Marketplaces: the secret weapon for more customers

The Marketplaces phenomenon is not new. Sites on which third parties offer their business have been known for years from Amazon and Marktplaats, for example. Yet major changes are underway in this business.

To begin, it is good to take note of the development in recent years. The big well-known marketplaces focused primarily on consumers selling each other (used) stuff.

Companies discovered that marketplaces were a great promotional tool and increasingly posted their new products among used product listings.

Some marketplaces have grown by simply offering a lot. Others have chosen a niche and grown big in it.

For example, cars are offered by dealers through Gaspedaal, real estate agents promote their homes online through Funda, handymen hire themselves out through Werkspot and outlet designer clothes are sold through ToBeDressed.

Why get started with a marketplace?

Selling through a marketplace can have big advantages. They already have the right audience and you often pay a fee based on results.

Many marketplaces also help you with your sales. For example, they check the quality of your images and length of your descriptions.

You often even have a dashboard where you can see how you score against other shops on the platform.

Some marketplaces even offer the ability to offer your products anonymously. After all, as an exclusive clothing retailer, you'd rather not have everyone see the prices at which you sell your leftover inventory and/or clearance items.

More and more marketplaces are working with shop reviews, giving customers an idea of who they are dealing with.

Note

Marketplaces do their utmost to keep quality high. As an online store, you will be hit hard if you are more likely to fail to deliver or deliver late, or have a relatively high number of returns.

Marketplaces not only monitor the quality of your offerings. Because they advertise, for example, on keywords that are unaffordable for many individual web shops, they put you in touch with an audience that you would otherwise have difficulty reaching.

Through marketplaces, your competitor is no longer a threat.

Indeed, by joining forces you serve a larger and relevant audience.

What should you pay attention to when getting started with a marketplace?

You remain responsible for the quality of your offering.

A marketplace can give you so much exposure, but if your imagery or descriptions are poor, you won't sell anything.

Make sure you have a solid link to your webshop's product feed. After all, you want to avoid double-selling products and disappointing customers.

In the case of physical stores, it's worth establishing a link to your POS system. As soon as you sell a product in the store, it is immediately removed from the offer on the marketplace.

Choose a niche that suits you.

A specific audience that is a good fit is much more likely to make purchases than a general audience.

Decide for yourself whether you want to be named and shamed as a vendor. In some cases it is good to have extra promotion, while in others it can be detrimental to your image.

To do

Avoid just shifting your sales from offline to online. Assess which products you want to sell through a marketplace.

Break down your offerings into a Long Tail. Your well-run products (the headline) will probably sell you anyway. Use a marketplace for products in the tail of the offering.