One online shop to become online mall/marketplace?

[Guest]

In the short future I was thinking to extend my online store (about to be opened in few days) to instead of only selling merchandises to my IT community I manage, but opening it like an IT mall/marketplace, where any members/third party could sell their products (physical or software download) and I can get some space rent or sales commission or something like that.

 

I was thinking to translate and extend Manufacturers to Merchants/Stores, with probably some additional development or available contributions for product management and sales reporting (e.g. each store owner will have his own login to simplified Admin panel, etc).

 

I came into a contribution called Multi-Stores. I haven't seen it thoroughly, but do you think it will suit my needs? Or is there any other alternative contributions?

 

When available I would like to implement and test it ASAP before I open the store in few days.

[nana]

i have not used this but there is a demo

http://www.oscommerce.com/community/contri...rch,add+product

or

http://www.oscommerce.com/community/contri...arch,multi+shop

if you want to give a store to each

[Guest]

i have not used this but there is a demo

http://www.oscommerce.com/community/contri...rch,add+product

or

http://www.oscommerce.com/community/contri...arch,multi+shop

if you want to give a store to each

 

I haven't tried to install and test both, but from what I see:

 

Customer Add Product contribution:

- Authorized customer can add their own product : Ok, I can probably extend to have these customers their own 'store' (Manufacturer translated/converted to Merchant/Store).

- Payment of all these products sales go to marketplace owner (in this case me) : not Ok, each merchant/store can receive payment directly from the product they sell. Modification required for payment module: link to Manufacturer e.g. using bank transfer contribution, it will display merchant/store's bank account number for payment instruction, instead of my bank account. I, as the marketplace owner, only collect sales commission of these products from each merchant/store

- More sales or commission report required (linked to Manufacturer).

 

Multi-Stores contribution:

- There is no "one store to rule them all" : probably Ok if using store space rent scheme, but not for sales commission based scheme. Each store should only be limited to product management (add/modify/delete), pricing, shipping. Categories and store front format are still managed by marketplace owner.

 

In conclusion, for time being while the product management is still managed by marketplace owner for each stores registered, I think an extension of Manufacturer module linked to payment module with more sales reports should be sufficient. Anything like this?

[nana]

i do not know if there is a contribution for what you want

i did something like this but i took a crazy approach

i used the osc affiliate to track the sales and create the comission report.

i made each owner also an affiliate and i used the owner_id to set the affiliate_id in checkout

this way i can generate detail sales report for each owner but for me each owner had their own store and customer was buying from one owner at a time.

with your approach it becomes a little crazy lets say a customer wants to buy 5 products with diffrent owners then they have to pay to multiple parties oh well you have to figure out the logic first

[Guest]

customer was buying from one owner at a time.

with your approach it becomes a little crazy lets say a customer wants to buy 5 products with diffrent owners then they have to pay to multiple parties oh well you have to figure out the logic first

 

shoot... why i didn't think of that?! >_<

ok so the choices, either goes with one payment point (Customer Add Product + Affiliate probably may work), or one store has its own payment point (Multi-Stores? + Affiliate). what do you think?

[nana]

well if you collect all the money and then pay out the owners your site will be worth more because you have more sales and your customer service will improve but it will be harder to get people to add their stuff unless you have a good customer base you will be like ENRON

if you give each person their store then it will be easier and each store get to do their own thing and have their own design you will go to the background and let them deal with all customer service issues

but you will have less sales although same income

YOU WILL BE A MALL

[Guest]

hmm.. quite difficult situation. the problem is that i will manage the site and customers remotely. currently i live in thailand and my community (which will be the main customers) is in indonesia. for some stuffs i can get help from my friends there who are the community managers also, e.g. simple ordering, handling, and shipping. and for payment, it will be done through my bank account in indonesia (there's internet banking, so it will not a problem).

 

as you have described, now it depends whether the hardwork will be mine or store-owners. for latter case, then what i can charge is for store space rent because then i cannot control their sales to get commission for example.

 

got to think more...

[nana]

if you let the store owners put their stuff on your site then you collect the money and you can have an email sent to them with customers name address and other stuff for shipping

you can pay them every week

if you make store for each person you can keep track customers pay them and they pay you every week or month

either way you can keep track for commission

and they can update their product on the site

in your case i would keep one store to keep my customers in one place

[Guest]

if you let the store owners put their stuff on your site then you collect the money and you can have an email sent to them with customers name address and other stuff for shipping

you can pay them every week

if you make store for each person you can keep track customers pay them and they pay you every week or month

either way you can keep track for commission

and they can update their product on the site

in your case i would keep one store to keep my customers in one place

 

you're right.. i think for first try i will get the first scheme (one store controlled by me).

btw, apart from giving reports and orders to the suppliers, is there a contribution to have access to limited admin panel so that they can monitor their product sales directly (a matter of trust and transparency) plus probably to add/remove their products?

[nana]

http://www.oscommerce.com/community/contri...rch,admin+level

also take a look at this i do not use it but might be a good solution

http://www.oscommerce.com/community/contri.../search,vendors