I am wondering if it’s possible to use CartThrob to build a store with multiple vendors who would upload their products themselves and could control their own shipping methods? If yes, what’s the best way to do it?

Thank you.

I would not suggest it, but it could be done… it’d be a bit advanced. Devot-EE uses CartThrob this way. The one extra thing would be setting the shipping. You can use set_config tag to change a variety of settings on the fly… that’s what you’d use so that vendors could set their own shipping methods.

Chris,

Been looking for a good multi vendor option (multiple vendors, limited shipping options, one store, they manage their own inventory).

Tell me if my thinking is off:

1) build a custom interface in EE that allow vendors to enter & edit their products including inventory levels. The interface will also show a report regarding product sales.
1a) The interface allows them to create product including all options & shipping (a limited set that I create).
2) Cart allow users to add products from different vendors including shipping costs.
3) The vendor & main store admin receives notification when sale is completed.

What your thoughts?

1,2,3 are not a big deal. The complicated part comes in if you plan to pay them immediately for sales… or if you plan on paying them automatically at the end of the month. It can get complicated pretty fast.

I would pay them after the sale has been executed and the payment has cleared - any suggestions on payment?

Well, some stores use manual methods to write checks and send. You can also use

PayPal MassPay
PayPal Adaptive Payments

MassPay will pay a lot of people at once
Adaptive Payments could pay one person automatically based on some condition.

Either method would require custom work. I’ve worked with MassPay before. The only trick there would be in calculating all of the payments.

I haven’t worked with Adaptive Payments, but I’m assuming the CT “on_authorize” hook could be used to trigger an automatic payment when the transaction has cleared. The only difficulty there would be dealing with returns. You’d have either have a NO RETURNS Policy, or wait until some point in the future to issue payments.

what if I’m not using paypal?

returns. probably would need to be a manual process.

wow - too much to think of!

By the way, I recently built an extension that will track when an item from a vendor is purchased, and send them an email,  and track their commission on the sale (at varying rates per vendor) It still doesn’t handle returns… but that’s something to think about.

The only part you’d need to use PayPal for, would be in paying them (if you wanted it automated). Otherwise, you could at least track commissions and pay them manually.