How to use a marketplace to boost sales?

What are the advantages of a marketplace?

Their strong popularity among internet users (in 2015, 32% had already made a purchase through a marketplace);

the opportunity to reach a wider audience;

the ability to take advantage of a pre-existing platform (no web development costs);

no traffic acquisition costs;

no product listing fees;

built-in protection from non-payment, fraud and possible disputes;

certain marketplaces even offer to store and ship products for retailers

With these conditions, putting all or part of your catalogue on a marketplace allows e-retailers to greatly increase their audience and their sales.

Marketplace best practices

To get the most out of this sales channel, e-retailers should be familiar with a certain number of best practices, including:

selling on multiple marketplaces (general or specialised), selecting those with the best search engine rankings;

encouraging customer loyalty (by providing coupons for future purchases, for example);

being proactive and participating in as many promotional offers as possible (on good terms with the product manager) to ensure better visibility;

taking advantage of the marketplaces’ audience to move products that have been difficult to sell in the past or that have been in stock for a while;

using a data feed management solution, which covers the publishing, updating and centralisation of product listings.

When utilised correctly, a marketplace can become a major traffic acquisition channel for an e-retailer.

What are the advantages of a marketplace?