Hi Rishi, this is an interesting initiative, thank you. There are various types of online marketplaces, each with unique and significant requirements, but if we focus on the ones like Amazon (since you have mentioned it) then we the following notes may apply pretty well.
Main actors: * the marketplace operator: it owns the site (e.g. Amazon) * consumers: browse the content of the site and place (sales) orders to the marketplace operator * retailers/wholesalers/sellers: define price (and cost to the marketplace operator), shipping options and shipping cost Main transactions (drop shipment scenario): 0) seller publishes product price with shipping costs (for the consumer) and product cost (for the 1) consumers orders product (from the retailer) to the marketplace operator 2) marketplace operator orders product to the retailer 3) retailer fulfills the order (#2) that is shipped to the consumer 4) marketplace operator invoices the order (#1) to the consumer 5) consumer pays the invoice (#4) 6) retailer invoices the order (#2) to the marketplace operator 7) marketplace operator pays the invoice (#6) These online marketplaces often have one global product catalog and global products, to which the retailers' specific prices and shipping options are attached. In OFBiz the "drop shipment" workflow is probably the one that most closely covers the scenario described above. As regards the data model: * Product, ProductContent, ProductCategory etc..: global products and the global catalog * ProductPrice, SupplierProduct: the price for the consumer and the cost for the marketplace operator * PartyRole: "end user customer" (for the consumer), "supplier" (for the retailer), "internal organization" (for the marketplace operator) There are gaps that needs to be implemented (both in the data model and in the business logic) and there are many more requirements and nuances to be discovered but we have most of the building blocks in place. Some of the outstanding gaps are for example: how to apply the right sales price when the consumer selects a product from one of its many retailers; how to specify the retailer in the sales order; how to reserve the inventory of the retailer. Kind regards, Jacopo On Tue, Nov 13, 2018 at 6:06 PM Rishi Solanki <rishisolan...@gmail.com> wrote: > Devs, > While shopping with different marketplaces like amazon the idea came into > my mind that, what are the things required to have an marketplace plugin > within the OFBiz same as we have ecommerce. > > Which behaves same as ecommerce but also offers sellers to sale their > products on marketplace. I could think of following workflow; > > 1) Sellers can upload their product, images, prices with all the required > details. > 2) The same product can be sale by other sellers as well. > 3) An customer can purchase the product from any listed sellers at > ecommerce side. > 4) Manage the product inventory by sellers. > 5) Shipment tracking. > 6) Manage/Create seller profile. > 7) Commission Engine marketplace run and payment made to sellers. > 8) Manage product details as per seller preferences. > 9) Seller specific reports and other tasks. > 10) Manage Orders, Returns and related reports etc. > 11) Marketing Campaign setup. > > Here I'm sharing the idea what comes in my mind, and it would be great to > have this as plugin in OFBiz which support the marketplace business problem > and increase the OFBiz acceptance in market. > > Any suggestion and help in designing, structuring, modeling, coding, > architecture is greatly appreciated. I wonder if anyone already implemented > one using OFBiz. > > If all are agree to have this, then I'll start documentation around it and > move from there. > > Thanks! > > Best Regards, > -- > Rishi Solanki > Sr Manager, Enterprise Software Development > HotWax Systems Pvt. Ltd. > Direct: +91-9893287847 > http://www.hotwaxsystems.com > www.hotwax.co >
