It was just like a dream when a big brand like Amazon thought about launching a Multi-Store Online Shopping Platform without holding any product warehouse.
This way, it makes it very easy for online traders, retailers, and those who display their products easily and get sales.
Many online entrepreneurs believe that displaying their products on a Multi-Store Platform will bring more sales for them.
A platform like Amazon, AliExpress, Shopify, and the rest already have customers who come directly to the store.
They don’t necessarily need to rely on other sources to get visitors because they already have theirs.
So, online sellers have started using these platforms to display their products and get results in return.
Let us quickly go deep into what multi-store online shopping is all about.
Below are the things you will learn from this guide:
- What is a multi-store online shopping platform?
- How to Manage Your Multiple Store Online Shopping Platform
- How Multi-Store Online Shopping Benefits Your Customers
- Things To Take Note of When Launching Your Multi-Store Online Shopping Platform
- Conclusion
What is a multi-store online shopping platform?
A multi-store online shopping platform is a website that gives room for many sellers to come to display their products and make sales in which a percentage of any sales made from selling a product goes to the website.
This is a fantastic way to make money online and grow a successful brand without needing to own a single product.
There are a lot of online sellers and manufacturers out there who have a lot of products at their storehouse.
If you can create a Multi-Store Shopping Platform for them where they can display their stuff – you have done them a huge favor and you will only charge them some percentage.
Instead of you trying to hold inventory of products – you are making money from other people’s products.
Also, you are the one in control of the details about the product, sales of the product, and also the distribution to customers.
So, it’s all handled by you – but you just have to know the basics about this.
There is some stuff that you have to know about Multi store or Multi-vendor online marketplace.
And that is what we are going to look at in the next aspects of this guide.
How to Manage Your Multiple Store Online Shopping Platform
- Create eCommerce content & SEO Strategies.
- Create a master inventory database.
- Specify niche and region for each store.
- Manage Content Effectively.
1. Create an eCommerce content & SEO Strategies:
To get a lot of people who are online sellers interested in what you have to offer.
Then you need to create a lot of eCommerce content and start optimizing your content for the Search engines to crawl it.
I tell people that the best way for them to get long-lasting results from their stress is by doing SEO.
Because it gives you the ability to keep increasing your revenue even without knowing where the source comes from.
You have to optimize your website and make it stay focused on anything eCommerce and online selling.
This is the way that many online sellers will get to know you and also create more close marking with your brand.
You have to know that the competition in this niche is tight and there are already a lot of big boys in this field.
Among them is a billionaire brand called “Amazon” which is owned by Jeff Bezos and is working hard daily to satisfy more of his audience.
Also, people are interested in getting sales – so, even if you promise them that they will make sales.
You have to deliver because it is very easy for them to register with your website without complaining.
So you need SEO to get real sellers who will display products on your store and also need buyers to find your website online.
Just imagine when you search for some products on Google – you will see Amazon at the top page.
That is the power of SEO and you will buy because you believe in Google.
2. Create a master inventory database:
You need to develop a quality database for your store because that is the way forward.
A lot of things will happen that might try to pull your down when you start getting the result on your platform.
There will be a lot of hackers trying to penetrate your website and you might even experience worse.
Sometimes even the hosting platform that you are using for your website can be an obstacle.
Because once they see that you have started developing and getting a lot of visitors – that is when they start charging your high.
Or start decreasing the loading capacity of the tour website and so many more which are not going to be revealed here in this guide.
But the best thing for you to do is to master your inventory database and make sure to secure your website.
Because you cannot afford to lose all the hard work that you have invested into your Multi-store platform.
When you have everything secured – it becomes easy for you to quickly move to another server.
If a server is not performing well, you can gladly move to another one which will save you the stress.
The sellers coming into your website are coming to load a lot of inventories on your website.
And you cannot afford to lose them – so, let your database be very solid to crack.
3. Specify niche and region for each store:
When you go on Amazon – you cannot see them jampack products all together in a scattered way.
They always have a niche and region for a separate types of products because this is what the sellers will follow.
Anytime they want to publish their products – they will have to select a category which the product falls to.
This makes it easy for buyers to just click on a category that wishes to get a product from and they will get recommendations of their target product.
Just imagine when searches for Shoe and start getting the chain saw as recommendations.
That is very bad and will only piss off your buyers which will make them bounce from the website.
That is why it is very important to segment your store and make it easy for each store to have its niches.
Don’t jampack products altogether- let there be niches where everyone can display what he or she has.
4. Manage Content Effectively:
Running a multi-store platform requires a lot of content on the website because a lot of sellers will be coming to display their products.
And selling these days requires a lot of detailed information for any buyer to decide on a purchase.
So, the need for effective content management is necessary which must be structured properly.
It is important to give a note for every product that is posted on the platform and handle it accordingly.
Also, an effective content structure must be made available in which you align the content in a way that will be easy for the customers to digest.
If you check out Amazon or AliExpress for example – you will see their content structure.
There is a place for customers to write reviews about what they experience with the purchase of the product.
There is an aspect for dropping questions and getting answers on a particular product.
There is an upsell and downsell aspect which makes it very profitable to earn more from a customer.
The review aspect is just very important because you cannot know how quality all the product is.
So, from the review – that is how you know products that should keep existing on your platform or the ones that should be banned.
How Multi-Store Online Shopping Benefits Your Customers
- They Provide an Easy Shopping Experience.
- Great communication.
- Maximize savings.
- Relating Details.
- It Builds Strong Relationships.
- Sincerity.
There are several ways through which a Multistore Online Shopping Platform benefits the customers
They have several benefits and that is what we will be reviewing in this guide below:
1. They Provide Easy shopping Experience:
The shopping experience is always easy and fun for customers in this type of store.
The reason is that it is just like a marketplace where people can easily buy from different kinds and types of sellers.
Just in a certain niche – there can be thousands of sellers who are displaying their wares.
So, buyers can keep navigating from one
Store to another just to search for the best to buy.
The majority are always in for the best product with a lesser price and that is why they always navigate a lot.
So, this reason is why shopping becomes fun for them and that is why anyone doing this type of business must create room for enough navigation.
There must be countless numbers of categories and niches in your platform where people can go to.
They can easily type out “iPhone” and they will see countless suggestions that will be in the aspect of iPhone.
Not typing “iPhone” and seeing “Ladies Bra” – that is why it is important to always create enough room in your Platform.
Because this is what will keep customers staying for a long time and not bouncing off from the platform.
Also, if you are doing affiliate approval and deal on the website… Affiliates can easily get a lot of products to promote.
This is why Amazon is winning big because there is enough room for navigation and sellers can display the way they wish.
2. Great communication:
Part of the reason why you must always manage your content effectively is to encourage great communication.
Sometimes, I enter some Multi-Store Shopping platforms and I won’t see any review space.
You must always encourage reviews from your customers because that is what will motivate future customers to buy and also leave their reviews.
Reviews are very important because it brings more communication between the customers and the company.
With multi-store shopping – there is better room for communication and dropping of the necessary information on the platform.
That is why buyers like this type of platform – they can navigate and see what people are saying from a different angle.
Unlike a single store where they are only limited to the reviews given on one store.
But here… there are a lot of stores to view from and if you don’t like the review from a certain store.
More rooms are available to go communicate and ask questions in another room or store where you can get an answer.
That is why a store like Amazon and AliExpress gives space for asking if questions about a product.
Where those who have used such a product will answer their thought about the product.
It is just to encourage more people to buy and also leave more thoughts about the product.
This is more like a Marketplace and so – it must be very friendly and communicating.
3. Maximize savings:
The moment customers start having the means to penetrate multi-stores and do their shopping.
They will have enough savings at hand because they can easily buy cheaply from several stores.
Unlike them just entering one store and they don’t have many alternatives because they are only limited to the things the online store owner presents them.
This is more than all that because they have several recommendations and can easily buy from cheaper brands.
When there are multiple stores to select and buy from – you can easily save a lot of money.
A product that should have cost you $100 can easily be bought at $80 from another store which you can easily keep the remaining change.
Creating a multi-store platform is a stress for the Creator and CEO.
But it’s big savings and cruise for the buyers since they have a lot of alternatives to choose from.
So, savings are more encouraged for the buyer when products can be bought cheaper and easier.
Also, some bad products that should have been bought unknowingly would be executed.
The reason is that the buyers will be seeing reviews from other sellers who have bought it.
And because reviews are being controlled by the central unit – there is still less risk for the buyers.
4. Relating Details:
The information on a multi-store platform is always relevant and relating to what the customers are wanting.
The majority of the time – what they saw is even above their expectations.
Sometimes a buyer can only have plans to buy a certain product for a higher price than expected.
Then by the time he comes into the store – he will see another thing more superior to what he was expecting for a lesser price.
The reason is that there is a lot of relating content that is on the platform.
There are a lot of products and other recommendations that the buyers are seeing which is making them flex more.
Content on a particular category will always blend and make sense to the mind of the buyer.
This is just an experience we have all had as online buyers
You would have bought products from amazon or AliExpress before and you can see how well they structure stuff.
It’s something that even makes us buy more than what we budgeted sometimes when we see the quality and price the products are tagged.
That is why content must be very relevant when doing this kind of business.
Customers want something relevant and relating which will make them satisfied more.
5. It Builds Strong Relationship:
Multi-store online shopping builds strong relationships between customers and also with brands.
Whenever a purchase is made – customers are always eager to also come to relay their thoughts about the product.
Multi-store online shopping makes it very easy for a regular person to just build good relationships with several people.
Also, since a lot of people are navigating this store – they give out their best thoughts on why a product is good or bad.
Also, enough relationships do exist between the seller and the buyer because there is room for sincerity.
This gives more space for customers to engage more and also feel okay to ask more questions.
That is why you check out some comment sections – you will see some particular customers talking about the active rate of the seller.
They like a seller that is always active and ready to quickly reply.
And you will see them saying they will come back to always patronize the seller some other time.
This is the relationship that is being built on this platform because of the chat Interface between buyers and sellers.
And more room is available for continuity in case the buyer wants to buy.
So, a stronger relationship is being built between both parties because they are on a third-party platform.
6. Sincerity:
There is always adequate sincerity on multi-store online platforms because of the competition among sellers.
I was trying to buy a laptop recent from a platform where there are several sellers on it.
As I was asking them questions concerning what I needed in a laptop that I wish to buy – I can feel the sincerity from them.
They know that there is a lot of competition and if they should lie about what they have – it is going to backbite in their comment and review area.
So, it made them cere in what they are doing and always looking forward to more patronage from buyers.
This is the reason why as a buyer – I will always prefer to make use of multi-store platforms to make my purchase.
I was willing to buy the laptop for my sister who just gained admission into the college.
So, I needed some specifications that will suit her type and I was glad about the answers I was getting.
This is the major reason why many buyers like these kinds of a store because there room for many questions.
Also, looking at the aspect of sincerity – a seller knows that if he or she is not sincere enough.
The platform can ban his or her account and bounce him off from selling on that multi-store platform.
So, sincerity is always assured in this Platform.
Things To Take Note of When Launching Your Multi-Store Online Shopping Platform
- Offer Value-Added Services.
- Geographic Synchronization.
- Employ A Strict System.
There are some things that you have to take note of and jot down if you want to launch a successful multi-store eCommerce platform.
Since there will be a lot of traffic and it looks like you are creating a marketplace for many buyers and sellers.
Then you need to know that there are some things that you must put into consideration when setting things up.
There will be some minor things that you will take note of when trying to launch your platform.
But these few things stated here are very important so that you can have them in mind when doing things.
Let us dive deep into them right now!
1. Offer Value-Added Services:
You have to offer some value-added services to your multi-store platform to entice buyers to buy more and sellers to sell well.
You Major goal to launch a multi-store platform should be to protect the right and secure the safety of your customers.
Failure to secure the safety of your customers – then you will start experiencing some scammers and uncalled-for activities going on inside your platform.
You have to know that sellers will only keep coming ago into your platform only when buyers are buying.
But it is among the sellers that will want to ruin your goals if you are not careful.
Although they will be the ones to be listing out the products – they will also be the ones ruining the reputation of the brand.
So, value-added services like money-back guarantee, exchange of goods, delivery, customer protection rights are all included.
And every seller must be aware of all these – to be able to maintain a quality website.
The value that you are providing here is for the safety of your buyers just like I have stated earlier.
Your buyers are the ones who will be the Payoneer of the brand – they are just like the ones lifting the brand high.
So, always take proper accuracy of the way that you handle your website and make sure that all the Value-Added features are taken seriously.
2. Geographic Synchronization:
Another important feature that you have to take note of is the fact that there will be many sellers from different geographic locations.
If you are operating an international multi-store platform for example. If you are only operating locally – you don’t need this.
But if you are doing it internationally and need a lot of sellers coming and selling from different countries.
Then you need to take note of their timezone and take adequate measures on that.
A lot of sellers will be coming from several spheres of life and you have to make sure that their orders flow with their time.
Also, there must be focused emphasis made on buyers who come from their countries so that delivery can be easy.
You have to structure your platform in a way that, if a buyer comes from a particular country…
…the recommendations that should be shown to him or her should be from sellers who are from that same country.
This way, enough engagement can occur and they can both talk and close any deal they want to exchange.
But just imagine if a buyer is coming from another time zone and the seller is also in another time zone.
Most times, it might be when the seller is sleeping that the buyer will decide to place an order.
Or it might be that time that the buyer will want to ask some questions before buying.
And if the seller is sleeping – this will lead to a break in communication and the buyer might decide to leave and never come back.
So, you have to make sure that the time one of your buyers is directly related to that of the seller.
3. Employ A Strict System:
When you look at some top multi-store platforms out there – you will see that they employ a strict service.
Which makes it easy for them to control their platform and not make encounter rumor problems.
If you don’t try as much as possible to protect your platform – you will see experience internal problems with your platform.
That is why in one of the aspects of this guide above – I talked about the reason why you must make sure to keep your buyers as the priority.
This is something that platforms like Amazon are inculcating because they don’t joke with their customers.
And if there is any seller that misbehaves – he or she will be blocked from selling on the platform.
The truth about this is that you will be tagged some names that are bad by the sellers because of your strict system.
But this is important because – sellers who will uplift the dignity of the brand in the view of the buyers will stay.
And this way you will be able to maintain. A high standard in anything that you are doing concerning your brand.
It’s just a matter of trying hard to maintain a good reputation for your multi-store platform.
That way, you keep progressing with whatever you are doing.
Conclusion
As a buyer and lover of Multi-Store Online Shopping – I like the fact that there is enough competition and the ability to select among multitudes.
Unlike a single store where I am only limited to the products and activities on the store.
That is why the Multi-Store Online platform is also a nice business for anyone thinking of just doing a business online.
You can easily be doing this without holding any inventory of goods since all the products will be posted by other sellers.
So, this is a very nice business to launch and I wish you the best of luck in it if you decide to launch it.
Also, make sure you take note of the quality information given in this guide to work well with your plan.
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