Software package

Multi vendor marketplace package

A marketplace where approved vendors list products under moderation, customers pay once for a basket that is split into sub-orders each vendor fulfils, commission is calculated per sub-order and payout statements are produced on your schedule, with disputes, performance metrics and messaging built in.

Custom build Concept demo

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Who it is for

Built for

A good fit

Marketplace founders, retail groups opening their site to third-party sellers and operators of niche vertical marketplaces, from a curated launch with a few dozen vendors to a platform with several hundred vendors and a small operations team. It suits platform admins who approve vendors and set commission, moderators who review listings and decide disputes, vendors who want to manage their own products, orders and payouts without emailing the platform, and customers who expect one checkout and clear tracking per parcel.

Also worth knowing

It is less suited to single-brand shops, which the online shop package covers, to peer-to-peer resale of used items with offers and buyer protection, which the second-hand marketplace package covers, and to services or freelance work rather than physical goods. Operators who consolidate deliveries themselves, run vendor-specific delivery calendars or need volume-tiered commission should look at the custom service first.

The operational problem it solves

How it runs, step by step

A customer fills a basket with a lamp from one maker, two cushions from another and a rug from a third, and pays once at checkout.

The order is split into three sub-orders.
Each maker sees only their own sub-order in their vendor dashboard, with the customer's delivery address and the shipping method the customer chose from the options that maker offers.
The lamp maker creates a carrier label from the sub-order that afternoon and marks it shipped; the customer's order page now shows one parcel on its way and two being prepared, each with its own tracking.

The same morning a new vendor submits an application with their business details and sample photographs; the platform admin reviews it, approves them on the standard commission rate and their store page goes live empty.

They upload twenty products against the category template, and each listing lands in the moderation queue where the moderator checks the photographs and descriptions before they appear.
A week later the rug customer reports a damaged corner and opens a dispute with photographs; the moderator sees the sub-order, the vendor's messages and the delivery record, and decides on a partial refund that is deducted from the rug maker's next payout.
On the first of the month the payout run produces a statement per vendor showing sub-orders, commission, deductions and the amount paid, and the admin dashboard shows commission by category and the vendors whose late-dispatch rate needs a conversation.

Features

What the package does

The package is organised as modules that follow a marketplace from vendor application to payout: vendors and moderation, catalogue and storefront, checkout and split orders, disputes and returns, and commission, payouts and performance. Each module below lists what it does; the comparison table shows which package variant includes it.

Vendors and providers

Vendor application, approval and store pagesSellers apply, you review and approve them, and each approved vendor gets a store page.

Listings and search

Vendor-managed products and stockVendors manage their own products and stock within category templates that keep listings consistent.
Moderation queueNew and changed listings wait in a queue for review before they appear to shoppers.

Catalogue and checkout

Storefront with search and vendor pagesShoppers search and filter across all vendors and visit vendor pages.
Platform-wide promotions with vendor opt-inRun promotions across the marketplace in which vendors choose to take part.

Payments and policies

Single checkout with sub-orders per vendorShoppers pay once through a connected payment provider, and the order is split into a sub-order for each vendor.
Per-vendor shipping and trackingEach vendor sets shipping options and prints carrier labels, with tracking passed to the customer.

Billing and payments

Commission rules and payout statementsCommission rules per vendor or category, and payout statements issued on a schedule.

Workflow and tasks

Returns and disputes per sub-orderReturns and disputes are handled per sub-order, with a moderator's decision recorded.

Messaging and notifications

Vendor metrics and messagingVendor performance metrics, and messaging between vendors and their customers.

Compliance and records

Tax rules per vendor and categoryTax rules are configured per vendor and per category rather than applied platform-wide.
Business and identity verificationVerification at onboarding is recorded against the vendor.

Integrations

Shopping channel feedThe combined catalogue can be sent as a feed to shopping channels.

Roles and permissions

Who does what

Platform admin
- Approve vendor applications and set commission per vendor or category
- Define category templates, policies and platform promotions
- Run payout cycles and see commission, payouts and deductions
- See vendor performance metrics across the platform
Moderator
- Review new and changed listings before they go live
- Open disputes with the sub-order, messages and delivery record in one view
- Decide full or partial refunds and record the reasoning
- Suspend listings or vendors that breach policy
Vendor
- Manage their store page, products, stock and shipping options
- See and fulfil their own sub-orders with carrier labels
- Message customers about their orders
- See payout statements, deductions and performance metrics
Customer
- Browse across vendors and visit vendor pages
- Pay once for a basket spanning several vendors
- Track each parcel and message the vendor
- Open a return or dispute per sub-order and leave reviews

Example screen

Concept demo

Concept demo of the marketplace order view showing one payment split into three vendor sub-orders with status, tracking, commission and an open dispute.

A customer order as the platform admin sees it: one payment split into three sub-orders with their vendor, status and tracking, the commission calculated on each, and an open dispute on the third with the moderator assigned.

Scope and options

What is included and what is extra

In the base package

Vendor application, review, approval and store pages
Vendor-managed products and stock within category templates
Moderation queue for new and changed listings
Storefront with search, filters and vendor pages
Single checkout through a connected payment provider, split into sub-orders per vendor
Per-vendor shipping options, carrier labels and tracking
Commission rules per vendor or category and payout statements on a schedule
Returns and disputes per sub-order with moderator decisions
Vendor performance metrics and vendor-to-customer messaging
Configurable tax rules per vendor and category

Common add-ons

Business and identity verification at onboarding, recorded against the vendor
Platform-wide promotions with vendor opt-in
Shopping channel feed for the combined catalogue

Needs custom work

Platform-booked consolidated deliveries
Delivery-day calendars per vendor and zone
Volume-tiered commission

See the custom development service

Ownership, maintenance and pricing

After the build

Deployment and ownership

The package runs on your hosting or on hosting we manage, chosen in the proposal and changeable later. You own the code and your data either way. Vendor records, products, orders, dispute records and payout statements can be exported in standard formats at any time, and the platform can be moved to another provider. Customer payments and vendor payouts move through the connected payment provider under its terms and are never held by the platform itself.

Maintenance

Maintenance is optional and scoped separately. When taken, it covers security updates to the platform and its dependencies, monitoring of payment provider callbacks, payout runs, carrier connections and notification sends, backups, and a monthly window for small configuration changes such as a new category template, a commission rate or a policy text. Larger changes are quoted as change requests.

Pricing model

Priced per proposal.

The package is sold as a one-off setup and customisation with optional monthly maintenance and hosting as separate recurring lines. The setup figure depends on the number of category templates, the add-ons chosen, the payment provider and its split-payment model, how many vendors and products are migrated and whether you host it yourself. The commission your marketplace charges vendors is your business decision and is not part of what you pay us. Recurring costs are listed on their own lines in the proposal.

Software package

Custom build Concept demo

Variants

Custom Platform : quote for this variant

Vendor application, review, approval and store pages
Vendor-managed products and stock within category templates
Moderation queue for new and changed listings
Storefront with search, filters and vendor pages

Priced per proposal. A written proposal is the only binding figure.

Get a quote for this package Prefer a fully custom build?

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

How does a basket with several vendors get paid and shipped?

The customer pays once through the connected payment provider. The order is split into a sub-order per vendor, each with its own shipping option, label and tracking, and the customer sees each parcel separately on their order page.

Where does the money sit before vendors are paid?

With the payment provider connected during setup, which supports split payments or payouts. The package records sub-orders, commission and deductions and produces the payout statement; it never holds funds itself, and the provider's terms apply.

Do all listings have to be moderated?

No. The admin chooses per category or per vendor whether new and changed listings wait in the moderation queue or go live at once, and can switch a trusted vendor to automatic approval later.

How are disputes decided?

By your moderator, not by the software. The dispute view brings together the sub-order, the vendor's messages, the delivery record and the customer's evidence, and the moderator records a full or partial refund with the reasoning, deducted from the vendor's next payout.

How is VAT handled across vendors?

Through tax rules configured per vendor and category, applied per line at checkout and shown on the order and the payout statement. Which rules apply to which vendor is set by you from the information vendors provide; the package applies the rules and does not decide them.

Is this a finished product I can see running?

Not yet. The readiness badge shows the real state: the package is a custom build assembled from our multi-vendor, catalogue, orders and messaging modules for each operator, and the example on this page is a labelled concept demo rather than a live marketplace.

We collect from vendors and deliver ourselves. Is that included?

The package assumes each vendor ships its own sub-orders. Platform-booked consolidated deliveries with collection manifests are custom work handled through the custom marketplace platform service.

Get a quote for Multi vendor marketplace package

Tell us about your locations, the people who will use it and the add-ons you need. We reply with a clear, competitive proposal.