Inspired by the success of multi vendor marketplaces like Amazon, Alibaba, Flipkart etc.? Planning to build your own Amazon-like multi-seller ecommerce website? Looking for the best ecommerce platform to get your multi-seller portal up and running in no time? Raving to capture the ever-expanding ecommerce market before your competitors?
That’s the right spirit indeed!
The astounding success of the multi-vendor model has proven one thing beyond doubt;
Multi Vendor Marketplaces are here to stay!
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Why Building Your Marketplace Website Is The Right Choice
With more than 57% of global ecommerce sales taking place on these platforms and 95% online buyers having already purchased from one multi-seller website or the other, this is the business model which is attracting customers in droves.
And why not? Is there any other business model that gives so many benefits to all the parties involved?
- Customers get plenty of choices and competitive pricing
- Vendors get readymade traffic along with a high-end website to sell
- Owner of the marketplace earns easy commissions on every order
Best Marketplace Builders For Your Business
Now that we know that this is a win-win business model, let’s get started with the best multi vendor marketplace platforms to build your own Amazon-like website:
StoreHippo
StoreHippo is the leading multi vendor marketplace platform offering a comprehB2Bensive inbuilt solution to build a variety of, B2C and B2B2C marketplaces. You can use themes from the themes library or build your own theme by using drag and drop design tools.
It offers many modules and features that make it extremely easy to set up your multi-seller website, register vendors, manage them, allow them to sell their products and earn commissions on the orders. You can also set up fixed or flexible commissions. The adaptive payment feature makes it easy to split the payment between multiple vendors of a single order
The best part is that you don’t need any additional apps, extensions or plugins to manage your multi-seller business. You get 300+ inbuilt features to run, manage and grow your multi vendor marketplace business. You just have to pay for your subscription to avail all the inbuilt features along with features. You can also run your marketing campaigns with an inbuilt discount engine and follow up on lost orders with abandoned cart features.
On top of it you also get 50+ integrated domestic and international payment gateways. StoreHippo also offers automated and discounted logistics solutions with integrated shipping partners. StoreHippo also offers its own blog engine to help you with blogging and brand building.
StoreHippo multi vendor marketplace platform also helps you reach global markets with its native solutions for building a multilingual website and setting up multi-currency payments. The robust tax engine helps you set various taxes depending on the location and category of products sold by the vendors.
However, the StoreHippo multi-seller feature is available only with the Business and Enterprise plans. In the Business plan, you can add up to 100 sellers and 1,00,000 products while with the Enterprise plan you can add an unlimited number of sellers and products
BigCommerce
BigCommerce is a good option to build a multi vendor marketplace. It has a marketplace app that converts any online store into a multi-seller portal. Once you convert your store you can add vendors, allow them to upload products and start selling on your portal. You can also add sellers manually if needed.
The admin dashboard is easy to use and gives a complete overview of business like sellers, their products, orders etc. You can have full control over the vendors and their products and no products can be sold without your approval. You also get a comprehensive set of features to run your everyday business.
You can set up order based, percentage-based or subscription-based commissions for your vendors.
However, BigCommerce is expensive compared to other similar solutions as you have to pay a subscription for a regular store as well as the marketplace app. Also, there are limited free template options in Bigcommerce multi vendor marketplace and available themes are very similar to each other. Also, BigCommerce places a limit on annual online sales which forces users to go for upgrades if the business is growing rapidly.
Magento
Magento is one of the most known names when it comes to setting up ecommerce websites and so many businesses also go for its multi vendor marketplace feature. However, Magento offers the multi-vendor set up through its extension called Marketplace.
Using this extension you can register vendors on your portal. Once you approve the registered vendors they can start adding their products to sell through your marketplace website. The vendors also get their own dashboard to manage the business which includes products, customer reviews, wishlists etc.
Along with other Magento features to run an ecommerce business, Marketplace allows you to set up different fixed or flexible commission rates from your sellers.
While Magento is free and that’s what has made it so popular. However, its multi vendor marketplace extension is paid. Also, it is difficult to learn the coding and customize it for your unique requirements. Magento is prone to security issues and requires upgrading to its higher version from time to time. This is one of the main reasons for users eventually moving to other ecommerce platforms.
Shopify
Shopify is a popular multi vendor marketplace platform with support for many ecommerce business models. However, it does not have a native multi-seller feature and provides it through Webkul plugin. You can build your online Shopify store and then use the paid-plugins to turn your store into a multi-seller ecommerce website.
With Shopify, you can design your online store using the paid or free themes and manage your inventory and products. But you will need additional apps to make this system run smoothly for your marketplace setup. Once you have the right apps in place and sync them you can add any number of vendors, products etc to your multi-seller site. You can also set up different commission structures for your vendors.
The app-based structure of Shopify necessitates multiple paid-apps to run your multi vendor marketplace. Also, if you don’t possess coding skills you will have to hire a developer who knows Liquid and can help sync the multiple apps needed to run your multi vendor portal.
3DCart
3Dcart offers multi vendor marketplace software to build your multi-seller website quickly. 3Dcart has a well-organised dashboard to help you run your business. It also offers free and premium design templates for your storefront.
The platform has an inbuilt SEO process long with advanced reporting and inventory tracking to help you manage a huge range of products sold on your marketplace. The reporting and analysis feature is also good which helps you decide your business and marketing strategies easily. Also, you get accounting tools, shipping tools and third-party integrations.
However, the users find 3Dcart to be moderately tough to get the hang of and the learning curve is not smooth. Also, despite many inbuilt features, you would need a few add-ons which are expensive and can snowball your overall costs. There are limited design tools for non-coders and the templates are a bit bland.
Yo!Kart
Yo!Kart multi vendor marketplace platform is another popular software for building your multi-seller website. Along with the multi-seller functionality its other features like a great interface, 15+ payment gateways, email marketing tools, easy to use admin panel, SEO-friendly architecture, social media integration etc. make it a good option for large as well as SME businesses.
It also offers responsive design and user-centric design along with database backup for security. It also has inbuilt CMS to help you add blogs to your multi-seller marketplace. Yo!Kart also offers free tech-support for one year.
However, you will need a developer on your team once the one-year free tech-support ends as the smallest changes need code modifications. Also, the coding is complex making the platform very inflexible.
X-Cart
X-Cart offers open-source ecommerce software to build a multi vendor marketplace. The software provides tools to build multi-seller portals for small and large businesses. X-Cart comes in two forms, the licence based downloadable version or the cloud-based solution X-Cart Next.
Along with offering to run and manage your store, X-Cart also gives you multiple features for handling your marketing and sales channels. X-Cart also offers hosting, SSL certificates, design and development work and fee-based technical support.
It offers a detailed multi vendor marketplace solution which allows the admin to have full control. He/she can register vendors, edit products, set up shipping and easily manage the overall business. Vendors can sell multiple product lines and customers can easily buy products from multiple vendors in a single order.
However, if you are not a coder you might need to hire developers to help you launch your multi-seller portal which may add to your cost and also need additional time. Also, some of the users are not very happy with the basic design templates and the platform’s lack of mobile-friendly features.
Choosing The Best-Fit Multi Vendor Marketplace Platform For Your Business
The multi-seller ecommerce model is undoubtedly the winning formula that can keep you ahead in the ecommerce race. However, to make the most of the current ecommerce boom you need to go with the ideal marketplace builder. While all of the listed platforms have ample features to build and manage your business, you will have to evaluate each of them according to your requirements, budget, business model, customizations and ease of use.
Hope this article helps you make an informed choice regarding the best suited multi vendor marketplace platform for your business. Before you make the final decision, do evaluate each of these platforms by getting a thorough understanding of their features, prices and customizations available. So get started right away with the first in the list. Begin your StoreHippo free-trial now!
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