Multi vendor marketplaces like Amazon, eBay, Flipkart and Alibaba have been soaring the popularity charts with sales creating new records every year. Did you know that:
- $2.03 trillion was the total sales value of the top marketplaces
- 57% of global online sales took place on marketplaces
- 18% growth in gross merchandise sale on marketplaces
- 95% of online buyers have already used a marketplace
Source: Digital Commerce 360
So what is the key takeaway of this trend?
Multi vendor ecommerce stores have disrupted the multi-trillion dollar global etail industry and changed online shopping patterns forever!
No wonder that the rising stars of ecommerce are increasingly opting for this successful model for their business.
Table of Contents
Understanding The Multi Vendor Ecommerce Model
Have you ever wondered what is so special about this model? What makes the buyers come in droves? Why do sellers love joining a multi-seller portal? And most importantly what makes an online multi-seller portal so beneficial for the business owner?
Well, to begin with, the multi vendor model offers many advantages over a regular website. Let’s sample some:
Advantages Of An Online Marketplace
The success of this model is based on the fact that it makes lives easier for every party involved; the business owner, vendors and customers.
That why It is called the WIN-ALL model
Multi Seller Ecommerce Platform: Must-Have Features For Success
While the business model pays rich dividends it is not as simple as running a regular ecommerce website. If your platform is not designed grounds up to accommodate the different scenarios of this setup you might not be able to run a successful and hassle-free business.
This means that to run your marketplace effectively you would need a multi-seller solution that takes care of the complexities of the model. Also, it should be easy to use to make it a handy solution for your teams and vendors.
Sounds like quite a lot to check in your multi seller ecommerce platform?
Let’s make the process easier. Here is a list of top features needed in your marketplace software to run a successful business:
Performance And Flexibility
Great multi-vendor software is all about performance, flexibility, and customization. The complex requirements of this environment make it essential for the platform to be extremely customizable to adapt to the changes depending on the unique requirements of the various use cases of the marketplace model.
A customizable platform that is easy to modify and offers the flexibility to tweak the backend, as well as the front end, is a must-have feature. Apart from these, the platform should also be scalable without compromising on the performance. To accomplish this the multi seller ecommerce platform should be built on advanced technology that makes your business future-ready.
StoreHippo offers the most advanced technology solution using MEAN stack to build next-generation horizontal, vertical as well as custom online marketplaces.
Mobile-First Approach
Mobile commerce sales are expected to grow 4X from 2016 to 2021. With increasing smartphone and internet penetration, mobile is where your customers are. Accounting for 70% to 80% online sales m-commerce is the main channel for online sales.
Online shoppers spend two-third of their time shopping online on mobile. So, your multi seller ecommerce platform should be equipped to offer mobile stores and mobile apps without the additional cost of development. This will not only help you tap more sales but also improve your Google ranking as Google does mobile-first indexing. Mobile-friendly sites rank higher on Google which increases your chances of getting better traffic.
StoreHippo is built on the mobile-first approach and all multi vendor ecommerce stores built by us are PWAs. This means they look, feel and behave like mobile apps when opened in a browser. Also, you can build your Android and iOS apps without any coding or additional cost.
Support For Vendor Management
For the smooth functioning of any multi vendor ecommerce set up, vendor management should be extremely streamlined and hassle-free. Right from the registration of the vendors to product uploads, inventory management, pricing, shipping distribution, and commission payout should all be easy and manageable in a few clicks.
On one hand, the vendors should have their own dashboard where they can get a snapshot of their everyday business and manage end to end business in a hassle-free manner. On the other hand, the Admin should have complete control of all vendor activities and be able to limit vendor activity if required.
StoreHippo multi seller ecommerce platform offers a comprehensive vendor management module that handles the end to end requirements of onboarding, managing and paying out the vendors.
Pricing, Display And Search
Well, we know that the customers are attracted to a multi vendor marketplace as it offers them the choice of product along with competitive prices. To achieve this the platform should have features to allow the customers to shop by brand, category, price range etc.
The marketplace should have the feature of pricing comparison for various vendors. Online buyers are impatient and if the site does not offer good search and filter options it risks losing a substantial amount of its customers. Advanced and faceted search should be an integral part of a multi-seller environment.
Product images and display plays a significant role in the final purchase decision, hence the display and view option on the marketplace should be exceptionally good.
StoreHippo multi seller ecommerce platform offers all the above features to help you make your online marketplace stickier and more engaging for your customers.
Easy Accounting
Imagine the amount of accounting involved in managing the various merchants, their commissions, taxes, payouts etc. It is quite a task to say the least. If well thought out processes and tools are not inbuilt within the platform, going through all these steps can become cumbersome and error prone.
The ecommerce software you choose for building your marketplace should have features and tools that let you to set up flexible commissions for vendors(fixed, percentage wise or custom), easy management of shipping charges, discounts, shipping management by vendors, comprehensive vendor ledger for tracking the payments/receivables and support for manual and automated vendor payouts.
StoreHippo multi vendor ecommerce solution offers easy to use tools and a comprehensive seller ledger to care of all the above requirements.
Support for SEO and Marketing
SEO and marketing can take a business to new heights. Quality SEO with rapid implementation is essential for marking your brand presence felt across the world wide web. This helps in getting more organic traffic and conversions for your business.
SEO supported by other means of marketing like deals, discounts, social media integration, ads across digital platforms etc. can give your multi vendor marketplace a brand identity and presence across various digital channels.
To implement these on your marketplace, the platform you are choosing should be equipped with inbuilt features that make SEO simple and automated to a great extent. Look for a platform that is SEO friendly and offers support for unique product page URLs, ALT tags etc.
Along with these it should offer inbuilt marketing tools like a blog engine, user comments, products reviews, optimized themes, discount engine, flash sales etc.
StoreHippo multi vendor ecommerce solution offers a SEO-friendly ecommerce platform which has inbuilt marketing tools to promote and grow your business.
Options To Go Global
This is the era of business beyond borders. Global ecommerce is experiencing an unprecedented boom and is forecasted to grow at a rapid pace in the near future.
Cross Border Ecommerce Trends
- Cross-border ecommerce is estimated to reach $1 trillion in 2020
- Cross-border B2C shoppers grew from 361 million in 2015 to 943 million in 2020
- Cross border sales grew from more than 3X from 2015 to 2020 ( $304 billion to $994 billion)
- Cross-border ecommerce is expected to be 22% of worldwide ecommerce by 2022
An even more interesting trend is that B2B ecommerce is going to drive this growth overtaking B2C ecommerce
To make the best of this scenario your multi seller ecommerce platform should offer you inbuilt features and tools to take your business to the global markets. Also, it should provide you the options for B2B, B2C business models that can be extended to global markets.
StoreHippo ecommerce platform offers a host of features to help you build your global ecommerce marketplace. These features include multilingual website, multi currency payments, IP-based pricing, options for geolocation based multi-store chains, powerful tax-engine for multi-country tax computation etc.
Conclusion
StoreHippo is your best bet if you are looking for all of the above features in a single comprehensive multi vendor marketplace platform. Along with all the above features, we also provide 50+ integrated payment gateways to make it easier for your customers to buy from your portal.
Our integrated logistics solution and delivery boy module automate and speed up your logistics. StoreHippo’s 300+ inbuilt features enable you to take your business beyond boundaries and help you in establishing a global presence for your brand.
Explore the goodness of the best multi seller ecommerce platform by starting your very own 14-day free trial store with StoreHippo.
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