Monetization
Eight fee types you can charge to sellers, buyers, or both. All configurable globally and per-auction.
Fee types
| Fee | Charged to | When |
|---|---|---|
| Listing fee | Seller | When auction is created |
| Featured boost | Seller | When seller pays for prominent placement |
| Bid fee | Bidder | Per bid placed |
| Buyer's premium | Buyer (winner) | On auction settlement |
| Late penalty | Buyer | When payment is overdue |
| Auction unlock fee | Bidder | One-time fee to access an auction (e.g. preview lot) |
| Registration fee | Bidder | When registering for an event |
| Seller commission | Seller | Percentage of winning bid (multi-vendor) |
Listing fee
A flat fee charged when a seller publishes an auction. Charged via wallet debit (if the customer's wallet has enough balance and wallet-pay-fees is on) or as a pending order added to the seller's account.
Disable by leaving the field at 0.
Featured boost
Sellers can pay a fee to mark an auction as featured — pinned to the top of category pages, shown in shop hero carousels and similar prominent slots. The seller sees a Boost this auction (+$10) checkbox in the auction-creation flow.
Bid fee
A small fee charged per bid placed. Used in:
- Penny auctions (mandatory)
- Unique-bid auctions (mandatory)
- Standard auctions (optional, deters bid-spam)
Bid fees are debited from the bidder's wallet at the moment the bid is placed. If the wallet is short, the bid is rejected.
Buyer's premium
Two modes:
| Type | Effect |
|---|---|
| Percent | X% of the winning bid |
| Flat | A fixed amount regardless of bid |
Charged on top of the winning bid at checkout. Common in art and antiques auctions ("18% buyer's premium").
Example: $100 winning bid + 18% premium = $118 final cost to the buyer.
Late penalty
Charged when a winner pays after the configured payment deadline. Adds the penalty to the order total.
Use cases:
- Discourage stalling
- Reflect storage costs for unpaid lots
- Create urgency in the payment workflow
Auction unlock fee
A one-time fee to access an auction's bid form. Used for VIP / private auctions, preview-fee models ("pay $X to even bid") or compliance gating (paying counts as agreeing to terms). Per-auction override available.
Registration fee
For Events. Charged when a bidder registers for an event; per-event override available.
Seller commission
For multi-vendor stores. The platform takes a percentage of every auction's winning bid. Per-vendor overrides are available for WCFM, Dokan, WC Vendors and YITH installations.
Where fees are charged from
When a fee is due, the plugin tries to debit the customer's wallet first (if wallet-pay-fees is enabled and there's enough balance). If the wallet can't cover it, the fee is added to a pending order and the customer pays it at checkout. Wallet System →
Configure all fees
Auctions → Settings → Payments has every fee in one place. Per-auction overrides appear on the Add Auction form when a fee is configured globally.
Reporting
Reports → Fees shows:
- Daily fee revenue by type
- Top-fee-paying customers
- Top-fee-earning vendors (for commissions)
- Fee waivers / exemptions count
CSV export is available.
Tax
Fees are taxable per WooCommerce's standard tax engine — they appear as line items on the invoice with tax applied.
For tax-deductible charity auctions, see Compliance → Tax receipts.
Common questions
"How do I make some auctions fee-free?"
Set the fee field to 0 on that specific auction. Per-auction overrides take precedence over global defaults.
"Can I refund a fee?"
Yes — admin can refund via wallet or via the WooCommerce order.
"How do platform commissions interact with the multi-vendor plugin's own commissions?"
The auction plugin takes precedence for auction sales. Configure the auction commission rate in Settings → Payments; it overrides the multi-vendor plugin's default for auction-product sales only.