How to build a multi vendor marketplace to sell perfume online

The simple answer to the most common question, how do you prefer shopping is- via online channels. 

And why not? Online shopping has made our lives much easier. Be it fragrances or groceries, everything can be bought online today. 

Cashing in on the most common behaviour, did you know you can sell perfume online and boost your business manifold? 

And when you are planning to scale your enterprise scent brand to a wider audience, the multi vendor marketplace business model fits in just right. 

Wondering what makes us say so?

Let us explore the marketplace set-up in and out.

What is a multi vendor marketplace set-up?

A multi vendor marketplace is a zero-inventory business model where the brand owner does not need to maintain an inventory. Instead, the owner can onboard multiple vendors on the marketplace website to sell fragrances online from different brands. 

These vendors manage their own products, orders and the shipment of the orders they receive. The admin(s) on the other hand, manages the marketplace and looks after the brand-building aspect of the scent business. In this marketplace set-up, customers get a rich catalogue to choose from. 

With low set-up costs, the marketplace model scales up well. Reason enough to build a multi vendor marketplace to sell perfume online? 

Let us look at a few fragrance market insights and understand the consumer needs before building a multi vendor marketplace:

• ₹25.05 billion is the revenue in the fragrances segment in 2023
• $1.02 billion is the expected growth of perfume market in India during 2022-2026
• 22.40% is the expected market CAGR from 2023 to 2029
• 59% of sales in the fragrance industry will be attributed to non-luxury goods

Source: Statista, Research and Markets

Driven by huge customer demands, the Indian fragrance market is expected to grow exponentially. You can easily scale up your business by onboarding vendors from various brands on your online marketplace. All you need is a comprehensive ecommerce solution provider that helps you offer competitive pricing, good discounts and fast deliveries to your customers. 

How to build a fragrance multi vendor marketplace

The real challenge of building a multi vendor marketplace is finding the ecommerce solution that is right for your scent business. The ecommerce solution provider you choose must offer full control to the admins while also ensuring the ease of selling to the vendors.  

Let us look at the process of building a multi vendor marketplace to sell perfume online in India:  

Pick a comprehensive ecommerce software

Picking up the right ecommerce software that offers a set of inbuilt features to run day-to-day business activities seamlessly is an underrated task. The choice of your ecommerce software helps you build your fragrance business. The ecommerce software you choose must be able to ease out the routine tasks like marketing, inventory management, order management etc.

StoreHippo comes with a comprehensive 360-degree turnkey ecommerce solution to help enterprise brands go to the market in record time and tap new markets quickly. However, selling fragrance online is not a cake-walk. Even with detailed descriptions and multiple customer reviews, there can be high chances of returns or customer disappointments. So what’s the way out?

You can offer virtual appointments where the customer can acquire a personalized recommendation by speaking directly with the brand representatives. With StoreHippo you can add custom forms and book appointment slots for your customers. You can also create different sub stores for different perfume brands on your multi vendor marketplace with StoreHippo’s ecommerce solutions. StoreHippo helps you build tailor-made solutions for your scent brand.  

Purchase a domain name 

To build a multi vendor marketplace, you need to buy a domain name, SSL, web hosting. Make sure to choose a domain name that is unique yet helps customers identify your business. The shorter and crisper your domain name is, the more will people remember the brand. 

Instead of going through the hassle of buying your hosting and SSL you can go with a fully-hosted solution like SoreHippo that gives you a free SSL certificate for online stores built on the platform and also frees you from the hassle of finding hosting solutions.

Reach out and onboard perfume vendors 

Onboarding fragrance vendors on your marketplace can be a tedious task without vendor-specific features on your marketplace website. It is crucial to have a seamless vendor onboarding process that can be followed all along. 

StoreHippo comes with an end-to-end vendor management solution that allows you to create individual vendor accounts with a user-friendly admin dashboard. When you list your vendors on the multi vendor marketplace, you also require advanced tools to add and manage the products. The product-management feature from StoreHippo enables easy management of products by vendors wherein vendors can add, edit, and upgrade products seamlessly.  

StoreHippo also offers a complete approval flow control to the admins where they can approve or reject vendor products by applying a check on unwanted product uploads. The admin also exercises full control of vendor activities with a detailed overview of vendor performance. The vendor dashboard also gives the vendors an easy understanding of inventory and order status. The vendors can also upload bulk products using the CSV feature from StoreHippo. 

Select a theme and design

When you create a marketplace website to sell perfume online, it is equally important to give a fancy look to your website. With a rich look and feel, an enhanced description of the fragrance, and clear product images, your customers are more likely to make a purchase. 

StoreHippo offers an in-built theme designer to help you choose from a rich design theme library and create professional-looking marketplaces. You can seamlessly use the drag-and-drop feature from StoreHippo to create unique store designs without the need for coding. You can quickly change the banners and sliders to create a luxurious-looking marketplace. 

Integrate multiple payment options

When it comes to online payments, your customers look for multiple options to choose from. And when you offer them a host of payment gateways along with a seamless checkout process on your multi vendor marketplace, you sell more. By eliminating payment downtime, you would never miss an opportunity to convert a potential sale. 

StoreHippo offers 60+ pre-integrated domestic and international payment gateways to help you offer a seamless payment experience to your fragrance customers who can choose from netbanking, credit and debit cards, store wallet, COD etc to make payments. With StoreHippo you can also offer multiple currencies to your global customers. The adaptive payment feature from StoreHippo, enables customers to order from multiple vendors in a single transaction. The payment automatically gets split between the admin and multiple vendors making it easy to manage multi product orders.

Choose your preferred shipping partner 

Who doesn’t like their orders delivered quickly? 56% of shoppers aged 18-34 expect same-day delivery options. Is your fragrance business attuned to provide quick seamless deliveries? If not, it is highly recommended to choose a shipping partner that offers fast deliveries. 

StoreHippo comes with multiple inbuilt shipping options to choose from. You can streamline your brand for quick deliveries and build a cost-optimized supply chain. Your customers can also track their orders using the feature-rich delivery management solution from StoreHippo. With the advanced delivery boy management software from StoreHippo, you can also manage your own fleet of delivery boys. 

Market your scent marketplace 

With all the functionalities in the right place, it is time to market your multi vendor marketplace well. The more you market your scent brand, the more footfall and conversions you get. Wondering how to make your brand reach millions of customers?

To help you sell perfume online and market your brand, StoreHippo offers effective in-built marketing tools like a powerful discount engine, SEO tools, blog engine etc. You can seamlessly build a unique brand presence with the inbuilt blog engine from StoreHippo. You can quickly rank higher on SERPs with advanced SEO tools and elements like meta-title, meta keywords, alt tags, sitemap etc. StoreHippo enables you to offer personalized notifications to your customers, recover abandoned carts and offer multi-layer discounts. 

Conclusion

Building a multi vendor marketplace is not a cakewalk, it requires tons of research and resources. However, once you have chosen a robust 360-degree ecommerce solution provider, you can successfully launch your scent marketplace seamlessly. 

Built on cutting-edge technology, StoreHIppo makes it easy for fragrance brands to go online quickly and build best-in-class online marketplaces. With the plug-and-play marketplace solutions from StoreHippo, you can easily customize your platform for unique brand requirements. With MACH architecture at its core, StoreHippo offers future-ready multi vendor marketplace solutions for scent brands of every scale and size.   

Are you ready to sell perfume online on multi vendor marketplace with StoreHippo? Explore the enterprise-grade features by starting your 14-day free trial now.