Multi-vendor roadmap. Let's discuss (UPDATE: done)

hi maybe we can make some new changes in front site also for multivendor update ,

when we save multi vendors to our system we will save multivendors company all info to system and we will map all products from multivendors to categorys, we can make multivendor settings page in admin and if we make multivendor font site suport enable ;

1 -  customer can see multivendors company names in front site (same as many shops in 1 web site store )

2.  when customer click on multivendor name , front site can show all products from clicked multivendors  but left side category navigation will show only category names which mapped products for this multivendor , because we can have 5.000 category in system but multivendor can have product mapped only for 3-4 category

   if we can use this , it will be  N limit shop in shop , and multivendors can open own shop in our web site and it will be very easy to follow and see all own category and products from front site .

We should keep PayPal related functionality as a plugin and not built into the core functionality as PayPal is not available in all countries.

And here we go. Download the latest version here and give it a try. Everything is ready. Here are some things still to be done (after 3.00 release):
1. Configurable shipping options and rates (managed by a vendor). Vote here.
2. your suggestions?

How to set up multi-vendor. Let's say we have a "Vendor 1" and want him to have access to the vendor portal site. Follow the next steps:
Step 1. Go to admin area > customers > vendors. And create a new vendor record with "Vendor 1" name. Ensure that "Active" checkbox is ticked.
Step 2. Imagine your vendor already has a customer account(s) on your site (a standard registered customer). If it doesn't, then he has to register (or a store owner can do it for him). Go to admin area > customers > customers and then go to this customer details page.
Step3. On this page on "Customer Info" tab ensure that "Manager of vendor" is set to "Vendor 1".
Step4. On this page on "Customer Roles" tab ensure that this customer is in "Vendors" customer role.
Note: a manager of vendor (a vendor customer account) cannot be in the default "Administrators" customer role.

Once it's done a vendor can use this customer account to manage his products, orders, shipments, see reports. He'll see "Administration" link at the op of the site once logged-in.

If you do not want a vendor to has access to his admin area portal, then just skip steps 2-4. In this case a store owner can do all necessary management operations for this vendor.

BETA testers are VERY welcome!

Looking forward for your feedback.

Wow, Great job again guys! I Will beta test tomorrow for Sure ;-)

Good job Andrei!  I can hardly believe you're done already, way to go!

Do you have a demo set up for us to explore?  Or do we just have to install it to try it out?

Thanks Andrei!!!
Again an example of a very complex feature accomplished in just 12 days, thanks to an very experienced team and well designed and robust Nop architecture.

a.m. wrote:
Now we have the model of a Consolidated Order (products from all vendors in one order). Make it configurable to have the Separate Orders model (one order per vendor), which would require the following:
- Don't let customer to add to cart products of different vendors, so to make orders vendor by vendor.
- Configurable payment options and charges per vendor: For payments each vendor should be affiliated with each of the payment providers  of the store and the corresponding information should be included in a table (all managed by store owner). A simplification would be to have just one payment option accepted by all vendors (with individual affiliations)

Desirable for both models, but quite important for the second:
- Let the customer filter products by vendor.
- Display vendor name/profile-link in product detail
- Vendor profiles
- Configurable shipping options and rates per vendor

eadameg wrote:

That would mean that each vendor would have to provide their API Keys/Passwords/etc. to the store owner.  It might be better to have vendors set it up themselves (and have it encrypted in the database).

eadameg wrote:

You'll have a high drop-out rate if you make customers purchase from vendors one at a time.

a.m. wrote:

Awsome work andrei. way to go.

my suggestions :
1 - vendor localization and seo settings (it might be on your list already)
2 - vendor address and logo settings
3 - display "Sold by %Vendor% on products details page and product list.
4 - display and filter products by vendor.
5 - display a list of vendors
6 - vendors rating (very important with the new split orders feature) : customers should  rate vendors for their service.
7 - vendors should choose which shipping they use.
8 - Should vendors be able to reply to customers notes and comments ?

thank you again for the hard work.