Store-wide rules live under WooCommerce → Settings → Group buy. You can also reach them from the Settings link under the plugin on the Plugins screen. The defaults work out of the box, so you only need to change what you want different. Settings for a single campaign (price, goal, limits, dates) are on the product’s Group buy tab.
Campaigns
| Setting | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|
| When the goal is reached | Keep selling until the end date or the maximum quantity: more customers can still join at the group price after the goal is met. Close the campaign straight away and confirm the orders: the campaign closes the moment the goal is reached. | Keep selling |
| Mixed carts | Allow group buy items and regular products in the same order. Mixed orders wait in Awaiting group until every group buy in them closes, so the regular products ship later. | Off |
Storefront
| Setting | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Terms text | Shown under the progress bar on the product page. Use {end_date} for the campaign end date. Leave it empty to hide it. | “You pay now. If the goal is not reached by {end_date}, your payment is refunded automatically.” |
| Badge text | Replaces the “Sale!” badge on group buy products. | Group buy |
| Progress in shop | Show a small progress bar under group buy products in the shop and on category pages. | On |
| Progress bar color | The colour of the progress bars and accents. | #2f6fdb |
| Ending soon | Hours before the end at which the Ending soon badge appears and participants get the ending soon email. Enter 0 to switch both off. Changing it reschedules the reminders of open campaigns. | 24 |
| Share links | Show WhatsApp, Facebook, X, email and copy-link buttons in the campaign box. Plain links only: no third-party scripts are loaded. | On |
| Recent participants | Show who joined recently, as first name and last initial (e.g. “Jane D.”). Mention it in your privacy policy if you turn it on. | Off |
| Participants shown | How many recent participants to list, 1–20. | 5 |
Advanced
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Remove data on uninstall | Delete the group buy settings, campaign data and participant records when the plugin is deleted. Group buy products then become simple products. Off by default. Can’t be undone. The same switch removes Tribuy Pro’s data when Pro is deleted. |
Deactivating the plugin never deletes data. It pauses the scheduled campaign tasks, and the hourly sweep picks them up again after you reactivate. Only deleting the plugin with this option enabled removes data.
Pro settings
With Tribuy Pro active, a Pro section appears on the same tab, above Advanced:
| Setting | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Show price tiers | Show the tiers table and what the next tier unlocks on the product page. | On |
| When a gateway cannot refund | How the tier price difference goes back to customers whose payment method can’t refund automatically: a single-use coupon, or an order note so you refund it by hand. | Coupon |
| Goal progress emails | Percentages of the goal at which participants are emailed, separated by commas. Leave empty to switch them off. | 50,75,90 |
| Live progress | Seconds between progress refreshes in the browser (minimum 10). Enter 0 to switch it off. | 30 |
| Waitlist | Let visitors ask to be emailed when an ended or sold-out group buy runs again. | On |
Group buy emails
Group buy emails use the native WooCommerce email system, so they inherit your store’s email branding. Manage them with your other store emails under WooCommerce → Settings → Emails. Each one can be enabled or disabled and have its subject, heading, and additional content edited, and the admin emails their recipients.
| Sent to | When | Default | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Group buy: joined | Customer | Their paid order joins a group buy and waits for the goal. Sent once per order, with the order details. | On |
| Group buy: ending soon | Customers still waiting | The Ending soon window before the end, once per campaign round. It says how many units are still needed, or that the goal is reached. | On |
| Group buy: successful | Customer | The group buy reaches its goal and their order is confirmed. | On |
| Group buy: failed | Customer | The group buy ends without reaching its goal. It says whether their payment was refunded, cancelled, or will be refunded shortly. | On |
| Group buy: campaign started | Admin | A campaign starts accepting orders. Off by default, because a campaign without a start date starts as soon as it’s published. | Off |
| Group buy: goal reached | Admin | A running campaign reaches its goal. It links to the participants. | On |
| Group buy: campaign ended | Admin | A campaign closes, with the outcome, the committed quantity and the number of participants. | On |
WooCommerce’s own New order email is also sent to you for orders that go straight to Awaiting group, so you never miss an order.
Placeholders
Subjects and headings accept the usual {site_title}, plus:
| Placeholder | Available in |
|---|---|
{product_name} | All group buy emails |
{order_number}, {order_date} | The customer emails |
{outcome} | Campaign ended, e.g. Successful or Failed |
Each email has HTML and plain-text templates you can override from your theme (yourtheme/woocommerce/emails/tribuy-*.php; see Template overrides).
Pro emails
Pro adds four more, managed in the same place: Group buy: goal progress and Group buy: lower price unlocked (to participants), Group buy: back again (to the waitlist) and Group buy: supplier purchase order (to the supplier set on the product). See Pro Features → Extra emails.
Emails not arriving?
Group buy emails go out through WordPress’s mailer, like your order emails. If order emails work but group buy emails don’t, check that the email is enabled in WooCommerce → Settings → Emails. If no store emails arrive at all, install an SMTP plugin, because most hosts’ default mail delivery is unreliable. Emails for a closed campaign are sent as its orders are processed in the background, so they can take a minute or two to arrive.