In a marketplace, you do not ship anything. Twelve vendors do, on twelve schedules, with twelve different carriers. The customer still sees one order number, and when they want to know where their parcel is, they email you, not the vendor who packed it. So you end up chasing tracking numbers in Slack and pasting them into orders yourself.
Your vendors should be entering that tracking, not you.
AST PRO, our WooCommerce shipment tracking plugin, puts a shipment tracking panel inside your vendors’ own dashboards. Each vendor fulfils only their own items, the order status updates itself as shipments go out, and customers get a notification per shipment instead of silence until the last box arrives.
This guide covers how AST PRO behaves on Dokan, WCFM Marketplace, and WooCommerce Product Vendors, and what to configure before you hand it to your vendors.
How AST PRO works in a multi-vendor store
1. It detects your marketplace plugin and loads automatically
There is no toggle to flip and no separate add-on to buy. AST PRO checks whether Dokan or WCFM Marketplace is active and loads the matching integration on its own. Activate the plugin and the vendor panels are there.
2. Vendors add tracking from their own dashboard
On Dokan, a Shipment Tracking panel appears under the order items on the vendor’s order detail page, with an Add Tracking Info button. On WCFM, the same panel sits at the end of the order details screen. Vendors never touch wp-admin.
3. Vendors fulfil items, not whole orders
The vendor form asks for a tracking number, a shipping provider, and a ship date, then lets the vendor tick the specific products and quantities that went into that parcel. The button is labelled Fulfill Items for a reason: a split order becomes several tracking records, each tied to the right line items.
4. Vendors stay inside their own items
Tracking actions are gated by the marketplace’s own vendor capability, and item ownership is checked before anything is marked fulfilled. A vendor who tries to fulfil a line item belonging to someone else in the same order gets nothing. They see and act on their own products only.
5. The order moves through Partially Shipped automatically
When the first vendor ships, AST PRO sets the order to Partially Shipped and can send the Partially Shipped customer email. Once every item on the order has tracking against it, the status moves to Shipped or Completed based on your settings. Nobody has to remember to change it manually.
6. You control the carrier list vendors see
Vendors pick from the shipping providers you have enabled, not a free-text field. Go to WooCommerce → Shipment Tracking → Shipping Providers and set which carriers display, grouped by shipping country, with your default provider preselected. Consistent carrier names across every vendor matter, because inconsistent names break tracking-status lookups later.
7. Product Vendors sellers get a fulfillment dashboard
On WooCommerce Product Vendors, vendors get a dedicated Fulfillment menu with Unfulfilled and Fulfilled order views and an inline tracking form. Saving tracking marks the line item fulfilled in Product Vendors and fires its fulfillment notification, so the marketplace’s own reporting stays accurate.
8. Your integrations keep running underneath
Vendor-entered tracking is normal AST PRO tracking, so TrackShip delivery statuses, the tracking widget on the order page, and shipment emails all work the same way. If Dokan Pro is active, the ShipStation integration is available for vendors shipping through it.
Where vendors add tracking, by platform
| Marketplace platform | Where vendors add tracking |
|---|---|
| Dokan | Vendor dashboard, order details |
| WCFM Marketplace | WCFM order details page |
| WooCommerce Product Vendors | Fulfillment menu in wp-admin |
| Other marketplace plugins | Store admin adds tracking in wp-admin |
Frequently asked questions about multi-vendor shipment tracking
Does AST PRO work with Dokan and WCFM?
Yes. AST PRO detects whether Dokan or WCFM Marketplace is active and loads the matching integration automatically, with no separate add-on. It adds a shipment tracking panel to the vendor’s own dashboard, on the Dokan order detail page or the WCFM order details screen, so vendors add tracking without accessing wp-admin.
Can each vendor add tracking for only their own items?
Yes, and it is enforced. Tracking actions are gated by the marketplace’s vendor capability, and item ownership is checked before fulfilment. A vendor sees and can fulfil only their own line items; attempting to fulfil another vendor’s item in a shared order does nothing. Each vendor’s tracking maps to the products they actually shipped.
How does the order status work when multiple vendors ship separately?
AST PRO handles it automatically. When the first vendor ships, the order moves to Partially Shipped and can trigger the Partially Shipped customer email. Once every item has tracking, the status advances to Shipped or Completed per your settings. No one has to update the status by hand as each vendor fulfils their part.
Do customers get a notification for each vendor’s shipment?
Yes. Because each vendor’s fulfilment is its own tracking record, the customer receives a notification per shipment rather than a single update at the end. That means a buyer whose order is split across vendors sees each parcel dispatched with its own tracking, instead of silence until the last box arrives.
Does vendor-entered tracking work with TrackShip and the branded tracking page?
Yes. Tracking a vendor enters is standard AST PRO tracking, so TrackShip live delivery statuses, the on-page tracking widget, and shipment emails all function normally. The marketplace layer changes who enters the tracking and where, not how the tracking itself behaves downstream.
Conclusion
A marketplace order is only as good as its slowest vendor’s admin habits, and the fix is making tracking entry part of the vendor’s workflow instead of yours. AST PRO does that with per-item fulfilment, a curated carrier list, and order statuses that update themselves as each parcel leaves, so you stop being the tracking relay for shipments you never touched.
📦 Ready to hand shipment tracking back to your vendors?
Every vendor fulfils their own items from their own dashboard, and your customers get accurate notifications without you touching a single order.
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