Arcadier is built as a native three-portal architecture, where each portal corresponds to a primary role in the marketplace (Admin, User/Buyer and Merchant):
1. Administrator (Admin)
The marketplace owner or operator. Admins operate via the Admin Portal. Responsibilities include:
- Overall marketplace governance across platform-wide controls and data
- Managing marketplace configuration and settings
- Onboarding and approving merchants
- Managing taxonomy, categories and commissions
- Configuring payment gateways
2. Merchant (Seller)
Sellers who list products or services on the marketplace. Merchants operate via the Merchant Portal. Responsibilities include:
- Creating and managing listings
- Managing seller storefront
- Managing inventory or service availability
- Processing, updating and fulfilling orders
- Negotiating and communicating with buyers
3. Buyer (Consumer)
End users who purchase products or services. Buyers interact through the User Portal (Marketplace Website). Capabilities include:
- Buyer-facing storefront
- Searching, browsing and filtering listings
- Adding items to cart
- Multi-item, multi-merchant, single checkout experience
- Negotiating and communicating with sellers
- Viewing and tracking orders
All three portals communicate with the same backend API layer. The default portals are available out of the box. For custom builds, every portal feature is also accessible via the REST API, allowing developers to build entirely custom frontend experiences while using Arcadier as the marketplace engine.