Mirakl Operator / Seller

Every Mirakl-powered marketplace has one operator and many sellers.

• Operator: the company running the marketplace. It owns the storefront or brand and lists other companies' products there. It defines the taxonomy and required attributes, reviews product data, sets commission rates, collects payment from buyers and pays sellers out. It also owns the buyer relationship and monitors seller quality through KPIs
• Seller: a merchant listing on the marketplace. It holds inventory, registers offers (price and stock), receives orders, ships, and handles returns and inquiries within the operator's rules. It receives the sale amount minus commission
• Back offices and APIs: operators and sellers have separate back offices, and the APIs are split into an Operator API and a Seller API. For the same order, the operator sees the whole and each seller sees only its own part
• 1P and 3P: goods sold by the operator itself are first party (1P); goods sold by sellers are third party (3P). A single cart typically holds both

The difference between a first-party store and a marketplace comes down to this split. In a first-party store, one company buys, stocks, sells and ships. In a marketplace, inventory and shipping sit with the sellers, and the operator's revenue is commission (the take rate) rather than the product price. This is why gross merchandise value (GMV) and the operator's own revenue have to be tracked separately.

Operationally, three facts shape both systems and processes: a single order is split across sellers, shipping and return terms differ per seller, and the operator collects payment in one place and settles with each seller. Mirakl is built around these, providing review, commission and settlement tooling on the operator side and listing, order and shipping tooling on the seller side.

In Japan, operators are typically retailers or manufacturers extending an existing e-commerce site into a marketplace. Sellers are mostly merchants already selling on several malls, running their operations through an order management system (OMS). For a seller, joining a marketplace is "one more mall", and whether it fits the existing workflow decides whether they join. For an operator, how fast sellers can be recruited is the biggest challenge after launch.

We work on both sides. For operators, we handle Mirakl implementation and configuration, and build the integrations with ERP systems and Shopify. For sellers, we provide Connector for Mirakl for order management systems such as Next Engine, LOGILESS and CROSS MALL, so that a seller can list, receive orders and ship on a Mirakl marketplace without changing its existing workflow. Our onboarding documentation is likewise split into an operator guide and a seller start-up guide. Lowering the seller's setup burden is, in our experience, what speeds up seller recruitment for the operator.