Top CS-Cart Multi-Vendor Alternative

Getting Started

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Build on Shopify, easy marketplace setup


• Set up your online store on Shopify.
• Install the Shopify Marketplace Creator App.
• Launch your marketplace.

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Hire a developer to set up your marketplace


• Signup for CS-Cart Multi-Vendor.
• Buy a domain.
• Register a hosting service.
• Upload and install the Multi-Vendor installation package.
• Start setting up your marketplace through code.

Overview

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Empower Your Vendors, Grow Your Marketplace with Shipturtle


• Shipturtle caters to B2C, C2C, and B2B marketplaces that offer Products, Services, Digital products, and more.
• It is a popular no-code tool, white-labeled, offering monthly updates and full backup.
• It is an extension of the world's most popular website platforms like Shopify.
• The marketplace is typically launched within 2 days.
• Built for scale and large vendors with features like vendor connect, bulk listing management, integrated shipping, and invoicing.

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Powerful, But is it Right for You?


• Enjoys higher brand recognition due to its longer presence in the market.
• Launching your marketplace requires technical expertise for installation, configuration, and maintenance. It can be a barrier for non-technical users and may take weeks, if not months.
• CS-Cart is a good tool for creating a marketplace, but third-party add-ons intended to provide additional customization often fall short.
• CS-Cart has limited functionality for product marketplaces. You might encounter challenges with order tracking, shipping label generation, and integrations crucial for product sales.
• Building a multi-vendor marketplace using CS-Cart is comparable to building a house with half a dozen contractors that never interact with each other and never see the same blueprint!

Security, Scalability and Support

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Built to Scale, Open to Your Vision


• Shipturtle offers complete democracy, unlimited scale, security, and backups.
• Detailed change logs at order and product levels offer traceability.
• Open APIs, documentation, and unlimited chat support.
• Super easy and friendly for marketplaces at scale.

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Hidden Costs of CS-Cart


• CS-Cart offers Google account integration for admin authentication, adding an extra layer of security compared to traditional password logins.
• The self-hosted platform requires you to handle server management, security, and updates, adding an extra layer of complexity.
• User reviews often cite performance issues with high traffic or extensive data.
• While CS-Cart offers one-year upgrade licenses, be prepared to spend a lot of money on updates.
• Moreover, you can't just buy the features you need.
• If a feature you want is in a higher plan, you have to upgrade the whole package, even if you don't need everything else in it.

Order Management

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Automate, Customize & Grow


• Shipturtle offers extensive features for customizing checkout, order management, and shipping.
• Complete Automation, and integrations with order management systems and shipping services.
• Shipment tracking, invoicing, pickup facility, and returns management.
• Support for digital products, WhatsApp integration, and reverse bidding.

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Limited OMS & Shipping Functionalities


• Limited integrations might restrict your shipping options and flexibility.
• Lacks built-in label generation, potentially adding complexity for vendors.
• Lacks functionality to handle returns and non-delivered orders.
• Relies on 3rd party apps for shipping integrations.
• Companies like Webkul are known for bugs and bad support on CS Cart's own forum.

Product Management

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Feature-rich Product Management for Vendors


• Vendors can tailor product fields, create single or bulk listings, and utilize templates for consistency.
• Automatic inventory updates and quick edit options enhance efficiency.
• Approval flows maintain quality control.
• Support for product variants, mandatory fields, and private label products.
• Subscription and booking product options.

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Slow Uploads, Manual Work


• CS-Cart has all the basics in place but can become restrictive as your marketplace grows.
• Listing products can be slower for vendors, especially when dealing with bulk uploads or multiple variants.
• Offers limited options for customizing product fields and data feeds. This can make it difficult to cater to specific industry needs.

Vendor Management

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All-in-One Vendor Management


• Comprehensive Vendor management dashboard comprising Vendor onboarding, detailed analytics, custom vendor permissions, customer chat, reviews, and mobile access.
• VENDOR CONNECT feature gives Marketplaces a two-way ability to sync with the vendor's feeds on Shopify, Amazon, etc. Inventory is kept in sync, orders are pushed to their OMS, and listings are updated automatically.

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Restrictive Vendor Management


• CS-Cart offers vendor profiles and dashboards. Allows you to collect subscription fees from vendors to allow access to your marketplace.
• Limited inventory sync options with vendor websites.
• Require customization for granular control of features and modules available to different vendors.

Payout Management

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Flexible Payouts & Commissions


• Any payment gateway can be used on the website giving the ability to choose and negotiate costs.
• Payouts via Stripe and Paypal.
• Robust rules-based engine where commission can be set based on product, vendor, category, or globally. Flexibility to treat product price, taxes, shipping, and discounts separately.
• Payout can be controlled to factor in delivery, returns, and refunds.

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Spend More for the Same Functionality


• Features like commission rates based on categories are only available in higher tiers. This means limited options for customization and potential roadblocks to future growth.
• CS-Cart might require additional tools or manual effort for efficient reconciliation.

Website Interface

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Take Advantage of Shopify Ecosystem


• Shopify powers 4.5+ million live stores and Woocommerce even more.
• Even the lowest plans are fully customizable from a design standpoint. Dev support from thousands of agencies and freelancers.
• 13000+ app ecosystems include critical integrations with CRMs, Loyalty apps, Social platforms, POS systems, accounting software, and shippers.
• Best-in-class conversions, one-click checkouts.
• Shipturtle has seamless integration with platforms like Shopify providing a 1-minute install, instant sync, and full compatibility. Its open APIs can also integrate with a headless architecture or custom-built websites.

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Limited Options, Limited Growth?


• 11,000+ historical websites built (source: builtwith). Clean UI to manage your marketplace.
• Customization is available only on the top plan via a closed developer community.
• Pricing plans are restrictive on several parameters like revenue, products, vendors
• Mobile app source code is available only on top-tier plans.

Pricing

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Most Affordable Multi-Vendor Marketplace on Shopify


• Shipturtle charges $149 per month. Add $79 for Shopify charges to make the comparison like to like. (estimated for a marketplace receiving 5000 orders).
• Both Shopify and CS-Cart charge payment processing charges via Stripe that is ~$0.30 + 2.5% per order.
• Detailed and extensive published feature set with minimal needs for any customization.
• Guaranteed to go live within 2 days using out-of-the-box configs.
• Shopify and Woocommerce have the world's easiest drag-and-drop interfaces with a developer community of millions.

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High Development Cost, Limiting Growth?


• CS-Cart's pricing structure includes both the website and the marketplace. It is recommended to write requirements to them since unlike Shopify+Shipturtle, there is no way to set it up quickly and try it for a few weeks and confirm a fit.
• Their subscription costs $295 per month + customizations + PG charges. Alternatively, you can buy their code for $6600 that comes with 1 year of free updates.