What Is A Multi Vendor Ecommerce?
Multi vendor ecommerce is a business model where multiple vendors and sellers come together on a common digital platform to sell either similar or different types of products and services. The digital platform used to carry out the business is called multi vendor marketplace. All the vendors on the multi vendor ecommerce website operate under the brand name of the online marketplace, though they function as partners and not as employees of the brand.
In the multi vendor ecommerce model, the end buyers perceive the business to be done with the marketplace brand rather than individual sellers of the multi vendor marketplace platform. The brand value of the marketplace website ensures greater trust and loyalty from the customers. Also, the sellers in the multi vendor ecommerce model have better opportunity to grow their business thanks to the huge traffic on the online marketplaces.
Popular and successful examples of multi vendor ecommerce model are Amazon, Flipkart, Alibaba, Nykaa for product-based multi vendor ecommerce website. Similarly, Urban Company is a service aggregator marketplace whereas Blinkit is a hyperlocal marketplace and Zomato and Swiggy are food delivery multi vendor marketplace platform.
How does the multi vendor ecommerce model work?
The multi vendor marketplace functions like any other online store. The only difference is that the products are listed by the vendors and not the admin. Also, when the customers place the orders, they can choose products from one or multiple vendors in a single cart.
Let us understand in detail how does a multi vendor ecomemrce website functions end-to-end:
Step 1: The multi vendor ecommerce brand builds its marketplace website
Step 2: Vendors self-register on the multi vendor marketplace to sell their products and services
Step 3: Marketplace admin evaluates the vendors and approve or reject their products. In service-based multi vendor ecommerce platforms sometimes the brand also offers basic training to interact with end clients or to improve the vendors’ service standards.
Step 4: Different vendors mark their prices and compete with each other for customer attention and conversions
Step 5: Marketplace admin adds different levels of fixed or percentage-based commissions for each vendor
Step 6: Customer places order on the multi vendor ecommerce store buying different products from different buyers
Step 7: Orders are split and send to their respective sellers for shipping
Step 8: Admin uses automated flow to split order amount among the vendors
Step 9: Order is fulfilled either using the logistics providers of individual buyers or fulfilment services offered by the multi vendor ecommerce platform
Step 10: The marketplace brand’s admin deducts the commissions for respective vendors and makes payment to them based on their remittance cycle
A multi vendor ecommerce set up is a win-win formula for each party involved. While the customers get a wide variety of products at competitive pricing, the sellers get freedom from building and maintaining the IT infrastructure. They also get advantage of the huge traffic that comes to the marketplace website. The admin(s) on the other hand do not have to worry about inventory and earn a commission on every sale on the multi vendor marketplace platform.
To run this complex set up smoothly enterprise brands planning to set up their online marketplace need a comprehensive multi vendor ecommerce solution. StoreHippo offers an inbuilt marketplace solution with detailed modules to handle the flows and various operational aspects of the marketplace set-up.
How to make a multi vendor ecommerce website?
To build a multi vendor marketplace platform enterprise brands can adopt one of the following approaches;
While hiring an IT team is a time and resource-intensive way of building a multi vendor marketplace the turnkey marketplace solution speeds up the whole process and makes for fatser go-to-market time with tried and tested solutions for building a variety of marketplace use cases.
Here is a list of benefits of using a readymade online marketplace solution to launch your multi vendor ecommerce store:
Launch in record time as compared to timetaking process of building an online marketplace from scratch
Cost-effective as you do not have to bear the cost of development and hiring an IT to team to constantly manage and upgrade your platform
Cutting edge technology to power your marketplace brand as marketplace solution providers have to stay ahead of the curve to remain competitive
Basic level technical knowledge needed to build and tweak your multi vendor ecommerce store
Battle-tested solutions for a variety of use cases of multi vendor marketplace platform
Easy to use multi vendor ecommerce website builder that automates processes and makes the operations faster and efficient
Pivot to a variety of business models using the inbuilt solutions for a variety of business models
Build innovaotaive solutions by seamlessly integrating your multi vendor ecommerce store with best-in-breed software and solution providers
StoreHippo multi vendor ecommerce platform is built on the MACH architecture which helps brands build agile solutions for their online marketplace. StoreHippo has 300+ inbuilt features and 120+ integrations that helps brands accelerate their online journey. With StoreHippo multi vendor ecommerce website builder B2B and B2C brands can build their cutting edge online marketplace in no time. The decoupled headless architecture of StoreHippo gives enterprise brands better creative control and the freedom to create out-of-box multi vendor marketplaces for their unique business needs.
The fully hosted and managed StoreHippo platform also offers post sales support to its clients and the platform is auto upgraded periodically freeing enterprise brands from the hassle of taking care about the maintenance aspects.
Why StoreHippo is the best Multi Vendor Ecommerce solution provider
StoreHippo multi vendor marketplace platform is extremely flexible, scalable to any number of users and products and can be tweaked inside out to build tailor made solutions for enterprise brands. StoreHippo offers a complete vendor management solution with separate vendor dashboard for each vendors. The process of vendor onboarding, management and payouts is completely streamlined and automated.
Built on the mobile-first principle StoreHippo multi vendor ecommerce solution has its inbuilt mobile apps builder. Enterprise brands can create their Android and iOS marketplace apps right from their admin dashboard without writing a single line of code. Along with this, StoreHippo also has an inbuilt mobile admin apps, vendors app and apps for delivery boys. StoreHippo makes it easy for multi vendor marketplace brand owners to run their business on the go from anywhere, anytime. Also, all the stores built on StoreHippo are PWAs and function like hybrid apps when opened in a browser.
Along with building multi vendor ecommerce website, StoreHippo can easily build location-based hypelocal marketplace, B2B marketplace, D2C marketplace leveraging the dealer network and any other kind of hybrid or custom marketplace. StoreHippo also has inbuilt solution to build multilingual stores that can easily accept multi-currency payment in all major global currencies.
The SEO-friendly StoreHippo multi vendor marketplace solution has a gamut of inbuilt marketing tools, powerful discount engine, blog engine and seamless integrations with top-notch marketing tools. Together these tools help enterprise marketplace brands grow their business using a strategic data-driven marketing.
Storehippo also makes business process easy to manage and streamlined by enabling seamless integrations with preferred ERP, CRM, accounting, POS and any other software and service providers. Multi vendor ecommerce brands can easily go omnichannel by adding new customer touchpoints using thesame backend logic and APIs.
Ready to get started with your own multi vendor marketplace platform? Check out storeHippo’s multi vendor use cases and get started with your own marketplace by booking your free demo right away!
