A Multi-Studio Handmade Marketplace on Shopify
A Bentonville marketplace where every shop is approved by a person and every piece is made by the seller who sells it — built on Shopify so one cart can hold work from five studios.
The situation
The founders wanted a marketplace with real standards: no resellers, no dropshipping, no print-on-demand — only makers selling their own work, for a flat 5% per sale and no listing fees. That meant seller approval, per-studio fulfillment, and a single checkout, all on a platform the small team could run after launch.
What we did
Brand and storefront
A clean, editorial storefront that keeps the handmade work front and center — generous white space, craft photography, and category 'first look' galleries for ceramics, jewelry, glass, woodwork, textiles, paper, leather, and prints.
One checkout, many studios
Shopify configured so a shopper can buy from several makers in one order, with each studio fulfilling and shipping its own items and payouts split automatically.
Seller onboarding and approval
An apply-to-sell flow with human review, seller sign-in, and clear rules — 48-hour approval, 100% from the studio, 5% per sale — written into the product, not just the terms page.
Launch-ready
Email capture for the opening-day list, structured data, and performance tuning so the first wave of traffic lands on a fast, findable site.
Why it matters
Marketplaces live or die on trust and friction. Human approval builds the first; one checkout across studios removes the second. Shopify gave the team a platform they can grow without rebuilding.
Building a marketplace or multi-vendor store?
We've done the hard parts — split fulfillment, seller onboarding, one cart. Tell us what you're launching.