An e-commerce site is a multi-vendor marketplace. There is a variety of products and variety of stores which is supported by this market place. Businessmen can sale their products online in two ways. They can sale the product through multi-vendor marketplace or can use a separate online store.
A wide range of products and goods is not offered by a single vendor marketplace. There are less resource needs and a very limited or minimum traffic on a single vendor marketplace as compared to the multi-vendor marketplace.
Single-Vendor Marketplace
If one needs a quick and many business processes which requires less effort, as a smaller number of people are involved in selling and buying of products with a single supplier we need a single-vendor type e-commerce. Dealing with a single supplier, one can set up more reasonable prices for the goods making them more valuable. On the other hand, there are some drawbacks as well.
Multivendor Marketplace
In the multi-vendor marketplace, there is an online setup in which a single seller can sell many of products that a corresponding website offers or are available on it.
If a website such as multi-vendor marketplace which can offer almost everything on a single place will increase traffic, it becomes bigger and better as compared to the marketplace which is single-vendor.
There are three type of people involved in the multi-vendor marketplace as mentioned below:
- Vendor
- Admin
- Customer
To register as an admin can average the products of the vendors and sellers on their own. Contrary to single-vendor marketplace one can generate more profit and better results.
For PrestaShop platform, there are some advanced PrestaShop marketplace modules (multi-vendor) which can help you easily build and run a multi-vendor marketplace. You can visit the official Addons Marketplace to discover which marketplace builder is compatible with your current website.
Advantages of Multi-vendor Marketplace
Multi-vendor marketplace is more suitable than single-vendor marketplace many of the times if you a medium or small business. There will be more than one supplier available who can provide a large variety of the products to you. There will be a variety or a greater number of suppliers available for you at a time if in case anything happens to one of your suppliers. You will have a big profit or advantage as your competitors are quick to get your wedge but your business will also have some kind of downtime.
Because of your product selection there will be a huge number of people who will come to your service. When there will be a greater number of suppliers, they will also bring loyal customers to you. There will not a need of money for promotions for your marketplace.
Reputation Management for Single- and Multi-Vendor Marketplace
A good platform must have two things in it. Large number of reviews and a good reputation. Each seller and a product are allowed to give reviews and a feedback in a marketplace. The quality of the goods and ratings of the buyers is a main concern of every seller. To become popular and famous marketplace the feedback and ratings of the customer is the most important of all. More customers will come to the marketplace after seeing the high ratings and thus the profit will increase automatically and your trust is being developed among the customers.
Creation Management for Single- and Multi-Vendor Marketplace
To start a new online business, you must have a knowledge about the marketplace. Management of many things such as:
- You need to build a website.
- Get the domain.
- Manage the SEO part.
- Manage the marketing part and many more.
For managing the online business above points are important.
Multi-vendor website is the best platform for the supplier and the seller for making things easier. To make the goods look better there will be some templates. There will be a less work for the customers and more profit for the seller.
Single-vs Multi-Vendor e-commerce Marketplace Process Management
There is an admin panel dedicated to every seller on e-commerce marketplace so that they can manage processing of order and the inventory till payment and invoice. There is an automated process for the vendor or customer. Sales of the system can also be tracked by the seller whenever he wants from the marketplace and all selling records can be accessed. Every detail and record of the product is available to the vendors so that they do not have to access outside the system and have more control.
There must be an accountant available for each seller for all the paper work.
Summary:
For an e-commerce business there are many marketplaces from one can take a step. The start is the most important thing because you have to understand the online market. There are some defects and flaws in almost every marketplace but there are professional developers available in the market as well to eliminate the errors and help your marketplace. They can also suggest that what type suits you the depending on your business. The only thing is to understand the market and step into it and get in touch with everything happening in the online market.