You position yourself as a b2b platform, but technically you are the best on github. I plan to use your platform as a B2C marketplace. Is this a good idea?
Sure, it’s a good idea. Because honestly, B2B more complicated than B2C.
B2C - about customers and marketing.
B2B - about organization, contracts and personalization.
Inform us about your progress. Any feedback are welcome.
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If we compare the B2C and B2C platforms of magento commerce, spryker and others, then the B2B platform is built on the basis of B2C and this is correct. Therefore, if you disable the B2B functionality of virtocommerce, then the platform can be used as B2C.
For example, compare spryker:
B2B Wood stackable chair, upholstered - VE 4 pieces, substructure chromed - upholstery black
B2C Asus Transformer Book T200TA
As we can see, the product card, navigation, and so on are the same. Therefore, it is not correct to call virtocommerce only a B2B platform.
I can’t say anything about the marketplace module yet. Basic functionality, like other platforms. Over time, there will be more functionality.
After working with other ecommerce platforms, it is unusual to work with the old administrative panel.
The template is not perfect yet and requires improvements, but it will get better over time. The only thing missing now from the standard functionality is product reviews. There is a reviews module, but the template only supports seller reviews. It may be worth redefining the components for the product reviews as well. I hope this will be finalized soon. The product image would like to be clickable.
In general, this is a bit more complicated than PHP platforms, but you can figure it out over time. If you have enough time and desire, then virtocommerce is an attractive option for ecommerce, even for small and medium-sized companies. If the platform is going to scale in the future, then virtocommerce is an ideal option, since its technological stack is designed for highloads.
That’s all for now. For a more detailed analysis, more time is needed.
Virto has successful B2C clients of all sizes. For example, https://www.standaardboekhandel.be/ which are running successfully on Virto with millions of products.
We position ourselves as a B2B platform, but teams that understand and value our technology can certainly use it for B2C and we would be happy to support such clients.
Globally, I adhere to the idea that B2B is really different from B2C in many aspects, and we at Virto are trying to focus on functionality that is usually not applicable in B2C.
For example, Virto supports the ability to work with complex multi-level organizations, when the “customer” consists of many branches, each of which consists of sub-divisions, each of these levels can have its own contracts for some positions with the supplier.
The ability to manage users and roles within your B2B buyer account is also not native to B2C.
And so on.
User experience at the level of product cards can indeed be similar. However, we see that the solutions of our B2B clients can be very different even in this aspect.
At the same time, I fully agree with you that Virtocommerce is an ideal option if the platform is going to scale in the future, and performance is not the only advantage. The platform is designed in such a way that the team can add a lot of functionality without losing transparency and manageability.
We have B2C clients who have been able to migrate several acquired web shops with totally different user experience to Virto over the years, build a C2C marketplace on top of it (created more then 50 custom modules in totals) and they are happy because they can easily manage their environment and add new features without any problems with tech debt.
Regarding product reviews functionality: currently we don’t plan to extend a module GitHub - VirtoCommerce/vc-module-customer-review: Provides review of a products made by a customer who has purchased the product. but if you see how to improve it that it makes sense to think about contribution https: //www.virtocommerce.org/t/how-to-contribute-to-virto-commerce/459
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The module is there, there is no support for this module in the storefront theme, although you can reuse vendor feedback elements to refine the theme. If we have marketplace, including B2B, customer reviews play a decisive role in choosing a product. Reviews are not needed for internal portals, where it is important to simply place an order. But for this you can use the ERP system, without a online shop. I believe that few people will dare to release a B2B marketplace without product reviews into production.
At least the basic functionality should be in order to refine the extended functionality on its basis.
In any case, it’s up to you, I can only advise. But when choosing a platform between virto commerce and the bulky magento 2, my clients choose magento precisely for the reason that all the necessary functionality is available, and the client understands the cost of the platform. At virtocommerce, 30% of the functionality will have to be refined and maintained independently, and the cost of the platform tends to infinity.