How to Build a Multi-Vendor Marketplace with Laravel: Step-by-Step

You can build a multi-vendor marketplace on Laravel, and many developers do. This guide outlines the steps and the decisions that matter, so you can judge whether building makes sense or whether a ready-made script is the better choice. It assumes you already know basic Laravel.

1. Set up the project

Create a new Laravel project and connect a MySQL database.

composer create-project laravel/laravel marketplace
cd marketplace
php artisan serve

2. Plan the data model

A marketplace needs more than a store. Typical tables and models:

• Users with roles: customer, vendor and admin
• Vendors (store name, status, commission rate)
• Products that belong to a vendor
• Orders and order items, where each item belongs to a vendor
• Payouts and a wallet or ledger for vendor balances

php artisan make:model Vendor -m
php artisan make:model Product -m
php artisan make:model Order -m
php artisan make:model OrderItem -m
php artisan make:model Payout -m

3. Roles and permissions

Use policies or a permissions package so vendors can only see their own products and orders, and only admins can approve vendors or change commissions.

4. Vendor and admin dashboards

Vendors need product management, an order list and earnings. Admins need vendor approval, order oversight, refunds, categories and reports. These dashboards are most of the work. The vendor panel for marketplaces and multi-vendor admin panel show what a complete version contains.

5. Checkout with split orders

A cart can hold items from several vendors. At checkout, create one order and split it into vendor-specific order items so each vendor fulfils only theirs. Handle shipping or delivery per vendor if needed.

6. Commission and payout logic

Calculate the commission when an order is paid, and credit the vendor's pending balance with the remainder.

$commission = $item->total * ($vendor->commission_rate / 100);
$vendorEarning = $item->total - $commission;

Then release funds after delivery and keep a ledger of every change. See how multi-vendor marketplaces pay vendors for the flow.

7. Payments

Choose a gateway that supports marketplace payments if you want automatic splits, or hold funds yourself and pay vendors manually. Test refunds and failed payments carefully.

8. Search, reviews and notifications

Add product search and filters, ratings and reviews, and email or push notifications for orders. These features decide whether the marketplace feels complete.

9. Test, secure and deploy

Write tests for the money logic, review security, then deploy to a server that meets the requirements in multi-vendor marketplace script server requirements.

Build or buy?

A custom build gives full control, but the dashboards, apps, payouts and edge cases take months. A ready-made Laravel multi-vendor script gives you those parts today, and your developers can still change the code. Compare the costs in what it costs to build a marketplace, and read the complete guide to multi-vendor marketplace scripts before deciding. You can also open the live demo to see a finished version.