Why Build A Marketplace Website
An online marketplace website allows multiple vendors to buy or sell items by listing on your multi-vendor ecommerce store. This lets you earn money in the form of commissions on every sale made by the vendors. No wonder, online marketplaces account for more than 50% of global online sales.
The online marketplace is a popular business idea as it has low set-up costs and the overall process is very rewarding for all parties, i.e; sellers, marketplace owner and the customers. The marketplace model scales up very well as you don’t have to bother about the inventory and the vendors don’t need to worry about the technical set-up. It is a WIN-ALL formula which is here to stay.
How To Build A Marketplace Website That Actually Sells
Here is how you can create your multi-vendor online store from scratch to success. Let’s get started:
Step 1: List down your marketplace idea and business model
Step 2: Validate your idea by finding the product/ market fit or the problem/solution fit
Step 3: Define the value proposition, distribution channel and revenue stream for customers, vendors and owner
Step 4: Register your company and complete the legal and other paperwork
Step 5: Decide the name and register a domain
Step 6: Build your marketplace website with StoreHippo multi-vendor solution
Step 7: Add your vendors, distributors, brands etc.
Step 8: Set up shipping method, taxes, commissions and payment for vendors.
Step 9: Start promoting your marketplace website before you go live
Step 10: Test your marketplace and go live.
That is all you have to do to start earning commission on every order sold on your multi-vendor online store.
How To Promote A Multi-Vendor Marketplace
Like any other business, multi-vendor online stores also need to be promoted to set your cash counters ringing. Here is how you can do it:
- Register buyers before you launch
- Give free store credits to spend on their next purchase
- Create an invitation chain by asking your registered users to bring their friends and earn points
- Offer FREE products and shipping to lure customers to your marketplace website
- Attract more vendors/sellers by hinting the customer registrations you already garnered
- Set favourable selling terms to attract quality buyers, you will get more customers when you have more buyers
- Build a strong relationship with customers on social media and other channels
All the above strategies put in place and executed well will help you make your multi-vendor marketplace a hit on day 1.
StoreHippo Marketing Tools To Promote Your Multi-Vendor Online Store
StoreHippo has a variety of tools to help you plan a quick, smart and successful marketing strategy when you build a marketplace website. You can set up various discounts and coupons to promote your business. You can also set up custom forms and dynamic marketing pages to register your customers before you go live. You can also use store wallet to give free credit points to your customers.
With easy social media integrations you can create a buzz about your business. Along with these you can use the unified notifications( SMS, Email and push to keep your customers engaged and informed.
Why StoreHippo Is the Best Ecommerce Platform To Build A Marketplace Website
There are two ways to get your online marketplace website up and running;
- You can choose to build it from scratch (invest a lot of time and money)
- Go with StoreHippo’s multi-vendor marketplace solutions (tunkey, battle-tested solution, at a fraction of cost of getting your marketplace built from scratch)
No wonder, if you are focusing on quick go to market time and want to save on precious money for growing your business you will opt for the second way.
StoreHippo multi vendor marketplace solutions comes loaded with 300+ inbuilt features that help you with various aspects of running your multi-vendor online business. When you build a marketplace website with StoreHippo you get comprehensive vendor management, order and inventory management modules. Aided by integrated shipping and payment solutions you can use these modules to streamline your business without any hassle.
Storehippo has the experience and expertise of handling a variety of horizontal, vertical and service aggregator marketplaces for B2b as well as B2C businesses. Our platform’s flexibility has helped businesses implement out-of-box models with unique flows and customized solutions.
Check out the various types of Multi-Vendor Use Cases powered by StoreHippo and explore our platform by starting your 14-day free trial now.
