A marketplace is not a shop with extra suppliers. It is several businesses sharing a storefront, and the hard part is the money.
Vendors manage their own catalogue and orders. You set the commission. Payouts are calculated and tracked without a spreadsheet in the middle.
"Payouts are where marketplaces break. Not the catalogue, not the checkout — the month somebody has to work out what nine vendors are owed and prove it." Where this earns its place
The commission ledger is double-entry, same as the rest of the money side. A vendor dispute becomes a query rather than an investigation.
Running it
The operational shape of a marketplace.
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01
Vendors apply and are approved
Through a form you control, into a queue rather than an email thread, with a record of who approved what and when.
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02
They manage their own catalogue
Products, prices, stock and fulfilment, in a portal scoped to them. They cannot see each other, and they cannot see you.
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03
Orders split cleanly
One basket, several vendors. The customer gets one confirmation and one tracking view; each vendor gets only their part.
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04
Commission is calculated and settled
Per vendor, per category or per product. Statements each vendor can pull themselves, so month-end is not a negotiation.
Scoped access
Who can see what, because these are separate businesses.
You
- Every vendor and order
- Commission and payout ledger
- Approval and dispute history
- The whole catalogue
Each vendor
- Their products and stock
- Their orders only
- Their statement and payouts
- Nothing about anyone else
The customer
- One basket
- One confirmation
- One tracking view
- One place to complain
Next step
See it with your own products in it.
We will set up a sandbox with two vendors and a split order, so you can see the commission and payout ledger with your own numbers in it.
- What we will want
- A sample of your real catalogue
- What you will see
- Your business, not a demo shop
- What we will tell you
- Honestly, whether this is worth moving for yet