Ecommerce

5 Reasons Why Retailers Need to Sell in Online Marketplaces

By Tinuiti Team

*This article was written by Angelica Valentine, Marketing Manager at Wiser.

Leveraging Online Marketplaces

Selling on a webstore is a great way to get your products into shoppers’ hands, but there’s something about marketplaces that can’t be replicated. Retailers are catching onto the importance of marketplaces, as 32% surveyed between May and June 2015 said that they intend to spend more on marketplaces this year compared to 2014.Angelica-valentine

When these 240 retailers were asked what they plan to spend their digital marketing budgets on, marketplace expenditure came in second with 16%, tied with SEO spend and only beat by SEM.

Amazon is the king of marketplaces in the US, owning 23% of all online market share. But even beyond Amazon, marketplaces have a few things in common:

 

 

 

 

 

Times Are Changing in Online Retail

Marketplaces are becoming more important, as more shoppers begin their research there. Amazon in particular is where 39% of shoppers in the US begin their online search in 2014, compared to 18% in 2009. Search engines are seeing the opposite trend; 11% of shoppers started their research on Google in 2014 versus 24% in 2009.

There are no signs that marketplace sales will be slowing down anytime soon, especially with the rise of the subscription model that is all the rage right now. Marketplaces want to keep customers checking out on their sites and not converting to a retailer’s webstore. But selling on a marketplace doesn’t have to only be an order-acquisition method.

Marketplaces present just as many opportunities as challenges. Retailers that are able to present a unique value proposition will be able to retain the customers they gain through quality products, effective pricing, and impeccable customer service.

 

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