Successfully integrating marketplaces: why and how?

At a time when 30% of French commerce is carried out on marketplaces, many e-tailers, from the smallest to the most established, are wondering whether it is worthwhile to embark on the marketplace adventure. Whether it's a controlled customer experience, increased brand awareness and visibility or even a means of growth, the marketplace has serious advantages. However, before you launch, it is necessary to take stock of the challenges and difficulties linked to this sales channel to ensure a launch worthy of the name.

Marketplaces are platforms where buyers and sellers come together to buy and sell goods and services. Marketplaces can be distinguished by several criteria, such as type of goods (physical or services), product category or sector (fashion, home appliances, culture, furniture...). You can find the different marketplaces by market in this article.

Why integrate a marketplace: the advantages?

The meteoric growth of marketplaces in recent years confirms a definite craze for this sales channel: 40% of global e-commerce transactions should be carried out on them by the end of 2020.

As we have said, the marketplace has undeniable advantages:

- The visibility issue is strong and can be of interest to brands in the launch phase as well as to designer brands,

- by exhibiting on recognised or specialised marketplaces, the brand can reach a wider or more specialised clientele, sometimes inaccessible otherwise,

- Delegating sales and sometimes shipping to experienced marketplaces ensures a consistent quality customer experience,

- reduce marketing and communication costs. Integrating a marketplace means benefiting from its management of advertising, referencing and other communication-related aspects.

- brands have access to an already established and solid customer base, and can also benefit from advantages such as certain transaction and payment functionalities specific to marketplaces,

- build consumer confidence more quickly. If you're a new brand, your future customers won't know you yet. Joining a marketplace in line with your products and sector reassures potential customers about the quality of your offer and the security of payments.

- analyze your customers' co-behavior. Marketplaces often analyze consumer data: shopping behavior, product preferences, etc., enabling brands to adjust their sales strategy.

- simplify your logistics management. Indeed, marketplaces sometimes take care of shipping, returns management and customer service, enabling brands to lighten their operational load.

- integration into the marketplace allows new markets to be entered with limited risk, whether for new products or an international launch.

With this in mind, start by defining why you want to join a marketplace and what the benefits might be for your brand.

Launching on a marketplace: what difficulties?

Launching on marketplaces can be a great opportunity for your brand, but it is not a new Eldorado.

The success of a marketplace launch will depend mainly on one point: your resources. As a direct competitor on the marketplace, your brand will have to stand out even more, which requires a significant investment in terms of costs and time.

Offering a coherent brand image, content that makes people want to buy, and effective referencing is a long-term task. It also requires adapting to the specific requirements of each marketplace, making the management of product information (texts, visuals, customer reviews, etc.) more complex. This can quickly become time-consuming and error-prone when multiplied by the number of sales channels.

Finally, it should not be forgotten that delegating sales to a marketplace means delegating the customer experience. You must therefore ensure that you have the capacity to absorb orders. But it is especially important to note that, once the package has been sent, you will no longer have direct contact with the customer and will not be able to manage the after-sales service. The data will remain the sole property of the marketplace and very often, customers will remain loyal to the marketplace more than to your brand.

How to perform on marketplaces?

After weighing up the pros and cons, you are convinced: you are going to do it.

The first step is to establish a real launch strategy. There are many marketplaces and the competition is fierce. Take the time to define which marketplaces you will invest in, why and how. For a seller of second-hand books, it may for example be relevant to be present on both fnac.com and the Emmaüs site.

Then define an action plan to make you stand out:

• What products will you offer?
• What visual experience will you offer? On the furniture marketplace La Redoute, some retailers choose for example to highlight visuals of their furniture in a room of the house, while others present the furniture on a white background.
• How will you present your products? Some marketplaces offer dedicated corners, to be managed like your own shop.

After thinking, it's time to act! To prepare for the launch and to perform well on this new sales channel, think of tools. Product information and its distribution on the various marketplaces are crucial: you will need to associate a PIM (Product Information Management) and a unified commerce solution. While PIM allows for better management of product data (in real time), the marketplace solution offers the possibility of adapting product information to the constraints of the different marketplaces and manages the sales cycle (stocks, prices, etc.).

The benefits of this association are multiple. In addition to the gain in productivity and resources, your time-to-market In addition to the gain in productivity and resources, your time-to-market will be considerably optimised, allowing for rapid deployment, including internationally. In addition, you will be ready to deploy in the future on other channels just as quickly.

Finally, here are a few best practices for successful integration and business on marketplaces:

• Optimize your product information. With PIM, make sure your product ads are reliable, complete and exhaustive. Focus on high quality images and visuals, provide precise and detailed descriptions of your products (materials, components, origins of materials, place of manufacture...) as well as relevant keywords to improve the visibility of your products.

• Manage customer reviews and ratings. Encourage customers to leave reviews and give you feedback on their shopping experience and satisfaction. Respond to both positive and negative reviews, to show that you're really listening to your customers, and improve their confidence in you.

• Use your marketplace's own promotions. Marketplaces often offer attractive discounts and promotional features that you can turn to your advantage to attract the attention of your future customers.

• Distinguish yourself from the competition. Clearly establish your positioning and the specific criteria that make your products unique. Highlight them in your product descriptions to stand out in the marketplace's competitive environment.

• Comply with marketplace policies. Make sure your brand's activities and practices comply with marketplace rules, whether it's shipping time, returns policy or customer service.

Conclusion

Choosing to launch on a marketplace must be part of a global and well thought-out sales and marketing strategy. While the advantages of this sales channel are numerous, the difficulties should not be minimised. If you are ready to make this investment, selling on the marketplace can be beneficial for your brand, provided you have prepared the launch and adapted your processes and tools. Happy selling!