What is the best marketplace extension for Magento 2 in 2019?
Magento 2 needs no introduction to anyone running an e-commerce business in today’s tech first corporate environment. This handy tool makes the operational side of e-commerce much easier: from managing the webshop to improving customer experience. In addition to the core Magento 2 platform, there are hundreds of extensions out there that give you new and more advanced functionalities for running your webshop. They can tackle challenges as broad as boosting your search engine visibility or as simple as adding an Instagram widget to the page.
Perhaps the most powerful extensions of all are the multi-vendor marketplace extensions that allow you to take your business to a whole new level. With those tools, a one-seller store can turn into a go-to destination for customers shopping for products in your specific niche. But with so many extensions available on the market, it’s not an easy choice.
What to take into account when choosing a marketplace extension?
Before switching to a multi-vendor model, it’s good to understand why you’re making the change and what new functionalities will you need to get there.
A marketplace shop has advantages for both sellers and store owners. For small sellers, it’s important that they can sell their products without having to invest time and money into creating their own webshop. They also benefit from the reputation of the bigger store and get exposure from being featured on the page. What matters from the vendor perspective is to be able to have their own customizable seller page where customers can leave reviews – this allows them to create their unique brand and grow the brand’s reputation which is ever more important.
For store owners, the marketplace model is a change to become a one-stop-shop for their niche. Sellers have different products and different price points and buyers are always looking for a variety of choices. Even if a buyer doesn’t purchase the product that attracted them to the store in the first place, they are likely to stay on the page and browse further. This means more traffic and better sales conversion for store owners.
What’s important for store owners are the admin features. Depending on your business, you might want to have the option to approve products that are added to the stores (for curation, for example) and settle payments with vendors. It’s important to decide in advance what admin features are required by your business and shop for extensions that tick all the boxes.
Our choice for marketplace extension
Purpletree Magento 2 Multi-Vendor Marketplace extension combines practical and user-friendly functionalities from both the store owner and seller side. It gives the store owner the choice over how much power to have in their shop: depending on your needs, it can be as hands-on or as automatic as you want it to be (and you can adjust those preferences as you go). It also caters to the needs of vendors making it incredibly easy to set up shop in your marketplace and turn a small side-business into a profitable venture.
On the customer end, Purpletree extension takes care of common issues such as splitting the order or contacting individual vendors. It aims to create a seamless shopping experience as if the buyer was dealing with a simple one-seller web store.
Key features: Purpletree Multi-vendor Marketplace extension
Vendor Panel: a simple dashboard allows vendors to access their product and orders information and manage the profile.
Easy registration: store owners can create a registration link and put it in the header or footer of the website for new vendors to access easily.
Reviews and rating: customer can review and rate individual seller stores helping them to establish themselves and gain reputability.
Add/edit vendors: a store owner can edit seller information and delete existing seller accounts.
Manage categories: a store owner can edit or add categories to the seller profile and determine what categories sellers can choose from.
Manage commissions: commission payable to the store owner can be set on a global level (applying to the whole store) or on a vendor or category level.
Read also What are the benefits of Magento 2 marketplace solution
Bottom line There’s no one-size-fits-all solution for any business type and e-commerce is no different. The Purpletree extension should allow you to run your online marketplace flawlessly, but before you commit, think about the exact features you need for your shop. Make sure to check if the extension of your choice ticks all the boxes and don’t hesitate to ask questions if anything isn’t clear from the website. A reliable provider will assist you in making the best decision for your webstore.
