Marketplace software comparisons

Shopify Multi-Vendor vs. CS-Cart Multi-Vendor: Which Platform Best Suits Your Marketplace Goals?

With the rise of digital shopping, consumers now prefer a wide range of products available in one place. This creates a perfect business opportunity for entrepreneurs who want to launch a marketplace.

Some may want to elevate their existing digital shops into multi-vendor platforms. Others will need to create a fully functional platform from scratch. There are several scenarios for starting a marketplace. No matter what you choose, finding a reliable and feature-rich solution will define your overall business success.

CS-Cart Multi-Vendor and Shopify’s Multi-Vendor Marketplace Plugin are two popular options for creating platforms that host multiple vendors. In this article, we will provide an overview of both solutions, helping you decide which one best suits your marketplace goals.

What’s Inside Multi-Vendor Marketplace for Shopify?

Marketplace based on Shopify

Marketplace based on Shopify

Shopify is one of the most popular eCommerce platforms boasting over 5 460 000 live websites. However, if you consider it as a stand-alone multi-vendor solution, it’s hardly a good idea.

Shopify is not a marketplace platform by default. It mainly comes as a tool for merchants to create and run typical eCommerce projects. It does not have built-in tools to convert your store into a multi-vendor platform. So, you’ll need third-party plugins like Multi-Vendor Marketplace for Shopify.

Key Features of Multi-Vendor Marketplace Plugin for Shopify

  • Admin Panel: The Multi-Vendor Marketplace Plugin simplifies converting your Shopify store into a marketplace. Through the admin panel, you can manage vendors, products, orders, and commissions easily.
  • Seller Subscription Plan: The feature lets admins create different subscription plans for sellers offering flexibility in monetization.
  • Payout System: A streamlined payout process helps manage sellers’ payments efficiently. After a product sale, commissions are deducted, and the remaining amount is paid to the seller, simplifying the transaction process.
  • Product Management: It is easy for sellers to upload products. Admins can review and approve them. There is an auto-approval option, making product management simpler.

Summary: The Multi-Vendor Marketplace for Shopify is a side plugin. Users will have to set it up separately, which might be difficult for beginners with no technical skills. In simpler words, you need to configure a product inside the product. On the other hand, it delivers core features for starting a marketplace. The plugin brings a sellers’ management system, seller subscriptions, and an intuitive admin panel.

What’s Inside CS-Cart Multi-Vendor?

Marketplace based on CS-Cart Multi-Vendor

Marketplace based on CS-Cart Multi-Vendor

CS-Cart Multi-Vendor is an out-of-the-box toolkit for launching marketplaces of any type or size. It offers both cloud and self-hosted options, giving businesses flexibility in how they want to manage their marketplace.

The platform allows users to invite multiple sellers to a marketplace, each with their micro-stores in one place. They can manage everything through a comprehensive admin panel while earning commissions from each sale.

The most important thing is the ability to scale step-by-step. Business owners can gradually move from simpler projects to fully-featured marketplaces seamlessly. It helps them plan their budget and add new features only when they need them.

Key Features of CS-Cart Multi-Vendor

  • Flexible Vendor Management System: For each vendor, entrepreneurs can assign pricing plans, set roles and access rights for managing micro-stores, configure individual dashboards, and more.
  • Admin Approval Feature for Products: This feature gives admins control over which products appear on the platform, ensuring quality control and maintaining the marketplace’s integrity.
  • Import/Export Tool: It makes managing product data more efficient. You can bulk upload and update products, saving time and reducing errors. The feature simplifies catalog fulfillment for vendors. What’s more, it supports products import from Shopify stores.
  • Software Speed and Performance: While CS-Cart is a stand-alone platform that does not rely on third-party services, it handles high loads and traffic peaks with sustainable performance. It can process large product catalogs without compromising speed. This ensures that users experience fast load times and smooth navigation.
  • Affordable 3rd Party Add-ons and Themes: CS-Cart offers a range of affordable third-party add-ons and themes that allow marketplace owners to customize their platforms based on their needs without coding.
  • Open-Source Platform: Unlike Shopify, CS-Cart users have access to the source code. It lets them customize the store, add exclusive features, redesign custom themes making the project perfectly tailored to business processes.
  • Gradual Scaling: CS-Cart delivers a product line designed to allow a fast and cost-effective launch, followed by seamless and consistent scaling. The platform has a unified digital ecosystem at its core with no need to use third-party services.

Summary: CS-Cart comes as a self-sufficient platform for managing vendors, products, and payments with extra customization options out-of-the-box. You can start selling products online fast, gradually scale, and add necessary extensions as long as your marketplace grows.

How Good Is Shopify’s Multi-Vendor Marketplace?

Technically, the plugin can convert a digital shop into a marketplace. In reality, it calls for extensive use of third-party apps. As your project grows, adding custom features becomes more complicated and expensive. The need for additional features gradually increases. However, Shopify does provide some useful functionalities for entrepreneurs to keep control over marketplace and vendor settings.

1. Managing Sellers

Vendor page on a Shopify-based marketplace

The sellers’ management tool helps to track sellers, their products, and sales. It allows marketplace owners to manage sellers’ registrations, product uploads, order processing, and payments.

With this system, admins can monitor sellers’ performance and make informed decisions about their relationships.

2. Managing Commissions

Admins can set rates for vendors. The system will automatically calculate after every sale. This ensures that marketplace owners receive their share of revenue promptly.

3. Managing Products

The plugin comes as a product management tool for category editing, product listings, and inventory management. Marketplace admins can display various versions of the same product, allowing vendors to offer a wider range of options to the target audience.

4. Managing Orders

Admins have tools to track orders, update order statuses, and handle chargebacks or refunds. Business owners can establish a smooth order processing experience for both buyers and sellers.

5. Shipping Management

Admins can automatically set delivery options and rates. Besides, it is possible to manage shipping logistics. The plugin also provides tracking features, giving admins more control over shipping and delivery.

Summary: Shopify is very intuitive and easy-to-use while its multi-vendor plugin adds some baseline marketplace features like sellers’ and commission management. Its reliance on third-party tools and limitations in customization may hinder scalability. It may work well for small businesses, but as the marketplace grows, managing and expanding the platform becomes more complex.

How Good Is CS-Cart Multi-Vendor?

The on-premises platform boasts a suite of over 500 built-in tools and features to meet different eCommerce needs. It is a good option for businesses eager to launch a marketplace from scratch or convert an existing project.

cs-cart category page

CS-Cart marketplace category page

With CS-Cart, users benefit from an iOS and Android-compatible mobile app. Sellers can manage their finances and products while buyers can make purchases right from their smartphones or tablets.

Powerful SEO, extra add-ons and ready-to-use integrated payment and shipping options help to scale the project without writing a single line of code. Out-of-the-box solution offers built-in tools to quickly start a marketplace and gradually scale it if needed. It helps entrepreneurs plan their strategies and costs with a focus on key business objectives instead of setting up third-party extensions.

Table Example
Online Storefront Features
  • Product Catalog & Listings: Organize products efficiently, making them easy for customers to find.
  • Search & Filters: Get advanced filtering options to make product searches quick and user-friendly.
  • Product Variations: Offer products in different models, sizes, or colors to meet customers’ needs.
  • Visual Customization: Customize storefronts with a wide range of themes and add-ons.
  • Mobile Storefront: Build a mobile-friendly storefront ensuring a consistent experience for mobile shoppers.
  • Customer-to-Vendor Communication: Let buyers contact sellers directly via the product page to request specific products or available discounts. Streamline communication between clients and vendors.
  • Fully Customizable Checkout Page: Customize the checkout experience to improve conversions.
Online Shopping Cart Features
  • Abandoned Cart Recovery: Follow up with customers who leave items in their cart.
  • Tax Calculator: Calculate taxes based on customer location.
  • Shipping Calculator: Provide accurate shipping estimates during checkout.
Payment System Features
  • Split Payments: Enable PayPal or Stripe for payment processing. Set split payments to automatically divide marketplace commissions from net sellers’ income.
  • Returns & Refunds: Simplify the returns process for both admins and customers.
  • Single-Click Checkout: Provide a fast and seamless checkout experience.
  • eCommerce Security: Ensure secure transactions with robust eCommerce security features.
eCommerce Marketing Features
  • Promotions & Discounts: Create personalized product collections and special offers. Vendors have the same tools to manage their campaigns separately.
  • Personalized Recommendations: Suggest products based on customer behavior.
  • SEO: Use built-in SEO tools to help your marketplace rank higher in search results.
  • Product Reviews: Let customers share feedback and write sellers’ reviews to boost product credibility.
  • Social Commerce Integration: Integrate with social platforms to reach a broader audience.
  • Loyalty System: Reward your best customers with points and VIP privileges.
Business Management Features
  • Subscription Plans for Sellers: Offer sellers different subscription plans based on their needs to get a steady and predictable cash flow.
  • Admin Roles and Privileges: Organize the team’s workflow to make all processes run smoothly. Define roles and assign specific privileges to your team members.
  • Multi-site Management: Launch marketplaces in different regions, test different niches and products for various audiences. Expand your marketplace with ease.
  • Inventory Management: Get notifications on products running low, use multi-warehouse management to track inventory across multiple warehouses.
  • Accounting: Manage finances, track cash flows, and fund distribution between sellers.
  • Shipping: Manage inventory and stock from multiple locations. Use fulfillment centers to handle order shipments.
  • AI Integration: Add AI-powered chatbots, assistants, and content generators to scale your business.

Summary: CS-Cart brings everything you need out-of-the-box without the need for extra plugins or customizations. You get tools to manage vendors, catalogs, and inventory in one place. Entrepreneurs can build a marketplace with already-integrated delivery services, payment splitting, marketing, and SEO tools. It might seem a bit overwhelming at first with a steeper learning curve compared to Shopify. However, the potential to scale and grow is much bigger thanks to custom CS-Cart add-ons and open code.

What Users Like about Multi-Vendor Marketplace for Shopify

Shopify-based marketplace reports

Shopify-based marketplace reports

  • Simple Integration: Users like simplicity and how fast they can install and activate the plugin on their existing digital shops.
  • Intuitive Dashboard: All instruments are easy to find and use. So, we can say that the dashboard is user-friendly enough.
  • Integrations: Marketplace owners can connect dozens of delivery and shipment services as well as additional add-ons for marketing and promotion. However, you will have to add them separately.

What Users Dislike about Multi-Vendor Marketplace Plugin

  • Support Complexity: While being a third-party plugin, Multi-Vendor Marketplace does not offer Shopify’s original support. You have to contact the Webkul team in case of issues.
  • Onboarding: Users with no technical skills find it hard to get started. The plugin lacks educational materials and tutorials for newbies. So, getting started might be a hassle.
  • Confusing UX: Both marketplace owners and sellers feel disappointed with the confusing UX design of the plugin.

What Users Like about CS-Cart Multi-Vendor

cs-cart marketplace catalog

CS-Cart Multi-Vendor catalog

  • Quick Start: As an out-of-the-box solution, CS-Cart Multi-Vendor lets you build and launch a marketplace with zero technical skills. You get everything needed to configure the store, go online, and start selling.
  • Order Management System: Users appreciate the robust tools for handling orders, making it easy for marketplace owners to track and manage multiple orders efficiently.
  • Multi-language and Multi-currency Support: Users like this one because it helps customers shop in their preferred language and currency, improving user experience and boosting international sales potential.
  • Customization Options: Admins opt for extensive customization tools, both for the platform itself and individual sellers’ storefronts.

What Users Dislike about CS-Cart Multi-Vendor

  • Outdated Storefront Interface: Many users feel that the built-in default storefront design looks a bit old-fashioned and lacks some modern UX design elements.
  • Limited Customization of Mobile App: The app has fewer customization options compared to the web platform. However, with the mobile app source code, it’s possible to modify your mobile marketplace version without limitations.
  • Paid Support and Updates: Users have to pay yearly for continued access to support and updates. Although new CS-Cart subscribers get a one-year free subscription for updates and 30 days of the customer care service.

CS-Cart Multi-Vendor vs Shopify’s Multi-Vendor Marketplace Plugin: Which One to Choose

Choose CS-Cart, if you need to:

  1. Get all tools out-of-the-box without the need to use third-party services.
  2. Launch a marketplace with minimum time to set and manage your platform.
  3. Scale gradually as your business grows seamlessly moving from simple cloud-based marketplaces to fully-featured marketplaces on premises.

With CS-Cart, entrepreneurs can extend their businesses with extra add-ons and customization tools to stand out from competitors.

Choose Shopify’s Multi-Vendor Marketplace Plugin, if you need to:

  1. Launch smaller projects that do not require much customization.
  2. Get Started with minimum learning curve.
  3. Get a store built with a trusted and globally recognizable eCommerce platform.

However, it will not work for bigger projects with a focus on further development due to limitations in its core functionality. 

All CS-Cart Products and Services

Head of Content Marketing at CS-Cart | Website

Yan Anderson is the Head of Content Marketing at CS-Cart with over 10 years of experience in the eCommerce industry. He's passionate about explaining complicated things in simple terms. Yan has expertise in building, running and growing eCommerce marketplaces. He loves to educate people about best practices, new technologies, and trends in the global eCommerce industry.