Money, trust and supply
Model the money first
Before designing a single page we draw how money flows. Who is the merchant on the customer's card statement? When is the vendor paid: at purchase, on delivery, or after a return window? Who bears the payment fee, and who funds a refund? Stripe Connect supports several charge patterns, and the answers decide which one fits. We keep an internal ledger as well. Every sale, commission, refund, adjustment and payout is a row against a vendor balance, so the vendor dashboard, your finance report and the payment provider's own records can be reconciled line by line.
Onboarding sellers without building a compliance team
Verifying identities and bank accounts is regulated work. Connect onboarding collects documents and runs the checks, and reports back through webhooks whether an account can accept charges and receive payouts. Our side tracks that status, explains to the vendor what is still missing and keeps listings unpublished until verification completes. On top of this come your own rules: categories that need approval, document uploads such as trade licenses, and an admin review queue.
One checkout, many vendors
A cart with items from three sellers becomes one payment and three vendor orders. Each vendor order has its own fulfillment state, shipping and commission. The buyer sees one order with three parcels. A vendor sees only their own slice. Partial refunds reverse the commission in proportion, and all of it is written to the ledger inside one transaction. This split is the part that generic store software struggles to retrofit.
Trust features are core features
Reviews are tied to completed orders so they cannot be invented. Disputes run as a small case system: the buyer opens a case, both sides add evidence before a deadline, an administrator decides and the outcome adjusts balances automatically. Card chargebacks arrive by webhook and are matched to the order and vendor. Messaging stays on the platform, with optional filtering of phone numbers and emails, which protects both users and your commission.
Supply side tooling decides growth
Vendors who find the dashboard painful stop listing. We give them bulk upload by spreadsheet, clear order queues, payout statements they can hand to an accountant and notifications that work. Search is tuned so new vendors are discoverable and good ones are rewarded, using signals such as rating, response time and fulfillment record. The broader business model questions are covered on our online marketplaces page.