Magento is undoubtedly the best place to start an online store. The abundance the features and functionalities coming inbuilt with a default Magento installation make this platform the first choice of any eCommerce entrepreneur. Magento has been the favorite of online business owners for a long time. Moreover, it's popular sky-rocketed when it evolved itself to acquire the rare B2B functionalities. The new B2B features, provided a base for the third part Magento developers to develop even some more advanced interfaces that are more user-friendly and easier to acquire by anyone.
How Magento Multi Vendor Marketplace fits here?
Magento Multi Vendor Marketplace extensions are the perfect example of the developments that took Magento's B2B feature to a new height. Converting an inventory model Magento site into a fully effective Marketplace site is not an easy task. It's a huge implementation, but when a Magento Multi Vendor Marketplace is delivered to a Magento site owner, it doesn't let him/her about the complexities at all. Just a user-friendly interface for the new added Marketplace structure of the Magento store. That's the efficacy of a Magento Multi Vendor Marketplace extension.
Here, I am going to discuss the additional features a Magento Multi Vendor Marketplace extension provides to your Magento store to make it a perfect marketplace site.
Let’s add some sellers to your Magento site-
The scope for allowing a seller to sell on your website was undoubtedly not present in your Magento store earlier. Now after the addition of a Magento Multi Vendor Marketplace extension, it imparts an interface at the front end for the sellers. Using this interface, new sellers can easily register on your Magento store like all the customers. The difference is, sellers will get a seller panel where they can perform all the seller functions like it's their own website.
What role the admin has in managing the sellers?-
Now that it's the admin's eCommerce site, it automatically makes him the boss. Whenever a seller will register on the new marketplace site of yours, you will receive a seller account approval request. Here, Magento Multi Vendor Marketplace provides you two options, you can either accept the request or decline it. If you accept the request, the seller will be allowed to upload products on your site from his seller panel. The seller gets a seller panel from where he/she can upload products with all the product details.
Now that it's the admin's eCommerce site, it automatically makes him the boss. Whenever a seller will register on the new marketplace site of yours, you will receive a seller account approval request. Here, Magento Multi Vendor Marketplace provides you two options, you can either accept the request or decline it. If you accept the request, the seller will be allowed to upload products on your site from his seller panel. The seller gets a seller panel from where he/she can upload products with all the product details.
As I said earlier, it's your website so you are the boss. The products uploaded by a seller will not go live until you review and approve those products. Once it is approved, the product gets live and becomes visible to all on your Magento Multi Vendor Marketplace site.
Let’s receive some order now-
Now, when the Magento Multi Vendor Marketplace has already assisted you in approving your sellers and approving the products of those sellers, it's time when you will receive the orders. Any effective Magento Multi Vendor Marketplace extension provides the visibility of all the approved seller products on the store front. Customers can place an order for any product from any seller on the marketplace site. These orders are received by the marketplace admin as the payment options, shipping options all the managed by the marketplace admin itself. So, how the sellers come in the picture now?
Now, when the Magento Multi Vendor Marketplace has already assisted you in approving your sellers and approving the products of those sellers, it's time when you will receive the orders. Any effective Magento Multi Vendor Marketplace extension provides the visibility of all the approved seller products on the store front. Customers can place an order for any product from any seller on the marketplace site. These orders are received by the marketplace admin as the payment options, shipping options all the managed by the marketplace admin itself. So, how the sellers come in the picture now?
Whenever an order is placed on a Magento Multi Vendor Marketplace site, both the admin and seller can see the order details from their respective interfaces. The role of the admin here is as soon as he/she receives the payment from the customer, he/she changes the order status to indicate the successful payment by the customer. Now, the sellers come to the picture when they have to fulfill the order by shipping the product to the customer's delivery address.
The Big question- Commission?-
Commission management is the most important feature that drives the existence of any marketplace site. If any Magento Multi Vendor Marketplace says, it cannot manage the commission, just scrap it and look for a better one. Because you cannot do a marketplace business without managing the commissions.
Commission management is the most important feature that drives the existence of any marketplace site. If any Magento Multi Vendor Marketplace says, it cannot manage the commission, just scrap it and look for a better one. Because you cannot do a marketplace business without managing the commissions.
A perfect Magento Multi Vendor Marketplace extension manages the commission by:
Providing an option to the admin to set commission rates on different products, sellers, and categories at least.
- Admin should be able to set a global commission rate or different commission rates for different sellers.
- Admin should be able to easily see how much commission earned on different products or different orders.
- Sellers should be able to track the commission paid to the admin
So, these are the very basic marketplace functionalities that should be present in any Magento Multi Vendor Marketplace extension you are opting for your Magento store. Missing out any of these basic features would make sure that the particular extension is not a perfect Magento Multi Vendor Marketplace extension at all. I would suggest the Knowband-Magento Multi Vendor Marketplace extension which necessarily has all these features plus a huge range of other useful marketplace features.