Multi-supplier online shopping platform

Question

I have been tasked by a client to rebuild an E-Commerce platform. The goal is an online shop on which vehicles are sold. The specialty is that it's supposed to be multi-supplier capable, i.e. external suppliers will have their own login back-end where they can manage their listings, add new ones, view their sales, etc.

The shop shows all the suppliers' products in one big catalogue that should ideally support some options like sorting and filtering, but they are not a requirement. Orders are transmitted to each relevant supplier, and the administrator, by E-Mail.

The ordering process is very simple - it's essentially just taking the ordered item out of the catalogue, and informing the supplier (and the administrator) that the item has been ordered. No online check-out / payments are required, although they are nice to have as an option.

All the on-line shopping systems I know are targeted at one single administrator.

Are there shop systems out there that can handle what I need?

Requirements:

• Top priority: Quality code. Preferably PHP 5 and object oriented. I don't care about the exact feature set of the product as long as the existing code is nice and neat to work with.

• Access control: Suppliers can log in and add and manage own products; have no access to the rest of the system. Administrators can manage listings and configure the shop. Administrators create supplier accounts

• Must be multi-language or localized to German

• The sales process is very simple: An E-Mail to the supplier and to the administrator, containing the buyer's data, is enough.

• No need for on-line payment/checkout, although it is a welcome extension

• Open Source is preferred, but a commercial solution is not out of the question if the product is really, really good and well documented

As long as the basic product is fine and supports the basic catalogue and user management necessary for this, all further features are negotiable (i.e. I'll add them myself if necessary.)

Answer 1

Magento ! You have to use it, its the best thing since sliced bread.

I've created a multi agent e-commerce system that had reps login and add sales, credit notes and so on. The system had a standard catalogue setup. It could even be customised so that supplier A could have their own shop, supplier B have their own. They could both skin them and so on.

We have different languages. It has a massive developer community so anything we didn't have I just bought and integrated (My time is expensive, this gave the customers real return). There is an open source version, which is what I used, there is also a pay version. I really cannot recommend it enough.

Answer 2

If no payment methods and checkout is involved, it is surely better to write from scratch. With any of the existing systems, you will just have the overhead of code that is not actually used. Also, not so many systems support searching and filtering by parameters and this seems to be a core feature for such a large project.

Answer 3

I'm currently working on a similar project.
I'm trying things out with magento to begin with. There's an add-on module for advanced permissions aitoc_magentomods_advanced_permissions which might help you.

Answer 4

The first problem you're going to have in getting a multi-supplier type system is that it will never meet your needs.

If you really wish to have the right system then you should create your own from a decent framework.

if you still wish to use a pre designed system that meets the needs you specified i would go with Magento

Magento is one of the most advanced E-Commerce system I have ever worked with.

The code itself is not so much easy to work with at the start but you get used to it after a few days/weeks.

In regards to the "Access control", im not 100% weather this is supported but the Magento system is very abstract and im 80% positive that this can be done.

"Must be multi-language or localized to German", Every language you need.

"The sales process is very simple: An E-Mail to the supplier and to the administrator, containing the buyer's data, is enough."

instead of me going on about the features i advise you to check it out.

http://www.magentocommerce.com/

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But I still would prefer to develop my own framework and build from that.

Regards.

Answer 5

If you're going to build from scratch, do it in Seaside. You're likely to find available solutions don't meet enough of your needs. The quality of code is going to be much better in Seaside. Real reuse, no templates.

Talk to Norbert Hartl