What are multivendor ecommerce stores ?

Meaning of Multivendor Ecommerce Stores

E-commerce stores have a seller, who is the dealer, distributor or manufacturer of the products he/she wants to sell online. If the website is solely owned by Single Seller, Distributor or Manufacturer, such e-commerce store is termed as single vendor store but on the contrary if a Marketing Provider company creates an online store and asks vendors from different sectors of business to register and upload products in their website, in other words asking multiple amount of vendors to sell products on their website, such E-commerce store is termed as multi-vendor ecommerce store.

The company or individual that creates / owns the store may or may not sell their own products on the store.

Multivendor Ecommerce Stores are mostly owned by marketing provider companies like flipkart, amazon etc.

Marketing provider companies tie up with Logistic companies and Vendors have no control over shipping and logistics.

Vendors have to pay a percentage of total amount of sales to the owner of online store.

Vendors or Sellers have a unique URL which has their products only.

Marketing providers pay the advertisement fees on television commercials, PPC campaigns, hoardings, banners, events and much more. Vendors have nothing to do with the advertising of Online Stores; they simply manage their stock and inventory online and process orders.

If a vendor wants to sell branded products he / she have to upload a “brand authorization certificate”. It may be a case that two or more vendors will be selling same products on the store. When a customer orders that product on the store he has an option to choose between vendors who are offering lowest prices.

Selected vendors are notified via sms and emails. They pack their products with the packing material provided by online stores. Packing material has branding of online store on it. Packed and ready to be dispatched products are picked up by the logistics guy who is an ally of the online store and the products are processed to be delivered to customer location.

If you have any queries regarding development of multi-vendor e-commerce store you can contact us.