WC Vendors Engage 1.0.1 hands your vendors a sharper hook than another five percent off. Follower only free shipping lets a vendor attach free shipping to a follower offer.
Below is everything marketplace owners and vendors need to know: where the setting lives, what the customer experiences, how the perk inherits your existing conditions, and the three boundaries the plugin enforces so nobody gives away shipping they did not intend to.
Why Follower Only Free Shipping Beats Another Discount
A discount lowers the price of something the shopper has already decided they want, which feels pleasant but rarely decisive. Removing a cost they actively resent is a different kind of nudge, and it lands at the exact moment most orders are lost.
The retention angle matters just as much. Engage exists so customers can follow the stores they like and get rewarded for it, and follower only free shipping gives that follow button a concrete payoff. “Follow this store and your shipping is on us” is a far easier pitch for a vendor than another few percent off, and it gives shoppers a reason to return to the same seller rather than shopping your marketplace purely on price.
Where Vendors Turn On Follower Only Free Shipping
The control lives on the same form vendors already use to build a follower offer, so there is nothing new to learn. From the vendor dashboard, a vendor opens the Engage tab, goes to Follower offers, then creates a new offer or edits an existing one. A new Include free shipping checkbox sits at the very bottom of the form, after the valid from and valid until dates.
Ticking it is the whole setup. Underneath the checkbox, helper text spells out what the vendor just agreed to: followers who qualify for this offer also get free shipping on this store, and the feature requires WC Vendors Pro shipping. There is no amount to enter, no threshold to set, and no second form to fill in.
Every other field on that form already existed in 1.0.0. If per-vendor shipping isn’t active on your marketplace, the highlighted row isn’t rendered, and the form looks exactly as it did before. Vendors who want a refresher on the other fields can work through our guide on how to create a follower offer in the vendor dashboard.
What Your Customers See At Checkout
Nothing about the customer journey changes. No code to enter, no banner to dismiss, and no extra step to remember. The perk simply appears once it’s earned, which is the point.
- The customer follows the store using the follow button on the vendor’s store page, the vendor list, or, new in 1.0.1, the single product page.
- They add that vendor’s products to their cart, exactly as they always would.
- The follower offer auto-applies as soon as its conditions are met. When a vendor has set a minimum order value, the offer waits until the cart clears it.
- At cart and checkout, the discount is applied, and that vendor’s shipping line drops to free. The offer label spells out the perk, so shoppers can see why their total changed.
Here is how that resolves in a cart holding products from two different vendors, with illustrative figures:
| Cart line | Amount |
|---|---|
| Subtotal | $82.00 |
| Ridgeline Supply: 10% off plus free shipping (applied automatically) | -$5.40 |
| Ridgeline Supply vendor shipping | Free, was $6.00 |
| Harbour Goods Co. vendor shipping | $8.50 |
| Total | $85.10 |
That per-vendor separation is why this feature is built on WC Vendors Pro shipping rather than WooCommerce’s standard free shipping coupon. A coupon zeroes shipping for the order. Follower-only free shipping zeroes shipping for one vendor in the order and leaves everyone else alone. If you want the full customer-side picture, our guide on how follower offers work at cart and checkout covers the banner, auto-apply, and manual apply behavior.
How Follower Only Free Shipping Follows Your Offer Rules
This is the first thing vendors ask about, and the answer is reassuringly simple. The free shipping flag is stored on the very same offer as the discount, so the two cannot drift out of sync. Whatever gates the discount also gates the shipping.
| If the offer has | Then free shipping |
|---|---|
| A minimum order value | Only applies once the cart clears that threshold. Below it, the customer pays the vendor’s normal postage. |
| An expiry date | Stops applying the moment the offer expires, along with the discount. |
| A per-follower limit | Is spent along with that redemption. A one-time welcome offer gives free shipping once. |
| A total usage limit | Stops applying once the offer is exhausted across all followers. |
| No conditions at all | Applies to every qualifying follower of that store, every time. |
Eligibility is also checked again at the till, because qualifying once is not enough. If a shopper unfollows the store, removes items and drops back below the minimum, or the offer runs out while they are still browsing, the shipping charge returns before they pay. That re-check holds on the classic cart and on the newer Cart and Checkout blocks alike.
The Three Things Follower Only Free Shipping Will Never Do
If you run the marketplace rather than a store on it, these are the boundaries that matter. All three are enforced in the plugin itself, not left to configuration, so no vendor setting and no admin mistake can widen them.
It will never give away another vendor’s shipping
A follower offer can only waive the shipping of the vendor who created it. Every other vendor in the same cart charges as normal, exactly as the two-vendor example above shows.
It will never touch your own shipping methods
Flat rate, local pickup, table rate, and anything else you set up as the marketplace owner in your WooCommerce shipping zones is off limits. A vendor’s offer discounts that vendor’s own shipping line and nothing else.
It will never reach a customer who has not earned it
Non-followers see nothing at all. Followers who have not met the offer’s conditions see nothing either. There is no code to share around, no way to apply the perk manually, and nothing for a deal site to scrape.
What You Need For Follower Only Free Shipping To Appear
Per-vendor shipping is a Pro capability. Free WC Vendors core has no per-vendor shipping at all, so there would be nothing for Engage to waive. Rather than force every marketplace onto Pro, Engage detects Pro at runtime and adapts to what it finds.
| Your setup | The checkbox | Everything else in Engage |
|---|---|---|
| Engage plus WC Vendors Pro, per-vendor shipping active | Shown | Works as before, with the new perk available |
| Engage on free WC Vendors core only | Hidden | Completely unaffected. Discount offers behave exactly as they did in 1.0.0 |
| Pro installed, but vendor shipping switched off | Hidden | Completely unaffected |
Switching Pro off does not erase a vendor’s choice either. If Pro is deactivated and a vendor then edits an offer for an unrelated reason, their follower-only free shipping setting is preserved rather than quietly wiped. Reactivate Pro and the perk resumes where it left off.
Not sure which side of that table you are on? The shipping settings overview walks through how per-vendor shipping is configured, and our free-versus-Pro comparison shows what else Pro unlocks.
Final Thoughts On Follower Only Free Shipping
The most useful features are often the ones that add the least. Follower only free shipping does not introduce a new offer type, a new settings screen or a new set of rules for vendors to reconcile. It adds one checkbox to a form vendors already know, and it borrows every condition from the offer that checkbox sits on, which is why it is almost impossible to misconfigure.
For marketplace owners, the reassuring part is the boundaries. A vendor’s generosity stops at their own shipping line, your own shipping methods are untouchable, and nobody who has not followed the store and met the conditions ever sees the perk. You can hand this to your vendors without auditing what they do with it, which is the only way a marketplace feature scales across hundreds of sellers.
For vendors, the appeal is simpler. Following a store now buys something shoppers genuinely want rather than another modest discount, and the offer they already built is the only thing they need to touch. Update Engage, check that Pro is on 2.0.9 or later, tell your vendors the checkbox is there, and let them decide how hard to lean on it.
Here’s what we covered in this article:
- Why follower only free shipping beats another discount
- Where vendors turn on follower only free shipping
- What your customers see at checkout
- How follower only free shipping follows your offer rules
- The three things follower only free shipping will never do
- What you need for follower only free shipping to appear
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need WC Vendors Pro for follower only free shipping?
Yes. Per-vendor shipping is a WC Vendors Pro capability, and free WC Vendors core has no per-vendor shipping for Engage to waive. Without Pro, or with Pro installed but vendor shipping switched off, the Include free shipping checkbox is not rendered at all and the rest of Engage is unaffected.
Is this a new type of follower offer?
No. It is an add-on to an existing offer rather than a separate offer type. Vendors tick one checkbox on the follower offer they already configured, and the shipping perk stacks on top of that percentage or fixed discount.
Can a vendor waive another vendor’s shipping?
Never. A follower offer can only waive the shipping of the vendor who created it. In a cart holding products from several vendors, every other vendor charges their normal postage.
What happens to my own flat rate or local pickup methods?
They are untouched. Any shipping method you configure as the marketplace owner in your WooCommerce shipping zones is off limits to vendor offers. Only the vendor’s own shipping line is discounted.
Does the customer need a coupon code?
No. Eligibility is automatic because the shopper follows the store, so the offer applies on its own once its conditions are met. There is no code to enter, share or search for.
What if a shopper qualifies and then unfollows the store?
Eligibility is re-checked at the till. If the shopper unfollows, removes items and drops below the minimum order value, or the offer is exhausted while they browse, the shipping charge returns before they pay.
Does follower only free shipping work with the Cart and Checkout blocks?
Yes. The perk and its re-check at payment time work on the classic cart and on the newer WooCommerce Cart and Checkout blocks.
Will my vendors’ existing follower offers change after the update?
No. The setting is off by default on every existing offer, so current offers keep behaving exactly as they did in 1.0.0 until a vendor opts in per offer.
What happens to a vendor’s setting if I deactivate Pro?
It is preserved rather than wiped. If Pro is deactivated and a vendor edits the offer for some unrelated reason, their free shipping choice stays stored, and reactivating Pro resumes the perk.
