Hi Mark (et al),
I have not forgotten you Mark ... your email and my draft reply are in my email ready to be completed
I am spending "spare" time managing the Joomla 3.3 Release Marketing efforts ... so this is on hold until the release settles in after another week or so.
I'll put this very plainly for everyone's benefit - what my minimum requirements would be.
- every person who is a member on the site has a profile ... they by default will be a buyer, but can also apply to be a seller.
Buyer (default)
- should be able to favourite, share, follow, love, etc products as well as buyer profiles.
- profile will probably list the things they follow, love, etc as well as post the items they have shared (posting purchased products to their timeline would have to be opt in).
Basically, they have the usual expected eCommerce functionality, but can but from many suppliers/products on the one site/profile/transaction, but with a social/community twist. One of the big bonuses of this is that it can be integrated into a "private" community, with extra functionality/engagement brought in via the social platform, beyond the basics of eCom.
Seller
Profile default page replaces the public "stream" with their store profile.
- store profile has the store header and then products underneath.
- click through to store details page, which has about store type information and shows feedback, who loves, etc.
- click through product detail has your expected product details and buy now.
- admin area where they can setup products, their profile, payment, shipping, etc
- order processing area giving communication with buyer, order management (updates/edit), payment processing, shipping/tracking, etc
Basically, a seller has a fully functional eCommerce admin for PHYSICAL products ... so has to properly handle shipping, logistics, order management, Those who you have actually run brick-and-mortar eCommerce operations you would understand the the product presentation on an eCom site is a minimal amount of the total operation ... the backend order admin, workflow, integrations, etc that are really important and will be what makes a multi-vendor eCom solution successful (or not).
FYI: neither jMarket or HikaShop are primary contenders on my list at this time.