Whether you’re already serving wholesale customers in WooCommerce or looking to tap into this profitable market, offering flexible payment terms is an absolute game-changer. By giving your customers more options to pay, you empower them to buy and create a more satisfying shopping experience. This is where having a WooCommerce payments plugin like Wholesale Payments comes in.
Wholesale Payments is our newest addition to Wholesale Suite, designed for WooCommerce wholesale transactions. With this powerful plugin, you can offer flexible payment terms, create custom payment plans, and streamline invoicing right within your WooCommerce store.
We’ll show you how easily you can set this powerful plugin up and get started offering your customers flexible payment plans. So, let’s dive in!
What Is A WooCommerce Payments Plugin And Why Do You Need It?
Upon store setup, WooCommerce provides default payment options such as bank transfer, check payments, and cash on delivery. However, if you serve wholesale customers and deal with larger orders regularly, these default options may not meet the unique needs of your wholesale buyers. Wholesale customers require more flexibility so they can manage their cash flow effectively.
A WooCommerce payments plugin like Wholesale Payments provides additional payment options and management features to help you meet these requirements. Common examples include offering NET 30/60/90 payments, installment options, or partial payment plans. This is crucial in building relationships with B2B buyers, as it removes the financial barriers associated with large, upfront payments. As a result, it’s easier to place larger orders on your WooCommerce store.
Here are some key benefits of leveraging a WooCommerce payments plugin:
- Enhanced customer satisfaction: With more options to pay, you empower wholesale customers to buy and streamline the purchase process.
- Better cash flow management: Clear payment terms also equate to a more predictable cash flow for your business, allowing you to plan where to devote your financial resources to maximize opportunities
- Higher average order values: Flexible payment terms also encourage wholesale customers to place larger orders, as they have more time to settle their payments. This leads to higher average order values and increased revenue for your business.
How To Use Wholesale Payments (Full Guide)
Today, we’ll give you a comprehensive overview of Wholesale Payments–the best WooCommerce payments plugin for wholesale! This plugin is a new addition to Wholesale Suite, a powerful bundle of WooCommerce plugins that allow business owners to bring their entire wholesale operations online.
With Wholesale Payments, you can offer flexible payment terms to B2B buyers, create custom payment plans, and automate invoicing right within WooCommerce. We’ll walk you through everything you need to know to get started. Let’s begin!
Important note: To proceed with the steps below, you’ll need to download, install, and activate Wholesale Payments first. If you haven’t done so already, you can get the plugin here or learn more about it on our official getting started guide.
1. Initial setup
Once you have Wholesale Payments installed and activated, you’ll need to do two key things to start using the plugin: enable the plugin as a WooCommerce payment method and integrate a working Stripe account. Let’s look into how you can do these steps in detail below:
Enable Wholesale Payments as a WooCommerce payment method
Navigate to your WordPress dashboard > WooCommerce > Settings > Payments. Then, scroll down and find Wholesale Payments, and toggle the switch to “Enabled”.
Connect your Stripe Account to Wholesale Payments
Wholesale Payments integrates with Stripe, a global leader in payment processing. This empowers your wholesale customers to pay with a range of supported payment methods, such as ACH Direct Debit, credit cards, digital wallets, and more.
To integrate your Stripe account to Wholesale Payments, navigate to your WordPress dashboard > Wholesale > Wholesale Payments. Then, click “Connect with Stripe.”
This action will take you to the Wholesale Payments integration page, where you can easily connect an existing Stripe account:
However, if you don’t have a Stripe account yet, then no worries! You can easily create a Stripe account right within the Wholesale Payments integration page. To do so, simply fill in your business details and follow the prompts to create your Stripe account:
After completing this step, you’ll be redirected to your WordPress dashboard. Then, you can check if your Stripe account is successfully linked to our WooCommerce payments plugin by heading to Wholesale > Wholesale Payments > Stripe. This is where you can see a detailed summary of your Stripe API settings, and where you enable test or live mode for your transactions:
- Test Mode allows you to simulate transactions without processing real money. You can use this feature to test if everything is working out perfectly before you go live.
- With live mode enabled, you’ll start processing real transactions with actual payments from your customers.
2. Creating payment plans
With Wholesale Payments set up and activated in your WooCommerce store, you’re now ready to create flexible payment plans for your wholesale customers. To do so, head to your WordPress dashboard > Wholesale > Wholesale Payments > Payment Plans.
On this page, you’ll notice that our WooCommerce payments plugin comes with pre-configured payment plans. These plans include commonly used payment plans in wholesale, including NET 30/60/90 payments, 3 equal payments, and more–available to save you time setting up.
Enabling pre-configured payment plans
To enable a pre-configured plan, simply click on your desired payment plan. This opens up a confirmation pop-up where you can edit your payment plan name and description. Then, once you’re happy with your changes, click “OK” to activate your payment plan:
You’ll also notice that your chosen payment plan is now highlighted in green, indicating that it’s already enabled. You can modify your payment plan at any time by clicking the “Edit” button. This takes you to the same screen shown when creating a custom payment plan, which we’ll explore in more detail next.
Creating a custom payment plan
Wholesale Payments also provide you with immense flexibility to craft your own payment plans. To get started, click on “Create a custom payment plan” on the Payment Plans page.
This then gives you access to the Edit Payment plan screen, where you can customize your payment plans depending on your requirements:
Let’s quickly walk through your available configuration options:
- Enable: Turn this switch on to make the payment plan available for use.
- Plan Name: Enter the name of the payment plan.
- Plan Description: Describe the payment plan.
- Days After Order: Specify the number of days after the order when payment is due.
- Amount Due: Set the amount to be paid for each schedule:
- Type: Choose between a fixed amount or a percentage of the order.
- Amount: Enter the exact amount or percentage.
- Delete Breakdown: Remove a specific payment item.
- Add Payment: Add a new payment item.
- Apply Payment Plan Restrictions: Limit the payment plan to certain user roles or specific users.
- Allowed Wholesale Roles: Select which wholesale roles can use this plan.
- Allowed Wholesale Users: Choose specific wholesale users who can use this plan.
- Save Payment Plan: Save or update the payment plan.
We’ve also created a detailed guide on setting up custom payment plans, which you can check out below:
3. Order management
A key advantage of using a WooCommerce payments plugin like Wholesale Payments is that it seamlessly integrates into the e-commerce platform. When you head to WooCommerce > Orders, you’ll notice that you now have a Wholesale Payments column where you can see the status of your customers’ payments. Payment statuses can be:
- Due: Payment is pending, with an indicated payment date.
- Paid: This means that the order has been paid and settled.
- Overdue: Payment has not been received, and is now late.
This makes tracking payments and managing orders a lot easier.
4. The wholesale customer’s perspective
Leveraging a WooCommerce payments plugin like Wholesale Payments also makes shopping more convenient for wholesale customers. With this plugin, your wholesale customers gain full visibility into their payment obligations upon order placement. Providing a clear and organized view of their payment terms enhances the shopping experience, ensuring they’re staying on top of their payments.
Checkout
Upon checkout, they can view the available payment plans you’ve set up:
Automatic invoicing
After a successful order placement, an invoice is automatically generated and sent to your wholesale customers via email. The invoice details the amount due and payment breakdown. It also provides an easy way to settle their payments. Automatic invoice reminders are also sent to remind customers of the amount they need to settle before their due dates.
WooCommerce account dashboard
Wholesale customers also gain complete visibility into their payments right within the WooCommerce account dashboard. In the “Orders” section, they can click “View Payments” on their corresponding orders. This shows a Payment Timeline popup with a “Pay Now” button, where they can settle their payments directly.
Related Resources
Want to learn more about Wholesale Payments? Check out our other detailed guides below:
- Empower Your Wholesale Customers: Offer WooCommerce Partial Payments
- How To Streamline WooCommerce Invoicing With Wholesale Payments
- How To Offer WooCommerce Split Payments To Wholesale Customers
- WooCommerce Pay Later Plans: How To Let Customers Pay NET 30/60
- How To Offer WooCommerce Deposits For Wholesale Orders
- How To Offer WooCommerce Invoice Payments To Wholesale Customers
Conclusion
Leveraging the power of a WooCommerce payments plugin like Wholesale Payments allows you to elevate the wholesale shopping experience. By offering flexible payment terms and offering convenient invoicing, you empower your valued clients to buy and choose your business.
In this article, we walked you through everything you need to know to get started using Wholesale Payments. To summarize, let’s review the key aspects of the plugin below:
So, do you have any questions about Wholesale Payments? Let us know in the comments section below, we’d love to help out! 😊
