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Vendor imports take a click. The paid work is the structure around the money.
Commission rules that match contracts. VendorIQ supports advanced commission rules on Professional and above. Model each vendor’s agreement — flat percentage, tiered by sales, per-category rates — and check against a month of real orders before the first payout runs.
Payout plumbing. Automated Stripe payouts arrive on Professional ($29/mo); PayPal Payouts and manual bank methods are available across tiers. Pick a cadence (weekly, biweekly, monthly) that matches your cash cycle and your vendors’ expectations.
AI vendor vetting and scoring. Professional and above includes AI vendor vetting, scoring and fraud detection, plus performance predictions. Read the first month’s scores manually before trusting them to auto-reject applications.
Vendor onboarding flow. Dedicated login/signup page, vendor dashboards, product form similar to Shopify’s. One of VendorIQ’s reviews specifically calls out that vendors list products, track orders and fulfill from their own panel. The expert work is deciding what vendors can and can’t do.
Order splitting at checkout. VendorIQ edits Shopify Functions (cart transforms, delivery customizations, cart and checkout validations) to split orders by vendor. Test the checkout flow with multi-vendor carts before launch; if you use other checkout extensions, check for conflicts.
Catalog import at scale. One-click catalog import for vendor products. Brief vendors on image size, title conventions and category assignments before they load their own catalogs, or product data quality drifts fast.
Per-vendor invoices. VendorIQ generates invoices per vendor — useful for accounting and VAT. Confirm the invoice format with your finance team before issuing the first batch.
Growth to Scale upgrade path. Free is for 5 vendors (plus a demo vendor for testing). Growth at $9 covers 25. Professional at $29 covers 100 and adds AI vetting plus automated Stripe payouts. Scale at $59 covers 400 with multi-currency payouts and SLA support.
Marketplace builds trip over commission math and payout timing more often than product uploads. Favor the specialist who asks about agreements before themes.
Give them a messy order. Two vendors in one cart, a discount code and a partial refund. A strong candidate walks through how each vendor’s commission and payout change line by line.
Ask who funds the Stripe balance. Automated Stripe payouts need a funded balance. Someone who has run this before asks which person on your team keeps the balance topped up.
Ask about AI vendor vetting. On Professional and above, the AI scores applicants. Expect a candidate to want to review the first month’s scores manually before trusting the system to auto-reject vendors.
Ask what a vendor sees on day one. Anyone who has launched a VendorIQ marketplace can describe the sign-up, approval and first product upload from the vendor’s side.
Ask about Shopify Functions edits. VendorIQ makes changes to cart transforms and checkout validations. If you already use another checkout extension (ETA display, cart upsells, custom fields), ask how the specialist plans to test for conflicts.
Pitches to push back on. Hard-coding commissions in theme code when the app handles rules. Promising automated Stripe payouts before testing with a real vendor account. No fallback for a declined payout.
A two-vendor pilot. Pay for a small first task: two test vendors, one commission rule each, one test payout, reviewed together before you invite the rest.
Four plans as of October 2026. Free covers 5 active vendors, basic vendor management, manual order splitting, basic commission tracking, basic analytics, 500 email notifications a month, standard support and a demo vendor for testing. Growth at $9 a month ($90 a year, saves 17%) extends to 25 vendors, adds automated order splitting, commission rules and tracking, advanced analytics, 1,000 emails with 10 campaigns, 10 AI content generations a month, priority email support and AI product categorization and description generation. Professional at $29 a month ($290 a year, saves 17%) covers 100 vendors and adds AI vendor vetting and scoring, AI fraud detection, performance predictions, automated payouts via Stripe, advanced commission rules, REST API access and dedicated support. Scale at $59 a month ($590 a year, saves 17%) covers 400 vendors, everything in Professional, plus multi-currency payouts, branded vendor emails, 200 AI content generations and SLA-backed support. Paid plans include a 14-day free trial.
Pick by vendor count, not features. The useful upgrade points are: 5 to 25 vendors (Free to Growth), 100 vendors plus AI vetting and automated Stripe (Growth to Professional), 400 vendors plus multi-currency (Professional to Scale). Automated payouts via Stripe start on Professional; the Growth plan still runs manual payout methods.
Compared with Puppet Vendors. VendorIQ starts cheaper (free, then $9) and scales to $59 for 400 vendors. Puppet Vendors starts at $49 for 25 vendors and reaches $249 for 400, plus Enterprise from $599. VendorIQ wins on price for budget-conscious marketplaces up to 400 vendors; Puppet Vendors has a longer track record (125 reviews vs 2) and a wider documentation base. Compare on your actual vendor count and the specific features you need, not just the sticker price.
Payout methods. Stripe (automated on Professional), PayPal Payouts, manual bank transfers. Multi-currency payouts are a Scale-only feature — relevant if your vendors are in several countries.
Shopify permissions. VendorIQ edits customers, products, orders, discounts, store credit, Shopify Functions (cart transforms, delivery customizations, cart and checkout validations) and Online Store. Review the Shopify Functions edits with your checkout team if you use other checkout extensions.
Integrations. Checkout, Customer Accounts, Shopify Admin, Kernvel AI Auction, Kernvel ReturnIQ, Kernvel StockIQ, Klaviyo and SendGrid. The sibling Kernvel apps let you build an auction-plus-marketplace stack from one vendor.
Reviews and track record. 5.0 from 2 reviews as of October 2026. Launched 8 July 2026, so the app is new — expect active development and features to evolve. Not currently listed as Built for Shopify. English-only interface.
Scope each of these on its own, so a first hire is easy to judge.
5 vendors imported, manual splitting tested, commission tracked and one payout processed
Each vendor’s contract turned into rules on Professional, validated against a month of orders
Stripe balance funded, schedule agreed, test payout with one vendor before the full rollout
First month’s AI vendor scores reviewed manually before enabling auto-rejection
Signup, approval, catalog upload tested end-to-end from the vendor’s perspective
Several currencies configured for vendors in different regions, payout tested per currency
As of October 2026, Free covers 5 vendors with basic features. Growth is $9 a month ($90 a year, saves 17%) for 25 vendors with automated order splitting. Professional is $29 a month ($290 a year, saves 17%) for 100 vendors, with AI vendor vetting, fraud detection and automated Stripe payouts. Scale is $59 a month ($590 a year, saves 17%) for 400 vendors with multi-currency payouts and SLA support. Paid plans include a 14-day free trial.
They solve the same problem at different price points. VendorIQ starts free (5 vendors) and scales to $59 for 400 vendors, with AI vendor vetting on Professional and above. Puppet Vendors starts at $49 for 25 vendors and reaches $249 for 400, plus Enterprise from $599, with a longer track record (125 reviews as of October 2026 vs VendorIQ’s 2). VendorIQ is the budget option with AI assistance; Puppet Vendors is the more established marketplace builder. The right choice depends on your vendor count and whether you need the extra features in Puppet Vendors’ higher tiers.
Yes, from the Growth plan up. The free plan uses manual splitting; Growth and above split orders automatically at checkout. The splitting runs on Shopify Functions (cart transforms, delivery customizations, cart and checkout validations), which means it works on standard checkout as well as Shop Pay and express checkouts. If you already use another checkout extension, test for conflicts during the 14-day trial.
Yes. Automated payouts via Stripe arrive on the Professional plan ($29 a month). On Growth, payouts go through PayPal Payouts or manual bank transfers. Scale adds multi-currency payouts, so vendors in different regions get paid in their own currency. The Stripe balance needs to be funded for automated payouts to run — that’s the usual operational detail new multivendor stores miss on the first payout cycle.
On Professional and above, VendorIQ’s AI scores vendor applications and flags fraud risk. It also predicts vendor performance based on application data and (later) actual sales. In practice this helps the merchant filter weak applications at scale — useful once you’re handling more than a handful of applicants a week. For the first month, review the AI scores manually before trusting the system to auto-reject.
Not for a standard launch. Vendor sign-up, commission rules, payouts and the vendor dashboard are configured inside the app. A developer earns their place when vendor data has to sync with an ERP or accounting system through the REST API (available on Professional), when Shopify Functions edits need to coordinate with other checkout extensions you already run, or when the catalog import needs preprocessing to match your product data standards. A business strategy consultant is often more valuable than a developer at the start, to make sure the commission model and payout cadence are right before everything is coded in.