Over the past year, we have discussed many things on IT and related topics. We have published posts on various aspects of IT businesses. We are pretty sure that we have made the case for strong, and that you are seriously looking up vendors by now. Which, no doubt, leads to one more challenge: How will you be able to decide between engaging a single vendor or multi-vendors to automate all the important jobs that can be benefited from technology adoption?

Well, it would be best if we compare the characteristics of the two scenarios. In the spirit of helpfulness, here is a fundamental difference that you should know before you jump on the conclusion!

Nowadays, e-commerce has become the new source of revenue that everybody wants to be a part of. Yes, we cannot blame them. In the year 2014, not to back, this sector has shown an annual income of $1.3 trillion. Therefore, the estimated Gross Domestic Product for 2021 is $4.5 trillion that is a notable 246.5% growth in 7-year. 

E-Commerce Website Is An Ideal & Cost-Effective Solution For Small Vendors

A marketplace is no doubt well suited for vendors, particularly for those, who are looking forward to stepping into the eCommerce market. Today’s e-commerce marketplace is an ideal, efficient as well as a cost-effective solution for small vendors. Now, we will jump straight away to the main topic – the basic difference between a single vendor and multiple vendor marketplace. 

Let us define first, what is a single vendor and what is multiple vendors. After that, we will discuss the comparison between the benefits of a single vendor eCommerce website and a multi-vendor marketplace. Though both the marketplace website has its own benefits. Read on to know more!

The Advantages Of Building Single Vendor Marketplace

A single vendor marketplace is nothing but a website where a single seller sells its products or services to multiple customers. Thus, two parties are involved in this buying and selling process – the buyer and the seller. A single vendor eCommerce website does not offer a broad range of products to its buyers, which is why this type of website is also known as ‘Stand Alone Website.’

If you want to practice a single vendor supplier path, then you are about to buy a given resource from just one vendor. You will observe that a supplier has no dependency; such as a strategy has some benefits, for instance, creating as well as maintaining a bond with one supplier is easy compared to 2 or more than 2 suppliers. 

The cost of administration and other supplementary costs are reduced when you place an order with just one supplier. You can maximize your volume leverage to attain attractive pricing. Therefore, it would be easy for you to order and incorporate the systems with a single supplier. You may be capable of negotiating to get small and regular deliveries and develop a strong inventory control. 

The Advantages Of Building Multi-Vendor Marketplace

A multiple vendor marketplace is nothing but an online store that has many sellers who come together to sell their products or services, resulting in producing a high profit. When they come together, they do lots of transactions that take place between the customers and sellers. Usually, in a multi-vendor marketplace system, there will be multiple sellers, who will sell their products or services on the marketplace owned by an administrator. The buyers come to the marketplace and acquire the opportunity to buy the products or services from varied sellers or brands. 

The process helps buyers choose from a wide range of products and or services. This aspect plays a crucial role in traffic to your website. In a multi-vendor marketplace, there are essentially three entities involved. They are admin, vendor, and customer. All the vendors and sellers are needed to be registered to the admin’s site to sell their products or services. In most cases, small and medium businesses try to be the best and follow the single supplier route, unless the risks can be fully reduced. 

Still, there are many benefits to working with 2-3 suppliers, especially in the time smaller businesses acquire customized products. For instance, one of your suppliers is taken by your competitor, then you have at least one supplier to come back with. The fluctuation of demand can be more controllable whether you have many suppliers. If you have 2 or more than 2 suppliers, then they will maximize your business’s ability to mislead the supply disruptions. 

Here Is A Neat Little Summary 

Factor	Single Vendor Solution	Multiple Vendor Solution
Best Of Breed Choices	Impossible on a per-feature basis	Possible
Complexity	Vendor Handles It	Customers handle it, outside vendors may not know the intricacies of all systems
Cost	Lover Because of Volume discounts	Higher, because of separate smaller service purchased
Implementation Challenge	Lower	Higher
Procurement Efforts	Lower	Higher
Product Upgrades	Slower, but much more comprehensive upgrades	Faster but less comprehensive
Staff Training	Provides more per vendor	Provides less per vendor
Vendor Survival	A large vendor is more likely to survive	Smaller vendors are constantly at risks for shuttering

Finishing Lines

The bottom line is – there are many differences between a single vendor and multiple vendor eCommerce software or marketplace. But, one of the best decisions is to go for a multi-vendor marketplace system.  It has tons of benefits in the e-commerce business. It is no other than an eCommerce marketplace where buyers and sellers gather to buy and sell goods. It can be B2B or B2C eCommerce. Thus, it helps businesses to reach a lot of potential customers and maximize revenue. High-growth businesses can be driven by way of end-to-end eCommerce solutions with the help of multiple vendor eCommerce systems.