Welcome: what you are launching
You now have your own branded, multi-vendor ordering and delivery marketplace. This guide walks you from the first login to your first real order, in the order that saves you the most time.
Read time: 5 min · For: the marketplace owner
A marketplace is a place where many businesses sell under your brand. Restaurants, grocers, florists, pharmacies, or any local business can join. Your customers order from all of them through one website and one app, your drivers (or a delivery partner) bring the orders, and you earn a commission or fee on the activity you create.
Ordering.co runs the technology underneath: the website, the apps, the dashboard, payments connections, logistics, and hosting. You run the business: the brand, the merchants you sign, the area you cover, the prices and fees you set, and the customers you win.
What is already in your hands
Your dashboard
The control center for everything: stores, menus, users, orders, drivers, payments, marketing, and reports. Everything you change here appears on your website and apps.
Your marketplace website
Live from day one on a temporary web address. You connect your own domain in Chapter 10.
Your apps
A Customer App for the people who order, a Business App for merchants who receive orders, and a Driver App for deliveries. Chapter 6 explains each one.
A support team and knowledge base
Step-by-step articles at docs.ordering.co and live chat inside your dashboard. Chapter 39 explains how to get answers fast.
How this guide is organized
The guide follows the order we recommend you work in. It is built around one idea: start the slow things first. Publishing apps in the Apple and Google stores and connecting a domain take days or weeks because they depend on Apple, Google, and your domain provider. If you start them on day one, they run in the background while you build your stores.
| Part | What you will do |
|---|---|
| 0 · Start here | Sign in, read the 30-day plan, learn the key terms. |
| 1 · Know your platform | Tour the dashboard and understand the apps and what your plan covers. |
| 2 · Start the slow parts first | Open developer accounts, request your apps, connect your domain and maps. |
| 3 · Build the marketplace | Brand the website, create categories, build your first store, menus, zones, and payments. |
| 4 · Merchants | Add merchants, let them apply, set commissions, and invoice them. |
| 5 · Orders and logistics | Understand the order flow, set up drivers, automatic dispatch, and delivery partners. |
| 6 · Go live | Test everything, run the checklist, and launch. |
| 7 · Grow | Use the built-in marketing tools and grow merchants and customers together. |
| 8 · Running it well | Daily routines, reports, getting help, and fixes for common problems. |
How to read each chapter
Every chapter tells you why the step matters, then gives numbered steps. Look for these boxes:
A shortcut or a better way to do something.
A common mistake that costs owners time. Read these twice.
Real questions from new marketplace owners, answered.
Dashboard locations appear like this: Stores › Add new store. Menu names can vary slightly depending on your plan and dashboard version. If a menu item is not where the guide says, use the search in the knowledge base or ask support in the chat.
Throughout this guide we follow Northside Eats, a fictional food and grocery marketplace launching in a mid-size city. Its first merchants are Luna Bakery, Casa Verde Kitchen, Grill Nation, FreshCorner Market, and Bloom & Stem, a florist. Its deliveries are handled by its own riders, with a delivery partner as backup. All names and numbers in these examples are illustrations, not real businesses or results.