5 Reasons why your online marketplace is failing (And quick fixes that work)

With the current market dynamics, every multi vendor marketplace is vying for buyer attention.

But is building an online marketplace enough to catch your customers' eye? 

It certainly isn’t!

You also need to cater to your customers’ buying expectations to position your brand for unparalleled growth

Wonder why your online marketplace is failing to attract customers? 

Whilst your marketplace is working fine and good, why are you seeing low conversions? 

It could be one of the many things happening even when you built the best multi vendor platform.  

Before we start unfolding the reasons, let us try to figure out what the customers are expecting from marketplace brands.

Customer Buying Habits on Online Marketplace Websites

This is how buyer behavior influences the practices of ecommerce marketplaces.

• $8.7 trillion of sales forecasted via multi vendor marketplaces by 2025
• 62% of global online retail sales come through online marketplaces
• 48% of buyers go directly to a marketplace when shopping online
• 94% of B2B buyers use online marketplaces to source products/services
• 73% of shoppers prefer different channels during their buyer journey
• 59% of customers say that personalization influences their shopping decision 
• 10.4% of all retail sales will be done on mobile devices by 2025

Source: Statista 

The ecommerce industry is in its hyper-growth stage. With the realm of ecommerce exploding with opportunities, you need to be adept at handling the tectonic shifts in the ecommerce industry. As the customer's buying habits shift frequently, your online marketplace must be equipped enough to race ahead of the competition. Let’s see what hinders your growth! 

5 Reasons your multi vendor marketplace is failing (And its quick fixes) 

With the given shifts in the buying trends, is your online marketplace flexible enough to cope with the ecommerce changes happening around? Let’s find out 5 reasons that could be pulling your marketplace back.

StoreHippo brings to you 5 reasons why your multi vendor marketplace might be failing and its quick fixes.

You have poor navigation and unattractive site designs 

How have you designed your online marketplace? Do you offer good navigation to your customers? Is it easy to shop on your ecommerce website? Ask these questions if you are experiencing poor sales on your site. Well, your customers would not like a patchy website, would they? The digital-age modern customers like clean, simple, and attractive websites that offer easy navigation and make buying a quick process. As you make buying seamless on your site, you retain customers for life. 

Wondering how to make it all possible? 

Here is how StoreHippo, the best multi vendor platform helps you create a marketplace website with an intuitive user experience: 

• A variety of design frameworks that are simple and easy to use
• Easy to switch between different themes with a simple click
• Ability to customize any theme without affecting the other themes
• A feature-rich admin, seller, and buyer interface 
• Simple navigation with category hierarchy
• Responsive design that works seamlessly on any screen size
• Peak-load tolerance during seasonal peaks and 99.99% uptime
• Inherently scalable cloud infrastructure supporting business growth

Using StoreHippo’s simple drag-and-drop feature, you can mix-match and create new themes and designs for your multi vendor marketplace without the need for coding. You can seamlessly use the rich theme design library to create designs that convert. 

You do not offer competitive pricing 

Are customers coming to your website, but not converting? Wonder what could be the reason? Have you ever wondered if you are offering competitive prices to your customers? Don’t know how to? Well, as you onboard multiple vendors on your online marketplace for similar products, you can seamlessly steal the attention of competitors' customers and also enable your customers to compare different vendors and choose the ones offering lower prices for similar products. All you need to do is onboard multiple vendors on your marketplace. 

Here is how StoreHippo helps you offer competitive pricing on your marketplace by onboarding multiple vendors:

• End-to-end multi vendor solutions to help you onboard multiple vendors seamlessly
• Separate vendor dashboard that helps vendors manage their business operations 
• Separate vendor pages on the marketplace website so buyers can compare sellers or buy from their favorite sellers without distractions
• Easily set up different vendor commission rates to create an environment for competitive pricing
• Overview details of the business like vendor specific sales, revenue, best selling products, vendor performance etc. on a central dashboard and make strategic business moves to promote vendors who then offer better prices to end buyers
• Easily divide the order amount and send payments to different sellers of a multi-product order with the adaptive payment feature to keep orders flowing and vendors happy and vying for customer attention through competitive pricing
• Set up vendor specific discounts and shipping charges that promote the bestselling products or vendors and help you boost your sales. 

You are not available on multiple channels

Did you know that more than 80% of the enterprise brands were investing in omnichannel experience by 2020 as compared to 20% a few years ago? Are you engaging with your customers on multiple channels? If not, take the cue now and start the omnichannel ecommerce journey for your multi vendor marketplace ASAP. Customers love to engage with a brand on more than 4 different channels before making a purchase. You can grow your multi vendor marketplace manifold by being available on multiple channels and engaging with your customers on all these sales channels. 

Wonder how StoreHippo helps? StoreHippo comes with a ready-to-use omnichannel enterprise ecommerce solution for your enterprise brand’s multi channel selling needs. Here is how you can go omnichannel with StoreHippo: 

• Add new customer touchpoints quickly using the same backend logic and APIs
• Create consistent buyer experiences across multiple channels to boost engagement
• Centrally control all the sales channels with the best multi vendor platform, StoreHippo
• Improve operational efficiency across all channels and reduce cost
• Get better customer insight on multiple channels to leverage the most profitable channel
• Get channel-specific insights to leverage data-driven strategies

With StoreHippo’s omnichannel solutions, you can chart an upward growth trajectory for your business and race ahead of your competitors. 

You have limited payment options 

Well, customers prefer websites that offer them a frictionless payment process. And how can you create a seamless payment process for your customers? It’s simple, you can start by offering multiple payment options for them to choose from. And that’s not all. Customers also look for a secure payment process when they are buying online. You can boost your sales rate by offering fast and secure payment options on your online marketplace. Yes, ease of ordering and paying always entails larger order volumes.

Wonder how StoreHippo helps elevate your payment process?

Here is how:

• 60+ pre-integrated domestic and international payment gateways
• Integrate with more than one payment gateway
• Offer multiple payment options like COD, net banking, digital wallets, card payments, etc
• Implement multiple payment gateways based on the location or device of the buyers 
• Supports transactions in multiple currencies

StoreHippo the best multi vendor platform helps you offer a frictionless payment process that is smooth and secure.  

You do not have a streamlined delivery solution 

Now that's a miss! 61% of the customers are willing to pay extra just to get same day delivery. In a world where customers are expecting same day deliveries, have you streamlined your marketplace for a quick and smooth supply chain? Hassle-free quick deliveries help you build customers trust, loyalty and also give you repeat customers. If you haven’t yet streamlined your delivery, now is the time. 

How to fix this? Here is how StoreHippo helps you plan a streamlined delivery solution for your multi vendor marketplace:

• 30+ pre-integrated shipping partners to ensure faster delivery on your online marketplace
• Automate the fulfillment process with built-in order and shipping management to ensure faster and streamlined deliveries
• Built-in delivery boy solution to onboard, manage, and track your fleet of delivery boys 
• Real-time tracking feature to help customers stay updated on their order 

StoreHippo helps you speed-up your delivery process with its built-in solutions and tools.

Conclusion

Your online marketplace needs special attention to gain traction. Now that we have listed the major reasons that could be the cause of your failing online marketplace, it's time to revamp your site. To future-proof your marketplace and keep a constant flow of customers, you need a robust ecommerce solution provider that has all the right features to offer.

StoreHippo is a 360-degree ecommerce software that helps you build the best multi vendor platform for your business. It comes with 300+ built-in features like future-ready technology, and a mobile-first approach, to help you seamlessly carve a niche for your ecommerce brand. With the help of the SaaS-based ecommerce platform, StoreHippo you can build your next-gen multi vendor marketplace and fix all these existing loopholes.

Are you all set to carve a niche for your online marketplace? Explore the wide range of StoreHippo features by starting your 14-day free trial now.