The Shortcut Method of Building an Online Marketplace in India
Thinking of building an online marketplace? Well, this seems like a good decision!
Nowadays, one-third of online shoppers have shifted to multi-seller stores for all kinds of needs. In 2019, sales on multi-vendor stores accounted for 52% of global online retail sales. The percentage is only going to spike this year!
The Indian ecommerce industry has favoured multi-seller stores owing to which the online sales in the country have grown multi-folds.
Besides consumers, even suppliers now prefer to list their products on multi-vendor stores. The growing number of supplier lists on Amazon, Uber, Airbnb, etc. shows just that!
Hence, it’s pretty clear that the era of multi-seller stores is here and to grab this opportunity, you need to get into action!
So, how can you create a multi-seller store quickly?
The shortcut method of building an online marketplace is by choosing the right kind of web platform. Ready-made, Saas-based solutions like StoreHippo have inherent tools for setting up your store.
From the website architecture to sales and marketing, StoreHippo helps you realise your business idea in the quickest possible time.
To simplify the process, we have divided your online journey into following simple steps. This is all you need to need to do to get going!
1. Create your website and customise the theme
Once you have selected a domain name and have a web hosting, who can stop you from building an online marketplace?
The next in line is to create different pages such as home page, seller pages, etc. It’s important to select your website theme carefully to build your brand identity.
StoreHippo helps you create your unique design with its rich theme library and DIY tools. You can also mix and match the theme and then customise it further with the help of social logins for users, faceted search filters, custom checkouts and more.
This way your website architecture is all good to go in a couple of hours.
2. Craft engaging content
Once you all are done with the design part, you can leverage an online marketplace platform to create engaging content and boost sales.
If you plan to generate sustainable, long-term traffic, then crafting engaging content is the key.
Starting from product descriptions to creating videos, you might want to ensure that consumers find your content compelling and engaging. This is quite a step to get popular in a short time.
With an efficient CMS in place, like StoreHippo’s, it is easier to create different forms of content - static and dynamic easily. You can also have a bulk upload of product descriptions and pictures so that vendors are ready with their listed product displays real fast.
3. Manage your vendors
Most often building an online marketplace looks easy. However, managing vendors and their inventories can be an overwhelming task. The entire process from product approval by the admin to the shipment of items should be streamlined to improve efficiency.
With systematic vendor management tools, this whole process can be simplified at one go. At the same time, it can provide your vendors with the freedom and time to focus on their sales.
StoreHippo offers each vendor a unique dashboard and separate inventory page. The admin can have total control through the admin dashboard while the sellers get separate pages for product display.
Our online marketplace platform also offers transparency by helping you create ledger rules and adaptive payments for each vendor.
4. Integrate your store with third-party providers
Let’s say the platform you choose, does not easily integrate with other solutions such as payment gateways, notification software, shipping or SEO tools.
In that case, additional plug-ins are required to equip your website with these facilities. Additional plugins not only mean more cost but also more time in having your marketplace running. Also, without easy, auto-upgradable functionalities, your dependency on experts will increase.
Contrarily, StoreHippo online marketplace platform helps you fasten your processes by integrating you with many payment gateway companies, accounting firms, logistics providers, etc. All of this comes with no additional cost.
5. Gear up your marketing strategy
After you have finished building an online marketplace, created the content and facilitated your vendors with easy-to-use tools, all you need to do is focus on your marketing.
Multi-seller business owners face extreme competition in the ecommerce game. The one who plays the marketing stroke quickly and smartly stands out!
While crafting marketing strategies can take a lot of time, web platforms have simple features to give you good results in a short time.
StoreHippo online marketplace platform helps your vendors to boost average order value with simple tactics like product bundling and upsell or cross-sell strategies. You can also roll out a variety of time-specific, product-specific discounts and coupon codes quickly to push your customers further into the sales funnel.
Wrapping up
Multi-vendor businesses have tremendous opportunities for growth. From selling shoes online to offering salon services, there is so much that ecommerce has to offer - if only you choose the right kind of platform!
Choose a platform that has a sure-shot solution for building an online marketplace designed for tomorrow.
