ You will see the following which is expected

9/ Navigate to the product. You will see that it is now variable and has 1 attribute added but no variations were created. Note that Used for variations checkbox is not selected. This is also expected.

10/ Next, open the CSV file again (the one where you already created rows for variations) and delete the parent product row. Leave variations rows without changes.

11/ Save the updated CSV file.

12/ Next, import updated CSV file to the site but this time don’t select the box next to Update existing products.

13/ Proceed with import (no fields need to be mapped). You should see that variations have been imported.

14/ After completing the import, navigate to the product. It should now be a variable product with variations.

Export

Store owners wishing to export their current catalog of products for any reason can generate a CSV using the Product Importer/Exporter.

1/ Go to: Vendor Dashboard > Products.

2/ Select Export at the top. The Export Products screen displays.

3/ Select to Export All Columns. Or select which columns to export by using the dropdown menu.

4/ Select to Export All Products. Or select which product types to export by using the dropdown menu.

5/Select to Export All Categories. Or select which categories to export by using the dropdown menu.

6/ Tick the box to Export Custom Meta, if you need this info.

Meta data on your products is typically from other plugins. Meta data columns are exported following the meta:-prefix standard detailed above in the importer mapping section. By default, no additional meta data is exported.

7/ Select Generate CSV. Wait for the export to finish.

8/ Exit the exporter.

Shipping classes can be used to group products of similar type and used by some shipping methods, such as Flat Rate Shipping, to provide different rates to different classes of product.

For example, with shipping classes and Flat Rate Shipping, it’s possible to create different flat rate costs for different product types, like bulky items and small items.

Assign shipping classes to products

To apply these rates to a specific class of products (e.g., bulky or heavy items), you need to assign them.

1/ Go to: Vendor Dashboard > Products.

2/ Select the product, and Edit.

3/ Go to Shipping, and select the Shipping Class from the dropdown.

Each product can have one shipping class.

4/ Update the product to save changes.

Bulk-Edit Shipping Classes

To bulk-edit shipping classes:

Go to: WooCommerce > Products.
Select the products you want to edit by ticking boxes on the left-hand side.
Select Edit from the Bulk Actions dropdown, then Apply. A new screen appears.
Select a shipping class from the dropdown.
Update to save changes.

MAHA enables vendors to configure coupon for their store. Vendors can specifically create coupons for their store.

Vendors can add their coupon from here: Go to Dashboard-> Coupons-> Add new ( as shown in the screenshot below)

In the same manner, for editing the present coupons, you can click on the existing coupon ( from the list) or click on the edit option under “Action” column.

Clicking on Add/edit option will redirect you to Edit/Add coupon page as shown below:

Similar to Admin settings, let’s discuss the feasibility provided to the vendors for Coupons by MAHA.

General Settings:These include the basic settings provided to the vendor for configuring coupons for their stores, here’s a screenshot of the options available along with brief description of each:

a. Code: Vendors can provide the name of the coupon for their store.

b. Description: Vendors can enter the description of the coupon here.

c. Discount Type: Vendors can select the type of discount from the drop-down option provided here. Vendors have 2 discount types options which can be declared for their store, namely- percentage discount and fixed product discount.

d. Coupon amount: Here, vendors can apply the value of the coupon which is to be declared.

e. Coupon Expiry date: Vendors can set expiry date of the coupon from here.

f. Allow free shipping: Check this option if the coupon grants free shipping, ensure that “Free shipping method” must be enabled and configured as required.

Restriction settings: These settings will allow the vendors to configure rules for the published coupons for their store. Here’s a screenshot of the section and the details of the options provided.

a. Minimum spend: This option allows the vendor to set the minimum subtotal needed to use the coupon in their store.

b. Maximum spend : This allows the vendor to set the maximum subtotal allowed when using the coupon.

c. Individual use only: Checking this box will ensure that this coupon is not used with other coupons declared by the vendor.

d. Exclude sale items: Vendors can check the box if they don’t want this coupon to be applied against the products on sale in their store

e. Products: Vendors can set here the products of their store on which the coupon can be applied.

f. Exclude product: Vendors can set the products of their store upon which the coupon cannot be applied.

g. Product categories: Vendors can select the product categories of their store upon which the coupon can be applied, or that need to be in the cart in order for the coupon to be applied.

h. Exclude categories: Vendors can set the product categories of their store upon which the coupon will not be applied, or that cannot be in the cart in order for the coupon to be applied.

i.Email restrictions: Here the vendors can set a list of Email addresses that can use a coupon, verified against customer’s billing email. Use a comma to separate the emails.

Limit: This tab will allow the vendor(s) to add usage limits against the declared coupons. Here’s a screengrab of the functions available under this tab along with descriptions, for better understanding:

a. Usage limit per coupon: Vendor(s) can set here the number of times this coupon can be used before it becomes invalid.

b. Limit usage to X items: This will allow the vendors to set the number of items against which coupon can be applied to before being invalid.

c. Usage Limit per user: Set the number of times a coupon can be used by each customer before being invalid for that customer.

4.Deleting coupons

Both Admin can Vendors can delete the coupons from their respective Dashboard from Coupon Listing page: Dashboard -> Coupons by click on the “Delete” icon under the actions column as shown below:

Orders are created when a customer completes the checkout process, and they are visible to users with Admin and Shop Manager roles only. Each order is given a unique Order ID.

Order Statuses

An order also has a Status. Order statuses let you know how far along the order is, starting with “Pending payment” and ending with “Completed.” The following order statuses are used:

Pending payment — Order received, no payment initiated. Awaiting payment (unpaid).
Failed — Payment failed or was declined (unpaid) or requires authentication (SCA). Note that this status may not show immediately and instead show as Pending until verified (e.g., PayPal).
Processing — Payment received (paid) and stock has been reduced; order is awaiting fulfillment. All product orders require processing.
Completed — Order fulfilled and complete – requires no further action.
On hold — Awaiting payment – stock is reduced, but you need to confirm payment.
Canceled — Canceled by an admin or the customer – stock is increased, no further action required.
Refunded — Refunded by an admin – no further action required.
Authentication required — Awaiting action by the customer to authenticate the transaction and/or complete SCA requirements.

Visual Diagram to Illustrate Order Statuses

This visual representation follows an order through its statuses from “Pending payment” to “Completed”, “Canceled” or “Refunded.”

Viewing and Managing Multiple Orders

Orders Overview

When a shop starts taking orders, the Orders management page begins to fill up. Go to: Vendor Dashboard > Orders.

Each row displays several details. Some are there by default, others can be added. These are the available options:

Order number and customer name,
Date of purchase,
Order status,
Billing address,
Shipping address,
Purchase total, and
Actions.

To change these columns:

Go to: Vendor Dashboard > Orders.
Select Screen Options in the top right corner.
Select which Columns to show.
Select how many Items you want to be displayed on each page.
Then Apply.

Filter and Arrange Orders

Filter orders by Date (month/year) or by registered customer.

Select the month, or search for a customer.
Select Filter.

Arrange orders in ascending or descending order by Order number, Date or Total by select the heading.

Note that the “Total” column does not take the refunded amount into consideration.

Click the order number and customer name to see the Single Order page, where you can also Edit order details, Update Status, and Add Notes.

Searching and Finding Orders

Orders can be found using the search box at the top right of the order list. Enter an order number, customer name, or other information shown in the order list such as address. Click Search orders or tap return on your keyboard and search results will show a list of matching orders.

Previewing Orders

Order rows have a Preview “eye.”

Clicking Preview opens a Modal, containing the order number, order status, billing details, payment method, shipping details, shipping method, items ordered, and the option to change the order status.

Order Statuses in the Overview

Order Statuses are color-coded and descriptive.

Canceled – Grey
Completed – Blue
Failed – Red
On Hold – Orange
Pending Payment – Grey
Processing – Green
Refunded – Grey

Order Actions

Hovering over an order Status displays Notes made on the order.

At the end of a row are shortcut buttons to quickly mark orders as Processing or Complete.

Viewing and Editing a Single Order

From the Single Order page not only can you view all order data, but also edit and update.

Change the order status.
Edit order items – modify the product, prices, and taxes.
Stock – Reduce and restore stock for an order
Order Actions – Email order details to customer (handy if manually creating an order for your customers) or Regenerate download permissions
Modify product Meta to edit product variations by removing and adding meta
Apply coupons. You will need to know the coupon code to apply to the order. Coupon usage counts are tracked, and coupons can also be removed from orders. Note: the order must be unpaid for coupons to have an affect
Add fee. You can enter an amount or percentage to add a fee to an order. Negative fees will apportion taxes between all other items, and will not make the cart total go below zero

Order Details

Viewing Order Details

The Order Details panel you can view:

Order number
Payment details
Order date and time
Order status
Customer details:
- Username and email, together with a link to view their profile and other purchases the customer may have had in the past
- Billing details
- Shipping details

Editing Order Details

Most of the details in this section can be updated and/or changes.

To change the date and time, use the dropdown date selector and the quantity selectors for the time.
To change the status, choose the right status in the dropdown.
To change the customer, select the current customer and search for the new customer.

Under “Billing” and “Shipping”, several other details can be changed. In order to do so, select the pencil icon next to each of them.

Under “Billing”, the following things can be changed:
- Billing address — this can also be loaded from the customer’s profile by selecting “Load billing address”
- Email
- Phone number
- Payment method and details
Under “Shipping”, the following things can be changed:
- Shipping address — this can also be loaded from the customer’s profile or copied from the billing address
- Customer provided note

Once you’ve made the necessary changes, select Update to update the order.

Order Items and Totals

Viewing Order Items

The next panel on the order page is the Order Items panel. This contains the product items, the shipping details, and the order summary.

Each product item row lists:
- Product image
- Product name
- Single product Cost
- Quantity
- Total (Cost x Quantity, with discounts taken into consideration)
- Taxes
Below that, the shipping details are displayed. This will include:
- Shipping method
- Boxed items
- Total cost
- Taxes
The last section contains an overview of the order costs. This section will change if an order is refunded. By default, it will include:
- Items subtotal — cost excluding tax
- Coupon(s) — amount deducted based on the use of coupons; the coupons used are displayed left in this section
- Shipping — the shipping cost for the order
- Taxes — the amount of taxes for the whole order; this will be replaced by the tax code applied to the order
- Order total — the total of the above costs
- Finally, below the line, an overview of what is paid and the fees taken by payment gateways

Editing or Adding Order Items

Apart from refunding, order items can not be edited, unless the order status is “Pending payment”, or “On hold.”

Product items. Select the pencil icon next to a product line to edit.

The following product items can be edited:

Add Meta — Add and remove meta to change product variable options.
Quantity — Number of items the customer is purchasing.
Total — Line price and line tax before pre-tax discounts.
Tax — Tax cost. For example, if a customer is tax-exempt you may want to remove the taxes.

Other actions. Next, you can do four actions at the bottom of this window:

Add item(s) — this will show you six new options:
- Add product(s) — Add additional products to the order.
- Add fee — Add an additional fee, such as gift wrapping.
- Add shipping — Add a shipping cost. When you’ve done this, select the pencil icon to update the name, the method, the cost, and the tax.
- Add tax — Add an additional tax code to every section in the order.
- Cancel — Cancel if you do not want to make any changes.
- Save — Save once the changes are made.
Once you’ve done this, you can select Recalculate if you want to automatically perform new calculations based on store settings. This can be handy if you are adding or removing products, coupons, shipping methods, etc. Note that any tax changes that you’ve manually included will be removed as the tax settings in your store will apply based on the customer address.
Apply coupon — If your customer forgot to add the coupon could or you want to reward the customer before they pay, selecting this option will show a modal that allows you to apply a coupon code.
Refund — to refund the customer.

Custom Fields

To add custom meta fields, use the Custom Fields metabox:

Order Notes

The Order Notes panel displays notes attached to the order and can be used for storing event details, such as payment results or reducing stock levels, or adding notes to the order for customers to view. Some payment gateways also add notes for debugging.

The following note types are possible:

Purple: System status notices, such as payment gateway details.
Grey: General status updates, such as status changes or private notes. Customers do not see these notes but may receive notification of them, e.g., when the status changes from processing to completed, an email may be sent (depending on your settings).
Blue: Notes to the customer. Customers receive notes via email but can view them by viewing an order in their My account section.

Notes can be a powerful tool for communicating with customers or other store managers. Need to add a tracking number for shipping? Is stock delayed? Add a customer note, and they are automatically notified.

To add a note,

Use the textarea to add the content of the note.
Select Private note or Note to customer in the dropdown.
Select Add.

Manually Adding an Order

To add an order:

Go to: Vendor Dashboard > Orders.
Use Add New at the top of the page. The Single Order page appears.
Input customer details, add line items, apply coupons, apply fees and calculate totals. These are the same as the Editing or Adding Order Items.
Set a status for the new order, e.g., If it needs to be paid, use “Pending payment.”
Save.

Use the Order Actions dropdown to Email order details to the customer with payment instructions.

Paying for an Order

Orders that are “Pending payment” can be paid for through the payment link.

As the shop manager, you can find this link on the order overview:

If the customer is a Guest, anyone with the right link will be able to view the payment page and pay for the order.
If the customer is registered on your site,
- Only this customer will be able to see the payment link once they are logged in.
- The customer can also find the order in: My Account > Orders.

If the customer is assigned to the order, they will be asked to log in before paying.

Troubleshooting

Understanding Order Statuses in Relation to Payment Gateways

STATUS	DESCRIPTION	PAYMENT GATEWAY COMMENTS
ON HOLD	Awaiting payment – stock is reduced, but you need to confirm payment	Usually seen with payment methods when you need to manually confirm, such as BACS (bank transfer) or cheque. You’ll also see this when the gateway is set to authorize instead of capture a charge: the shop owner will need to manually switch the status to processing.
PENDING	Order received (unpaid).	Most gateways will report back and set the order status to Processing (payment successful) or Failed (payment unsuccessful). If the shop never receives either signal, it keeps the status on Pending. This tends to be a misconfiguration of payment notification URLs or a plugin conflict.
PROCESSING	Payment received and stock has been reduced- the order is awaiting fulfillment. All product orders require processing.	If the payment has been successful and the order does not contain Digital or Downloadable products, the order will be set to Processing. This is the shop owner or warehouse’s cue to ship the order and manually mark it as completed.
COMPLETED	Order fulfilled and complete – requires no further action	These generally aren’t interesting because everything has gone correctly.
FAILED	Payment failed or was declined (unpaid).	The order can be manually canceled, but this status can come up if the payment window has expired. It can happen for a few reasons: order was abandoned before payment was completeThe hold stock window expired without a response Same reasons as Pending
AUTHENTICATION REQUIRED	Customer must complete requirements for SCA.	It can occur when: a new customer makes a purchase an existing subscription renews

Check: Consult the documentation or support of your payment gateway on whether manual refunds are available. You will either need to:
- Log in to your payment method account and process the refund there.
- Transfer the money from your bank account manually.
Scope: Refunds normally extend to products, taxes, and shipping fees. However, transaction fees charged by the payment gateway will likely be lost and not refunded.
Vendor: Refunds can be processed through your Orders page. To manually refund an order:
1. Go to: Vendor Dashboard > Orders.
2. Select the order to refund.
3. Go to the order summary, and select “Refund” to start.
4. Specify the quantity of the product(s) to be refunded in the text box(es) that appear for each line item. The refund amount will automatically adjust based on the products refunded. If inventory levels are not managed, you can also enter the Refund amount, without adjusting the product quantity.
5. If the quantities of items are not set when issuing a refund then the order is not marked as refunded and the email that is sent will say “partial refund.”
6. Add refund notes, if desired.
7. Select “Refund $XX.XX manually”.

Items selected for a refund will be noted as refunded. Once the refund has been applied to the order, it will look like this:

Restocking Products Based on Refunds

When processing a refund, you have the option to restock products by ticking the “Restock refunded items” box.

Store policies are very much important for any e-commerce sites.

Now, using MAHA you may define all types of policies for your store and products.

Shipping Policy
Refund Policy
Cancellation/Return/Exchange Policy

Store may set overall site product policies from Dashboard -> Setting -> Store Policies

Vendors are allowed to set their policies for their own store.

Policies can be set from Dashboard -> Setting -> Store Policies Tab

Vendor may also define Policy tab title from here.

It also possible to define policies for each product separately.

Policies can be set from Dashboard – Product manager -> Product Policies Tab

Policies will be sent to customers with store invoice.

You may disable this from Store Invoice setting as well.

Though we create store products with lots of information and details but still customers are not satisfied. They want to ask few more things for their specific needs, want to communicate directly with that product seller.

Suppose a customer is going to purchase 5-6 items and he has few queries in mind for all of those, then he has to write down them in paper and finally go to customer care to post them.

Now, also think for Store admin’s pain, he has a mail with 5-6 queries but all are for different vendors. He will distribute those questions and gather all the answers, then finally going to reply to that customer.

Support is available in various forms- forums, customer care, and so on. But these are not quite enough when the customer has very specific queries that are unique to their requirement. Besides, the process itself is quite lengthy: the customer lists all the queries- in many cases for different vendors- and posts them. The store admin distributes the queries to the respective vendors, collates the answers, and mails them to the customer. Apart from this, the forum is usually populated by other customers who have availed the plugin, and they might not be able to come up with an appropriate answer. In such a situation, only the product seller can help. And here, the Support Ticket System is of immense help.

The Support Ticket System allows the customer to post their queries at one go. They simply have to choose the query category, the product they have queries about, and the urgency, and write down the query in detail. They will be issued a ticket, and will be notified when a reply is posted. They can change the query priority and status in your account, and add replies if required. The process, as is evident, becomes much easier and faster.

Customers may file a support ticket from their My Account -> Orders page.

Customer support ticket submission form.

Allow to set:

Category
Priority
Product
Issues they have

There will be a new “Support Ticket” tab under My Account for customer to check their tickets.

Customers can manage their tickets very easily.

Change priority
Change status
And off course add new reply

You will have a new menu item under Dashboard name “support” to navigate support dashboard.

Vendors will see support tickets only for their products.

Support tickets can be filtered by:

Priority
Status
Date
Product

It’s very easy to manage support tickets from dashboard for vendors.

Also has the option to change ticket priority and status.

There has notification for each and every activities for – Admin, Vendor and Customer.

You will have both Email and Desktop Notifications.

MAHA currently provides four payment gateways available to shoppers:

1) PayPal

PayPal is a very popular means of making payments and getting paid via ecommerce stores. PayPal is also accessible to most users, very easy and efficient to use.

MAHA enables PayPal as a payment gateway for shoppers, however is not available as a means of payouts to vendors.

2) Stripe

Stripe is a very popular e-commerce card processor used by millions of e-commerce stores. Stripe has low fees, and is incredibly attractive, simple and easy to use with minimal self-advertising on their payment form.

MAHA provides automated, instant payouts via Stripe Connect which enables vendors to be immediately paid upon receiving payment for an order.

Note: To enable instant payouts via Stripe, vendors must have a valid and active stripe account.

3) Bank Transfer

Shoppers are able to make payments for goods via EFT if preferred.

MAHA processes all manual payouts daily Monday to Friday.

Note: Vendors must provide a valid Australian bank account to be paid for goods sold via MAHA.

Vendors will be able to check their pending withdrawal amount and claim them by clicking on the withdrawal button here: Vendor Dashboard >> Payments>> withdrawal

On clicking the “withdrawal” button vendor will be redirected to Withdrawal request page shown below and select the orders for which they want to claim the amount.