Merchant onboarding on a marketplace
The marketplace model operates on the business provider principle: the marketplace lists the products and/or services of onboarded merchants on the platform, connecting them with potential buyers.
The onboarding phase plays a key role in the marketplace’s success. The more merchants there are, the more offers available in the catalog, the higher the marketplace will be listed on search engines, and therefore, more merchants will want to join the platform. A true virtuous circle.
What is “merchant onboarding”?
Also known as “enrollment,” onboarding is the integration phase of new merchants into the marketplace. Only once the onboarding process steps have been validated is the new merchant able to access the services provided by the marketplace: technical infrastructure, payment services, etc.
The merchant onboarding process consists of three steps:
Onboarding steps
- Registration and contracting with the marketplace
- Contracting with the PSP and Submitting Documents for KYC/KYB
- Setting Up the Open Payment Account (Payout, Automation, etc.)
Once the merchant is onboarded, they can create their product sheets and configure all the desired options for the purchasing process (choice of payment methods, delivery methods, after-sales service management, etc.).
The importance of successful merchant onboarding
Since payment plays a central role in its development and growth, a marketplace works jointly with the Payment Service Provider (PSP), which allows it to collect funds and distribute them to its merchants. This is why this partnership also works on managing merchant onboarding.
Since onboarding is the first step in the marketplace-merchant relationship, it must be as seamless and simple as possible. Simplified interfaces and automated processing allow merchants and platform administrators to exchange information before payment accounts are created.
Its success depends on several factors:
- Frictionless contracting and KYC/KYB portal
- Full accounting autonomy for merchants
- Reduced monitoring effort for each platform player
- Payment methods and facilities support
CentralPay’s centralized and secure onboarding portal
Since onboarding is a crucial issue in establishing a marketplace-merchant relationship, CentralPay has designed a fully paperless onboarding service, which can be completed remotely from a dedicated portal accessible from a mobile phone or computer, to simplify contracting requirements.
With CentralPay, the marketplace provides its new seller with a centralized and secure interface, allowing for completely autonomous onboarding:
- Remotely join the marketplace and CentralPay, by electronically validating and signing the list of services provided and associated fees.
- Initiate the request to create an account associated with the marketplace platform account, on which the seller will collect sales.
- Submit the legal documents required for KYC/KYB (ID, Kbis, etc.), before verification and analysis by the CentralPay compliance department.
¹ FEVAD – Les chiffres du e-commerce (2021)
² Mirakl – Enterprise Marketplace Index (2021)
