Item: CS-Cart Multi-Vendor
Rating: 8
Author: Azat Seyitmuhammedov

Overall Satisfaction with CS-Cart Multi-Vendor

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Our entire business is built on the CS-Cart Multi-Vendor platform. Until 2020, we were an online store based on Webasyst Shop-script, selling apparels, shoes and accessories. Last year, we've made the decision to expand and become a marketplace. After a long search, we stopped at CS-Cart Multi-Vendor and do not regret it for a minute. The market of our country (Turkmenistan) still does not have a full-fledged convenient marketplace that would provide a small trading business with an additional sales channel. We really hope that CS-Cart Multi-Vendor will help us create such a platform and solve the problems of thousands of entrepreneurs in our country.

Pros and Cons

Pros

Content management.
Management of stores, goods and other vendor information.
Convenient user interface of both frontend and admin panel.
Convenient and fast mobile version of the admin panel.
Fast and smart tool for importing goods using ready-made presets.
High frequency of engine updates.
Large selection of additional plugins.

Cons

The high cost of the platform itself and plugins.
Unavailability of the mobile application in the basic version of the platform.
Relatively difficult process of installing updates if you are new to IT.

Return on Investment

From an investment point of view, it is naturally much more profitable to purchase CS-Cart Multi-Vendor than to assemble a team of developers and try to create such a platform from scratch.
Creating a marketplace is a rather risky business. If you don't know a lot about marketplace building technologies, consider investing in a different business. But if you have already decided on the idea, and all you have to do is find a suitable platform, then CS-Cart Multi-Vendor will probably be a profitable investment. And if your sales go at least half a year after purchasing this platform, then you will quickly enough recoup these several thousand dollars.

Alternatives Considered

I have not had any experience of using other platforms to build marketplaces.

Key Insights

Do you think CS-Cart Multi-Vendor delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with CS-Cart Multi-Vendor's feature set?

Yes

Did CS-Cart Multi-Vendor live up to sales and marketing promises?

I wasn't involved with the selection/purchase process

Did implementation of CS-Cart Multi-Vendor go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy CS-Cart Multi-Vendor again?

Yes

Other Software Used

Adobe PhotoShop, AnyDesk, Adobe Illustrator CC

Usability

All in all, this platform is very user-friendly. As I wrote earlier, I want to emphasize separately the convenient mobile version of the admin panel. Not all platforms have the admin panel on the smartphone screen as convenient and multifunctional. Special thanks to the developers for this.
Our marketplace works with the UniTheme design template. I will not talk for a long about the convenience and thoughtfulness of this theme, - I will simply say that if you cannot decide on the theme in any way, take UniTheme right away - you definitely won't be mistaken.

Support Rating

The support service for this product is at a fairly high level. I put minus 2 points for the high cost of support. After the 90-day free support period ends, you will need to purchase a subscription or special points. Both cost a certain amount of money.

Likelihood to Recommend

CS-Cart Multi-Vendor is well suited for building a marketplace. But if you are planning to create an online store where you will only sell your products, then you should consider other platforms as well. I want to repeat once again, one of the main disadvantages of CS-Cart is its high cost. If you're a solo startup and you're on a tight budget, it might not be for you.

CS-Cart Multi-Vendor Feature Ratings

Comments

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CS-Cart Multi-vendor - an excellent solution for launching a marketplace.