WooCommerce Migration: How To Migrate From WCFM To WC Vendors (8 Steps)

If you’re running your marketplace on WCFM Marketplace and thinking about switching to WC Vendors, you’re probably asking the same question every store owner faces during a WooCommerce migration: “Can I do this without losing everything?”

The honest answer is yes, but only if you follow the right process.

Both plugins are built on WooCommerce, which, according to Colorlib, powers over 4.17 million live stores and holds approximately 20–39% of the global ecommerce market share, depending on the measurement methodology. W3Techs reports WooCommerce is used by 8.7% of all websites as of early 2026, while WordPress.org shows 7 million+ active installations. This widespread adoption is precisely what makes this WooCommerce migration more manageable than most store owners expect.

WooCommerce-powered stores generate an estimated $30–35 billion in annual GMV, and the platform’s store count is projected to reach approximately 7.2 million stores by 2028. This growth means the ecosystem, including multi-vendor plugins, continues to mature and improve, making a WooCommerce migration between plugins increasingly well-supported.

This guide walks through the WooCommerce migration step by step, what transfers automatically, what needs manual reconfiguration, and how to protect your live store throughout the process.

Why Marketplace Owners Switch From WCFM To WC Vendors

Understanding these reasons helps you evaluate whether this WooCommerce migration is right for your situation.

Support and development concerns

WCFM is developed by WC Lovers, a smaller team. Response times and documentation depth may lag behind those of more established alternatives. For marketplace owners whose businesses rely on reliable plugin support for payment processing, vendor management, and customer orders, this gap becomes a risk factor over time.

WC Vendors, by contrast, has been independently developed and maintained for 10+ years by Rymera Web Co — the same company behind Wholesale Suite and Advanced Coupons. That continuity and multi-product expertise matter when you’re building a long-term business.

Plugin conflicts and database architecture

WCFM introduces a significant number of custom database tables and hooks that can conflict with other WooCommerce plugins, particularly payment gateways and shipping extensions. WC Vendors uses a WooCommerce-native architecture that extends WooCommerce’s own data structures rather than creating parallel systems. This results in fewer conflicts and better long-term stability as WooCommerce core evolves.

According to WooCommerce’s own migration guide, successful migrations depend heavily on compatibility between your plugin stack, and fewer custom tables mean a smoother WooCommerce migration path.

Automated payment splitting

Automated Stripe Connect payouts, splitting payments at checkout rather than manually calculating and transferring vendor commissions, aren’t available in WCFM without significant custom development. WC Vendors Pro includes Stripe Connect as part of the Pro ecosystem, enabling automatic commission splitting at the point of sale. According to Chargeflow, 75% of the world’s top marketplaces use Stripe Connect for payment management, and Stripe processed $1.9 trillion in total payment volume in 2025. This isn’t a niche feature. It’s the industry standard for marketplace payments.

Feature gaps at scale

As marketplaces grow beyond 20–50 vendors, operational requirements change. WC Vendors Pro offers vendor membership tiers (to monetize vendor access), tiered commissions based on sales volume (to automatically reward top performers), and a comprehensive frontend vendor dashboard. These features address the scaling challenges that many WCFM users hit as their marketplaces mature.

Pricing transparency

WC Vendors Pro starts at $99.50/yr — the lowest premium entry point among major WooCommerce multi-vendor plugins. WCFM’s free tier is capable, but its premium tier (WCFM Ultimate) and the cost of required add-ons can exceed this once you factor in the modules a production marketplace needs.

What Migrates And What Doesn’t

Before you touch anything, it helps to understand exactly what you’re working with. This is the most important table in this WooCommerce migration guide:

Data Type	Migrates?	Notes
WP user accounts (vendors)	Yes — automatically	Vendors are WordPress users; accounts, passwords, and emails carry over
WooCommerce products	Yes — automatically	Products are native WooCommerce data stored in WC core tables, not WCFM custom tables
WooCommerce orders	Yes — automatically	Full order history stored in WC core tables — survives any plugin switch
Customer accounts & data	Yes — automatically	Customer data is WooCommerce-native
Product reviews	Yes — automatically	Reviews are stored as WordPress comments, not plugin-specific data
Media / product images	Yes — automatically	Stored in WordPress media library, unaffected by plugin changes
Commission settings	No — manual re-entry	WCFM stores these in custom database tables that WC Vendors cannot read
Vendor shipping settings	No — manual re-entry	Plugin-specific; vendors must re-enter in WC Vendors dashboard
Vendor storefront customizations	Partial	Basic profile info (name, email, description) transfers; WCFM-specific branding fields, store banners, and custom layouts do not
WCFM shortcodes / page layouts	No — must replace	Must be replaced with WC Vendors equivalent shortcodes
Payout / withdrawal history	No	Historical WCFM payout records are plugin-specific — export before deactivating
Vendor-created coupons (WCFM-specific)	No — reconfigure	WooCommerce native coupons survive; WCFM vendor coupon features need reconfiguration
WCFM custom database tables	N/A	These remain in your database after deactivation but are no longer used

The key insight: WooCommerce products, customers, orders, and reviews belong to WooCommerce — not to WCFM. Switching multi-vendor plugins doesn’t put that data at risk. Commission settings and vendor shipping configurations are the two areas requiring the most manual work during this WooCommerce migration.

Before You Start: Pre-Migration Checklist

Don’t start the actual WooCommerce migration until you’ve completed every item on this preparation list. Skipping these steps is the primary cause of migration failures.

Full site backup

Use your hosting panel’s backup tool, UpdraftPlus, or Duplicator. Include both the database and all files. Store the backup off-server (in cloud storage, as a local download, or in a separate hosting account). Verify you can restore from the backup before proceeding. An untested backup is not a backup.

Document commission settings in detail

Go through every vendor in WCFM and note their commission rate. This is the most time-consuming pre-migration task, but it’s essential. Record:

• Global commission rate and type (percentage, fixed, or percentage + fixed)
• Every per-vendor commission override (if you have 50+ vendors with custom rates, use a spreadsheet)
• Any per-category or per-product commission rules
• How Stripe fees or payment gateway fees are currently handled (who pays — marketplace, vendor, or split)

WCFM stores these in its own custom database tables — there is no standard export format. Screenshots work for small marketplaces; a spreadsheet is better for larger ones.

Screenshot your WCFM settings

Take screenshots of your WCFM store settings pages, vendor permission settings, shipping configuration, and email notification settings. You’ll use these as a reference when configuring WC Vendors to match your current operational setup.

Note your active vendor count and product count

These numbers are your verification benchmarks after WooCommerce migration. If you had 47 vendors with 312 products before the migration, you should have 47 vendors with 312 products after.

Export WCFM commission reports

Before deactivating WCFM, export all historical commission and payout reports. Once WCFM is deactivated, these reports become inaccessible (they’re stored in WCFM’s custom tables). You’ll need these records for accounting, tax purposes, and vendor disputes.

Audit WCFM shortcodes across your site.

Search your site’s pages and posts for any [wcfm_ shortcodes. Common ones include [wcfm_dashboard], [wcfm_store_manager], [wcfm_vendors_list], and [wcfm_store_hours]. Make a list of all pages that use WCFM shortcodes. You’ll replace each one with the WC Vendors equivalent in Step 6.

Disable caching

Deactivate any caching plugins (WP Rocket, W3 Total Cache, LiteSpeed Cache, etc.) before you begin. Caching during a plugin switch can cause confusing, hard-to-diagnose errors in which old plugin output is served from the cache even after the plugin has been deactivated.

Notify your hosting provider

If you’re on managed WordPress hosting (WP Engine, Kinsta, Cloudways, SiteGround), let them know you’re performing a major plugin migration. Some hosts can temporarily increase PHP memory limits or disable server-side caching during the migration window.

Step-By-Step Process Of WooCommerce Migration: WCFM To WC Vendors

Step 1: Set up a staging environment

A staging environment is a private copy of your live site where you can test the full WooCommerce migration before making any changes to your live site. This is the single most important step in the entire process.

Most managed WordPress hosts include one-click staging:

• WP Engine — staging environments included on all plans
• Kinsta — one-click staging with push-to-live functionality
• Cloudways — staging available via application cloning
• SiteGround — staging tool built into Site Tools dashboard
• Bluehost — staging available on some plans

If your host doesn’t offer staging, use a plugin like WP Stagecoach or Duplicator Pro to create a clone on a subdomain (e.g., staging.yourdomain.com) or locally using Local by Flywheel.

Run the entire WooCommerce migration process on staging first. Verify everything works, identify the issues specific to your site’s configuration, fix them, document what you did, and only then repeat the process on your live site.

Step 2: Install WC Vendors on your staging site

On your staging environment:

1. Go to Plugins → Add New and search for “WC Vendors”
2. Install and activate the WC Vendors Marketplace free plugin from WordPress.org
3. If you’re upgrading to WC Vendors Pro, upload and activate the Pro plugin as well, then enter your license key at WC Vendors → License
4. Run the WC Vendors setup wizard — it will prompt you to configure basic settings including commission defaults, payout method, vendor registration settings, and required pages

The setup wizard automatically creates the pages WC Vendors needs (vendor dashboard, vendor registration, etc.). Let it create these pages. You’ll customize them later.

📝 Important: Do not deactivate WCFM yet. Keep both plugins active during setup so you can reference your WCFM configuration while setting up WC Vendors. Having both active

Step 3: Export your WCFM vendor data

Even though most critical data lives in WooCommerce’s native tables, export a copy of everything before making changes. This WooCommerce migration step provides your safety net.

Export vendor user accounts

Go to Users → All Users, filter by the WCFM Vendor role, and use a plugin like WP All Export or Export Users to CSV to export vendor records as CSV. Include all user meta fields — email, display name, store name, phone number, and any custom profile fields.

Export WooCommerce products

Go to WooCommerce → Products and use the native WooCommerce export tool (Products → Export). Export all fields including custom meta. This serves as your rollback safety net — if products need to be re-imported for any reason, you have a clean CSV.

Export WooCommerce orders

Use the WooCommerce native order export (WooCommerce → Orders, then the Export CSV option). For large stores, consider the WP All Export plugin which handles large datasets more reliably than the built-in exporter.

Record commission settings manually

This is the step most store owners underestimate during a WooCommerce migration. WCFM stores commission rates in its own custom database tables (wp_wcfm_marketplace_orders, wp_wcfm_marketplace_store_commission, etc.) — not in standard WooCommerce meta. There is no standard export format for these. Go through your WCFM commission settings and record:

• Global commission rate and type (percentage vs. fixed)
• Any per-vendor commission overrides
• Any per-category commission rules
• Any per-product commission exceptions
• Withdrawal/payout thresholds
• Tax handling preferences (who gets tax credited — admin or vendor)

You’ll re-enter all of these in WC Vendors after the switch.

Export WCFM-specific reports

Navigate to WCFM’s reporting sections and export/screenshot:

• Commission reports (all-time and current period)
• Payout/withdrawal history for each vendor
• Refund records
• Any vendor performance data you want to preserve

Once WCFM is deactivated, these reports become inaccessible through the plugin interface. The data remains in the database tables, but viewing it requires direct database queries.

Step 4: Configure WC Vendors and migrate vendor accounts

This is the most important step in the entire WooCommerce migration. Get this right, and everything else follows.

Configure WC Vendors global settings first

Navigate to WC Vendors → Settings in your staging WordPress admin and configure each section using your WCFM screenshots as reference:

Commission settings

Set your default global commission rate to match what you had in WCFM. WC Vendors supports multiple commission types:

• Percentage — a percentage of the product price (e.g., 20%)
• Fixed amount — a flat dollar amount per sale (e.g., $5.00)
• Fixed + percentage — a combination (e.g., $2.00 + 10%)
• Tiered commissions (Pro) — rates that change based on vendor sales volume

Set the commission type that matches your WCFM configuration. If you were using a simple percentage in WCFM, set the same percentage here.

Payment settings

Configure your payout method:

• Manual — you process payouts manually via bank transfer, PayPal, or other methods
• Stripe Connect (Pro) — automated payment splitting at checkout. This is the biggest operational upgrade available during this WooCommerce migration. More on this below.
• PayPal Mass Pay — batch PayPal payments

Vendor permissions

Set which product types vendors can publish, whether products need admin approval before going live, what profile fields vendors can edit, and whether vendors can manage their own coupons, shipping settings, and storefront appearance.

Email notifications

Navigate to WC Vendors → Settings → Emails and configure vendor notification emails (new order, commission paid, product approved/rejected). Verify the “from” email address is correct. This step is commonly missed during WooCommerce migration and causes vendor confusion when they don’t receive order notifications.

Assign vendor roles

Vendors in WCFM are WordPress users with the wcfm_vendor role. WC Vendors uses its own vendor role. You need to update these users’ roles to complete the WooCommerce migration.

For smaller vendor counts (under 30)

Go to Users → All Users, filter by WCFM Vendor role, select all, and use the Bulk Actions → Change role to → Vendor option.

For larger vendor counts (30+)

Use a plugin like User Role Editor for bulk role assignment, or run a WP-CLI command if you have command line access:

wp user list --role=wcfm_vendor --field=ID | xargs -I{} wp user update {} --role=vendor

Verify the role change

After updating, go to Users → All Users and filter by “Vendor” role. The count should match your pre-migration vendor count from the checklist.

Reconfigure vendor-specific commission overrides

Using the commission notes you took in Step 3, go to each vendor’s user profile in WP Admin → Users → Edit User and set their individual commission rate in the WC Vendors section. This is manual but not complicated — it’s simply re-entering the per-vendor rates you documented.

For marketplaces with many vendor-specific rates, work through them systematically. A spreadsheet with columns for Vendor Name, Vendor User ID, WCFM Rate, and “Entered in WC Vendors ✓” keeps you organized.

Set up Stripe Connect (if applicable)

If you’re migrating to WC Vendors Pro, this WooCommerce migration is the ideal time to set up Stripe Connect — WC Vendors’ automated payment splitting feature. Vendors connect their Stripe accounts during onboarding, and from that point, commission splits happen automatically at checkout without any manual processing.

WCFM doesn’t offer native Stripe Connect automation, so if you’ve been processing payouts manually, this is the single biggest operational upgrade you’ll gain from this WooCommerce migration.

Step 5: Verify products and orders

Products and orders in WooCommerce are attached to vendor accounts via user meta. Once vendor roles are updated and WC Vendors is configured, verify the following in your staging environment:

Product verification

• Navigate to WC Vendors → Products (or Products → All Products) in the admin and verify products are showing against the correct vendor accounts
• Log in to a test vendor account and confirm their products appear in the WC Vendors vendor dashboard
• Verify product counts match your pre-migration benchmark (e.g., if Vendor A had 15 products in WCFM, they should have 15 products in WC Vendors)
• Check that product images, descriptions, pricing, variations, and inventory levels are intact
• If products aren’t appearing for the right vendor: the issue is usually the product author assignment. WC Vendors uses the WordPress post author to determine product ownership. Verify that each product’s author is set to the correct vendor user ID

Order verification

• Place a test order in your staging store for a product from a test vendor
• Verify that the WC Vendors commission is calculated correctly on the test order
• Log into the vendor dashboard and confirm the order appears in the vendor’s order list
• Check the commission split is correct (marketplace commission vs. vendor payout)
• If using Stripe Connect, verify that the payment split appears correctly in the Stripe dashboard

Historical order handling

Historical orders (pre-migration) will appear in WooCommerce’s admin order list as normal — your full order history is preserved. However, historical WCFM commission records don’t automatically attribute to the WC Vendors payout system. This is expected behavior during any WooCommerce migration between multi-vendor plugins. Going forward from the migration date, all new orders will generate WC Vendors commissions correctly.

Step 6: Reconfigure shipping, coupons, and storefront pages

These three areas require manual attention on every WCFM to WC Vendors WooCommerce migration:

Vendor shipping settings

WCFM and WC Vendors each have their own vendor-level shipping configuration systems. Vendor shipping settings do not transfer between plugins. After the WooCommerce migration is complete, each vendor will need to log into their WC Vendors dashboard and re-enter their shipping zones, methods, and rates.

WC Vendors Pro includes a comprehensive vendor shipping module with:

• Per-product shipping prices
• Country-based table rate shipping
• Flat rate shipping
• Free shipping thresholds
• Integration with major shipping carriers

Communicate the shipping reconfiguration requirement to your vendors clearly and early. It’s the most common post-migration support request.

Coupons

WooCommerce native coupons survive any WooCommerce plugin migration. If you created coupons through WooCommerce’s built-in coupon system, they’ll continue to work normally.

WCFM-specific vendor coupon functionality (for vendors who created coupons through WCFM’s vendor coupon feature) needs to be reconfigured in WC Vendors. WC Vendors Pro allows vendors to create and manage their own coupons from the frontend dashboard.

Storefront pages and shortcodes

WCFM uses its own shortcodes for the vendor dashboard, vendor registration, vendor store listings, and vendor store pages. After deactivating WCFM, any page using WCFM shortcodes will display broken shortcode text, e.g., the raw [wcfm_dashboard] text will appear instead of the dashboard.

Replace WCFM shortcodes with WC Vendors equivalents:

WCFM Shortcode	WC Vendors Equivalent	Notes
[wcfm_dashboard]	[wcv_vendor_dashboard]	Main vendor dashboard
[wcfm_vendors_list]	WC Vendors vendor store directory	Uses WC Vendors’ built-in vendor listing
[wcfm_store_manager]	Handled by WC Vendors dashboard	Combined into the vendor dashboard
[wcfm_store_hours]	Configured in vendor settings	Store hours managed differently in WC Vendors

WC Vendors Pro also provides 10+ vendor-specific widgets for sidebar customization, and the vendor storefront integrates with your existing WooCommerce theme.

Step 7: Test before going live

Before applying any of this to your live site, run through this comprehensive testing checklist on staging. This step catches the issues that would otherwise surface on your live marketplace with real vendors and customers.

Vendor dashboard testing

Test if vendors can:

• Login and dashboard access are working
• View their product list in the dashboard
• Add new products from the frontend dashboard
• Edit existing products
• Profile/store settings page loads correctly
• Upload a store banner and logo

Order and commission testing

• Test order placed — commission calculated correctly at the expected rate
• Commission appears in the vendor’s earnings in the dashboard
• Admin can view commission details in WC Vendors admin
• Payout process tested (manual payout or Stripe Connect)
• Refund process tested — commission correctly reversed

Communication testing

• Vendor email notifications triggered correctly (new order, product approved)
• Admin email notifications working (new vendor registration, new product submission)
• Vendor registration flow works for new signups

Page and navigation testing

• No 404 errors on vendor storefront pages
• Vendor store directory page displays correctly
• All WCFM shortcode pages replaced and rendering correctly
• Site navigation links updated (if any pointed to WCFM-specific pages)
• Mobile responsiveness of vendor dashboard verified

Step 8: Go live and communicate with vendors

Once staging tests pass, apply the WooCommerce migration to your live site:

1. Take a fresh backup of the live site (database + files)
2. Put your site in maintenance mode using your hosting panel or a plugin like WP Maintenance Mode — this prevents customers from placing orders during the migration window
3. Repeat Steps 2–6 on the live site (faster the second time, since you’ve already debugged everything on staging)
4. Deactivate WCFM Marketplace (do not delete it yet — you may want to reference its data if issues arise in the first few days)
5. Re-enable caching plugins if you disabled them earlier
6. Verify your site is functioning correctly — run through the key items from the Step 7 checklist
7. Disable maintenance mode
8. Place a small live test order to confirm the commission split is working correctly with real payment processing

Vendor communication is critical

Before you go live, draft and send your vendors an email covering:

What’s changing:

• You’re upgrading the marketplace platform from WCFM to WC Vendors for better payment automation, support, and long-term stability
• Their accounts, products, and order history are fully preserved
• Their dashboard URL and login experience will look different but function the same way

What vendors need to do:

• Log in and verify their product listings appear correctly
• Re-enter their shipping settings (zones, rates, methods) in the new vendor dashboard
• Connect their Stripe account (if you’re implementing Stripe Connect) for automated payouts
• Verify their store profile information (name, description, banner)

Where to get help:

• Provide a direct contact email or support channel
• Offer a specific support window (e.g., “Reach out within 14 days and we’ll sort any issues personally”)
• Link to any documentation or walkthrough you’ve created for the new vendor dashboard

When the switch is happening:

• Give at least 48–72 hours advance notice
• Specify the expected maintenance window duration (typically 1–3 hours for the migration itself)

Vendors who aren’t warned will be confused and frustrated. A brief email beforehand prevents hours of support tickets afterward. Consider creating a short FAQ document or video walkthrough of the new WC Vendors dashboard to include in your communication.

Conclusion: Your WCFM To WC Vendors WooCommerce Migration Is More Manageable Than You Think

Migrating between multi-vendor plugins may sound daunting, but in reality, it’s far more manageable than most marketplace owners expect.

Here are the steps you can follow:

1. Set up a staging environment
2. Install WC Vendors on staging site
3. Export WCFM data
4. Configure and migrate vendor accounts
5. Verify products and orders
6. Reconfigure shipping, coupons, and storefront
7. Testing
8. Go live

Ready to make the move? Start with the WC Vendors free plugin on a staging environment — no commitment, no risk. Test the full setup, verify everything works with your specific configuration, and upgrade to WC Vendors Pro when you’re ready for automated payouts and the complete vendor management toolset.

Try WC Vendors free today →

Frequently Asked Questions