Selling through Online Marketplaces and its challenges

Online marketplaces for retailers such as Amazon, eBay, bol.com and many others provide the opportunity to offer products to a very large audience. With a few steps, the reach of your sales have increased enormously both nationally and internationally. At least that’s the goal. However, these online marketplaces contribute to fragmented markets, which creates new challenges for the retailer.

The benefits of using online marketplaces

Over 50 marketplaces exist in the EU alone. Most of these also have coverage in the US and some even cover other continents as well. The benefits of using these additional sales channels include:

• More visitors to your website;
• Spreading the risk of declining visitor numbers;
• International reach and expansion of your target group reach;
• Reach of new target groups;
• More control over ROI and profitability;
• The sales channels and their performance can be measured separately through Google Analytics;
• More visibility of your products.

Without using online marketplaces, it is difficult to expand your business and become a (larger) player in national and/or international markets. The extra sales channels offer tremendous potential for all facets you need, to be profitable and to compete.

Challenges of selling in a fragmented market

If you want to make effective and profitable use of one or more online marketplaces, keep the following in mind:

• The online marketplaces all have their own platform, structure, and requirements when it comes to receiving and sending data.

• Each country has its own local dominant marketplaces.
• There is a lack of uniformity in how data is handled.
• Stocks, stock levels, prices, etc. must be kept up to date across multiple systems and locations.

It is in your interest that your stock and the stock levels in these markets are displayed at the prices you desire. At the same time, you also have to meet the requirements of these platforms and accept the restrictions. If you manage to overcome these challenges, your online business can grow rapidly and your Return On Investment (ROI) rates will increase significantly.

Webinar by Celigo and ZangaBee: selling in multiple, fragmented markets: automating feed management

To learn more about the challenges of online marketplaces, watch the webinar we co-published with Celigo: Selling in Multiple, Fragmented Markets: Automating Feed Management