by Cristina Tortorelli, Marketplace Consultant

In an era dominated by digitalization, marketplaces have emerged as key catalysts in the world of e-commerce. These virtual spaces provide platforms for sellers and buyers to interact, expanding their business opportunities. But what precisely are marketplaces, and what benefits do they offer?

What is a Marketplace?

A marketplace is an online platform that facilitates transactions between sellers and buyers. Unlike traditional e-commerce sites, a marketplace hosts multiple sellers (usually referred to as “third parties”), offering a wide range of brands and products to a large user pool. Well-known examples include Amazon, eBay, Zalando, and Alibaba. According to a report by Retail X, 35% of global online purchases take place on marketplaces, compared to 17% on supermarket websites and 12% on brands’ Direct-to-Consumer (D2C) channels. The use of marketplaces as a customer purchasing platform is projected to grow in the coming years, representing 60% of total online sales by 2027. The number of marketplaces and the range of services they offer to brands, such as logistical support, localization and translation assistance, customer care, and advertising services, have also increased in recent years.

The Opportunities Marketplaces Offer Businesses

Being present on marketplaces nowadays emerges as a direct distribution touchpoint that companies should integrate along with their other existing channels. It is not seen as a channel that cannibalizes others, but instead as a contact point that amplifies the brand’s market presence – a crucial component of any true omnichannel strategy.

Consider the tangible advantages and opportunities that marketplaces present for your brand:

• Reaching ready-to-buy customers: With millions of active users, marketplaces provide brands the chance to connect with an extensive potential audience already actively researching and contemplating their product/service.
• Greater customer loyalty: Marketplaces often offer tools and services that help generate customer loyalty, such as reviews, reward programs, and fast shipping.
• Facilitating digital exports, especially for testing new markets.
• Using integrated marketplace advertising services: These self-service options effectively promote your products (sponsored products, banners, videos, etc.) and allow the use of user data for targeted advertising.
• Access to data and analysis: Marketplace analytics provide businesses with valuable insights into sales, customer behavior, and market trends. However, what is shared depends on the specifics of the platform.

Maximizing Brand Visibility and Effectiveness on Marketplaces

To fully capitalize on the opportunities provided by marketplaces, a well-defined strategy is necessary. Marketplaces provide unique possibilities for businesses to expand their online presence, reach a wider audience, and boost sales.
With the correct strategies, your business can maximize its brand visibility and effectiveness on marketplaces and get the most out of this rapidly growing sales channel.
As goals, definitely among the main ones we can list: expanding internationally by testing new markets, increasing brand visibility, developing new audiences, managing stock of previous collections, and definitely increasing sales.
These objectives – or rather, a combination of these – will lead the way in selecting the most suitable marketplaces. It’s also vital to remember that each marketplace carries its unique positioning. In fact, the key to success is in identifying the marketplaces that best align with the brand’s image.
Select those that present the optimum growth opportunities, while considering your goals, ideal target audience, and the type of products sold.
Once the most relevant marketplaces have been identified, there are several strategies that can be deployed for increasing visibility and effectiveness within these platforms:

• Product listing optimization: creating precise titles and descriptions for the internal search engines of the marketplaces by using relevant keywords. Enrich the descriptions with high-quality images and videos to provide the user with an optimal browsing experience.
• Specific pricing strategies: both for product positioning and with respect to the seasonal offers and promotional times of the marketplace (like Black Friday, Back-to-School, Amazon Prime Day, etc).
• Efficient shipping management: when taken care of by the brand, shipping must be fast, reliable and in accordance with the specifications and timelines required by the marketplace.
• Excellent customer service: when marketplace customers interact directly with the brand, it’s vital to offer high-level service. This helps retain customers and garner positive reviews.
• Utilize advertising options within the marketplace to boost visibility of your products and gain an edge over competitors.
• Leverage platform analytic tools: the data and analysis provided by the marketplace are fundamental in sharpening sales and marketing strategies intended for users of each specific marketplace.

Do you want to take full advantage of the opportunities marketplaces present for your brand? Trust us for custom-tailored consulting. Discover how to increase visibility, cultivate customer loyalty, and boost sales through marketplace positioning. Contact us now for a free consultation.