Leveraging marketplaces to build your brand

According to Shopify in 2020, eCommerce represented a colossal 16.4% of global retail sales!

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The top online marketplaces grossed $2.6 trillion USD, or about 62% of global web sales (Digital commerce 360). Global leaders include: TaoBao, Tmall, Amazon, JD and Ebay.

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What are the benefits of selling on a marketplace? 

• You gain immediate trust from new customers
• Develop new opportunities for overseas sales 
• Have the ability to compare your competitors’ offerings allowing you to adjust when necessary 
• May establish new trading partnerships with traders and suppliers 
• Overall transparency
• It can be an additional channel to your existing ecommerce platform 

Yet on Amazon, 90% of product views result from a search but 70% of Amazon searches do not include a brand name.  Basically,  while you may gain exposure, you are also losing valuable customers to other sellers with similar products and need to provide added value to remain competitive. 

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Nonetheless, this heightened exposure cannot be neglected. Firms like Optiseller help to optimize your listings on marketplaces, so that your customers are able to find you. They also support you in increasing your conversion rates through data analytics tools that monitor your sales performance.

In reality, marketplaces are able to cater to the majority of global consumers who suggest that free shipping greatly impacts whether or not they buy from a brand, as well as those who expect fast shipping. 

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What if I told you that by outsourcing your fulfilment to Bezos, you too can offer just that? 

Firstly, our global fulfilment network of warehouses ensures that you get closer to your customers, and pay less for your logistics. 

For example, while due to Brexit most major marketplaces will block sellers from selling between the UK and EU if their goods aren’t first cleared through customs and VAT checks, we allow you to split your stock between our regional warehouses so that they don’t have to undergo these checks altogether.

We even help you manage stock from all your sales channels on a single account, making it easy for you to understand when and where your orders are going. 

All these insights mean that you really understand demand from your customers and are able to adapt to their different needs. 

Another way you can stay ahead of marketplaces, is by aligning yourself with the 66% of global consumers and 73% of millennials willing to spend more for environmentally friendly products or services. (Inc, 2018)

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Launching in June, DECAF is our aim to decarbonize the last mile logistics in e-commerce by providing an option to deliver items with cargo bikes instead of traditional and electric delivery vehicles. Cargo bikes can:

• produce up to 94% less emissions than an electric vans
• complete jobs up to 50% faster than small vans during peak weekday times

Not only will this ensure a speedy delivery to your end consumer, you also get to position yourself as an innovative e-commerce brand. Increasing your brand awareness, which in turn will drive more traffic to your own site and make you competitive in marketplaces. 

More info in our recent piece about free and fast delivery

Although merchants with omnichannel experiences have an overall advantage, ecommerce websites remains the most reliable option for most shoppers, with 40% of respondents in a study preferring direct sites to social media platforms (Hubspot, 2019)