The progress of marketplaces has been exceptional in the recent years fuelled by increasing number of online buyers. This has encouraged several ecommerce entrepreneurs to build their own marketplaces and start their ecommerce business by listing multiple vendors on their platform.
Marketplaces are beneficial for both the online retailers as well as the customers. Entrepreneurs can start their business with zero inventories and also earn commission from the listed vendors. The customers are usually attracted when they get a variety of products at the same store. A multi-seller ecommerce platform makes it possible in an easy and efficient way.
However, a marketplace does not work like a regular ecommerce store. Hence here is a set of features that you need to take care of while choosing the most suitable platform for creating your marketplace.
Flexibility– In order to fulfill the requirements of the horizontal and vertical marketplaces, the platform needs to be extremely flexible. Along with this, various customizations may also be necessary from time to time. Thus a solution that allows the non-techie users to easily modify their multi-seller ecommerce platform is a must-have feature. A full-fledged marketplace is all about user-friendly interface, customization, performance and flexibility so make sure the ecommerce solution you choose provides these features.
Easy search and navigation– Some of the main reasons why customers choose to purchase from a marketplace is the variety offered, availability of various brands and products at a great price range. Customers often visit a marketplace searching for a particular product or brand. Thus making the search easy for the customers is one factor that every multi-seller ecommerce platform should take care of. In the same way, once the customer has found the desired product, the navigation needs to be easy for the checkout process to take place quickly.
SEO and marketing perks– One of the factors that can take an ecommerce business to new heights is SEO and the marketing techniques. Thus an ecommerce solution that has in built features for making SEO and marketing easy is essential. SEO and marketing can help in better conversion rates and obtain more organic traffic. Hence, a multi-seller ecommerce platform can get a quick brand presence with various deals, social media integration, discounts etc.
Mobile ready platform– Mobile commerce can be considered as the main channel of online sales as online shoppers spend two third of their time shopping online on mobile. Google considers mobile friendly sites for high traffic volumes and helps in securing the top Google ranks. Thus, you multi-seller ecommerce platform should be mobile ready to be able to attract more traffic via mobile channel.
Now that you are aware of the features that a marketplace should have, you can make a choice of the ecommerce solution accordingly. You can choose from the several ecommerce platforms available in the market with unique features.