The wrong question
“How much does the website cost?” is the wrong opening question for marketplace work. The right questions are about supply, demand, and settlement.
Choose a single store when
- You sell only your own inventory (or a tightly controlled private label)
- You do not need per-seller dashboards or payouts
- Merchandising is centralized by one brand team
Choose a marketplace when
- Multiple independent businesses must sell under one platform brand
- You earn via commission, subscription, or listing fees
- Vendors need their own catalog and order queues
- Admin must approve sellers and reconcile settlements
Architecture implications
| Capability | Single store | Marketplace |
|---|---|---|
| Catalog ownership | One merchant | Many vendors |
| Checkout | One seller | Multi-seller cart / split |
| Money | Merchant receives | Platform fee + vendor net |
| Admin | Store ops | Vendor + settlement ops |