How Much Does It Cost to Build a Multivendor eCommerce Solution?

Today, starting a multi-vendor marketplace is a dream for many entrepreneurs. All this because of the strong impression of online marketing that cannot be avoided for promoting their business online.

Now before starting a multi-vendor eCommerce site, the big question is how much it will cost or what will be the overall budget required to opt for a multi-vendor marketplace?

Simply like any other project the basics are the same that the cost of launching a multi-vendor eCommerce marketplace depends on the features and the type you are going to develop.

Of course the budget can be different for startups and a well-established company. For startup companies, basic features that are important for your online store cost will be the minimum. For well-established firm costing depends on what kind of features they require and ready to pay for as per their eCommerce site?

Now here’s a list of most common marketplace platform features we ensure in our multi-vendor eCommerce store:

Admin Panel

1. Admin: Only admin can use the dashboard to manage the product & user.

- Admin will be able to add sub-admin and users on the websites.

- Admin can assign permission to manage products & other modules.

- Sub-Admins can perform the tasks as per the permission of Admin.

- Super Admin can perform all the tasks and hold all authorities.

- Admin can do setting & configuration for the whole site.

2. Manage Product and Customer: 

Admin has rights to manage the product and customer

3. Product Description: 

It contains all information on uploaded products such as price, images, color code, & quantity and so on.

4. Category Wise: 

Application contains the data & relevant information category wise. 

5. Product Notification: 

While selecting the product, the application will have product notification from the selected user option. 

6. Manage transaction: 

Customers should get a secure server by managing the transaction.

7. Add/Remove Product: 

Admin will have the right to add or remove products as per performance & quality services.

8. Review and Rating: 

Based on experience Admin can easily rate & review the items or products.

9. Promo Code: 

Admin can also permit to provide free purchase when there are some offers for a limited period.

Seller Panel

1. Seller dashboard:

- Seller login / Registration

- Edit profile

- Manage Seller Profiles 

- Review & ratings display

2. Seller Profile:

- Customize Seller Profile

- Manage Products for Seller

- Manage Feedback 

- Seller Configuration

3. Manage Products:

- Import Products

- Product Type

- Product Tags

- Product Customization

4. Manage Order:

- Order Configuration

5. Manage Invoice:

- Invoice Configuration

- Invoice Customization

User Panel

1. User Registration: 

Users can easily register through social media such as Google or Facebook, email, phone number through verification code as OTP.

2. Home page: 

Here users can access many features such as Menu, categories, coupons, cart, recommendation, etc.

3. Select Item: 

By selecting the item to the user all the information will be displayed so that they can easily buy or add the item to Wishlist for later.

4. Payment gateway integration:

Through payment integration a user can easily get Refund & Cancellation of ordered products. 

5. Review and Rating: 

Based on experience users can review & rate the items.

6. Sorting and Filter: 

Users can simply customize filters as per their requirements such as pricing, quality, brand, etc.

7. History: 

Users can keep track of their purchase history by day, week, or month.

8. Wishlist: 

Users can add products to the Wishlist cart module for future purchasing.

9. Schedule deliveries: 

After placing the order, the user will get every small information regarding product delivery through notifications & SMS integrations.

10. Promotions: 

Users get offers and discounts every now & then weekly, Hot, Midnight, Daily, etc.

The estimate on multi-vendor eCommerce marketplace development in hours: 

So now you know why the development of a multi-vendor eCommerce marketplace is expensive and time-consuming. However, the cost goes from $3.000-$50.000 depending on the feature list you want to implement in your site.

Overall here we will discuss what benefits a multi-vendor eCommerce solution has for all sizes of business?

• Digital Presence – Today, every business is booming with digital marketing, and that's why people are more interested in a multi-vendor eCommerce marketplace platform. Today as we already know that more than 70% of buyers do shopping from online stores. That is why the craze of multi-vendor eCommerce is increasing with several benefits it provides as an eCommerce marketplace.
• Scalability –The online store is based on a cloud-based platform and it is highly scalable. You can customize it as per your business requirement and expansion.
• Reduces the cost –As compare to a physical store, the maintenance cost of inventory management is highly reduced.
• Global access –Multi-vendor marketplace provides you a global platform so that anyone from the world can access your site and order your products online.

The Technical Essentials for High Performing Marketplace Platforms:

It is an adventure to start a multi-vendor eCommerce marketplace because its success relies on the right choice of components. The technical essential for performing marketplace depends on the following terms:

1. Easy navigation – Make sure that your marketplace platform has a smooth navigation because every user likes to experience easy navigation throughout your site.
2. Search box & filters – Always ensure that customer should reach their required product pages through proper search, filter, & effective listing.
3. Chat support – chat support is one of the most important features of any eCommerce platform. Here your customers will share their queries with you through brief chats so that you can help them out.
4. Integration with payment gateway – Not every customer will prefer to pay through visa cards, in this case your site has to provide them multiple payment methods integrated into your marketplace.
5. Rating & Reviews – Many users like to review & rate your brand, product, & services. Provide them the Rating & Reviews feature so that they can write what they think about your product & services.
6. Push notification – Push notifications can grab your customer’s attention by playing a major role in the success of your marketplace.
7. Security – A strong customer trust is one of the important things every business requires so make sure that your marketplace platform should have an SSL certificate. It makes them feel secure to market with you.

Many entrepreneurs prefer to create a platform from scratch rather than a ready-made marketplace software. The development process includes many stages as below features so prepare for a long journey.

Open Source Solutions for eCommerce Businesses!

It is important to research each platform and understand its pros & cons. So always opt for a scalable & powerful marketplace solution able to support basic eCommerce websites.

There are few amazing open-source multi-vendor eCommerce software that enables businesses to launch a website at affordable costs by providing you with a reliable solution.

Here we have prepared a list of best open source multi-vendor eCommerce platforms:

• Drupal Commerce - A Drupal module is popular because of its security & high performance. It is used by professionals therefore its interface may be a little complicated.
• OsCommerce -It is one of the popular eCommerce solutions including many plugins & add-ons but it doesn’t scale well & requires more maintenance as compared to other solutions.
• OpenCart - It is an easy to use and open-source platform that can be suitable for small size projects and provides you limited feature list as compare to other platforms.
• Magento - It is an open-source eCommerce platform and also provides you a paid version if you need to scale your business. Magento provides you with an enormous feature list that can be adapted by many different websites. Generally, you require developers to set-up your custom solution. 
• WooCommerce - It is a WordPress plugin that is easy to use and has great user support. It requires a lot of add-on expensive features such as themes, extensions, and so on.

Conclusion

It is impossible to estimate the cost of multi-vendor marketplace platform development without technical requirements. If you want your multi-vendor eCommerce store to start your business, CartCoders provides you an effective Shopify Multi vendor Marketplace Development for mobile apps to enhance your mobile device for your clients.