Introduction #
This User Guide will explain everything you need to know, before starting with our vidaXL WooCommerce plugin version 3.2.0 or higher.
Download, install & activate the plugin #
- First, you need to start a trial period at woosa.com for one of our plans.
- Second, you’ll need to select the plugin you would like to use via your Woosa account.
- Third, you can download and install the plugin in your WordPress dashboard.
- Last but not least, you can activate your Woosa license key in the settings of our plugin.
Questions and Support #
- Submit a Support Ticket and our Support Specialists will help you out with any questions regarding our plugin.
- Plan a free 30-minute demo call with one of our team members and walkthrough our plugin and your questions together.
About vidaXL #
What is vidaXL? #
VidaXL is a consumer and business webshop specialising in the house and garden categories. Besides having their own consumer webshop, they also act like a Dropshipping supplier with their label dropshippingXL.
One of the biggest benefits of vidaXL is their wide-range of products and distribution channels in Europe. VidaXL is one of the less well known dropshipping suppliers, who can offer a 2-3 day delivery time in almost all European countries. That is one of the main reasons, vidaXL is one of the most popular dropshipping supplier at this moment.
Before you start: create a vidaXL Dropshipping account #
To be able to start with dropshipping via vidaXL, you will first need to sign up for a vidaXL dropshipping account. You can sign up for free via dropshippingxl.com, by clicking the Sign up button right above in the menu.
It can take up to 7 business days, before vidaXL will approve your sign up request. Once you are approved, you can immediately start selling the entire product catalog of vidaXL with over 80,000 products.
Have you already started the free trial period of your Woosa plugin and now realize you need more time, because you don’t have a vidaXL dropshipping account yet? Let us know by submitting a ticket, we’ll extend your free trial period.
Authorization & License #
vidaXL API token #
You can find the vidaXL API key in your dropshippingXL account.
- Click on your company name right above and select My account in the dropdown menu
- Scroll down until you see API Token
- Click Show API Token and copy the API token immediately
- Log in to your WordPress dashboard
- Go to WooCommerce > Settings > vidaXL > Authorization
- Fill in the email address of your dropshippingXL account and the API token you have just copied
- Click the button Click to authorize
- The status should change to Authorized in green
Does the authorization fails? Please check our list of errors for the vidaXL WooCommerce plugin.
Woosa license key #
As with all our software, usage of our plugins requires an active Woosa license key. Follow our Getting Started article activating your Woosa license key to make sure your license key is activated before you start any processes with our plugins.
General settings #
Track & Trace code in customer emails #
Once an order has been placed on your webshop, the customer would like to receive updates about their shipment. The most common way to update a customer is by sharing the Track & Trace code of the shipping carrier.
Our plugin will import the Track & Trace code in the particular WooCommerce order, however that part is only visible for you as a webshop owner. The Track & Trace to customer emails setting, will enable you to automatically send the Track & Trace code to the customer. We depend on the default WooCommerce email templates. If the Track & Trace code doesn’t show or you’re using custom email templates, let your developer check how to display vidaXL Track & Trace code in emails.
Use an external cron job #
A cron job is a scheduled task in your webshop, which will take place on a recurring basis. For example, updating the stock can be scheduled every 60 minutes. The cron job makes sure, the task will be processed every 60 minutes. Basically it “pings” your webshop to start that process on time.
The WordPress cron job system is not very reliable, mainly if you are starting a new webshop with not many visitors. It will only “ping” your webshop, when someone is visiting your website (including yourself). You can imagine that visiting your website every 60 minutes to trigger a cron job, beats its target.
Another reason to not rely on the WordPress cron job is that you have less options to adjust the schedule. Some processes can increase to load on your server and you might want them to run only during the night. In both cases we advise you to use an external cron job.
There are two options to configure an external cron job:
- [DIFFICULT] On your own server (i.e. cPanel)
- [EASY] The Woosa cron server
On your own server #
Please consult a developer or server expert to configure a cron job on your own server.
The Woosa cron server #
Woosa has a cron server where we can configure your cron URL to “ping” your webshop, at any schedule. Want to go for the easy way? Submit a ticket a request to configure your cron URL.
Preserve Stock Offset #
To prevent selling products in your webshop that are already out of stock at vidaXL, you can use the Preserve Stock Offset setting. Simply go to WordPress dashboard > WooCommerce > Settings > vidaXL tab > Settings mini-tab and fill in a number in the input field. Not sure how to use this setting? Let’s explain more in debt why we have introduced this setting.
As you might have noticed, vidaXL has a lot of webshops who are using their dropshipping solution. This means you will have a lot of competition worldwide, in the same product catalog. This also means that a product can have a stock of 8 now, but can be out of stock within a few minutes. That situation will mainly occur with popular products.
Besides vidaXL only updates their stock once every 30 minutes, which causes a slight delay in the stock level in your webshop. To prevent you from selling products that are already out of stock, we have introduced the Preserve Stock Offset setting. What it does? Let’s describe it with an example:
- Let’s say you are selling a dining table with the SKU number 321669. This is a very popular dining table. It is 13:31 and at this moment the stock level at vidaXL is 8. VidaXL will only update its stock around 14:00 again.
- However in that short period, 10 other webshops have sold the product with SKU number 321669. This means the actual stock level is -2 instead of 8. Already 2 webshops need to disappoint their customers.
- Nevertheless, your webshop will still say a stock level of 8 and therefore customers still think they can purchase the product. Let’s say, a customer has purchased the product.
- Only when sending the order to vidaXL, you will find out that vidaXL can no longer deliver this product because it is out of stock. You need to contact your customer to disappoint them and will lose revenue.
We could have prevented this situation by configuring the Preserve Stock Offset with value 10 for example. This means, when a product reaches stock level 10 or lower in your webshop the product will be set out of stock.
We are doing our very best to update the stock levels as soon as possible, but need to deal with the amount of webshops using vidaXL and the delays of vidaXL itself. Therefore we have introduced the Preserver Stock Offset setting, so that we can prevent disappointed and losing revenue as much as possible.
Debug mode #
When you enable the checkbox for Debug Mode, all data our plugins add will be visible in Custom Fields. For example: when a vidaXL order number is present, it will show the name and value of that particular field.
Custom Fields can be adjusted, deleted or added. In this way developers have the ability to debug issues.
Remove configuration #
When you activate a WordPress plugin it will add information to your database. The database stores this information, until you remove it yourself. Also when you disable and even delete a plugin, the database tables will still exist. This has a benefit and a downside at the same time.
If you keep the database tables stored, the plugin will remember the data once you re-install it. However, it can also take up unnecessary space in your database table. Basically, it is up to you what your expectation for the future is!
Are you in doubt what to do here? Discuss it with your developer or web agency.
Automatic handling of orders #
Send orders to vidaXL #
One of the biggest advantages of working with a dropshipping supplier like vidaXL, is that they send orders directly to your customers. Because of this, you don’t have to purchase or pre-finance products yourself.
However, vidaXL must know the ordered products and address details of the customer in order to be able to send the order. Therefore we have added the setting Send orders to vidaXL in the plugin settings. In this way, you can decide yourself when a WooCommerce order should be sent to vidaXL automatically for shipment.
You can choose 3 triggers to send orders to vidaXL:
- Disable this, I will do it manually.
- Automatically when order status is completed.
- Automatically when order status is processing.
In this case we mean the status of the WooCommerce order.
Import products #
Now you have configured all general settings with, we can almost start to import products into our WooCommerce store. Go to WooCommerce > Settings > vidaXL tab > Synchronization mini-tab.
Import products as draft #
When you have this checkbox enabled, all new products will be imported with Draft status in WooCommerce.
Why would you use this functionality? Because vidaXL products will be imported with the content that vidaXL provides and therefore is used by thousands of other webshops. You might want to prevent creating duplicate content and getting strikes from Google. Therefore the Draft status will buy you some time, to edit the product content and make it as unique as possible.
Exclude vidaXL brand from the product title #
When you have this checkbox enabled, product titles that start with vidaXL will remove vidaXL from the title. This means product titles with vidaXL in the middle of the title, will not remove vidaXL.
VidaXL is not only a dropshipping supplier, they also produce products within their own brand. Since they also have an online consumer store, using their brand can come across as promotion for them.
Exclude products based on B2B price #
The B2B price is the purchase price you pay vidaXL for that particular product.
For this setting you can configure a minimum and maximum amount. For example when the B2B price minimum is 50 and the maximum is 500, we’ll only import products within that price range.
This can be helpful if you don’t want to sell to cheap or to expensive products.
Include or exclude out of stock products #
Some products in the vidaXL catalog are out of stock and therefore not possible to sell. You can decide wether or not to import out of stock products.
If you set this setting to exclude, all out of stock products won’t be imported to your WooCommerce shop. If you set this setting to include, all out of stock products will be imported.
Define how to calculate your selling price #
Every seller wants to offer the best price with the biggest margin. Therefore we offer multiple options to configure a selling price.
- Use same price as vidaXL
The vidaXL advise price, like they have on their own consumer webshop. - Percentage amount
Add a percentage amount above the B2B price of vidaXL. - Fixed amount
Add a fixed amount above the B2B price of vidaXL.
You can either choose the same price as vidaXL or a percentage and fixed amount. It is not possible to combine the vidaXL price with a separate margin.
Automatically update product information #
All products will be imported with the product information and content of vidaXL. You can decide yourself which content, you would like to automatically update.
Below a list of the product content provided by vidaXL:
- Title
- Short description
- Description
- Attributes
- Dimensions
- Categories
If you want one of these not to be updated automatically please disable the checkbox in the synchronization settings of the plugin. You can find these via WooCommerce > Settings > vidaXL tab > Synchronization mini-tab.
Manually edit product information #
Edit product content (e.g. title and description) #
Since a lot of webshops are using vidaXL as a dropshipping supplier, there is a lot of common product information circling around on the internet. We therefore advise you to manually edit your product information and make it unique.
You can manually edit the following product information:
- Title
- Short description
- Description
- Attributes
- Dimensions
- Categories
Once you have edited the product information, make sure it will not be overridden by adjusting the automatically product update settings according to your changes.
Edit product category #
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet.
Change selling price #
Once you have imported products with the selling price settings above, it can happen that you’re not happy with the selling price or margin. In that case, you can manually change the selling price in the WooCommerce product itself.
Make sure the price will not be updated automatically, by disabling the checkbox in the synchronization settings mini-tab.
Add or change product attributes #
Our vidaXL plugin for WooCommerce adds the following attributes during the product import:
- Brand
- Color
- Delivery time
- Diameter
- Gender
- Manual
- Number of packages
- Shipping time
- Size
Is there a relevant attribute missing? Feel free to add those manually. All attributes can be used in the Appearance > Widgets > Shop Sidebar > Filter by Attributes to make them visible in the sidebar of the catalog.
Developers #
Usage of an external cron job #
A cron job can be configured for scheduling tasks to be executed in the future. This is normally used to schedule a task that is executed periodically – for example, to send out a notice every morning.
All plugins of Woosa rely on cron jobs for tasks like updating stock, price and other relevant product content. Woosa uses the WP cron and Scheduled Actions in WooCommerce to execute those tasks on time. In some cases a hosting provider or third-party plugin can interfere with our cron jobs and block update processes. That’s why we have introduced our external cron job.
If you have enabled the checkbox to use an external cron job, you’ll need to configure the URL on an external server including the scheduling scheme. This can be your own server or the Woosa cron server.
If you choose to configure it on your own server, make sure a developer will do this for you.
List of actions #
The list of actions in all our dropshipping plugins for WooCommerce, show what the synchronization is currently doing. It checks for example every 60 minutes if an order which is shipped by vidaXL has any updates. While it is executing this action, you will see it turning green.
The biggest misconception about this table is, that actions with inactive status are not working in the shop. However, what it actually means is that it is currently not active. Once the time is there to run that action, it will become active and green.
Errors #
During each process it is possible that you will get errors. Luckily for every error there is a solution. Check our list of errors to solve them yourself, without the support of our specialists.
Tools #
At this moment we only support the clear cache functionality for our plugin users.
Logs #
All (error) logs related to our plugins. In this way a developer can debug when an error occurs.