Start An Online Marketplace Platform

How To Start An Online Marketplace Platform Like Amazon

The popularity of Amazon has inspired many business owners to start an online marketplace platform. To start a similar multi-vendor marketplace you need to decide a few things and then execute the idea. The things you should consider are: 

• Market study to identify the need and supply gap
• The target audience and the market location you want to sell in 
• Study of vendors and how to onboard them
• Requisite paperwork to start the business
• Finding the right ecommerce marketplace solution to build your portal

What Will Be The Development Cost To Start An Online Marketplace Platform

The cost to build your multi-vendor online store depends on a number of factors. The main points to consider are:

• The business model which can be B2B, B2C or any out-of-the-box model
• The complexity of the project and the kind of customizations needed
• The solution you need to choose, i.e; custom-built from scratch, turnkey with additional plugins, fully-hosted and managed turnkey multi-vendor solution
• Cost of additional requirements like mobile apps, mobile admin etc.

Your cost can range from $10,000 to $180,000 based on the kind of team of developers or turnkey ecommerce marketplace solution you choose. StoreHippo offers a fully hosted and managed multi-vendor solution for a fraction of this cost. You can start an online marketplace platform with us and build your mobile apps at no additional cost, right from your admin.

Must-Have Modules To Start An Online Marketplace Platform

A horizontal marketplace like Amazon showcases a variety of products. This means you will have to onboard a large number of vendors and manage their products, orders etc. Also, the vendors would need some degree of freedom and transparency to be able to manage their products, orders and shipments.

To run your horizontal multi-vendor ecommerce store seamlessly, you would need the following modules:

• Vendor Registration: Simplifies the process of onboarding your vendors
• Vendor Approval Flow: Allows the admin to approve or reject and vendors or their products 
• Vendor Dashboard: gives separate login to vendors to manage their products and orders
• Admin Dashboard: Gives the multi-vendor online store’s admin an overview of the business, customers, orders, vendors, shipping, payments and analytics for business insight 
• Seller Ledger: Allows the owner to start an online marketplace platform and set up rules for vendor payouts, flat or percentage-wise commissions etc.
• Adaptive Payments: To divide and transfer payment between different vendors of a  multi-product order
• Discount Engine: Strong discount module to plan a variety of discounts at the product, vendor, order or checkout level. 
• Tax Engine: To implement taxes for vendors, product categories, location-specific taxes etc.
• Integrated Shipping: To facilitate vendors and deliver orders faster
• Returns and Refunds Management: To keep customer complaints and grievances under check and streamline returns and refunds 

You can start an online marketplace with StoreHippo and get all the above modules with our multi-vendor solution. Along with these, you get 300+ inbuilt features that help you run and grow your business.

How To To Start An Online Marketplace Platform That Attracts Customers

While starting your multi-vendor business might seem easy, growing it and keeping it ready for the future is more challenging. To create a niche for your business and stay ahead of your competitors, you need to offer certain advantages to your customers that makes them loyal to your brand. 

To achieve this you should implement the following:

• Stunning Design: Offer your customers a beautiful store that they love to visit and buy from.
• Fast Loading Sites: Go with future-ready technology that builds lightweight sites with fast loading speed.
• Easy Mobile Shopping: Start an online marketplace platform that offers seamless buying experience on mobile devices.
• Mobile Apps: Reach more customers by building mobile apps for your marketplace.
• Easy Search and Navigation: Make it easier for your customer to find their products and complete their purchase.
• Product Review: Allow product review and rating to help your customers make an informed choice.
• Wishlist and Subscription: Offer wishlist and subscription option to keep your customers engaged and coming for more.
• Secure Portal: Offer a fully secure and safety-standard compliant portal to boost customer trust.
• Multiple Payment Options: Let your customers choose their payment method by offering multiple options along with COD.
• Fast Shipping: Discounted and fast shipping options to deliver the order quickly.

Start your online marketplace platform with StoreHippo to get all the above features. Stay ahead of the competition and build a brand that is loved by your customers.

Why Choose StoreHippo To Start An Online Marketplace Platform

StoreHippo has the experience and expertise of building a wide variety of B2B and B2C  multi-vendor ecommerce websites for its clients. Our inbuilt marketplace feature offers a comprehensive solution which does not need additional apps or plugins.

We also have inbuilt modules for multi-store, multicurrency and multilingual marketplaces that can enable you to reach out to global customers. Our fully hosted and managed solution frees you from the burden of worrying about hosting or upgrading your servers. With StoreHippo you can start an online marketplace platform and grow it to any number of users, vendors or products thanks to the inherent scalability of the platform.

Our SEO ready platform helps you in building your organic traffic. Along with this, you can use the inbuilt marketing tools to promote your business and retarget your customers with abandoned cart feature. Storehippo has everything you need to start an online marketplace platform.

Check our Multi-Vendor Use Cases to experience the unique features and out-of-box models of multi-vendor ecommerce stores built by StoreHippo DIY ecommerce platform.  Explore our features by starting your 14-day free trial now.