Back Office for Marketplace Operator

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A marketplace operator is a company that owns the marketplace. In a marketplace business model, one or more of such a company’s employees represent a marketplace operator and manage the store. We call such users marketplace administrators. Depending on the marketplace model, the marketplace operator either manages only other merchants’ orders or also sells products as a main merchant.

Merchant management

Merchant accounts are created in the Back Office, and a marketplace administrator is required to facilitate their creation. In the Marketplace > Merchants section of the Back Office, a marketplace operator manages merchants as follows:

  • Creates merchants
  • Edits merchants
  • Approves and denies merchants
  • Activates and deactivates merchants

For detailed instructions about managing merchants, see Managing merchants.

Offer management

In a marketplace, multiple merchants can sell the same product. That’s why, instead of creating duplicate products, merchants create offers. Only the offers approved by a marketplace administrator are displayed in the Storefront. In the Marketplace > Offers section of the Back Office, a marketplace administrator manages offers as follows:

  • Views offers
  • Approves and denies offers

For detailed instructions about managing offers, see Managing merchant product offers.

Order management

Since many merchants sell products simultaneously, the order management of a marketplace is complex and requires a marketplace operator to facilitate their fulfillment. In Marketplace > Orders of the Back Office, a marketplace administrator manages marketplace orders as follows:

  • Views marketplace orders.
  • Changes marketplace order states.
  • Creates marketplace returns.
  • Views marketplace returns.
  • Edits custom order references of marketplace orders.
  • Claims marketplace orders.
  • Comments on marketplace orders.
  • Edits billing addresses of marketplace orders.

For detailed instructions on managing orders, see Managing marketplace orders.

Return management

As a part of order management, a marketplace administrator helps merchants manage marketplace order returns. In the Marketplace > Returns section of the Back Office, a marketplace administrator manages marketplace order returns as follows:

  • Sets marketplace return states
  • Prints marketplace return slips

For detailed instructions on managing returns, see Managing marketplace returns.

Main merchant sales

In an enterprise marketplace business model, apart from managing the marketplace, a marketplace operator sells products as a main merchant. In the Back Office, they manage their orders and returns in Sales > My Orders and Sales > My returns sections, respectively. With their own orders, they can perform the same actions as they do with other merchants’ as described in Order management and Return management. Apart from that, they can create and edit shipments for their orders.

For detailed instructions about managing main merchant orders and returns, see Managing main merchant orders and Managing main merchant returns.

Marketplace Storefront