What is a multi vendor ecommerce platform?
A multi vendor ecommerce platform is a special type of software designed to offer battle-tested solutions for building a variety of online marketplaces like horizontal marketplace, vertical marketplace, B2B marketplace, hyperlocal marketplace, B2B2C marketplace or any other kind of hybrid and custom marketplaces.
The overall function of a multi vendor ecommerce platform is to:
Help build multi vendor marketplace website quickly and easily
Make it easy for vendors to showcase and sell their products
Streamline and manage inventory and order management for all the vendors and their products
Offer a multi vendor marketplace software that can scale to any number of products, users, geo-locations or sellers
Easily integrate with chosen third-party solutions and service providers to make the overall marketplace operations better and efficient
Offer an easy to use marketplace app for customers so they can search and order the desired products quickly
Which multi vendor ecommerce platform is best for building an online marketplace?
Finding the best multi vendor website builder is crucial for any business as it helps in managing the day to day business, running the brand and eventually accelerates the growth of the marketplace with the help of modern tools and technology. The best-fit multi vendor marketplace software is one that takes care of the current as well as the long term requirements of the brand.
A modern multi vendor ecommerce platform must have the following features:
Cutting edge technology that keeps the marketplace brand ahead of the competition
End-to-end vendor onboarding and management solutions
Easily customizable for unique needs of the multi vendor marketplace website
Offers m-commerce solutions that help in making marketplace apps and mobile website
Comes with beautiful design themes to create an engaging and conversion-oriented marketplace
Makes it easy to add new customer touchpoints to go omnichannel
Offers a smooth learning curve for all the parties involved
Offers a secure platform to build the multi vendor ecommerce platform along with secure payment options for ordering
StoreHippo’s cutting multi vendor marketplace software is designed to offer a feature-rich solution to brands looking for building their online marketplace. Built on the decoupled headless architecture, StoreHippo makes it easy for enterprise brands to create tailor-made solutions for their business. With 300+ inbuilt features and 120+ integrations, StoreHippo’s native multi seller solutions help brands build the best multi vendor marketplace platform.
Can multi vendor ecommerce platform be used for building custom or hybrid marketplaces?
An online marketplace is the go-to business model for enterprise brands planning to build disruptive solutions. With the multi-vendor model they can easily experiment with unique flows and hybrid models which combine the marketplace model with multi-store, multilingual, D2C or any other model to build a unique custom multi vendor ecommerce platform.
However, to build custom or hybrid marketplace models the multi vendor marketplace software needs to be agile and tweakable at the front end as well as the backend. Also, it should come with inbuilt support for various other models so the developers can easily combine two or more models to create a new disruptive hybrid model.
Here are some hybrid multi vendor ecommerce models being used by successful enterprise brands:
Multi vendor ecommerce platform along with hyperlocal multi-store set up: Used by famous quick commerce brands like Bigbasket, Blinkit, Zepto
D2C marketplace leveraging the dealer supplier network: Famous beauty and personal care brands like Nykaa and Mamaearth
Service aggregator marketplace with vendors as partner service providers: Diverse service providing multi vendor ecommerce platforms like Urban Company, HouseJoy etc.
Subscription-based multi vendor platforms with geo-location-based offerings: Popular OTT platforms like Netflix, Hotstar etc. buy movie rights from different vendors and showcase them on their platform under their marketplace brand
Food delivery multi vendor platform that partners with local eateries and takeaway outlets and facilitates delivery using their fleet of delivery boys- Swiggy, Zomato kind of food aggregator marketplace apps
Niche service-based multi vendor ecommerce platform combined with hyperlocal services: HealthTech aggregators like Practo, WebPT etc that offer doctors’ consultations along with diagnostics and path lab services by onboarding local doctors and path labs as vendors
Multilingual, multi store, multi vendor marketplace app and site for different locations: Amazon website and app in different languages for different countries
Multi vendor model has helped brands across business verticals create a niche for themselves. The fluidity of the model helps it combine well with other models to build the most amazing and successful hybrid multi vendor marketplace websites. However, to create a custom multi vendor ecommerce platform, enterprise brands need cutting edge marketplace builders like StoreHippo. With its native support for diverse business models like B2B, D2C, B2B2C, hyperlocal ecommerce, multi store set up, multilingual websites etc. StoreHippo’s agile MACH (Microservices, API first, Cloud-native, Headless) architecture along with inbuilt support for a variety of business models make it easy for enterprise brands to launch their tailor-made multi vendor solutions.
Why choose StoreHippo Multi Vendor Ecommerce Platform to build a custom marketplace
StoreHippo has the experience and expertise in building the most innovative marketplace solutions for enterprise brands across the globe. StoreHippo’s cutting edge solutions and the decoupled headless architecture give better creative control and agility to the developers and marketers to build battle-tested solutions to build multi vendor solutions designed for success.
With StoreHippo’s complete ecosystem which includes the best multi vendor marketplace platform alongwith integrated solutions for payments, fulfilment, marketing, CRM, ERP, accounting etc. launching a hybrid marketplace becomes quite easy for enterprises looking to have a pan-country or global presence.
Built on the mobile-first principle StoreHippo multi vendor ecommerce platform comes with inbuilt mobile apps builder to create marketplace apps without any coding. All marketplaces powered by StoreHippo are PWAs, and they work like hybrid apps when opened on mobile browsers. StoreHippo also takes your marketplace business completely mobile by offering a variety of apps for admins, vendors, distributors, delivery boys etc.
Ready to build and launch your hybrid multi vendor ecommerce platform? Explore our Multi-Vendor Use Cases to learn from successful marketplace brands. Take a tour of our multi vendor features, and book your free demo right away.
