Routing seller orders manually, splitting carts in spreadsheets, and chasing sellers for fulfilment updates because your current setup has no order routing layer?
Paying per-transaction platform fees to a SaaS marketplace tool that eats margins as your GMV grows and can't support your commission or fee structure?
Seller onboarding taking weeks because there's no self-serve application and verification flow -- every new seller requires manual back-and-forth?
E-commerce Marketplace Development
Custom multi-vendor marketplace software for operators running a curated seller network, a platform business, or a wholesale directory -- seller management, commission, order routing, and automated payouts built to your model.
We've shipped marketplace platforms across retail, wholesale, and service categories. Off-the-shelf marketplace software charges per-transaction fees that compound as you scale and limits the seller management and commission logic you can configure without a developer. A custom marketplace is built around the rules your business actually runs on.
Seller onboarding with application flow, verification, and self-serve seller dashboard
Commission and fee configuration per category, tier, or fulfilment model -- no code changes required
Automated order routing to multiple sellers with split cart and per-seller fulfilment tracking
Stripe Connect for automated seller payouts with fee deduction and tax form generation
RaftLabs builds multi-vendor e-commerce marketplaces -- seller onboarding and management portals, unified product catalogue with taxonomy and moderation, configurable commission and fee structures, order routing to multiple sellers with split cart handling, Stripe Connect for automated seller payouts with fee deduction and tax form generation, and a buyer-facing storefront with unified search, seller ratings, and curated collections. Most marketplace projects deliver in 14-16 weeks at a fixed cost.
100+Products shipped
·StripeConnect payout automation
·FixedCost delivery
·14-16Week delivery
Running a marketplace on spreadsheets and manual workflows has a ceiling -- and you've probably already hit it.
A marketplace has four moving parts that must work together: seller management, product catalogue, order routing, and financial settlement. When each part lives in a different tool -- or a different spreadsheet -- every order that touches more than one seller creates manual work. The operator becomes the middleware. That works at ten sellers and a hundred orders a month. It breaks at scale, and it breaks in ways that damage both seller relationships and buyer trust.
The decision to build a custom marketplace rather than use a SaaS marketplace platform usually comes when two things happen at once. First, the platform's per-transaction fee, which looked acceptable early on, is now a significant cost at current GMV. Second, the platform's commission or seller management configuration cannot support the actual rules the business operates on -- category-specific commission rates, subscription-plus-commission hybrid models, or seller tiers with different feature access. A custom marketplace is built around your fee structure and your seller management rules from the start, and it does not charge you a percentage of every transaction you process.
What we build
Seller onboarding and management
Self-serve seller application flow with business verification, document upload, and approval queue for the marketplace operator. Seller dashboard with product listing tools, order management, inventory updates, and performance metrics including sales volume, return rate, and buyer ratings. Policy enforcement tools: listing review queue, violation flagging, seller suspension with automated notification, and appeal workflow. Seller communication tools for announcements and policy updates. Configurable seller tiers -- for example, verified, premium, or featured -- with different fee rates and storefront visibility tied to each tier. The seller management layer that replaces your current email-and-spreadsheet onboarding process with a system sellers can use without your team's involvement on every step.
Product catalogue and taxonomy
Unified product catalogue across all sellers with consistent category taxonomy and attribute schema. Sellers submit listings; the marketplace operator reviews and approves before publication, with configurable auto-approval for verified sellers above a trust threshold. Attribute-based filtering that works across the full catalogue regardless of which seller listed the product. Duplicate listing detection to prevent the same product appearing from multiple sellers without a comparison view. Content moderation tools for image quality checks, title and description standards, and prohibited item detection. Category management with attribute inheritance so new product types pick up the right filters automatically. The catalogue layer that makes your marketplace browse and filter like a curated store, not a miscellaneous directory.
Commission and fee configuration
Commission configuration without code changes: flat percentage commission, tiered commission by product category, subscription fee plus lower transaction commission, and promotional fee for featured placements. Commission on fulfilment (charged when an order ships) vs. commission on listing (charged at sale) -- configurable per seller agreement. Fee schedules stored per seller so negotiated rates for high-volume sellers are applied automatically. Promotional commission periods -- reduce commission for a category during a seasonal push to attract seller participation. Refund commission reversal when an order is returned before the payout date. The fee engine that handles your actual commercial agreements with sellers, not a single platform-wide rate that forces every seller onto the same terms.
Order routing and fulfilment management
Split cart handling when a buyer's order includes products from multiple sellers -- one buyer checkout, multiple seller orders created automatically. Per-seller order notifications with the seller's specific items, buyer shipping address, and order reference. Fulfilment tracking per seller: seller marks items as shipped, enters tracking number, and the buyer receives a single consolidated shipping notification with links to each seller's tracking. Returns handled per seller's individual return policy, with the marketplace operator able to override for dispute resolution. Operator order dashboard with visibility across all sellers: overdue fulfilment alerts, seller performance by on-time shipment rate, and escalation queue for disputed orders. The routing layer that makes a multi-seller cart feel like one purchase to the buyer and one manageable workflow to the operator.
Payout and financial management
Stripe Connect integration for automated seller payouts: sellers onboard through Stripe's Connect flow so payouts go directly to their bank account without the marketplace operator holding seller funds. Commission and fee deduction calculated before payout -- seller receives net of platform fee automatically. Configurable payout schedule: daily, weekly, or monthly, with a holding period to cover return windows before funds are released. Seller financial dashboard showing gross sales, fees charged, pending payout, and historical payout records. 1099 and tax form generation for US marketplaces using Stripe Tax. Dispute hold: operator can flag a seller's payout pending resolution of a buyer complaint. The financial layer that removes manual payment runs, reduces fraud exposure, and gives sellers transparent financial reporting without your team processing bank transfers.
Buyer-facing storefront
Unified search and browse across the full seller catalogue: keyword search with relevance ranking, category and attribute filtering, and price range filtering that works across all sellers simultaneously. Seller rating and review system with verified purchase badges. Side-by-side comparison for the same product listed by multiple sellers -- price, shipping time, and seller rating surfaced clearly. Seller pages with brand story, full product listing, and aggregate rating. Curated collections managed by the marketplace operator to feature seasonal picks, new sellers, or promoted products. Trust signals: verified seller badges, return policy summary on product pages, and buyer protection statement. The storefront that makes your marketplace feel like a destination, not a directory.
Frequently asked questions
We use Stripe Connect, which is the standard infrastructure for marketplace payouts. Each seller completes a Stripe onboarding flow -- identity verification and bank account connection -- before they can receive funds. When a buyer pays at checkout, the full amount goes to your Stripe account. At the configured payout schedule -- daily, weekly, or monthly -- the platform calculates each seller's net amount after commission and fees and initiates a transfer to their connected bank account. Sellers never see money before fee deduction, which removes the need to invoice sellers for commissions after the fact. The holding period before payout release is configurable -- typically 7-14 days to cover return windows. This is all automated; no manual payment runs.
Yes, and this is one of the main reasons operators build custom rather than use a SaaS marketplace platform. We build a fee engine that stores commission rules per category, per seller tier, and per seller agreement. A seller in electronics might pay 8% commission, a seller in handmade goods pays 12%, and a high-volume seller in any category who negotiated a flat rate pays that rate automatically. You configure these rules in the operator dashboard without a code change. We also support hybrid models -- subscription fee plus lower transaction commission -- for sellers on premium plans. Fee configuration is one of the first things we scope because it has the most commercial variation across marketplace operators.
Split cart orders where the buyer bought from Seller A and Seller B in the same checkout create separate seller orders on the backend. Returns are handled per seller order. The buyer initiates a return in their account, selects which items to return, and sees the return policy for those items -- which can differ by seller. Each seller processes their own return and issues their portion of the refund. The marketplace operator has a dispute resolution override: if a seller is non-responsive, the operator can initiate a refund to the buyer and adjust the seller's next payout accordingly. Stripe's payout hold feature supports this -- we can freeze a specific seller's payout pending resolution without affecting other sellers.
A core marketplace -- seller onboarding, product catalogue with moderation, configurable commission, order routing with split cart, Stripe Connect payouts, and a buyer storefront -- typically runs $80,000--$160,000. The range is driven by catalogue complexity, the number of seller management features you need on day one, and whether you need advanced features like comparison shopping, curated collections, or a native mobile app for buyers or sellers. We scope every project before pricing. Most marketplace projects deliver in 14-16 weeks. Contact us with your business model -- seller count, category type, and commission structure -- and we'll scope it specifically.
Talk to us about your marketplace project.
Tell us your seller model, your commission structure, and where your current setup breaks down. We'll scope the build and give you a fixed cost.
