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 9/10 and 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
- Drupal Commerce Integration
- Complete product catalog support
- Custom product types & variations
- Price management, taxes, stock control
- Multi-Vendor Capabilities
- Marketplace-ready setup
- Support for multiple vendors and storefronts
- Vendor dashboards and order management
- Payment & Shipping Integration
- Preconfigured with popular payment gateways (Stripe, PayPal, Mollie, etc.)
- Shipping rate calculation (flat rate, weight-based, etc.)
- Modern Storefront
- Responsive design with a clean, customizable theme
- Product filtering (Search API + Facets)
- Product comparison and wishlists
- Marketing Tools
- Discount and promotion engine
- SEO-ready (Meta tags, schema.org, clean URLs)
- Newsletter subscription integration (e.g., Mailchimp)
- Customer Features
- User accounts with order history
- Address book management
- Shopping cart and checkout wizard
- Back Office Management
- Order management dashboard
- Product and inventory management
- Vendor/product approval workflow
- 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