Are you planning to launch your enterprise marketplace?

Juggling your choice of marketplace software, but not able to zero in on the best one for your brand?

Need an advanced marketplace software solution that not only fits your brand’s unique needs but also scales intelligently as your business grows?

Let’s make the task easier for you by doing some reverse engineering. So let us first define the goals and then find the means, i.e, the best marketplace software to help you get started.

Top Reasons to Build an Enterprise Marketplace

The multi vendor marketplace model has already proven its value, but what’s driving its rapid adoption today is buyer conditioning and trust for the marketplace model.

With online marketplaces capturing a significant share of global ecommerce and AI accelerating how buyers discover and purchase, enterprises have a strong opportunity to build high-growth, future-ready platforms.

Here’s a quick look at the key market trends and how AI is accelerating growth in the marketplace.

• 47% of global online purchases are done via online marketplace platforms 
• 37% of repeat buyers buy from an online marketplace
• 31% of the first-time buyers prefer buying from an online marketplace 
• 67% of shoppers search on online marketplace before making a purchase
• 2X faster growth for online marketplace sales than traditional ecommerce sites
• 74% of total online marketplace orders are done via mobile device 

Source :Grand View Research , Statista, Mirakl

• 4x improvement in conversion rates for online marketplaces with AI-powered conversational tools 
• 15–25% revenue growth seen with AI-powered personalised product displays 
• 47% faster transactions when assisted by generative AI discovery tools
• 40% more revenue is generated by top-performing marketplaces using AI personalisation
• 44% higher productivity is reported by marketing teams in marketplaces using AI
• 87% of online marketplaces report that AI has reduced their annual costs 

 Triple Whale, ResearchGate, Cubeo AI, McKinsey, Ecommerce Guide, First Launch, NVIDIA 

The numbers speak for themselves: online marketplaces are booming, and AI is accelerating growth by boosting purchases, retention, and personalised experiences. For enterprises, this makes building a marketplace website more than just a business model, it’s a strategic move to scale intelligently. 

But the benefits don’t stop there. Building a marketplace website helps enterprise brands:

• Create a niche brand by onboarding the best vendors on your marketplace
• Create multiple revenue streams without investing in inventory
• Experiment with hybrid business models for disruptive growth
• Build a scalable business model for quick growth
• Easily diversify to new product/industry verticals

Well, with the goals clearly lined up, you now just need to find a marketplace website builder that helps you achieve these. Before we go into checking out the features, let's first understand what an enterprise marketplace builder comprises.

What is Enterprise Marketplace Software?

An enterprise marketplace software is an advanced ecommerce platform enabling large enterprise brands to sell their products or services to their customers. The enterprise ecommerce platform is different from regular marketplace solutions in ways that they are designed to handle the complex and unique requirements of high-volume businesses. 

The enterprise ecommerce platform comes with advanced ecommerce features to make innovative, custom marketplaces for B2B, B2C or hybrid business models. With the right enterprise marketplace software brands can experiment with various business models and create disruptive enterprise marketplaces. To do so, marketplace software should be easily customizable, agile and support a variety of business models like multi store solutions, multilingual websites, hyperlocal ecommerce features etc. 

StoreHippo is an inherently scalable, fully hosted, and managed enterprise marketplace platform that offers comprehensive enterprise-grade features for building big marketplaces with a large vendor/dealer network. StoreHippo can easily manage the complexities of large businesses allowing them to reach and grow in new markets. 

7 Must-Have Features in Your Enterprise Marketplace Software

Building, managing, and growing a large marketplace is no mean feat. It takes a host of advanced features and tools to build a successful enterprise marketplace. To build, run, grow, and stay ahead of the competition, enterprise brands need to be future-ready with futuristic features in their enterprise marketplace software. 

Here is a list of 7 must-have features in your enterprise marketplace software

1. AI-Powered Marketplace

With the rapid evolution of ecommerce, AI has moved from a nice-to-have to a core component of enterprise marketplace software. AI-powered tools help enterprises to automate complex processes, improve operational efficiency, and deliver highly personalised buyer experiences at scale.

New age enterprise marketplaces with growing number of vendors, catalogues and customers need AI-powered capabilities to manage large product catalogues, enhance product discovery, and streamline buyer journeys. From intelligent recommendations to automated content creation, AI can reduce manual effort while improving accuracy and speed.

StoreHippo is an AI-powered enterprise e-commerce platform where AI powers every layer of ecommerce, helping brands automate and optimise their marketplace operations. Its AI capabilities enable faster decision-making, improved personalisation, automate customer and vendor support, and more efficient workflows across the marketplace. By embedding AI into everyday operations, brands can scale faster, reduce costs, and deliver seamless, data-driven experiences.

2. Low Code Composable Platform 

To support rapid innovation and scalability, enterprise marketplaces need a flexible and future-ready technology foundation. A low-code, composable enterprise marketplace platform allows businesses to build, customise, and scale their online marketplace without heavy development effort or limitations.

StoreHippo is built on a modern MACH architecture (Microservices, API-first, Cloud-native, Headless) and a scalable MEAN stack, enabling enterprises to innovate and adapt quickly. Its low-code capabilities allow brands to customise both frontend and backend, build unique workflows, and launch new features faster, without relying on external plugins or long development cycles.

The composable architecture ensures that businesses can easily extend functionalities, integrate new technologies, and evolve their marketplace as per changing market needs. This flexibility, combined with enterprise-grade scalability, allows brands to handle high traffic, large catalogues, and growing operations without performance bottlenecks.

With its future-ready tech stack, StoreHippo enables enterprises to build agile, scalable, and innovation-driven marketplaces that evolve seamlessly with their business.

3. Omnichannel Ecommerce

Did you know that 90% of the customers look for consistent omnichannel interactions with enterprise brands. If you have not yet implemented omnichannel enterprise ecommerce solutions to target, engage, and convert your customers. Now is the time to get started. With customers looking forward to a brand presence across their favorite channels, going omnichannel is the fastest route to better customer engagement and boosting your conversions manifold. Building an omnichannel presence for your multi vendor marketplace also gives your enterprise marketplace a modern appeal. So your marketplace software should come with built-in omnichannel solutions to help you leverage multiple sales channels for business growth.

StoreHippo offers native omnichannel solutions designed for the multi-channel needs of enterprise brands. It enables marketplaces to deliver personalised experiences across channels while maintaining a unified backend. Brands can quickly add new customer touchpoints using the same backend logic and APIs, create consistent buyer experiences across all channels, and centrally manage all sales channels from a single system. At the same time, they gain deeper insights into customer behaviour across touchpoints and can build data-driven growth strategies by analysing unified data from multiple channels. With the omnichannel solutions from StoreHippo, you can set your online marketplace to race ahead of your competition.  

To take omnichannel commerce to the next level, StoreHippo enables enterprises to sell via WhatsApp and emerging channels like conversational and voice commerce. Enterprises can build custom AI agents that deliver context-aware interactions and resolve vendor queries across channels, while teams manage conversations across WhatsApp, chatbot, voice, SMS, and email from a single unified dashboard.  

4. End to End Vendor Management Solutions 

With a vast vendor/dealer network for their online marketplace, it can be a daunting task for enterprise brands to manage their vendors, their products and catalogues, orders etc. In such cases, enterprise businesses need a marketplace solution that offers automated solutions and an easy to use vendor management module that streamlines day-to-day business processes and operations. 

StoreHippo offers a comprehensive admin dashboard that reflects the overview of everyday business activities and vendor performance. Admin can access the fine details of the business like vendor-specific sales, revenue, best-selling products, etc. from the admin dashboard of their marketplace website. The marketplace admin also has the power to add, approve, or reject vendors and their products, view complete vendor details, calculate their commission and payouts, and analyse performance of the vendor, online store and traffic.

To further streamline operations, enterprises can build custom AI chatbots that resolve routine vendor queries and maintain human-like context across interactions, enabling smarter vendor support with minimal human intervention. Additionally, StoreHippo offers AI-powered cataloguing that enables vendors to quickly add product titles and descriptions with automated tagging and categorisation directly from product images. Its AI image enhancement tool, Magic Edit, transforms raw product images into high-quality, market-ready visuals, reducing manual effort, improving catalogue accuracy, and accelerating go-to-market for new listings. 

5. Scalability and Flexibility

As your enterprise marketplace grows, it should be able to handle increasing traffic, expanding product catalogues, and higher order volumes without compromising performance. At the same time, your platform should be flexible enough to adapt to changing business requirements and market dynamics.

A marketplace software that lacks scalability can lead to performance bottlenecks, while limited flexibility can restrict innovation and customisation. Enterprise brands need a solution that offers both, ensuring seamless performance at scale along with the ability to quickly implement changes, customise workflows, and launch new features.

StoreHippo combines secure, cloud-native scalability with deep customisation to power enterprise growth without limits. The elastic scalability of the cloud-native infrastructure, along with auto-provisioning of servers, ensures that enterprise brands need not worry about peak load tolerance or growing exponentially. 

StoreHippo multi vendor marketplace platform can be completely moulded to fit the unique needs of your business and make your disruptive business ideas a reality. Unlike some of the major ecommerce platforms that can be only limited to front-end changes, StoreHippo platform can be tweaked in and out. StoreHippo comes with built-in entities which can be extended or customised to suit the unique flows and requirements of enterprise brands. With the ease of tweaking the frontend as well as the backend, building a future-ready enterprise marketplace becomes a reality for brands. Brands can also add different flows to grow their revenue streams.

6. Support for Different Business Models

Enterprise brands often feel the need to scale or diversify to hybrid business models as their business grows. Also, businesses that start digitally native or offline , eventually like to create their phygital presence. To be able to shift from one model to another, it is important to build the business on an ecommerce platform that supports multiple business models like B2B, D2C, B2B, B2B2C and custom hybrid business models. 

The fully hosted and managed enterprise ecommerce platform, StoreHippo comes with inbuilt support for diverse business models. It also comes with battle-tested solutions to help enterprise marketplace brands go to the market in record time. The inherent flexibility and scalability offered by StoreHippo make it easy for enterprise brands to pivot to new business models easily or combine two or more models to create a hybrid business model. With the plug-and-play solutions from StoreHippo, brands do not require any additional apps or extensions to build hybrid solutions for their unique business needs.

7. Seamless Integrations

To handle the complex ecommerce business ecosystem, enterprise businesses need a variety of third party tools and software. Using the best-in-breed software enterprise brands can create their very own unique ecommerce system that makes their processes faster, streamlined and efficient. Marketplace websites that use integrated services and software are better positioned to explore new growth opportunities and leverage data-driven insights for business growth. Many software solutions also help in improving customer engagement, shortening sales processes and reducing manual errors. 

StoreHippo offers seamless integrations with your choice of software to build innovative solutions using headless APIs. Enterprise brands can manage their business with hassle-free and quick integration of softwares like CRM, ERP, accounting, and so on. You can integrate with multiple delivery partners, payment channels, chatbots, live chat etc. StoreHippo comes with 120+ built in integrations and integrates easily with the preferred software and service providers of enterprise marketplace brands. With its integrated logistics and payment gateways StoreHippo amkes it easier for brands to implement faster checkouts and streamlined fulfilment.  

Conclusion

With the ever-changing dynamics of the ecommerce world, it is imperative to have a future-ready ecommerce technology partner for your enterprise marketplace brand’s success. The features listed above can help enterprise brands build a marketplace portal that enables their brand to create a niche.

StoreHippo is a one-stop solution for all the needs of your enterprise brand providing a winning edge over the competition. It offers comprehensive multi vendor marketplace solutions to build a variety of marketplace websites for businesses of every scale and size. With 300+ inbuilt features and 120+ built-in integrations brands can go for extensive experimentation to set their business apart from the competitors.

The future-ready technology, powered by AI as an operational layer, not only helps build an online marketplace but also enables brands to automate processes, personalise buyer journeys, and run B2B or B2C businesses more efficiently. StoreHippo ecommerce solutions offer 360-degree solutions that include product and order management, marketing tools, pre-integrated logistics solutions, payment gateways, and go-global features for seamless international businesses.

Ready to chart the success story for your enterprise brand as you build a marketplace website?  Explore future-ready features you can have in your enterprise marketplace software. Book your personalised StoreHippo demo today.

FAQ 

1. Will it be possible for my vendors to set their own prices on my enterprise marketplace?

Yes, it will be possible for your vendors to set their own pricing on your enterprise marketplace powered by StoreHippo ecommerce solutions. StoreHippo’s in-built tiered pricing helps you implement and manage multi-pricing on your marketplace. Your vendors can quickly set up multi-level prices like volume-based pricing, rule-based prices, min-max quantity-based pricing, customer segment, or customer-specific pricing to attract customers from various segments.       

2. Can the marketplace platform accommodate special offers and discounts for vendors on the marketplace website?  

Depends on your choice of marketplace platform. As you choose StoreHippo marketplace website builder, you can manage vendor-specific offers, discounts, taxes, shipping, etc., based on several factors. You can offer some special discounts to your premium vendors or relax shipping charges to promote them. StoreHippo enables you to set up vendor-specific discounts and shipping charges and promote the bestselling products or vendors. 

3. Will it be possible to handle transactions in different countries and currencies on my enterprise marketplace?

Yes, with StoreHippo it is possible to handle transactions in different currencies and countries on your multi vendor marketplace. StoreHippo comes with easy global solutions to help you take your business beyond borders. You can cater to diverse audience segments from multiple countries by creating multiple storefronts for different locations. StoreHippo enables you to build sub-stores right from your admin dashboard and create different URLs for each sub-stores.  You can also onboard vendors from different countries to your marketplace with StoreHippo's comprehensive multi-vendor solutions. The multi-currency support from StoreHippo helps your customers make payments in their native currencies. You can enable IP-based auto switches or set different currencies for different locations. Your customers can also choose the currency of their choice while checking out. 

4. How can AI improve operations and customer experience in an enterprise marketplace?

AI helps automate marketplace operations and enhance buyer experiences at scale. A future-ready platform should offer capabilities like automated cataloguing, intelligent search, personalised recommendations, and conversational shopping.

Platforms like StoreHippo use AI as an operational layer to streamline catalogue management, improve product discovery through semantic search, and enable AI chatbots for customer and vendor support. This helps enterprises reduce manual effort, improve conversions, and deliver faster, more personalised marketplace experiences.

5. Can customers leave reviews for vendors and products on the online marketplace?

Yes, you can enable a custom feature for your customers to leave reviews for vendors and products on your online marketplace. However, it will entail extra customisation effort and cost depending on the requirements and efforts needed to build your tailored solutions. Based on your customisation requirements our expert team will assess the time and effort and charges will be decided on a pro rata basis. 

6. Can we use our preferred analytics tools when we build a marketplace website?

Yes, StoreHippo supports multiple integrations with the tools and software of your choice. With its API-based headless architecture, you can integrate with multiple third-party tools, such as CRMs, ERPs, and analytics platforms. However, StoreHippo comes with a gamut of analytics tools and solutions to help you analyse your customer base and make data-driven strategies for your enterprise marketplace. With StoreHippo, you can also build custom landing pages and forms to capture rich customer data that helps you make strategic decisions. 

7. Will it be possible to find an enterprise marketplace platform that supports multiple payment options like digital wallets, UPI, etc?

Yes, it is possible to find an enterprise marketplace platform that supports multiple payment options. StoreHippo is one such platform that comes pre-integrated with 60+ domestic and international payment gateways to help you offer a frictionless payment process to your customers. Your customers can choose from COD, net banking, digital wallets, card payments, etc, and pay using their preferred payment option.    

8. Can vendors choose their shipping methods when we build a marketplace website using ready-made multi-seller software?

Yes, as you build a marketplace website with StoreHippo multi-seller software, your vendors can choose their shipping solution from a host of options. StoreHippo comes pre-integrated with 30+ logistics solutions. You can choose to integrate with more than one shipping solution to optimise shipping costs and streamline a safe, error-free, and quick supply chain. With the built-in delivery boy solution from StoreHippo, you can also onboard, manage, and track your fleet of delivery boys right from the admin dashboard and create a streamlined delivery solution for your multi vendor marketplace.

9. What features shall we look for in a multi vendor marketplace platform to be able to handle tax calculations for different countries?

When you choose your multi vendor marketplace builder, look for a powerful tax engine that helps you manage taxes from multiple countries seamlessly. For smooth global business operations, here are a few features offered by StoreHippo marketplace builder:

• Tax-based rules: You can set different tax based rules on your online marketplace to define when a tax will be applicable. You can set these tax-based rules on order amount, location, service type, product type, sellers, etc. 
• Tax-inclusive or exclusive pricing: You can specify if your product pricing is inclusive or exclusive of taxes. It will then be reflected in the final invoice. 
• Multi vendor support: You can also apply different GST tax rules for a multi-seller order. The taxes will be applied to products based on the vendor and buyer locations in a multi seller marketplace setup
• Full GST support: You can simplify and automate your taxes with full GST support for GST, CGST, SGST, or inter-state IGST. You can add different tax percentages, and easily compute different GST taxes for various products and services in India.
• GST-compliant invoices: Multiple readymade and editable invoice templates make it easy to create invoices and simplify the process of showing various components of GST in India. 

10. How secure is our data when we build our marketplace website using turnkey software?

Using turnkey enterprise marketplace software like StoreHippo helps you secure all your business data. StoreHippo comes with robust multi-layer security with an SSL certificate and SOC certificate, and highly secured payment gateways. You also get a free SSL certificate ,  directly from the StoreHippo admin. As you build your website on the  PCI DSS compliant ecommerce platform, you can ensure payment safety and protect sensitive information like passwords, customer details, etc. seamlessly with StoreHippo ecommerce solutions.