Gone are the days when customers visited multiple websites to find a suitable product. eCommerce marketplaces have always been more relevant due to their instant access to a large audience (both sellers and vendors), product variety, and increased revenue generation. Businesses and entrepreneurs seeking substantial growth can benefit from this lucrative business model.
Multivendor eCommerce websites are gaining massive popularity, and figures are clear indicators of their future growth.
As per Amazon, during the first quarter of 2022, it has yielded total net sales of approximately 116.44 billion U.S. dollars, surpassing its growth in the same quarter of 2021, i.e., 108.52 billion U.S. dollars.
Now you must be intrigued to know the multi-vendor eCommerce website development process. To build such a multivendor website quickly, begin by identifying a suitable multivendor website development platform that fulfills your business requirements.
A multivendor eCommerce website can be built on a variety of platforms. The purpose of this blog is to explain how to pick the best platform for developing a multivendor eCommerce website.
How to Select Multivendor eCommerce Website Development Platform for Your Project?
Nowadays, myriad platforms are there in the market. Choosing one amongst them is definitely not an easy task.
To help you pick the right platform, we have shared some essential parameters that you can consider.
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Features and Functionalities
When deciding on the platform for the development of your multi-vendor eCommerce website, check its functionalities and features. The eCommerce industry is whopping, and it’s necessary for you to build a website with the latest features. Pick a platform that keeps on advancing as per the newest trends.
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Customizability
The uniqueness of each business lies in its ability to offer customers something they can’t get elsewhere. The website is the best medium to display that uniqueness to your target audience. Select a platform that offers customizable options and features so that you can build your competitive multi-vendor eCommerce website as per your business requirements.
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Scalability
Every business owner develops a website keeping its future growth in mind. A website that can handle growing traffic is crucial for achieving that goal. Additionally, with the rise in your product range, your customer base also expands. Therefore, while selecting the platform for your multi-vendor eCommerce website development, you cannot ignore its scalability factor.
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SEO Friendliness
It is necessary that the platform you use must be SEO friendly, as it is an important criterion to rank your website higher in the SERP results. Select a platform multi-vendor eCommerce platform that offers you complete access to SEO tools in order to optimize your page loading speed, meta tags, etc.
Developing a website with such a platform will enhance your website visibility, leading to an increase in conversion rate and customers.
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Various Revenue Channels
The ultimate aim of businesses for investing in multivendor eCommerce website development is to earn revenue. Therefore, while selecting a platform, you should check which revenue channels the platform support. It should support the multiple options such as commission fees on each program, seller subscription, affiliate programs, and so forth.
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Hybrid Platform
The development of a multivendor eCommerce website implies you must deal with multiple customers, depending on your business model. Some sellers may want to sell to B2B or B2C audiences.
In order to sell to multiple customers, you should choose a hybrid eCommerce platform that can serve B2B, B2C, and D2C. Pick the platform that allows you to create a B2C or B2B multivendor eCommerce marketplace, and customize the settings of various groups of suppliers. Payment methods, fees, and shipping are a few settings that can be categorized under this.
Also Read – 5 Key Features In A Multi Vendor eCommerce Website Development
Best Platforms to Develop Multivendor eCommerce Websites
Magento
Magento is a world-class platform supported by a large community. It offers a wide range of extensions to develop a multivendor website.
Using these extensions, you can convert your existing Magento eCommerce website into a fully-fledged multivendor website. If you do not have the required skills or want to develop a competitive multivendor website from scratch, you can partner with a Magento website development company.
Here are the top reasons to select Magento over other platforms:
- Hybrid or dedicated multivendor platform: Whether you want to create a dedicated or hybrid marketplace using Magento extensions, you can create both easily.
- Features and functionalities: Developing an eCommerce website with Magento requires technical know-how. The reason is it offers advanced and high-level features using which you can create feature-rich and scalable eCommerce stores.
- Customizability: The platform offers a wide range of features to develop a highly customizable website. You can hire Magento developers to create a customized marketplace with much ease.
- Hosting Option: The community edition of the Magento platform is a self-hosted solution.
Shopify
Shopify is a leading platform for converting your store into a marketplace with multiple sellers. That too in the easiest possible way with the use of an extension named Shopify multivendor marketplace.
- Hybrid or dedicated multivendor: With the Shopify Plus edition, businesses can develop a hybrid multivendor eCommerce website. With this, they can manage their entire eCommerce business in a single place, whether B2B, DTC, or both.
- Ease of use: Shopify platform is easy to use. But to leverage the full potential and build a competitive website, you should partner with a Shopify development company.
- Customizability: With Shopify plus, you have the option to build a customized multi-vendor eCommerce website for your business.
- Hosting Option: Shopify Plus is a fully hosted, cloud-based eCommerce platform.
Prestashop
Just like Magento, PrestaShop is not equipped with multivendor website development features. Using a similar approach, you can build an eCommerce website with multivendor capabilities.
- Hybrid or dedicated multivendor: Using the PrestaShop platform, you can easily develop a dedicated multivendor website.
- Ease of use: Compared to Magento, PrestaShop is more straightforward and lighter, but more challenging to use than most SaaS-based options.
- Customizability: PrestaShop offers various options for customization. You can hire a PrestaShop developer to develop a customized website as per your business requirements.
- Hosting Option: Both Self-hosted and cloud-hosted options are available.
Read More: Your Definitive Guide to Multi-vendor eCommerce Marketplace Development
Why Should You Hire a Developer for a Multivendor eCommerce Website Development?
Developing a competitive multi-vendor eCommerce website is definitely not an easy task. You require technical know-how and domain expertise to create a multivendor eCommerce website.
Whether you select Shopify, Magento, or PrestaShop as your go-to eCommerce platform with a skilled developer, you can easily build a website. You can create a website with the most advanced features and functionalities using their expertise.
In this competitive era, you cannot ignore any factors such as loading speed, website security, scalability, etc. Therefore you should seek assistance from experts to build a robust multivendor website.
Reasons for hiring an eCommerce developer:
- Develop a multivendor website with advanced features and functionalities.
- Build a custom marketplace with customized features.
- Highly secure eCommerce multi-vendor website with necessary features.
- Integrations of third-party API and tools.
- Excellent technical know-how and on-time launch.
How Much Does it Cost to Develop a Multivendor eCommerce Website?
Last but not least, the critical question associated with the development of an eCommerce website is its cost estimation. As a business owner, you must be intrigued to know how much your multi-vendor eCommerce website development will cost.
It will be unfair, if we tell you the exact cost, as it depends on plenty of factors. If you are converting your existing eCommerce website to a multivendor website, then the development cost will be comparatively less.
Similarly, factors such as complexity, features, number of web pages, developer’s location, choice of eCommerce platform, etc., are aspects that can highly affect your website development cost. Apart from this, it would be best if you also finalize whether you will hire developers on a dedicated basis or for your in-house team.
In order to hire dedicated developers, partner with a renowned eCommerce website development company. Their expertise will help you to build a competitive and feature-rich multi-vendor eCommerce website for your project.
The cost of creating a multivendor eCommerce website may range anywhere between $10,000 to $80,000. It can go beyond based on the advanced features, third-party integrations, and above-listed factors.
Final Thoughts!!
No downturn can be predicted for the eCommerce industry in the foreseeable future. It is rising expeditiously, opening new opportunities for entrepreneurs and existing businesses. With the development of a multivendor eCommerce website, you can also use this lucrative opportunity and earn profits.
Therefore, choose the best eCommerce platform and build a competitive multivendor website for your business. With CSSChopper, you can hire skilled developers with technical know-how and requisite expertise.
