Online shopping or e-commerce whatever you say, it’s not unique anymore. These are now widely used as a prosperous opportunity for entrepreneurs. People often spend their leisure times by scrolling through online stores or multi-vendor stores. Wait; are they different – online stores and multi-vendors? Yes, an online shopping site only features the services or products of a particular brand whereas a multi-vendor marketplace allows customers to access several brands showcased under a single platform.
The giant patronage that eBay, Amazon, Alibaba or Flipkart have concurred for years, is the practical testament of how successful these e-stores have grabbed online wholesaling and retailing by storm. By adapting the multi-vendor e-commerce business model, these E-stores have got the opportunity to serve their target audience and also simplified the resourcing requirements of buyers manifold.
As the marketplace owner, you only need to consider a one-time investment for this. Multi vendor shopping cart and obviously, you will get continuous profit.
How do multi-vendor platforms work?
The multi-vendor marketplace owner can build up a site and put multiple products, services and brands together under that particular domain. As the owner, you have the control of all the E-commerce operations within the admin panel. For example, you will have the power to manage sellers, products, payments, shipments, affiliates and buyers. You also can send newsletters or generate reports directly from the backend of your e-commerce marketplace.
As the marketplace owner, you only need to consider a one-time investment for this. Multi vendor shopping cart and obviously, you will get continuous profit.
Two basic types of operations are generally followed by the existing multi-vendor marketplaces:
Your merchants can choose to enlist their services or products in your marketplace. In this business model, transaction and payment cycle between sellers and buyers transpire directly. Sellers need to pay a certain monthly usage fee or a combined transaction and usage fee. The main advantage of this multi-vendor model is that you don’t need to be liable for every transaction processed. However, you may need to deal with this situation if a disputed transaction happens.
Another popular multi-vendor business model you can follow where buyers send payments directly to the marketplace, not the individual seller. After placing the order, a shipment order will be sent to the seller for confirmation. At the end of the month, the marketplace sends the seller payments after deducting the commissions. The main advantage of this multi-vendor marketplace business model is that you can have the full control of each of the orders, transactions and shipments. On the other hand, it’s sometimes a time-killing job to manage everything from order to shipment and also manually calculating profits for sellers.
Whatever multi-vendor marketplace model you choose, your merchants will maintain their webpage on your marketplace site for the respective users to view available services and products and contact the sellers directly.
Major advantages of having a multi-vendor marketplace:
Higher traffic:
As the name suggests multi-vendor marketplaces allow several vendors to register with them who can sell their products through this platform to their target buyers. Customers then have multiple options to choose from which can easily convince them to visit your portal. Instead of browsing through several other online stores individually. The occurrence of higher website traffic consequently increases the probability of higher return of investment. Now as the marketplace owner, you can attract more sellers with the increasing probability of earning more profit.
Easier shipment tracking and lesser warehousing troubles:
Warehousing and product distribution often get challenging to the online e-commerce sites. Multi-vendor platforms have their unique technique to beat these challenges. Additionally, these platforms offer the latest product tracking option for buyers. The occurrence of higher website traffic consequently increases the probability of higher return of investment. Now as the marketplace owner, you can attract more sellers with the increasing probability of earning more profit.
Easy updates of products:
The available list of products can easily be update with the latest multi-vendor software. Being a non-technical person, anyone can do this. The core advantage of the multi-vendor product updating software is that no extra investment. You need to update a new service or product is launch. As the marketplace owner, you only need to consider a one-time investment for this. Multi vendor shopping cart and obviously, you will get continuous profit.