Single store vs multi-seller marketplace
A single brand storefront needs catalog, cart, checkout, and order admin. A marketplace needs seller isolation, commissions, payouts, and dispute flows. Choosing a “simple shop” tool for multi-vendor work forces painful rewrites later.
Zolo is our multi-seller marketplace work (categories, PayPal/PayHere-style payouts). Client storefronts are scoped separately when you only need one shop.
Integrations that actually matter
Map every system that must touch an order: payments, shipping, ERP/inventory, email, tax. Ask which connectors are first-party, which are paid apps, and what happens when a webhook fails at 2 a.m.
- Payment rails (PayHere, PayPal, cards) with sandbox and production webhooks
- Inventory truth — who decrements stock and when
- Fulfillment exports or APIs your warehouse already understands
- Refund and chargeback paths that keep ledger and stock consistent
Security and trust
Checkout pages collect payment and personal data. Prefer platforms and custom builds with clear TLS, least-privilege admin roles, audit logs, and PCI scope awareness (hosted fields vs handling raw cards yourself).
Ask how secrets are stored, how admins are invited, and whether seller accounts can see each other’s data — a marketplace footgun that brands notice immediately.
Switching cost and lock-in
Export products, customers, and order history in open formats. Document theme/code ownership. If leaving requires rewriting every integration from scratch, price that risk into today’s decision.
Custom engineering costs more initially; templates fail when your checkout or seller rules leave the happy path. We help you choose the cheaper total path over five years, not five weeks.