Best Multi Vendor Marketplaces Platforms for eCommerce to consider in 2023

There are a few different ways that marketplaces can make money:

• charging listing fees from sellers
• charging transaction fees on each sale
• selling advertising space on the marketplace platform
• offering premium memberships with additional features and benefits.

The best way to monetize your marketplace will depend on your specific business model and goals.

The best well-known examples of multi vendor ecommerce marketplaces are Amazon, eBay, Etsy, AliExpress, Taobao, and Flipkart. We’ve written a few comprehensive articles about multi vendor ecommerce platforms, including Best Marketplace Platforms to Sell Merch and Shop and B2B marketplaces, so you may check them for more examples.

There are many possible ways to start a marketplace. From a technological standpoint, you can either create a marketplace from scratch or buy multi vendor marketplace software. Since there are different types of multi vendor software available, it’s important to understand which is which.

When you’re looking for multi vendor software, such as a readymade platform, plugin, or extension, you need to make sure that the solution has enough capabilities to cater to your specific business needs. We suggest looking for at least the following features:

• A dedicated vendor portal
  
  It goes without saying that the most important feature of multi vendor software is a dedicated vendor portal that facilitates the registration and listing of third party vendors. Online sellers need to be able to register, upload their product listings, and have a dedicated place to showcase those products to potential buyers, such as a vendor page or an ecommerce storefront.
  
  
• A dedicated operator portal
  
  
  • To make sure you have control over the platform’s performance, seller-buyer interactions, and overall operations of the store, your chosen multi vendor software must have specific operator functionality, such as
  • All-encompassing overview of buyer and vendor activities,
  • Task management features,
  • Case tracking to provide timely support for buyers and vendors,
  • Lead management features, and so on.
    
    
• 3rd party API integration
  
  It’s extremely important that your chosen multivendor platform connects easily and seamlessly to third-party systems, including your own internal software like ERP or CMS and those of your multiple vendors. Moreover, if your platform supports API integrations, it will connect to any sophisticated third-party ML and AI engines, such as recommendation mechanisms, intelligent search, and so on. So make sure that the platform of your choice is API-powered.
  
  
• Advanced & intelligent search features
  
  In our practice, we’ve seen clients who switched solutions because their previous ecommerce platforms could not cater to the search needs of their buyers. As mentioned above, your multi vendor platform has to be API-driven to be able to connect to a desired third-party engine. For example, Virto Commerce works with such engines as Azure Cognitive Search and Elastic Search that leverage knowledge mining to a whole new level. One of the many advantages of a multi vendor platform that uses Azure Cognitive Search is that it uses custom ML models to extract information from all types of content.
  
  
• Dashboards and analytics
  
  Both vendor and operator tracking and analytics are much better when data is visualized. So look for platforms that allow you to not only keep track of earnings and expenditures but also have reporting features that gather and structure the available information and data insights for you.
  
  
• Multi-channel communication
  
  Extensive involvement of third parties clearly implies that the communication must be at the top-notch level to ensure everyone stays on the same page and any issues are addressed in a timely and efficient manner. Therefore, make sure that the platform of choice supports multi-channel communication in the following directions: seller-to-admin, admin-to-seller, buyer-to-admin, and buyer-to-seller.
  
  
• Support for a chosen revenue model
  
  Since your multi vendor platform must be able to support your revenue model (whatever it might be, for instance, vendor commissions or subscription fees), you need to make sure there’s a built-in subscription and/or commission management system within the multi vendor software of your choice.
  
  
• Scalability under peak demand
  
  Your platform must be able to handle a large number of buyers and vendors, so make sure it is powerful enough to sustain any scalability issues.

There are two more things to consider when choosing a multi vendor marketplace solution provider, as there are typically two types of multi vendor solutions you can encounter on the market, such as:

• Self-hosted/open-source
  
  Open source platforms imply that the solution vendor provides you with the source code and gives you all the freedom (and responsibility) to choose a hosting solution on a supported web server.

• SAAS/Managed
  
  The SAAS solution vendors do not typically offer source code but offer web-based access to a hosted solution instead, meaning while you can’t choose a web hosting provider, you are not responsible for the security of your marketplace as that responsibility is fully delegated to your SaaS solution provider.

To arrive at the best possible decision regarding the choice of a multivendor marketplace platform, you need to consider a few things and answer the following questions:

• How much money are you willing to spend? What’s your budget?
• What type of platform are you looking for? Is it software with open-source code? Is it a proprietary solution? Do you have to find a hosting provider? Are you willing to be responsible for the platform’s security?
• If you happen to operate an ecommerce platform, are you willing to buy a marketplace multivendor module or an extension that connects to your own marketplace? Do you want to start from scratch? And if you don’t have an ecommerce website yet, would you want to invest in a ready-made multivendor marketplace or build a solution out of separate composable modules?
• What kind of multi-vendor marketplace are you building? What type of features do you require? Does the platform of your choice have all the necessary functionality for the successful operation of a multi-vendor marketplace? Are you going to be responsible for product management? Will your vendors have to deal with their own product listings? What responsibilities are you willing to delegate to your sellers in general?
• Are you going to operate on a local market or do you have international ambitions? If you’re aiming at international sales, does the platform of your choice have localization options? What about payment integrations? Does the platform have multiple payment gateways? What are the preferred payment methods of your local suppliers?
• Does the marketplace vendor have an online demo or can you schedule a consultation? Does the platform’s vendor offer any development services?

Answering these questions will help you to arrive at the ultimate decision regarding the choice of a suitable solution.

Below you’ll find what we consider the top 20 multi vendor marketplace platforms in 2022, so take your pick!

If you’re looking for opportunities to create your own multi vendor store, you have a few options:

• If you’re operating an existing ecommerce store and would like to extend its functionality to allow third parties to sell their products using your ecommerce platform, then you can opt for purchasing a marketplace extension such as the one offered by Virto Commerce
• If you’re operating a single vendor BigCommerce, Magento stores, or some such websites, you can check out their respective application marketplaces for any marketplace extensions or plugins that can add marketplace functionality to your existing ecommerce store
• If you own a marketplace on WordPress like a single vendor Woocommerce, you can look for marketplace plugins to extend the existing marketplace functionality, such as Dokan or Product Vendors.
• If you don’t have an existing store, but would like to create a marketplace website, then you may purchase a ready-made marketplace platform such as the one offered by Zielcommerce.

Otherwise, you can create a single vendor store first and then add marketplace functionality on top. For example, create an ecommerce platform with Virto Commerce and then use its Virto Marketplace Extension to allow third party vendors to register and trade on your site.