The ecommerce industry is aggressively expanding in India. Growing usage of smartphones is further pushing the sales numbers for online stores. Snapdeal, Flipkart and Amazon wrote their success stories in the same industry, and there are many who wish to do the same by launching similar multivendor stores. But like always, there is a catch.
To start a mega online store, you need to figure out the cost, marketing, and strategic aspects. In addition to that, you need to come up with a website that is at par with leading ecommerce stores. For that, you need to right site features. Considering the same, we created this detailed post listing every small and big feature of such websites. But before that, let’s get acquainted with business model and revenue generation.
Business and Revenue Model
Multivendor stores are different from regular online shops in many ways. They are nothing less than a challenge from features and management point of view. These stores have the capabilities to host thousands of sellers and list millions of products. While merchants list the products and manage their mini stores on the site on their own, the website enables sharing of shopping cart and sometimes also handles the delivery part.
Profits are generated whenever a product is sold. Modern ecommerce portals like Amazon and Flipkart have evolved various other ways to generate revenue. Some of them are listed below:
- Featured products
- Google advertisements
- Flash sales
- Banner ads
- Loyalty rewards
- Exclusive sales partnerships
Now that we are familiar with website features you cannot compromise with.
Big Ecommerce Names
In the last one decade, various online stores have emerged and established themselves in the market. While some are limited by geographical boundaries, others are global in nature. Here are some of the most popular ones:
- Amazon
- FlipKart
- SnapDeal
- AliBaba
- eBay
- OverStock
Basic Features to Start With
Before going into every tiny detail of how these websites work and generate profit, let’s get a fair idea about website’s look and user experience.
Website Homepage
Homepage should focus on introducing product categories and attractive deals. All the popular offers should be shared through banners and dedicated sections on the home page to take the visitors to dedicated landing pages. The homepage should make space for:
- Singup/Signin
- Product Categories
- Product Offers
- Sell via website
- Trending Products
- Recently Viewed Products
- Recommendations based on the Searched Products
- Social Media Links
Clear and simple Navigation
Navigation is a very important part of your online store design. The website should be easy to browse, have a clear navigation, and simple search options. The overall look needs to be clean and user-friendly to attract more viewers. Good navigation will help visitors find what they are looking for without any hassle.
Product Listing
Listing the products on homepage or in the side panel can help visitors view the top trending products in the store.You can also list the general products on the homepage that you want to push further. A user can easily scan through product listing & sort products on the basis of popularity, best sellers, price, arrival date, customer rating and personal requirements.
There is a need for user-friendly search filters to make it easy for users to find products as per their choice.
Product Page
The product page of your store should be conversion optimized and make the visitors aware about all the critical details. It must provide the following:
- Product information
- Product images
- Offers on products
- Selling Price and Discount on products
- Shortlisted Products
- Recently viewed
The huge amount of product information often makes product pages cluttered. Make sure it doesn’t happen in your store.
Singup/Signin
As we said, ecommerce stores highly value registered users. That’s why they make every effort to make shoppers join their store by creating an account. Having a UX optimized signup process helps in this task. Modern online shops are also offering social login option to further simplify the process.
Check out these helpful points to plan your Singup/Signin form:
- Keep the fields minimum
- Ask only for important details
- Offer field validation
User Dashboard
Account creation is nowadays critical for purchase and delivery of products. While some stores also make the provision of guest checkout, stores want users to create account to gather data. Coming to user dashboard, it must include:
- Personal information with username, address, phone number and email address
- My orders
- Track order
- My reviews and rating
- Gift Card
- Profile Settings
Shopping Cart
It is impossible to imagine an online store without a shopping cart. Because it will be shared amongst thousands of merchants, yours ought to be technologically advanced and highly secure. The shopping cart must include features like:
- Product shortlisting
- Pricing Details
- Quantity selection
- Cost calculation
- Payment process
Mobile Platform
Responsive websites are a wider appeal as they offer optimal experience on desktops as well as smaller devices. This is important because it will be a costly affair to get an app for your ecommerce venture in the very beginning.
Building on a clone script? Go for a solution that promises the advantage of mobile technology.
Order tracking
Order tracking helps customers keep track of their orders. Popular online stores like Snapdeal and Amazon also send automated order confirmation emails and messages keep the shoppers updated. This functionality is critical as buyers like to where when their shipment will arrive.
Product Reviews
Feedback and ratings help shoppers in reaching a decision. They speak about product quality, benefits, features, and various other details. Add advanced review functionality that includes features like:
- Upvoting reviews
- Review reply
- Reporting spam
- Image sharing
This will create user trust towards your brand and help shoppers in purchasing products. Ecommerce brands like Amazon have raised the bar of reviews. Don’t forget to refer it for ideas.
Easy checkout process
Checkout process needs to be simple and clutter-free. It should not be a lengthy as it will only give shopper more time to change his mind. Divide the process in small steps and ask for only relevant information.
Checkout process planning can be a challenging task and ecommerce stores are always making efforts to optimize it. Including following features will certainly help:
- Field validation
- Small forms
- Feature to save card details
- Order editing
Some More Features
- Provide shoppers the option to sort sellers through filters like Selling Price, Seller Score, Dispatch Time, etc.
- Every seller should be given a seller rating based on completed orders and service quality.
- Seller dashboard with features like view new orders, return claims, past sales statistics, view payments reports, etc.
- Seller admin area to manage company information, products listings, Discounts/Offers, Coupons/Vouchers.
Start an ecommerce store with multi seller functionality
Check out ready solution
- To avail local deals, a visitor can search deals/products based on his location using pin code
- Product comparison feature is very useful while buying high price products. Using this, buyer can compare product specifications before making a buying decision.
- Similar product recommendations and upselling functionality also helps in increasing product sales.
Building a Store Community
Once the visitor is on your website, you must not just focus on encouraging them to make a single purchase. Instead, try adding life time value and customer loyalty by encouraging them to leave their feedback. Keep your visitors engaged with following features.
- Enable product sharing on social media channels.
- Save shipping addresses automatically in users’ address book so that they don’t have to enter them all over again in future. This helps to quicken the checkout process.
- Some advanced online stores are also offering wallet functionality make transactions simpler.
End Note
Online platforms like SnapDeal and Flipkart have made many provisions to convert first time visitors into regular & loyal buyers. It would be best to target a geographical location which is still untouched by big ecommerce giants. Or establish yourself in a particular product category.
If you too wish to clone the success of such platforms or just wish to start small with an online marketplace, feel free to consult our team of designers & developers. Check out this post if you are looking for an advanced solution to start your multi-seller store.
