External Marketplace Buttons
v1.1.0
Current release
New Feature
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Affiliate links. Turn every marketplace button into an affiliate link automatically. Template-based, so it works with any program: append your tag as a query parameter (Amazon Associates, eBay Partner Network) or wrap the URL in a network deep link (Awin, Involve Asia), with one-click presets for popular networks. Different tags per country domain (amazon.com vs amazon.de) are supported, transformed links carry
rel="sponsored nofollow"automatically, and an optional disclosure line keeps you FTC-compliant. - A/B button label testing. Test a new button label against your current one. Visitors are split 50/50, the Reports tab shows views, clicks, and click rate per variant with a statistical-confidence badge, and one click applies the winning label. Cache-friendly and anonymous.
- Marketplace prices on buttons. Show each marketplace's price right on its button, as a price summary line ("From $20" or "$20 – $25"), or both. Prices are free-text per marketplace on each product, the summary is derived automatically, and you can override it with your own wording per product.
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Open buttons in a new tab. Marketplace links now open in a new tab by default (with
rel="noopener noreferrer"), so shoppers never leave your store; a Display setting lets you switch back to same-tab. The Show Icons setting is now also configurable in the UI. - Click Tracking & Reports. A full analytics dashboard for your marketplace buttons: totals and trends with switchable line/bar/doughnut/pie charts, top products and marketplaces, filters by time frame, marketplace, and product, plus CSV export, import, and a guarded reset. Privacy-friendly by design: only anonymous daily totals are stored, nothing personal. Optional GA4 event forwarding.
- Gutenberg block and Elementor widget. Place the marketplace buttons anywhere with a live preview, no shortcode needed (the shortcode still works too).
- Shop & category page buttons. Optionally show a compact version of the buttons in product listings, not just on the product page.
- Visibility rules. Show buttons to everyone, only logged-in users, or only guests, optionally limited to specific user roles.
- Marketplace scheduling. Give any marketplace button a start and end date, perfect for sale-day campaigns like 11.11 or 12.12.
- Marketplaces column on the Products list. See at a glance which products have marketplace URLs, and filter products with or without them.
- Geo-aware links. Add country-specific URLs per marketplace (e.g. amazon.de for German visitors) and each shopper is sent to the right storefront automatically.
- Variation-level URLs. Give individual variations their own marketplace links; buttons update live as shoppers pick a variation.
- Out-of-stock rescue. Optionally show marketplace buttons only when a product is out of stock, with a custom "get it elsewhere" heading. Never lose a sale.
- Marketplace link health checks. Your URLs are verified weekly in the background; dead listings (404/410/dead domain) are flagged on the Products list and in the settings.
- Schema.org offers. Optionally list your marketplace listings as additional offers in the product's structured data so search engines see every place it is sold.
Improvement
- The Button Position setting now actually works. Buttons can be placed before or after Add to Cart, after the product summary, or manually via shortcode/block/widget.
- All marketplace icons are now bundled SVG files. The plugin no longer loads Font Awesome from a CDN. Faster pages, no third-party requests, and buttons render identically offline. (Custom marketplaces keep using your uploaded icons.)
- The plugin's own mark now appears in the settings header, in place of the generic WordPress icon.
- The CSV import field is now a drag-and-drop zone: drop a file on it or click anywhere to browse, and it shows the filename once chosen. It still works with JavaScript turned off.
- The Marketplaces tab now lists your marketplaces in two columns, so more of them fit on screen. Opening one for configuration expands it across the full width, and drag-to-reorder still works.
- The settings screens are now full width with a branded header, matching the rest of the Online Store Kit range. The reports dashboard in particular has a lot more room.
- New look. The plugin's admin screens now use the Online Store Kit design system, so External Marketplace Buttons matches the rest of the range. Your storefront buttons are untouched.
- The More Plugins tab now shows the current Online Store Kit range, and each card knows what your site already has: a plugin you have installed offers to activate, one already running says so, and the rest link out.
- Admin styles and scripts are versioned by file, so an update reaches your browser instead of being served from cache.
- The Reports tab now leads with your analytics; the Click Tracking settings are one click away in a collapsible section (expanded automatically while tracking is off).
Fix
- Custom marketplaces now render correctly through the shortcode (previously only built-in marketplaces appeared).
- Importing a settings JSON no longer mangles the UTM tracking configuration.
- Fixed a rare fatal error that could take a site down at load time while a background license re-check was being scheduled.
- Marketplace icons are now visible in the Minimal button style. The brand-color icon variant is used on transparent backgrounds instead of the white one.
- Icons inside buttons sit level with their label again on WordPress 7, instead of riding above it.
- CSV import now reports upload failures properly and rejects files above 5 MB, rather than trying to parse whatever arrived.
- Plugin icons keep their own colors under every WordPress 7 admin color scheme instead of picking up the scheme's accent.
Security
- The licensing client now verifies a license response's signature before storing it, on both activation and the background re-check. Previously a response only had to *look* like a license, which meant anything able to answer a network request could replace a working license.
- Activation now also confirms the license returned by the server belongs to this product and this site before accepting it, with a clear error message if it does not.
Maintenance
- Removed unused configuration left over from the previous licensing system.
- Compatibility confirmed with WordPress 7.0.4 and WooCommerce 11.0.1.
v1.0.1
Security
- Hardened license verification. The signed license is now re-verified on every request instead of trusting a cached flag, and the verification lives in the plugin itself.
Improvement
- Updated licensing client: "Check again" on the Updates screen really re-checks, and update details (changelog, tested-up-to, required PHP) now display properly.
- License activation confirms the purchase email address.
Fix
- Prevented a fatal error when another Online Store Kit plugin loaded its licensing client first.
v1.0.0
Changes
- Initial release