The Internet is a man given gift that has taken the world by storm. Can we imagine living our lives without this greatest asset? We rely on it for our daily existence, be it for office work, communication, entertainment or for our daily chores. Literally, our lives revolve around the internet. One of the fundamental benefits of the internet is, it has given us the so-called electronic commerce or internet commerce.
We live in a time where we buy and sell physical goods using the internet. A change in lifestyle and a shift in shopping habits of people have led to the rise of Multi vendor eCommerce platforms. A decade back, do you remember buying goods online? It was unlikely and not common for the majority of the population, but today it is not uncommon.
People from every nook and cranny of the world rely on this valuable resource ‘internet’ for shopping and for other significant needs. This has led to increasing multi-vendor eCommerce platforms, especially when the world is going through a global situation.
Generally, eCommerce or internet commerce is a platform that connects independent freelancers, small businesses, larger businesses and buyers in one platform. It is a common selling point for multiple vendors. The best examples of eCommerce platforms are Amazon, flip kart, eBay etc.
These platforms unite sellers to market their products and sell the product to their target audience. Also, this platform offers a conducive situation for transferring money and data. Businesses can thrive exceptionally well by on-boarding eCommerce platforms and improving sales graphs like never before.
How does an eCommerce platform work?
- eCommerce as a platform helps businesses sell goods to consumers. Customers buy products from prominent brands.
- Secondly, it connects businesses with other businesses in selling products and services. Selling a developed product to other businesses.
- Thirdly, it connects the consumers with other consumers. A customer can sell a used product to other customers as on eBay and OLX for a price.
- Additionally, eCommerce offers a platform for customers to sell their service to businesses. Influencers marketing a business’ products, consumers selling product content, photography etc.
These eCommerce platforms work the best for the rising food industry also. Online food ordering software like Zomato, Uber Eats, Grub hub, Swiggy unite restaurateurs and enable them to sell their food to potential customers.
Considering the benefits, the increasing demand for eCommerce has also led to the increase in eCommerce development companies. Offline retail businesses now have the opportunity to own a single vendor platform for them or to be a part of a multi vendor platform instead of having a system of their own.
On the other hand, large companies prefer to create an online base to amalgamate businesses and reach the next level in business standards.
However, the increasing demand has also led to an increase in companies developing multi-vendor eCommerce development platforms. However, choosing a company that is reliable and highly advanced in technology is very important.
When building a multi-vendor platform, there are certain functionalities and features that are quintessential to ensure smooth functioning of the site.
Prerequisites of multi vendor platforms
User friendly control panel/dashboard
Owning an advanced control panel is the first must have for an eCommerce site. When sellers become a part of your system, they should be able to easily carry out the work with easy controls and functionalities. Order management should be easy for the sellers.
Once the sellers become a part of your selling platform, they should be able to easily add, manage and delete products. In addition to this, ‘easy controls’ should make sure it allows merchants to fix the product price, delivery charge, estimated delivery date and other prerequisites easily without a hitch.
Ensure security
Multi vendor platforms can not perform on their own, it is the union of businesses and customers. Transactions of money, databases of personal information and other confidential information like credit card numbers are involved, thus taking care of them securely should be the utmost priority.
The platform should be a secure socket layer certified and trustworthy when consumers enter their details and it should never be compromised at any cost. Secure platforms help platform owners to earn the trust of the customers.
Advanced report
Monitoring sales trends helps business leaders analyze the growth of the business in a systematic pattern. A multi vendor platform should be in a way that allows the vendors to check sales trends, revenue generated, inventory management and much more.
Pulling timely reports of the performance will help businesses plan and build development strategies. Growth and setbacks of the business can only be monitored with a proper progressive report system.
Fully automated system
Multi vendor ordering platforms should be an effective tool to do away with unnecessary manual work. It should be able to self perform tasks on command.
Printing on time receipts, sending timely notifications, sorting products based on the categories and so on. Furthermore, online payments should be fully automatic. Only a fully automated software can ensure that it sends on time notification to the users and is a boon to any business.
SEO friendly content
Good content can create a great impact in the digital world. A Seo friendly content that is enriched with Google friendly keywords will drive more traffic to your platform.
Your content should have what people would type on their keyboard. A good content management system will greatly help multi-vendor platforms to reach their target audience.
Thus, with an increasing number of businesses going online today, developing a well-secure and multi-functional platform is important.Besides, it should have these user-centric features to be on par with the rising industry standards.Multi vendor platforms have given new hope to businesses and are contributing to the growth of many.
