Starting A Multi Vendor Marketplace (What you need to know!)
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- Опубліковано 7 сер 2024
- Starting a Multi Vendor Marketplace, what you need to know!
After receiving a few comments and emails regarding starting a multi-vendor marketplace, I thought it would be a good idea to just make a video highlighting some of the issues that you may face when trying to start one.
This is because multi-vendor marketplaces are one of, if not the hardest type of ecommerce business to not only build but also turn into a successful and profitable venture and I cover the main reasons why in this video and you can check out the timestamps for all of these below:
00:00 Intro
00:53 Sellers and Buyers
03:18 Costs
05:53 Profitability
09:30 Ways to Start
I also list some of the ways that you could potentially build a successful multi-vendor marketplace.
Everything I talk about in this video comes from first hand experience of my failed attempt at launching one and also knowing other people who have launched them with varying degrees of success.
But I hope you found this video helpful and if you would like to support my channel, you can do so by buying me a coffee using the link below and they are very much appreciated:
www.buymeacoffee.com/ecommerc...
We also have a Facebook Group where we discuss all things ecommerce and you are welcome to join: / ecommercegoldgroup - Навчання та стиль
Please read BEFORE asking for software advice, it has been a few years since I tried any multi-vendor software, so I can't make any recommendations.
Hello , you had really good Chanel 👍 , I had question : after building marketplace site at certain foundation do I get profits ? Does the foundation they use my site to stick commercials ? Thank you so much
@Vintage bayonets thank you, it really depends on whether the money you are making from commission/subscriptions is greater than the money you spend on keeping the site going and marketing.
@hattefreaken no problem and hope it was helpful.
It depends on whether your plan is to keep selling your own goods or just focus on the marketplace but you have two options, create an ecommerce website and then add the marketplace to a subdomain, similar to Asos or sell alongside your vendors on the marketplace, similar to Amazon. My personal preference would be the Asos model because if the marketplace fails, it won't have too big an impact on your ecommerce store.
@@EcommerceGold thank you 🙏 , so you mean ; profits can come from two way 1 - from web foundation sire ( Wordpress …ct ) also 2 - from marketing on my site . That correct ?
@Vintage bayonets No, you make money from commissions and subscriptions that your vendors pay you, marketing is an expense you pay to get customers to your site
great insight of the pros and cons of a multivendor business model. I love that the cons were presented first because thats the reality of this model. Then you presented the opportunities this model offers and most folks only hear the last part of a presentation! smile. Its a business not a website and needs to treated as such! Thank you for sharing!❤🦋
Thank you, I like to give people the full picture but some people don't like to hear about the negative side of running a business and the problems that you can face.
Thanks, spot on information. The hurdles you mention are accurate as well as the positive points at the end also true. Great little vid! Excellent advice for anyone contemplating multi vendor. It is by far not an easy task
Thank you, hopefully it is helpful to anyone planning to start one.
You're spot on! We experienced the exact problem of driving traffic to our site for our members and it never gained traction. Tough to allocate enough marketing budget to help get it off the ground when getting started. Hard to know how deep the rabbit hole goes...
That is why I think building a site, like your own store, online directory or blog and then adding a marketplace at a later date once you have started getting traffic is the best option.
Found so much insight and foresight here in. Thanks lad.
No problem and I'm glad it was helpful.
Thank you so much for that video very insightful!
No problem and I'm glad it was helpful
Great video!! Very informative
Thank you :)
Very informative! Thank you!👍
No problem and I'm glad it was helpful.
Really useful information, many thanks.
No problem and I'm glad it was helpful
Very informative video. Thanks!!
No problem :)
Awesome video, thanks!
No problem and hope it was helpful.
Excellent video and you are on point! Buying you a coffee! Thanks!
Thank you, much appreciated :)
Well explained. Spot on.
Thank you.
thank you! really helpful!!
No problem and I'm glad it was helpful
Thanks so much 🙏
Good one,, thanks
No problem, hope it was helpful
Hi do you have any info on license requirements for online marketplace in New york state?
Hi, thanks for creating this video, it was very informative. In your opinion, whats the best platform for building a multi-vendor market place?
No problem and I hope it was helpful. Honestly, it has been quite a while since I properly tested any multi-vendor software, so I can't give any recommendations.
Thank you
You're welcome
I have an angle while i was working on my own multivendor marketplace; think this may help to solve the traffic problem.
Offer free memberships and commission discounts to your sellers to use their social media platforms to drive the traffic you need to keep going, I think the startup concept must be that your sellers are your partners in this venture and they see the value in the organizational strength.
Further consider offering shares to your sellers, now you can have a strong team where everyone have a motive and benefit.
in essence if you have attracted 100 sellers selling 100 products each and thery are actively posting and driving traffic the business cant fail.
Why would a business promote their products on your marketplace on social media when they could put the exact same effort into marketing their own site, not pay any commissions and have that customer exclusively to them?
The shares aspect is an interesting concept but where do you stop, do shares get diluted as more sellers sign up? and how much of your business do you give away?
Lost me at the shares. But good advice over all.
I get sellers could promote the marketplace on their social media channels to drive traffic, but if their competitors goods/services are listed on the marketplace as well as their own, I think they'd be hesitant to do so.
@@CoachPursuit people will always try new sites for new experience you’ll be surprised.
@@EcommerceGold Agree
Thank you for the video, do you know some opensource solutions to build a marketplace for multi vendor ? (especially based on java language )
No problem, I don't as it has been a long time since I tried any multivendor software.
Excellent content. I don't agree though that one should avoid keeping commissions very low at the beginning; I think every vendor will understand I can't shoulder credit card processing fees, that shouldn't be a problem and I think offering 6 months or 1 year commission free is the most likely way to get vendors to accept getting in. basically all free except card processing, not a bad deal for any vendor and yeah, of course, you gotta have the financial shoulder to do it but that's the price.
Thank you. That is a way to do it but as you say, you will need some money behind you because spending money on development, maintenance and marketing is going to be expensive and most online sellers are already used to paying fees, which is why I would charge them from day 1 but it is down to each marketplace as to how they choose to operate.
Great video
Do i need a multivendor's marketplace license as a new york state resident?
Thank you, I have no idea. It would be best to contact your local business bureau or similar as they will know exactly what you need.
Thank you. I found your video really helpful. A quick question if I may. Myself and a small group of colleagues have craft business, and we are thinking of what is the best way of setting up a website where buyers can select and purchase our separate items (in the same cart/purchase), BUT we need the monies paid by a customer (which could include items from any of 'our shops') to be (somehow) distributed to each member separately. I am wondering if the functionality of a multi vendor marketplace could be a way in which we could achieve our goal. We are looking to create one eCommerce shop where buyers can conveniently purchase items from any of our four businesses, but we do not want create 'a platform to attract other sellers' as such. Would the software and set up of a multi vendor marketplace be suitable to do that? Or maybe your experience has other options that might suit? Many thanks in advance, Bec
Hi Bec, no problem and I'm glad it was helpful. Yes a multivendor platform would be ideal for that as you could all have your own shops that you manage individually to do listings etc and payment gateways like Stripe have an option to split payments so they could go to individual accounts and then you would all help to manage the website together. I think that is a really good and innovative way of creating a store.
@@EcommerceGold Thank you so much for your kind reply. I must apologise that I never received a notification from UA-cam that you had replied way back then. It was only due to my inquisitive mind (which is still considering multi-vendor-Ecom) that I happened to return to your video. I am surprised that there are still only a few options to actually getting such an MV-Ecom organised in an affordable manner for a small group like ours. I guess it will remain only a dream for us, but an obtainable dream only if one is wealthy. Nice idea, totally unobtainable. Thank you for your encouragement. :)
Is it possible to sell my product at multiplier destinations and track where it is sold so we can replied that company w more products. For example. We give 10 florist our product to hold and sell for us giving them a percentage of sales. We would like to look at a dashboard and see which venues sold our products yesterday
It probably is possible but that would be b2b inventory software, which is something I don't know about. You might face some issues as you would need all of your customers to use the software or their software would need to integrate with it.
Super insightful, thank you 🙌
No problem and hope it was helpful
Hello EcommerceGold. Thanks for the video, Would you mind sharing some of the software for multivendor places. Thanks
No problem and hope it was helpful. It has been a few years since I tried any multivendor software, so can't make any recommendations unfortunately.
@@EcommerceGold Thank you so much.
Thank you for the insights. Appreciated. Can you please confirm whether we can use Shopify for Multivendor marketplace
No problem, hope it was helpful. You can but you will need to use an app for it.
@@EcommerceGold any app recommendations?
sorry, no as I haven't tested any of them.
go through this link, great insight from different people concering the multivendor business
@@praiseforever4450 can you please share the link. Thanks
Thank you for the video ! I dont understand why people want to make a business like this .. seems it prefer to get a large store of Dropshipping and not this model business
No problem. If done correctly, it can be a good business model and in many niches there is a demand for alternatives to Ebay, Etsy etc, they are just difficult to make successful.
@@EcommerceGold
Thank you !
what is the best Hosting plan for a marketplace? and where can you host it? I am asking this because my marketplace is struggling with speed on my current plan.
It depends on the software you are using and their requirements, once you know this, you can then find a host to match. There may also be performance issues with the software you are using for your marketplace.
@@EcommerceGold Thank you for explaining, speed has been a big issue for me
Good video what do you advise to use what software
Thank you but I can't offer any software advice as it has been a few years since I tried any.
@@EcommerceGold ahh well keep a look out for my future store
Hello, i"m interested in a WordPress marketplace multi-vendor for used books. However, I want that the money issue will be directly between the sellers (private) to the buyers (also private). for example via direct money/bank/PayPal transfer so no need for eCommerce (it is a non-profit operation)My question what is the best system to try ?!
Hi, you are looking to create a classified ad site rather than a multi-vendor marketplace. This way, people list adverts then they can arrange payment with the buyer however they want.
What are the best platforms to create a multi-vendor marketplace? Have evaluated Woo Commerce but the security there is an issue,
I don't know as I haven't tested any of them out recently, they are on my very long to-do list.
Learn the MERN tech stack
Great content👍. Can you direct me to a platform I can use to build a market place? I'm not into coding. Thanks
Thank you but as I said in my reply to your other comment, I haven't tried any marketplace software recently so can't give any recommendations.
what are good fees to start with, 7-9%?
It depends on your business. Will a 7-9% commission on your projected sales cover your sites overheads? Does that include payment gateway fees or are those charged on top? This is all something you need to figure out as part of your business plan.
I want to build a c2c marketplace focused on used motorcycles only. However, I believe the user database will be over 200k users. I'm lost what plataform could provide me a quality service.
WCFM or Dokan?
Haven't tried either recently so can't say.
Hello, could you tell me what is the best way to deal with scams/fraud between vendors and buyers, knowing that we’re only the intermediary?
Hi, it's a challenging situation but if a claim is raised by either party and they can provide evidence to back up the claim, then I would be inclined to ban them from the marketplace as leaving them on there could result in your site getting a bad reputation.
@@EcommerceGold what is the best way to authenticate sellers please?
@@abiduimran5176 I don’t know whether there is a best way but things like business registration info, professional memberships or requiring ID (check data compliance regulations for this) could all be things to think about.
@@EcommerceGold Alright thank you very much
Great info! But, Bro! I watched your video all the way to the end You ended it with a grand finale! 💩💩💩🤣🤣🤣🤣
Thanks for watching till the end, I genuinely can't remember how I finished the video 😂 as it has been a while since I recorded/posted it
@@EcommerceGold Just listen closely to the minute fo the video and you will hear yourself unleash a pleasant surprise! LOL
hi , i am a freelancer software developer who had been given a task to make a Multi Vendor Marketplace Website. do you have any roadmap?
Hi, I don't sorry.
@@EcommerceGold no worries , thx for replying
Can you recommend some softwares for making these websites?
I can't, sorry as it has been a few years since I tried any multi-vendor software.
@@EcommerceGold Can you at least point me in the right direction and I will do the rest of the research please?
I can't as I haven't looked into the multi-vendor software that is currently available, a quick google search for the best multi-vendor platform or software should give you some options to get started with.
@@muhammadwaqar2735 cs cart
Hello brother, one of the main challenge of operating a marketplace in india is onboarding sellers. So is it possible to tie-up with an established marketplace in india and connect their seller portal with my marketplace and make their products visible on my site?
That is a challenge of marketplaces all around the world.
You could try but you might struggle to convince them of what the benefits are for them as they have done the hard work to build a user base and you just want to come in and piggyback off it so that you can build your own, which could become their competition.
@@EcommerceGold could you please search about ONDC on google. Ondc is an initiative by government of india to reduce the dominance of amazon and walmart owned flipkart in india. Any marketplace platform can join on ondc and all the sellers on the ondc network will visible on the platform. Can you please search about it and please let me know it's potential and chances to fail from a marketplace expert like you
@@EcommerceGold ondc is an open network which connects diffrent buyer apps seller apps and deliervy platforms each other, which means if a customer is searching for a 'watch' then ondc api will go to all seller apps which have watches and make it visible on the buyer app (marketplace) each buyer app and seller apps are owned by diffrent companies
I'm not a marketplace expert! I think your best course of action would be to find groups in India that are doing this and ask there as they will have a far greater understanding of the process than I would and they would also know whether it works or not.
Nice video. Is there any way to contact you?
Thank you, yes you can drop me an email at paul@ecommerce-gold.com
Which plugins are best for scaling a business? I don’t want to have to approve every product a user wants to sell or withdraw money from their account on the platform.
I'm sure quite a few multi-vendor platforms offer automation but it has been a few years since I tried any of them, so can't offer any recommendations.
@@EcommerceGold for sure :) I’ll follow up with you later this summer. I’m going to create a store that sells weird toys.
@@wynton921 what platform did you end up using for your site?
Hod you promote one.
Same way you would any other ecommerce sites, ads, SEO, social media etc
Dokan is best overall
Have you tried all of the multi-vendor software available?
Dokan is easy
Ok, will try it out at some point.
First off, there are laws and permits you need from the County and City. It's actually against the law start a business without these. This is why people aren't actually doing this...at least in the United States.
Secondly, this video is for people all around the world, which is why there are no country specific points.
@@EcommerceGold i read about this bussiness but don't know how to run it ? Is it worthy? Can I run it from any location in the world?
The 1st recommend is confusing....how can you build your marketplace off an existing site like ASOS? I doubt ASOS will allow you to do that. The other recommends is also vague or unclear.
You've misunderstood what I said, I didn't say build a marketplace of ASOS, I said build an ecommerce website where you are already getting traffic and sales and then add a multi-vendor store the way ASOS did.
I'm not sure how the other two are unclear? The second suggestion is to build an online directory and then when you have got businesses signed up and are getting traffic to add a multivendor store to it and the third one was if you are involved in online communities and you see that it isn't easy for people to buy and sell from one another, you provide them a marketplace to do so.
Way too negative
Moral of the story: if you are trying to establish and online marketplace. just stop it won't work because you will struggle so better not do it
Not really, just be aware of the issues you will face as they are challenging businesses to make successful but it can be done
Please stop making negative videos like this
I'm sorry you think this is negative but I don't sugar coat things on this channel (there are plenty of others that do) and I aim to give honest and truthful advice.
@@EcommerceGold I don't just think it's negative the negativity is a fact. The world is negative enough cheer people up instead. Just because you didn't make it in the marketplace game doesn't mean others can't. Show the world what you have acomplished not what you have failed in, we all have enough failings to deal with. I hope you understand my friend.
The negativity isn't a fact, I'm just outlining the challenges that are faced when starting a marketplace and it is one of the most difficult ecommerce businesses to make successful and I don't say that others can't, people most surely can make them successful.
Yes the world is full of negativity but people also appreciate honest advice, rather than being told that everything is easy and nice, only to find out that it might not be. One of my accomplishments is this channel and that many people have gone on to start their own businesses as a result of watching my videos and I've had many comments thanking me for my honest advice, so while you may see me as negative, many other have not.
@@EcommerceGold Well, i wish you the best with what youre doing. God bless
@@mrGapMan1 Nothing about this video or information given is negative, its very helpful advice. If you are not able to hear ANY "negativity" aka realism, then you arent suited for the entrepreneurship world and its not on the Video maker to tailor to your childish over-sensitivity.
This is the real world, there are Pros and Cons to everything which must always be considered.
there is Multi vendor marketplace specific for fashion online?
#EcommerceGold#
Do you mean software for a multi-vendor marketplace or an existing marketplace where you can sell fashion online?
@@EcommerceGold existing multi-vendor marketplace where you can sell fashion online
There are a few but it depends where you live as to the ones that are available, it is best to just do a google search.
@@EcommerceGold i did google search i find only one from India I think, im in canada. I'm trying to find a niche and start multi-vendor marketplace
Fashion is a competitive niche, it also depends on if you are selling new or used clothes but a quick search for best place to sell clothes online Canada produced a few options for me.
MEGASHOP ONLINE SHOPPING UGANDA
what about it?
I don't WhatsApp people. I would just like to know what it is you have commented about as it is rather random!