Vendor portal
Vendors sign up, submit business details, add products, manage stock and follow their orders and payouts.
Case study · E-commerce
ETK Mall: one marketplace for many Nigerian sellers
A marketplace where approved vendors list their products and sell through one checkout, with each payment split between the platform and the sellers.
- Client
- ETK Mall
- Industry
- E-commerce, multi-vendor marketplace
- Serves
- Buyers and vendors across Nigeria
- Our role
- Full platform build and ongoing support
The problem
Every seller was building alone
Commerce in Nigeria is fragmented. A fashion seller in Onitsha, an electronics trader in Alaba and a cosmetics shop in Abuja all sell to the same buyers, but each has to build a storefront, set up payments and find customers on their own. Most never get past WhatsApp catalogues and Instagram messages.
ETK Mall’s idea was one trusted marketplace: any vendor can register, list products and start selling through a shared checkout, with payments handled by a Nigerian gateway.
What we built
The parts of the platform
Approval before selling
A vendor’s products go live only after an admin approves the account, which keeps poor and fraudulent listings out.
One catalogue
Products from every approved vendor in one catalogue, with categories, variants, search and filters.
One checkout
A buyer can pay once for items from several vendors, through Paystack.
Commission and payouts
The platform takes its commission and settles the rest to each vendor, including when there’s a refund.
Roles and dashboards
Buyers, vendors and admins each get their own dashboard, actions and access to data.
The hard parts
What makes a marketplace different from a shop
A single shop has one owner, one stock list and one bank account. A marketplace has many of each, and the platform has to keep them apart.
- Keeping each seller’s stock separate. Every product, price and stock count belongs to exactly one vendor, and every page and API respects that. A mistake here means one vendor editing another’s prices.
- Splitting payments. One payment from the buyer becomes a commission for the platform and a settlement for each vendor, with fees and refunds handled properly.
- Handling disputes. A way to log a complaint, pause a payout and settle it with both sides, instead of emails that go nowhere.
Your marketplace
Planning a marketplace?
Start with how vendors get approved and how they get paid. Those two decisions shape most of the build, and most of the cost.
Start a project
Tell us what you want to build
Send a short WhatsApp message with your idea. We’ll ask a few questions, then send a written scope and a quote in Naira.
