6Valley multi-vendor eCommerce setup: from install to first seller

6Valley is 6amTech's multi-vendor eCommerce platform: a web storefront, a customer app, a seller app, a delivery-man app and an admin panel. Think of a regional Amazon-style or Daraz-style marketplace where many sellers list products and you run the platform. Our client Plazabea launched on it. This guide covers the setup in the order that avoids rework.

What 6Valley gives you

• Web storefront: the main sales channel for most eCommerce, and what Google indexes.
• Customer app: browsing, cart, checkout, order tracking, wishlist and reviews.
• Seller app and seller panel: product management, orders, shipping, POS and withdrawals.
• Delivery-man app: for in-house delivery.
• Admin panel: sellers, categories, commission, shipping, promotions, refunds and reports.

Step 1: install and configure the basics

The installation follows the same pattern as other 6amTech Laravel products: a VPS with the PHP version and extensions your release needs, an empty MySQL database, the installer with your purchase code, then cron. Our 6amMart installation guide covers the server side in detail, and the hosting guide covers sizing.

Then set the basics: business name, logo, currency, timezone, languages, email (SMTP) and SMS for OTP.

Step 2: design the category tree before any seller logs in

Categories are hard to restructure once thousands of products sit in them. Plan three levels at most: category, subcategory and sub-subcategory. Use names customers search for. Set up product attributes such as size, colour and material that sellers can use for variants, so the catalogue stays consistent.

Step 3: decide your marketplace rules

In the admin panel you control:

• Seller registration: open sign-up, or approval by you. Approval is safer at launch.
• Commission: a default percentage, with overrides per seller if you negotiate.
• Product approval: whether new products need review before going live.
• Shipping model: in-house shipping run by you, or each seller managing their own methods and rates. Mixed models are possible but confuse customers, so pick one for launch.
• Refund and return policy: time window and conditions, matched to the refund workflow in the panel.

Step 4: onboard your first sellers yourself

The first sellers set the quality bar. Help them:

1. Create their shop with a logo, banner and policies.
2. Upload products with good photos, accurate stock and complete variants. Bulk import saves time when they have spreadsheets.
3. Learn the seller app for order notifications and status updates.
4. Understand withdrawals: when and how they get paid.

Load enough products that the storefront looks alive before you open it to customers.

Step 5: payments and checkout

Turn on cash on delivery if your market expects it, then add online gateways. 6Valley's payment list depends on your version, so check which gateways are available for your country and test real transactions, including refunds. For Latin America and the Gulf, see our payment gateway guide.

Step 6: storefront and SEO basics

eCommerce traffic often comes from search, so the web storefront deserves care:

• Write real category descriptions and set meta titles.
• Use clean product names. Ask sellers not to stuff keywords into titles.
• Add your storefront to Google Search Console and submit the sitemap if your version generates one.
• Make sure pages load quickly on mobile. Optimise image sizes and use caching on the server.

Step 7: promotions that work for marketplaces

6Valley includes flash deals, featured deals, deal of the day and coupons. Use them with a calendar, not at random. Run a launch flash sale with a few committed sellers, and plan seasonal campaigns around local shopping dates.

Step 8: brand and publish the apps

Rebrand the customer, seller and delivery-man apps with your own identity and package IDs, add your Firebase project for notifications, and publish under your accounts. See the rebranding guide and the store rejection fixes.

Common setup mistakes we fix

These come up again and again when clients bring us a 6Valley installation someone else started:

• Too many top-level categories. Twenty top-level categories with three products each makes the storefront look empty. Merge them until every category has real depth.
• Inconsistent product attributes. One seller uses "XL", another "Extra Large". Create attributes centrally and ask sellers to use them.
• Shipping set per seller with no defaults. Customers see different rules at checkout for every shop. Set a sensible default and allow overrides only where you need them.
• Unoptimised product images. Sellers upload huge photos from their phones and mobile pages crawl. Set upload limits, and compress images on the server.
• No test refund before launch. The first real refund request shows that nobody knows the process. Run one end to end, including the seller's side.
• Demo content left live. Demo banners, products and pages hurt trust and store review. Clear everything before launch.

Fixing these before launch takes a day. Fixing them with live sellers and customers takes weeks.

How we help

We install 6Valley, set up categories, commission and shipping, connect your payment gateways, and rebrand and publish the apps. See Plazabea in our eCommerce marketplace section.