Submitted by elupusor on

Mercatus is a Drupal Commerce-based distribution designed specifically for building online stores and marketplaces. It's a pre-configured package that accelerates the development of e-commerce platforms by bundling Drupal Commerce with key modules, features, and a polished frontend — ideal for businesses wanting to launch quickly with a scalable and flexible foundation.

What is Mercatus?

Mercatus is a turnkey e-commerce solution built on Drupal Commerce, offering the tools needed to create a feature-rich web store or multi-vendor marketplace. It's typically maintained by agencies or open-source contributors that specialize in Drupal e-commerce.

Key Features of Mercatus

  1. Drupal Commerce Integration
    • Complete product catalog support
    • Custom product types & variations
    • Price management, taxes, stock control
  1. Multi-Vendor Capabilities
    • Marketplace-ready setup
    • Support for multiple vendors and storefronts
    • Vendor dashboards and order management
  1. Payment & Shipping Integration
    • Preconfigured with popular payment gateways (Stripe, PayPal, Mollie, MAIB, Paynet, Victoriabank, etc.)
    • Shipping rate calculation (flat rate, weight-based, etc.)
  1. Modern Storefront
    • Responsive design with a clean, customizable theme
    • Product filtering (Search API + Facets)
    • Product comparison and wishlists
  1. Marketing Tools
    • Discount and promotion engine
    • SEO-ready (Meta tags, schema.org, clean URLs)
    • Newsletter subscription integration (e.g., Mailchimp)
  1. Customer Features
    • User accounts with order history
    • Address book management
    • Shopping cart and checkout wizard
  1. Back Office Management
    • Order management dashboard
    • Product and inventory management
    • Vendor/product approval workflow
  1. Multilingual & Multi-currency Support
    • Ready for international markets
    • Locale-aware pricing and translations

Technical Stack

  • Based on Drupal Commerce + Drupal 10
  • Uses Views, Paragraphs, Layout Builder, Commerce Cart Flyout
  • Solr or Elasticsearch optional for enterprise search
  • Often built with Bootstrap 5 frontend or Tailwind

Where to Get Mercatus?

There isn't (yet) a fully centralized distribution called Mercatus on Drupal.org, but:

  • Some agencies offer Mercatus as a commercial Drupal Commerce starter kit or open-source base distribution
  • GitHub repositories (search for “mercatus drupal commerce”)
  • Alternatively, you can use Kickstart for Drupal Commerce as a solid base and extend it with marketplace features.

Use Cases

Single Vendor Webstores

 (e.g., fashion brand, electronics shop)

Multi-Vendor Marketplaces 

(like Etsy, Amazon-like models)

B2B Ordering Platforms

 

Digital Products Stores

 

Want to Build on Mercatus?

If you're planning to build a store or marketplace in Moldova or internationally, we can:

  • Spin up a Mercatus-like setup with Drupal Commerce
  • Enable vendor dashboards and commissions
  • Add integrations (e.g., CRM, payment gateway like MAIB or Moldindconbank)
  • Style it according to your brand