Garnet Marketplace

What it is

Garnet Marketplace is a Shopify app that turns your Shopify store into a multi-vendor marketplace. Unlike standalone no-code marketplace builders that ask you to rebuild your storefront, checkout and payments inside their platform, Garnet keeps all of that on Shopify and adds the marketplace layer on top. The app installs on Shopify and requires no developers or external hosting. You configure vendors, commissions and payouts in the Shopify admin while keeping Shopify's checkout, themes and app ecosystem intact.

The platform was initially created in 2020 as part of a company internal project. Since 2023 it has been open to other Shopify stores. It is built on top of Shopify's GraphQL API, with Shopify managing the customer-facing side of the business. The company says one of its clients has over 70k vendors with over 650 integrations, and it points large marketplaces to an Enterprise Plan.

What you build and how

Garnet lets you manage a multi-vendor marketplace directly inside Shopify. You install the app, configure vendors, set commission rates and payout rules, and Shopify handles the customer-facing side. Vendors manage their own inventory and prices, fulfill orders and get paid by the marketplace operator who collects a commission on each sale.

Vendor onboarding is straightforward. Vendors can snap a picture from their phone and use the responsive form to submit a new product in seconds. The platform supports mobile, tablets and desktop access for both operators and vendors, so vendors and operators have the flexibility to use all Garnet's features from their own devices.

Vendors who already run their own stores can be connected rather than retyped. Garnet provides real-time integrations for Shopify-to-Shopify, WooCommerce, PrestaShop, a generic API and Google Sheets. Vendors sync products, inventory and orders automatically. Vendors onboard through a registration page and the catalog syncs on its own, with the commissions, vendor approval rules, product requirements and payouts all set in the Garnet admin. You can apply price transformations (flat fee, percentage or combined) and choose full sync or price and stock only.

Commissions are configured in the admin, and the company lists flexible commissions, multi-currency support and automated payouts via Stripe and PayPal. You can approve products before they are listed, marketplace operators can validate content before products are approved, and you can enable auto-approval for vendors you trust. Garnet is integrated with several payment providers including Stripe, PayPal and Mollie for vendor payouts.

You can white-label the entire marketplace. Vendors see your brand name, logo, colors and domain name with no mentions of Garnet Marketplace on the platform. Design is fully white-labeled through an intuitive management interface, you easily update logos, colors, wording and interface elements. Email notifications are customizable, control every communication sent by your marketplace using customizable email and notification templates, edit content, branding and calls to action, and automate messages based on marketplace events such as vendor approval, new orders or payouts.

Garnet is open to customizations: the site tells operators who find a missing feature to contact the team, which assesses the need and provides a quote. A customer review says the team will do custom work at reasonable prices or even for free. The site also says the marketplace runs on Shopify's mobile-ready storefront, so there is no separate app to maintain.

Evidence and pricing

The pages publish no subscription prices or plan names for the standard app, beyond a mention of an Enterprise Plan for very large vendor counts, so check the Shopify App Store listing or contact the company before budgeting.

Customer reviews on the site, which carry store names and countries such as France, Spain, Australia, Austria and the United States, call the platform intuitive and simple and praise responsive support. The company also says there are no bots or endless ticket loops when you contact it. A customer review says that Garnet is "incredibly easy to use for both me as the store owner and my vendors," with new features arriving nearly every week and constant improvement.

According to customer testimonials, the team is responsive and available. One operator notes that Garnet's interface is clear, straightforward and easy for sellers to navigate, and the team provides incredible customer service and is accommodating to specific needs. Another customer reports using the platform for just over a year and describes it as "the most intuitive tool of its kind." A US customer review says Garnet enabled them to "expand the brands that we list and automate a lot of the work that was previously done manually."

The company's own guide compares Garnet to standalone no-code builders: standalone builders ask you to rebuild your storefront, checkout and payments inside their walls, while Garnet keeps all of that on Shopify and adds the marketplace layer on top. The comparison chart shows that Garnet handles checkout and payments through Shopify (not rebuilt), with the marketplace set up in the admin and live in days, whereas standalone builders require you to rebuild your commerce stack from scratch.

The company says Garnet began in 2020 as an internal project and has been open to other Shopify stores since 2023. One reviewer calls it a new app that is constantly updated.

Who it suits and who it does not

Garnet suits Shopify store owners who want to add a vendor marketplace without migrating to a different platform. If you already sell on Shopify or want Shopify's checkout, themes and app ecosystem, Garnet fills that gap. It suits e-commerce teams that want to onboard multiple vendors while keeping the Shopify storefront they've already built.

The platform works for B2C retail marketplaces for physical products, digital goods and service marketplaces. B2B wholesale platforms can also use it. The company's blog also covers how to build a C2C marketplace on Shopify and compares 6 marketplace revenue models.

Garnet is not for founders who want to move away from Shopify or avoid platform lock-in, your marketplace is built on Shopify's ecosystem and tied to that infrastructure. It's also not for teams building a completely new storefront from scratch on a marketplace platform, if you don't have a Shopify store yet, standalone builders like Sharetribe may be a better starting point. Similarly, if your vendor strategy requires deep customization of commission logic, approval workflows or payout timing beyond what Garnet's interface allows, you might outgrow the no-code approach.

The advantage is that you keep everything you've already built in Shopify: themes, apps and checkout. You don't rebuild your storefront, you add a vendor layer to it. The tradeoff is that you're committed to the Shopify ecosystem. If you're already a Shopify merchant and want to add vendors without rebuilding, Garnet removes the complexity of marketplace operations from your day and lets you scale vendors without hiring developers.