The problem
A marketplace is several businesses in one. Customers want one basket and one checkout. Sellers want their own shop, their own stock and orders, and to be paid on time. The marketplace owner wants control of the brand, the content and the commission, and a clear view of the money.
Off-the-shelf marketplace software gets you started, but the things that make a marketplace different (how sellers join, how orders are split and fulfilled, how money is shared) are exactly what it can’t change. And every part has to be right for every party at once.
Holly & Co
For Holly & Co, we architected and delivered a high-performance marketplace for the UK’s creative small business community, deployed in late 2023:
- A dual-mode back office, so each independent “Co” manages complex product variants and real-time stock
- Adyen’s marketplace solution for split-payment logic and automated commission handling, with frictionless 3D Secure payments
- A delivery engine that calculates multi-vendor delivery bundles in a single basket
- A financial reporting engine that calculates VAT across mixed baskets of vatable and VAT-exempt products from registered and unregistered sellers, apportioning discounts, delivery VAT and returns
- A block-based CMS with draft and publish workflows, and Shopbox AI product recommendations
- An automated “Co Payout” system that has drastically reduced the administrative burden on Holly & Co’s internal teams
“Behind the scenes, a marketplace for independent businesses is complicated. There’s mixed VAT, split payments and deliveries from lots of different makers in one basket… Can Factory understood that from day one.” Holly Tucker MBE, Founder, Holly & Co
The parts, proven across clients
Most of what a marketplace needs, we have built many times for other clients.
Payments
Taking one payment and dividing it correctly is the core of a marketplace. We have integrated Adyen, Checkout.com, CyberSource and others, with split payment across providers, tokenisation that keeps card data off your systems, and online refunds. See Payments.
Accounts and roles
Customers, sellers and the marketplace team each need their own login and permissions. We have built identity with Auth0 for VOX Cinemas, joined to the back-office accounts behind it.
Admin for every party
Every platform we build comes with its own content management and admin, so the marketplace team can run campaigns and pages without a developer. For Cineworld and VOX, the internal teams manage content, offers and commercial opportunities themselves.
Search and catalogue
A marketplace lives or dies by search. We built Apache Solr search across Cineworld’s films, cinemas and showtimes, and a Lucene product matcher for Review Centre that matched its catalogue against supplier feeds automatically, the same problem a marketplace has when sellers list similar products.
Orders and fulfilment
Orders need to reach the right place at the right time. For Everyman, food and drink orders go from the seat to the right kitchen and bar screens instantly. See Food and drink ordering.
Customer data and marketing
Loyalty, CRM and engagement tools such as Braze, Movio and Microsoft Dynamics, joined to the same customer view. See Loyalty, memberships and subscriptions.
Peak trading
Christmas and gifting peaks are a marketplace’s biggest days. See Peak traffic and launch days.
How we do it
- Buy the commodity, build the difference. We use proven products for payments, identity, search and email, and build what’s particular to your marketplace: seller onboarding, the order and payout rules, and the customer journey.
- Design for three audiences. Customer, seller and marketplace team each get a journey designed for them, not one admin screen with permissions bolted on.
- Money you can reconcile. Every order, refund, commission and payout is traceable, so finance can trust the numbers.
- Built to change. A marketplace’s rules change as it grows. We build so new seller types, fees and fulfilment options are configuration, not a rebuild.
Related
- Services: Software Development, Technology Consultancy
- Solutions: Payments, Loyalty, memberships and subscriptions, Peak traffic and launch days
- Case studies: Holly & Co, Review Centre, VOX Cinemas
Frequently asked questions
Should we build a marketplace or use an off-the-shelf platform?
It depends on how different your marketplace is. If the standard rules for sellers, orders and payouts suit you, a platform is quicker. If those rules are your advantage, building them is usually worth it. We can help you decide; see Technology Consultancy.
Can sellers manage their own shop?
Yes. At Holly & Co, a dual-mode back office lets each seller manage complex product variants and real-time stock.
How do payments to sellers work?
At Holly & Co, Adyen’s marketplace solution handles the split payment and the commission automatically, and an automated “Co Payout” system pays the sellers.
