A Complete Guide To Create Marketplace With Magento

Magento has dominated the eCommerce marketplace since its debut in 2008. Later, in 2018, it re-emerged as Adobe Commerce after Adobe Inc. acquired Magento. This shift was remarkable since it created an exciting and innovative synergy that aligned Adobe’s digital experience proficiency with Magento’s eCommerce prowess. 

Open-source, feature-rich, and built on the Zend PHP framework, Magento helps online retailers:

• Create eCommerce marketplace solutions
• Manage its different aspects like supply chain management, payment processing, inventory management, CRM, analytics and marketing, etc.

Currently, Magento is available in three versions. They are: 

• Magento Open Source, the free version popularly used by businesses to build eCommerce platforms 
• Magento Commerce or Adobe Commerce, the paid version that offers a variety of additional features and official Magento support 
• Magento Commerce Cloud/Adobe Commerce Cloud, a cloud-based edition that runs on Amazon Web Services (hence, hosting charges are not required) and provides all features of Magento Commerce and Magento open-source

Today, Magento is counted as one of the top 10 eCommerce platforms. It is a powerhouse of robust capabilities and outstanding features. Its popularity transcends geographies as it caters to the diverse needs of businesses worldwide with its flexibility, scalability, and extensive customization options. Today, over 2,50,000 merchants have built aesthetically and functionally brilliant eCommerce websites with Magento.

Reasons For Choosing Magento Open-Source For A  B2b Ecommerce Marketplace

Developers can freely access Magento’s source code. Thus, eCommerce platforms developed using Magento can be extensively personalized to suit varied business needs. Additionally, being rebranded as Adobe Magento enhanced its credibility and provided the world with further proof of its sustainability.

The fact that Magento is an open-source platform considerably reduces the initial investment cost. This is a boon for start-ups and entrepreneurs who gain a spectacular online eCommerce marketplace at relatively lower price points.

Other critical reasons for choosing Magento open-source include:

Responsiveness

With mobile shopping growing in popularity, a responsive website becomes a mandatory requirement. Magento ensures a smooth and seamless user journey across devices, screens, and platforms. Thus, customer experience improves, bounce rate reduces, and conversions increase.

Flexibility and Scalability

Magento and scalability are synonymous. It can seamlessly handle all aspects of eCommerce business, from growing product catalogs to increased orders and high traffic volumes. Depending on growing business requirements, developers can capitalize on Magento’s modular architecture to extend and customize its features and functionalities. Consequently, as the business evolves, so does the platform.

Rich Feature Set

A Magento 2 marketplace has multiple built-in features like catalog management, robust marketing tools, payment gateways, advanced search options, order management, etc. Magento caters to the entire spectrum of eCommerce needs, thereby reducing the need for extensive third-party integrations. This further reduces the ecommerce marketplace development costs.

High Performance and Fast Loading

With an optimized codebase, advanced integrated technologies, and full-page caching, Magento contributes to high website performance, swift page loads, and better user experiences.

Security and Updates

Extensive handling of sensitive customer data requires all eCommerce marketplace platforms to offer comprehensive internet security tools and features. Magento 2 prioritizes security by being PCI DSS or Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard compliant, offering frequent regular security updates and patches, etc. PCI DSS compliance incites trust among customers by securing payment transactions.

Multi-Store Management

Today, online businesses must operate multiple stores to ensure profitability. Managing them using a single platform can be challenging. Open-source Magento makes it easy to centrally manage multiple stores, each with distinct branding and product catalogs. This reduces administrative overhead by simplifying operations.

Multi-Vendor Support

With the multiple vendor support offered developers can easily create a marketplace with Magento that supports buy/sell transactions by multiple vendors. Integrating this feature in eCommerce marketplace development helps businesses increase their eCommerce profitability.

Powerful Reporting

To improve the effectiveness of adopted strategies, businesses must draw accurate insights from their data. With Magento 2, businesses can efficiently track business operations, customer behavior, inventory, and financial transactions. Thus, they stay updated about real-time business performance and use the insights gained from data analytics to make precise, result-oriented business strategies and offer improved customer experiences.

SEO Optimized

Online visibility is crucial for eCommerce success. The rich SEO features of Magento improve the overall online presence of a Magento b2b marketplace. The presence of search engine-friendly URLs, meta tags and descriptions, sitemaps, layered navigation, keywords, etc., enhances its chances of attaining a high rank on the SERP (Search Engine Results Page). With web visitor tracking and analysis being an important feature of Magento SEO, it is definitely one of the best eCommerce solutions for businesses of any size. 

Versatile CMS

Magento CMS excels in its SEO-friendliness, security, and performance. This makes it one of the preferred b2b eCommerce marketplace development platforms today. Using Magento’s robust, user-friendly backend, merchants can efficiently manage orders, inventory, products, customer profiles, and data. Magento CMS is nothing less than a versatile eCommerce powerhouse that drives online growth and success by creating feature-rich and scalable digital stores. 

Third-Party Integrations

Magento is the ideal choice for omnichannel eCommerce marketplace development. Being an API-led platform makes it compatible with multiple plugins/extensions. These extensions help connect the online store with the POS (point of sales), making it easy to manage and track inventory, cash, and customers. Seamless third-party integrations open up many business opportunities, making Magento one of the best omnichannel solutions for eCommerce marketplace development.

Top-Notch Developer Community Support

An active and vibrant community of developers, eCommerce marketplace experts, and designers support Magento 2. Thus, the internet is flooded with resources, forums, and tutorials, making it easy for Magento developers to advance their technical knowledge and easily resolve development complexities. 

Global Reach

Geographical or demographical boundaries do not bind ECommerce. Most eCommerce marketplace developers leverage Magento’s multi-lingual, multi-currency, and multi-taxation support to facilitate the international expansion of their websites. This global reach of an eCommerce marketplace is further enhanced by Magento’s ability to flawlessly integrate with payment gateways and shipping carriers worldwide.

How to create a marketplace with magento open source in 11 easy steps?

While creating an eCommerce marketplace with Magento open-source may seem daunting, breaking it down into 11 simple steps will help reduce its complexity. Let us briefly look at the steps you must undertake to build a Magento open-source eCommerce website successfully.

Magento’s server requirements

Like the other eCommerce platforms, Magento has certain server-specific requirements that must be met to enable flawless Magento 2 marketplace development. These requirements pertain to the operating system, the web server, memory, database, and security. Additionally, it is important to download PHP.

Web host and domain name choice

Choose a web hosting plan that includes an SSL certification. This SSL certification will be critical to your security strategy while integrating your Magento marketplace with payment gateways. Choosing and registering the domain name at this point is also a smart move. The domain name will be your website address and play a critical role in your branding. Many web hosts offer domains as part of their plans. But, if that is not available, choose a different source.

Download to install Magento open source

Now head over to the product page and download Magento open source. Several download format options will be available. Choose one that best suits your requirements. You can also download Magento open-source with or without its accompanying sample data. Install the Magento open-source platform after downloading by configuring the required system settings.

Admin setting configuration

Before installing, you will be prompted to change a few admin configuration settings. For example, you will be prompted to provide a new admin username and password. Additionally, specify where you want your Magento download to be stored on your server. Determine the URL path to your admin login page and complete the installation of the Magento open-source.

Theme choice and installation

To give your b2b ecommerce marketplace a unique look, decide on the theme and download it. You can also customize a theme to make it resonate with your audience. 

Theme customization

Modify your theme settings by customizing your eCommerce website setup. Upload your logo and embed the other elements you want to integrate. Most importantly, edit your webpages and widgets. Also, edit the blocks that make up the structure of your website. You must have in-depth knowledge of the content hierarchy that Magento follows. This will help you build additional web pages and create multiple stores that offer multiple views within a single website.

Exploring Magento extensions

Improve and add functionalities to your store by searching for relevant functionalities in the Magento marketplace. A few common Magento multi-vendor extension categories available include security, marketing, analytics tracking, payment gateways, shipping, etc. 

Store setting modification

This is the last step before adding products to your eCommerce website. Personalize your eCommerce website settings by including options such as location and time zones, currency settings, email addresses for transactions, local/global price scope, customer account settings, etc.

Setting up product pages

Select the product type to integrate relevant templates. Update the product description, image, price, stock-keeping unit, etc. Optional information can also be included. Save your product information and publish them after you have completed entering the information for all your products. 

Payment and shipping option selection

Choose from the wide range of payment and shipping options offered by Magento open-source. You can also use extensions to enhance payment and shipping functionalities. Further, you can configure the payment options based on your requirements.

Preview and launch

Use a staging environment to preview your developed  Magento 2 marketplace and then launch them onto your production or live environment.

How Robust is the Magento Architecture

At its highest level, the modular Magento open-source architecture comprises a core product code and optional modules capable of enhancing or replacing basic product codes. These are organized in layers and empower Magento to:

• Separate business and presentation logic, thereby simplifying the marketplace Magento customization process
• Organize the code in a precise manner to make it easy for developers to reach predicted code locations

However, the architecture of Magento 2 is different. The model in Magento 2’s Model View ViewModel or MVVM architecture refers to:

• The system’s business logic and
• State of the application

This layer enables developers to apply rules to data and eventually represent concepts managed by the eCommerce marketplace application. 

The View is the graphical interface, a layout specifying how the data will be presented. The ViewModel demarcates the two layers and is an intermediary between the Model and View. It interacts with the Model Layer to expose only relevant and required information to the View layer. 

This architectural model of Magento makes the source code adaptable and comprehensive. Each business logic and functionality can be constructed as modules that can individually function as independent entities. This makes it easy for Magento to adapt to the project requirements. 

Types of Magento Marketplace you should know about

But before proceeding further, let us quickly define an eCommerce marketplace. In a marketplace, several third-party vendors can showcase their offerings and services. Vendors have first to create an account. Only then can they sell their products and services on the website. Marketplaces are more popular than online stores because they offer customers many different options to choose from. This is also a very profitable option for store owners who can increase potential sales conversions by offering product variety.

An application store, the Magento marketplace, or Adobe Commerce marketplace offers registered merchants a curated selection of eCommerce solutions to build a thriving business. They also offer an eclectic selection of free and paid extensions. 

Now that you know what a marketplace is, you must choose the type of marketplace you want to build. Magento is famous for its generous offerings. Hence, it offers two types of marketplace options. You can either opt for a single-vendor marketplace or a multi-vendor marketplace. Understanding them individually will help you to choose which one to implement easily. 

• Single-vendor marketplace

One website showcasing all the services and products one vendor offers. Depending on your target audience, this can be a Magento B2B marketplace or B2C website. Only two parties are involved in this type of website. These standalone websites are perfect if you want to sell a specific brand of products or services. 

• Multi-vendor marketplace

You must have seen multiple vendors displaying their products online on Amazon and eBay. Those eCommerce websites are known as multi-vendor websites. You can either migrate from being an online store to a Magento multi-vendor marketplace or build one from scratch. Either way, 3 different categories will use this website if you opt for a multi-vendor marketplace. They are the system admins, the vendors, and the end customers.

System admins manage all vendor and customer activities taking place on the website. The vendor sells its products using a different panel and login, while the customers use a different panel to log in and access the products. 

Magento extensions play a critical role in enhancing the performance and functionalities of a Magento eCommerce marketplace. Essentially plugins or add-ons, these extensions help extend the default capabilities and features of a Magento marketplace. For example, the Magento 2 Testimonials Manager extension allows you to display and manage customer testimonials on the Magento store. Further, the Help Desk Magento multi-vendor extension helps bridge the gap between customers and the support team. At the same time, the Google Language Translate Extension translates the store’s contents into different languages. This is a very powerful Magento multi-vendor extension that truly enhances the global reach of a Magento store. 

The Must-have Feature List to Create Marketplace With Magento For Single & Multi-vendor Platform

What makes the Magento marketplace unique? The features you integrate give you the competitive edge to attract customers and enhance conversions. Let us look at the features you can integrate into a single vendor or a Magento multi-vendor marketplace. While the features do not vary broadly, we have compiled a list stating the utility of different features for the two marketplaces.

Features	Single vendor marketplace	Multi-vendor marketplace
Sign in & sign up	Two kinds of sign in and sign up features for admin and users. Secure sign in and sign up with two-factor authentication.	Three different kinds of sign in and sign up feature, for admin, vendor, and the user.
Profile management	The admin will be able to manage various user profiles on the website.	With the same feature on a multi-vendor platform, the admin will be able to manage both user and vendor profiles.
Smooth UI/UX design	The UI/UX will determine the ease and efficiency of the users on the platform. This will make sure that they come back to the website again.	Similar to the single-vendor marketplace, the smooth UI/US design will not only make sure of repeat customers, but it will also attract many vendors on your platform for its popularity.
Notifications	Users will be able to receive notifications about new products, sales, and various offers.	As the users receive notifications about new products, sales, and offers, the vendors will be able to receive notifications about the number of orders, delivery, payment and many more.
Easy check out	The user should be able to easily check out once they have chosen a product.	Similar to the single vendor marketplace, the customer should be able to quickly check out without having to go through numerous steps
Management panel for the admin	The admin panel will help the admin to keep up with all the users registered on the website, the orders placed, deliveries and payment details, report generation and many more. The admin panel is necessary to manage the overall function of the website.	Similar to the single vendor marketplace, the admin panel on the multi-vendor marketplace helps the admin to manage orders, products, deliveries. It also enables them to keep in contact with the vendors.
Payment gateways	On both the single-vendor and multi-vendor marketplace websites, you will need to add a payment gateway. Gateway such as Paypal, PayU money are quite popular among the developers.	Similar to the single-vendor eCommerce website, you will need a payment gateway for easy payment.
Category management	This feature is necessary for a single vendor website only if it happens to sell more than one kind of product.	It’s an important feature for the multi-vendor module created using Magento 2, as different vendors will sell different kinds of products, and the customers need a way to choose from the categories.
Feedback and reviews	It enables users to leave reviews on various products.	It enables the users to leave reviews on various products and vendors.

There are many other features such as marketplace booking in Magent for sellers that let them update their products. However, if you are beginning with an MVP, then the above features are a must.

Tech Stack For A Magento Marketplace Development

Choosing the right tech stack is important for the development of any project. It is even more so for a Magento marketplace because the right tech stack will play a significant role in its success. But what is a tech stack? It is a collection of tools, frameworks, and tech languages used to develop a web solution, software, web app, etc. 

The frontend or client side and the backend or server side are critical parts of any online marketplace platform.  The main components involved in building the frontend and backend include:

Front end	HTML 5, CSS 3, Magento 2.0
Back end	Magento 2.0
Server	MySQL

Magento Community vs Enterprise Edition: Which One To Choose?

This is one of the leading questions a Magento marketplace developer is frequently asked. To answer this, you must first understand that the Magento community edition is free while the Enterprise edition is a paid version. They are also meant for different business sizes. For example, the Community edition is suited for small businesses, while the Enterprise edition is best for building professional businesses. Let us look at the key differences between the two.

Let us also consider three key areas of comparison that significantly impact the working of the Magento eCommerce marketplace.

Security Requirements

If you need a robust security system backing your eCommerce website, then choosing the Magento Enterprise solution would be better. Regarding security, the enterprise edition is far ahead of the free edition. With Magento Enterprise Edition, you can access secure payment gateways, regular scanning for security breaches, external penetration tests, and many other security supports.

Performance Quality

If your eCommerce website is small with fewer resources, choosing the Community version would be better for you, as it provides faster performance to small marketplace websites. And if you still need better functionalities, add the third-party Magento marketplace extensions to your website. 

On the other hand, if your website happens to be bigger with numerous resources and handling a lot of orders and traffic, choosing the Magento Enterprise edition would be a better decision. With the enterprise edition, you will get many additional features, such as deploying your software through the Enterprise cloud to increase the deployment speed.

Scope For Future Growth

Before you make the choice, you must consider the future business requirements. If you want to grow your eCommerce platform in the future and offer several products from more than one vendor, then you should definitely choose the Enterprise edition. It is built to be scalable and support the future growth of the business.

The Difference Between Functionality

There isn’t much difference between the Community and the enterprise edition. These versions offer the same functionalities, such as RMA functionality, Customer segmentation, content staging, Advanced ACL, and many more. 

The only difference is that you get access to additional features with the enterprise version. So, if you want to take advantage of the additional functionalities of the enterprise version, then you should choose the Magento Enterprise version.

So, Which One Should You Choose to Create a Marketplace With Magento?

By making a feature-to-feature comparison between the two, it can be inferred that the Magento Enterprise edition is an advanced version of Magento Community. While the Enterprise version offers an advanced eCommerce marketplace platform, not all businesses can afford the associated license fees. Such businesses will benefit from selecting the Community version and upgrading its capabilities by integrating the required extensions.

On the other hand, most big organizations looking for custom marketplace development will prefer using the Enterprise version. Hence, the choice of the Magento version depends on the budget and project requirements of the business looking to build a Magento eCommerce marketplace.

Conclusion

The development of modern eCommerce marketplace websites has certainly become popular and profitable. With that in mind, you must choose the right platform to build your website. And choosing Magento will help you grow your business in the future. And if you need help, feel free to contact us cause we would love to help.