General
Is the plugin free?
Yes. The free plugin on WordPress.org runs group buys end to end: group price, goal and maximum quantities, per-customer limits, scheduled dates, progress bar and countdown, the Awaiting group order status, automatic refunds, seven emails, My Account, shortcodes, blocks and an admin screen. Tribuy Pro adds tiered group pricing, wholesale and private campaigns, case packs, relaunching, a waitlist, reports and a REST API.
What’s the difference between a group buy and a bulk discount?
A bulk discount rewards one customer for buying a lot. A group buy adds up every customer’s quantity, and the deal only goes ahead when the group total reaches the goal.
Does it work with my theme?
Yes. Group buys are ordinary WooCommerce products, so they use your theme’s product templates, including in block themes. Every piece of group buy markup is an overridable template.
Does it work with the block-based Cart & Checkout and HPOS?
Yes. Both WooCommerce Cart & Checkout Blocks and High-Performance Order Storage are supported, and every rule is checked on the server.
Does the plugin send data anywhere?
No. It makes no external requests, loads no remote assets, and includes no tracking. Participants are stored only in your own database.
Do customers need an account?
No. Guests can join. Per-customer limits are matched by account and billing email, so a guest can’t get round the maximum by ordering twice.
Orders and payments
When is the customer charged?
At checkout, like any other order. The order then waits in the Awaiting group status until the campaign closes.
What happens if the goal isn’t reached?
Every waiting order is refunded automatically through the payment gateway, and the customer is emailed. Cash on delivery orders are cancelled. If the payment method can’t refund automatically, such as a bank transfer, the order is put On hold with a note telling you how much to refund. See When the goal is missed.
An order is On hold after a campaign failed. What do I do?
The gateway couldn’t refund it, or the automatic refund failed (the order note says why). Refund the amount in the note by hand, through your payment provider or with WooCommerce’s Refund button, and then update the order.
Can a customer join more than once?
Yes. Every order counts towards the customer’s maximum, so a customer can top up their quantity until they reach it.
Can customers buy group buy products together with regular products?
Not by default, because a mixed order has to wait for the group buy before the regular products can ship. You can allow it under WooCommerce → Settings → Group buy → Mixed carts.
Why can’t customers add a group buy to the cart from the shop page?
The shop button opens the product page on purpose, because that’s where customers see the minimum and maximum quantities and choose how many to order.
I cancelled an order. Does it still count towards the goal?
No. Cancelling, refunding or failing an order releases its units, and the campaign is recalculated straight away.
A customer’s downloads aren’t available.
Downloads stay locked while the order is Awaiting group. They unlock when the campaign reaches its goal and the order is confirmed.
WooCommerce sent the customer a “Processing order” email before the order moved to Awaiting group.
This can happen when a gateway sets Processing directly instead of completing the payment the standard way, or when an order is marked Processing by hand. The order still moves to Awaiting group right away.
Running campaigns
My campaign didn’t close on time.
Campaigns are closed by Action Scheduler, which runs on WP-Cron, and WP-Cron only runs when your site gets traffic. An hourly sweep catches late campaigns, and a campaign is always checked when its page is viewed. To close campaigns punctually on quiet sites, hook WP-Cron to a real system cron. You can check the queue under WooCommerce → Status → Scheduled Actions (group tribuy-group-buy-for-woocommerce).
My campaign opens or closes at the wrong time.
Campaign dates use your site timezone. Check Settings → General → Timezone. Prefer a city (e.g. “London”) over a raw UTC offset so daylight saving time is handled.
The goal was reached but the campaign is still open.
That’s the default: When the goal is reached → Keep selling until the end date or the maximum quantity. Switch it to Close the campaign straight away if you want it to close immediately.
Can I end a campaign early, or give it more time?
Yes. Click End campaign now on the product’s Group buy tab (or End now under WooCommerce → Group Buys). It succeeds if the goal has been reached; otherwise the waiting orders are refunded. To give it more time, use the +1 day / +3 days / +7 days buttons on the Group buy tab or Extend 1 day on the Group Buys screen.
The progress bar shows the wrong number.
Click Recalculate on the product’s Group buy tab to rebuild the committed quantity from the paid orders.
Sales went slightly past the maximum quantity.
Several checkouts finishing at the same moment can push sales a little past the maximum, because paid orders are never rejected. Leave a small margin under your real limit if it’s strict.
Why can’t I edit a campaign that has ended?
A closed campaign’s settings are locked so its results stay accurate. Duplicate the product to run the deal again. With Pro, you can relaunch it and keep its history.
Can I use a group buy for a variable product?
Not yet: group buys are simple products. Variable product support is on the Pro roadmap. Until then, create one group buy per variation.
Can I go ahead even though the goal wasn’t reached?
Yes. Under WooCommerce → Group Buys, use Mark successful on the campaign: it closes now and confirms every waiting order. Mark failed does the opposite, for example when your supplier can’t deliver.
Can I see who joined a campaign?
Yes. Open WooCommerce → Group Buys and click Participants under the campaign, or View participants on the product’s Group buy tab. Pro adds a CSV export with the shipping addresses.
Storefront
My Account → Group buys shows a 404.
Go to Settings → Permalinks and click Save Changes to flush the rewrite rules.
How do I show my group buys on another page?
Add the Group Buy Campaigns block or the [tribuy_campaigns] shortcode. See Shortcodes and blocks.
Can I hide the share buttons or show who joined?
Both are under WooCommerce → Settings → Group buy → Storefront: Share links (on by default) and Recent participants (off by default).
Does the countdown work with page caching?
Yes. The countdown runs in the browser from the end time printed in the page. Pro’s live progress reads from admin-ajax.php, which page caches don’t store by default.
Emails
Emails aren’t arriving.
Confirm the email is enabled under WooCommerce → Settings → Emails. Emails for a closed campaign are sent as its orders are processed in the background, so allow a minute or two. If no store emails arrive, your host’s mail delivery is the problem, so install an SMTP plugin.
Data
Will my data be deleted if I remove the plugin?
Only if you ask for it. Enable Remove data on uninstall in the settings before deleting the plugin, and the participants table, settings and campaign meta are removed. Group buy products then become simple products. Otherwise everything is left untouched.
What happens if I deactivate the plugin during a campaign?
The scheduled tasks pause. After you reactivate, the hourly sweep and page views pick overdue campaigns up again and close them.
Pro
Does the free plugin support tiered pricing?
Tiered group pricing with automatic partial refunds is part of Pro.
Do I need the free plugin for Pro?
Yes. Pro is an add-on and needs the free plugin, version 1.1.0 or later, active. With an older free version, Pro shows an update notice and keeps its features switched off.
A customer paid more than the final tier price. How do they get the difference?
Automatically, when the campaign succeeds: through a gateway refund, as a lower amount due for cash on delivery, or as a single-use coupon when the payment method can’t refund. The order notes and the “successful” email say which. See Final-price settlement.
A private campaign doesn’t appear in my shop.
That’s intended: private campaigns are hidden from the shop, product blocks, campaign grids and the REST API. Share the invite link, or the product URL and password. You see them yourself because you’re logged in as store staff.
I installed Pro but don’t see any Pro features.
Pro features only switch on with a valid license. Check the license status under Tribuy Pro on the Plugins screen. See License activation.
Still stuck?
Contact support with your WordPress, WooCommerce, and plugin versions, the product ID of the group buy, and what you expected to happen. Free users can also post in the WordPress.org support forum.