1) The Work Flow

The Marketplace module in magento works upon creating the complete multivendor market place or a multivendor store in a single instance of magento. The extension is very easy to install as no additional setup is required. The work flow of the magento marketplace module comprises of its three main sections:

1. Admin section,
2. Vendor section, and
3. Front-end or Customer section.

1. Under the marketplace module the admin section has the utmost power or authority as what you expect being an admin of a multi vendor marketplace. In the admin section an admin has an access over manage products, manage categories, reviews and ratings under catalog option; Oders, Invoices, Shipments, Credit memos, Transactions, Billing Agreements, Termas & Conditions and taxes under sales option.
2. Through manage products option an admin can add new products to the multi-vendor store. Similarly, through manage categories an admin can add new categories of products to the store.
3. Under review and rating and admin can check the status as well as change the status of reviews done by the customers. He has the access over ratings of various shops and their products too.
4. Admin can add or change the list of verification proof that will be display at the front end when vendor send request. This functionality ask vendors to upload their original verification document for admin verification. After this verification, the vendors are allowed to login into the admin section using their own username and password.
5. The balance sheet in the admin shows all the transactions that took place with the respective vendors. As the payment from the customers were received by the admin so the admin can also see how much he has to pay to the respective vendor. Once the admin clicks on a particular vendor name, an Add Transaction button appears, clicking on it will open a form with the alredy filled up amount to be paid to the vendor. He can proceed with the payment with the selected payment type method from the drop-down provided in the form.
6. Admin has the authority to set the commission for each vendor. This commission transfer management will be done automatically and is reflected in the balancesheet.
7. The admin can also keep an eye on the status of the products order through the pending product option under the medma>marketplace>pending products otpion.

1. In order to create a profile as vendor a reuest to be registered as seller can be sent from the front end of the marketplace site to the admin. The admin after verification may or may not accept the request.
2. After log in, a Vendor(s) will see their account section, where they can change their profile picture, shop name, message, contact details and other details which would be visible on the frontend in their profile section.
3. In the Manage Products section, the vendor(s) will be able to add, edit, delete and disable their own products. Vendor(s) has no auhority to enable any of their product. Similarly, in the Orders section, they would be able to see their specific orders.
4. In the transaction section vendor(s) can see their own balance sheet, including all their transactions based on orders.
5. In the review section for vendors, they can see their own revies given by the customers. If they want they can also change the status of their review.
6. Under the configuration section for vendors, they can set different settings related to their marketplace.

1. The front-end section is the section where all the products along with their vendors are displayed. Customer can add those products to their cart or to their wishlist for later consideration.
2. At the checkout customer(s) has to fill in their basic information such as their name, address, payment method, etc. for the product delivery.
3. Customers can see the reviews from vendor profile and can also give their feedback from My Account > My Orders section.
4. Customers can review and rate vendor product, which was ordered. These reviews will are displayed on the profile page of the vendor. Customer can also add vendor(s) to their favorite vendor list.

2) Future Scope

Today as the market is being online, there are a lot of stores for particular products, now it is feasible if a customer gets most of the products from the same store rather than visiting different stores specific to his needs. These marketplaces can themselves act as a platform for selling variety of products to customers. This Marketplace module in Magento has a healthy future as today there are very few magento extensions which provide the functionality of a market place. This marketplace module gives such a huge functionality for vendors to maintain their products with different web stores. This marketplace module in Magento will simplify the process of maintaining account of vendors for the admin.

3) Compatibility

1.6, 1.7, 1.8, 1.9