Business & Finance

Multi-Vendor eCommerce Platform – 9 Must-Have Features

Multi-Vendor eCommerce Platform Features

Massive growth has been recorded in the global business market as there were numerous online marketplaces emerging into the industry. This industry has faced a sound success as there are many examples to prove this fact. One such example is the Amazon marketplace platform that has taken a wider expansion and holds millions of satisfied active users.

Being a renowned multi-vendor marketplace platform, Amazon had announced its 23% growth last year. This is truly inspiring for many budding entrepreneurs. Let us analyze the key aspects that are behind the success of any multi-vendor marketplace platform.

What Is a Multi-Vendor Marketplace Platform?

A multi-vendor marketplace combines several vendors from different locations and owns different products and allows them to sell through the platform. The marketplace admin will take care of the complete transaction process, whereas the inventory is handled by sellers alone. Customers visit the multi-vendor marketplace platform and access a wide range of products and register their feedback about the platform.

Multi-Vendor eCommerce Platform/ Website – 9 Must-Have Features:

Numerous features can be integrated with the marketplace platform that will support the online store for the smooth functioning of all business operations. If you plan to run a long-term eCommerce platform, then you need to be more specific about the features you select. Let us analyze the crucial features.

1. Responsive Design with Customization

A recent survey has stated that around 78% of eCommerce stores that don’t have responsive design face the highest bouncing rate. Also, 82% of online buyers use their smartphones to purchase online. So, responsive design is mandatory for any multi-vendor marketplace platform.

Along with the responsive design, the platform should be flexible for customization. Although the functionality of any multi-vendor marketplace is the same, each entrepreneur will have their style of selling products and acquiring customers. It is essential to provide customization to users to build an effective multi-vendor eCommerce platform.

2. Exclusive Seller/ Buyer Dashboard

A dashboard is the most interactive aspect that will help sellers and buyers understand the platform’s performance. Sellers can easily monitor their inventory and sales and can set new strategies to increase their profit range.

Buyers can check their transactions and view their history easily. They can keep track of the products they have stored in the wishlist and view related products available in the same multi-vendor marketplace platform.

3. Advanced Product Management

Sellers need to find comfort in managing their products. 73% of sellers quit the multi-vendor marketplace platform due to a poor product management system. The marketplace platform should allow the seller to categorize products.

Bulk product upload should be made possible for sellers that will save their time. Also, the admin approval time for products should be less, and products should be displayed in the eCommerce store without much difficulty.

4. Shipping and Tax Management

Shipping arrangements are the main responsibilities of the admin of any multi-vendor marketplace platform. Provide a flexible shipping option to sellers to select the shipping agency for better delivery of products.

Integrate your platform with genuine shipping logistics to ensure prompt delivery and provide an order tracking facility. Customers should be able to view their order status in real-time. The platform should calculate property tax for each order and should be included in every invoice. Sellers should be able to delete or edit the tax percentage.

5. Multiple Payment Gateways

The key feature of any marketplace platform is the payment option. You need to provide multiple payment options for buyers and sellers that will facilitate them to have smooth payment transactions.

The payment gateways you integrate with the multi-vendor platform need to be more familiar for the user. Due to many security threats, users will hesitate to do payment transactions with an unfamiliar payment gateway. 78% of buyers have abandoned the cart mainly because of unknown payment gateways. Users need to pay more attention to integrating the payment API.

6. Reports and Analytics

Monitoring the performance of the platform is essential for both merchants and the admin. Reports and analytics will provide a clear insight into all aspects. You can get reports on sales and revenue you earned through the multi-vendor platform. Analyze visitors according to their locations.

Also, you can get reports on top-selling products and view which product is highly stored in customers’ wishlists. You can get an insight into areas that have the highest buying potential.

By getting proper analytics and reports, you can easily rectify the errors in your platform or consider the software providers. You can consider Shopify alternatives also to reduce the bounce rate and increase the conversion.

7. Content Management System

Attractive and powerful content plays a key role in getting you visitors to your multi-vendor marketplace platform. Strong product descriptions will make buyers decide on buying the product as they can easily understand the product through good content.

It would help if you understood the customer’s demand and should produce content accordingly. 78% of eCommerce platforms gain better traffic mainly because of great content. Make sure your platform has a reliable CMS that will increase the organic traffic of the multi-vendor platform.

8. Review and Ratings

Feel free to listen to what others say about your multi-vendor eCommerce platform. For this, you need to allow your customers to give their feedback and suggestions that will help you enhance the platform’s performance.

Customers feel delighted when they are provided the opportunity to share their thoughts and rate the product or the service they have received through your platform. This feature will prompt you to deliver quality service as you will be aware that negative reviews will pull down your business easily.

9. In-Built Marketing Tools

Promoting the marketplace is the key role of the admin of the platform. It is very necessary to build an SEO-friendly marketplace that requires less effort to be promoted online.

You should have an in-built emailing tool that automatically generates emails to customers and supports you in easy branding. Allow social media sharing that will help you to get higher visibility. Around 59% of buyers find products through social media platforms.

Let your buyers share products and get reviews through Facebook, Twitter, and many more channels. This will ultimately increase your brand visibility and conversion.

See Also:

Conclusion

A multi-vendor marketplace platform doesn’t have many restrictions on products or services. So it is quite recommended to start your marketplace and launch your products online. Always keep in mind the importance of features and functionalities and make sure your platform possesses all of them.

Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

To Top