The rapid growth of the sharing economy is triggered by the increasing number of new online marketplaces. If your idea was to create an online marketplace to allow the exchange of products or services quickly and easily-congratulations! You can name yourself, an entrepreneur!

With the idea of an online marketplace, you might have explored how to create one? And what features you should consider before developing software or purchasing a pre-built module? How will you attract sellers and customers to your marketplace?

Sometimes we feel like we own too much stuff and this can happen with your marketplace too. To make it look attractive and clean, you need to have the functional UI with all the functionalities placed adequately. Clear navigation for both the seller and the customer is a must. This article is for the business entrepreneurs who are looking forward to developing their marketplace and will help you decide what features marketplace users need the most.

1.     Look for a lucrative monetization model

“Before looking for the answer to” How to create a marketplace? “Answer the question” How am I going to make money from my product? To attract investors and become globally competitive, all ventures have to produce revenue. No exception in the marketplace. There are many forms for your online marketplace to be monetized:

Commission– For any good purchase on the website, the marketplace charges a percentage or fixed fee.

Subscription: To use the marketplace, consumers pay a monthly/annual charge

Product Listing: To list the products, the sellers have to pay some amount.

OpenCart Marketplace Module supports the commission revenue model. The marketplace admin will generate income from the sellers on every order. You can refer to this article for a better understanding of the commission management for the OpenCart Marketplace extension developed by Knowband.

2.     Admin Panel features to consider:

The admin interface of a marketplace extension should allow you to monitor and make the necessary adjustments to support your customers.

If, for example, the terms of service are breached, an administrative interface should be able to monitor behavior on the network and issue warnings. We have designed interfaces for our clients so that it is easy to discover and censor offensive acts such as negative language easily.

It is also possible to use the administrative interface to authorize vendors and products, build customer outreach materials, run promotions, and adjust marketplace settings. It should allow you to keep the track of the seller’s earning, customer feedback, like which suppliers are doing well and which could use some assistance.

The OpenCart Marketplace module has all the above-mentioned functionalities and the admin can keep eye on every move of the seller. The admin can see the order status that will be determined for commission and earning.

3.     It should have a functional seller dashboard:

Rapid onboarding for vendors

You’re going to have to make the seller dashboard and customer handling simpler for sellers, not harder. Keep the sign-up and product listing process as simple as possible for your vendors.

The less time it takes to get started on your website, the more likely individuals are to sign up with you to sell.

Sellers can easily register and enlist their products on your OpenCart Marketplace. Sooner you approve the seller profile earlier he will be able to sell on the marketplace.

4.     Easy Inventory management

Fortunately, by establishing a strong inventory plan from day one, many of the blockades and challenges ravaging eCommerce marketplace inventory management can be easily resolved. Inventory Management is the lifeline for retail sellers, as the success of the business relies on delivering the right order to the right customer at the right time.

The stock management is effortless with the OpenCart marketplace module. It sends the stock notification to sellers and removes out of stock products automatically. To add new products for maintaining the inventory, the seller can bulk upload the product list in .CSV format.

5.     Order handling

Control of marketplace order saves you time on manual tasks and eliminate mistakes in order processing. Speaking of efficiency, from the time a customer clicks “order” to the moment the product leaves your warehouse, consider how much time it actually takes you to process a transaction.

The order handling is uncomplicated when you have a module like OpenCart Multi-vendor Marketplace. It allows the store admin and sellers to change the order status. The seller can handle every minute of action through the seller dashboard.

6.     Payments and payouts

Marketplaces make it tougher than their standard online shops when it comes to payment processing. Customers need an effortless payment system, whether credit cards, debit cards, digital wallets, PayPal, or COD. Some do intimidate while sharing the credit or debit card details hence, you can provide them COD. These are primary online shopping choices whose icons may alternatively be clearly shown in the top corners or near landing page banners or in the menu section.

From their Dashboard, the sellers get to see the order earnings, the pending amount, and the commission paid. The seller can raise payout requests to the owner and the store owner can make the payments manually through OpenCart Marketplace Plugin.

7.     Notify sellers with email

To maintain transparency on your platform you need to notify your sellers and customers about every move. The OpenCart Marketplace module has several pre-crafted email templates that can be used by the admin to send an email notification to the seller after the order is received, payment processes, review approved or removed, and much more.

This maintains transparency, fulfills realistic expectations, and enhances the user experience.

8.     Do not forget about the customer expectations

How can customer support be sustained in a multi-seller marketplace rapidly introducing a new range of products and services? Obviously, ensuring that the current service standards of the retailer are met in the marketplace is critical. In a marketplace, the consumer experience should not get distressed.

What does OpenCart Module offer for customer support?

• Customer Seller helpdesk:  In order to get help for pre-sale inquiries or post-sale inquiries, the customer may contact the vendors.
• Manage returns:  The returns for the goods can easily be initiated by the clients. The administrator will be able to view and process return requests from the vendor dashboard.

9.     Compatible and gadget responsive

A mobile-friendly eCommerce shop provides you with an opportunity to stay ahead of your rivals. You’d have more chances of ranking well in search engines, more visitors, and you’d be able to win their loyalty through content interaction and responsive design.

The robust Opencart Marketplace module is compatible with the mobile app. It is compatible with all the themes and models of OpenCart and it supports all currency types. You can sell any type of product digital or physical in the marketplace.

10. Let seller decide the shipping method

To improve the delivery experience, cutting down the shipping cost you need to provide multiple shipping options. In the early stages of operation, using a single shipping service makes sense because order sizes are typically not large enough to warrant using more than one carrier. However, as the company grows and online sales increase, failing to diversify your shipping strategy to meet your increasing needs puts you at risk of inefficient fulfillment of orders and increasing shipping costs.

The OpenCart Multi seller Marketplace admin can enable the seller to create multiple shipping templates. The shipping methods that vendors build will be listed in the Marketplace. And, the marketplace manager can also add or delete the shipping methods created by the seller.

Some Other helpful features of OpenCart Marketplace Module:

• Admin can approve the product and seller reviews from his end
• The invoice generated can have either admin’s details or seller’s details or both.
• By providing coupon code discounts to buyers, the sellers can give the customers a special discount and run promotions
• Admin can add multiple custom fields on the seller registration page
• Admin can assign categories and products to the seller
• All the products can be reviewed before publishing them on the marketplace.

Wrap-up:

These are the favorable features and functionalities you need to look at before launching a marketplace. The OpenCart marketplace module can help you with all these most required features. Remember, a marketplace is a platform for buyers to buy and seller’s toes ell. So, you need to keep your foot in their shoe and find the best you can give.

If you have a brilliant idea that you want to bring to life – drop us an email at support@knowband.com or you can drop a line in the comment section. The Knowband team helped many eCommerce entrepreneurs build a better platform by helping our clients measure the right things. The marketplace module is also available for PrestaShop and Magento 2.

Recommended Read:

• How to Attract Sellers on OpenCart Marketplace
• Create a Hyperlocal Service Marketplace like Fiverr and UrbanCompany
• How to Start On-demand Grocery Business with Knowband Marketplace Modules
• Key Benefits of Starting an Online Marketplace