Selling on marketplaces: 5 tips for developing your e-business in 2021

"By 2021, 33% of online sales will be made on marketplaces in France".
This quote is from 2018 and has aged very badly.

Because this share has already been reached in 2019!
And, due to the COVID 19 crisis, this share will potentially increase in 2020.

It is therefore more than necessary, whatever your activity, B2C or B2B, to consider the role of marketplaces in 2021 and what they can bring to your business.

Here are our 5 tips to start or improve your sales on marketplaces:

1. Analyse your market before selling on marketplaces

Before you enter this distribution channel, whether it is new to you or not, we strongly recommend that you study your off-marketplace market carefully.

Then, as when you enter a new distribution channel, you need to consider :

• The habits of the sector,
• Your current offer,
• How your prospects and customers behave,
• The marketing mix of your competitors,
• Your own sales plan and its projected profitability.

There are 2 types of marketplaces:

• Generalists :
  • Comparable to the big stores,
  • Offer a wide range of consumer products,
  • General public,
  • To meet a wide range of needs, from basic necessities to consumer branded products,
  • The competition is tough, because there is a lot of traffic, but also because some marketplaces offer their own products, especially necessities,
  • Examples: Amazon, Cdiscount and eBay.

• The specialists:
  • Respond to specific needs,
  • The clientele is less volatile, as it is often a specialist one,
  • Competition is still excessively strong,
  • Examples: FNAC for multimedia and household appliances, ManoMano for tools, Zalando for ready-to-wear.

Finally, there are 2 models of distribution systems:

• Selling to the marketplace: wholesale / retail

In the same way that you would sell to your reseller or distributor, the marketplace buys your products from you to resell to its customers. It is an opaque commercial intermediary. You are therefore not able to access and use buyer data due to RGPD legislation.

• Selling via the marketplace: Marketplace

In this case, the marketplace is a sales platform and a visibility medium. You take care of the delivery and sale to the customer. This involves a fixed monthly subscription and a commission.

Find out more in our article on Amazon.

2. Optimise the content of your product sheets

86% of visitors want to find product information and benefits quickly. This seems obvious, but you need to meet this need in a qualitative way.

Each marketplace has its own listing system and requirements for submitting products. Catalogue structures and labels are therefore very important. Above all, you should remember to use as many quality images and diagrams as possible to present your products to customers.
As Confucius would say: "A picture is worth a thousand words".

Also take the time to study the standards required by each marketplace you wish to integrate. This will allow you to ensure the referencing and therefore the visibility of your products.

When you register, they provide you with documents to fill in to register your products. This will already give you some hints on how to improve the referencing of your offer by using the right keywords and the right presentation of the right content.

For example, to sell on AMAZON, favour product sheets that have bullet points, or bullets, to present the product's characteristics.
However, to sell on CDISCOUNT, it is not necessary to make this kind of presentation because it is not taken into account by the platform's algorithm.

3. Differentiate your offer on marketplaces

If you have the possibility, propose exclusive and differentiating products to better value your offer on the marketplace.

Finally, you will avoid cannibalising your sales from your traditional distribution channels. This means that it would be better to allocate a specific strategy, communication plan and marketing plan to this channel.

An example of a marketplace strategy: offer end-of-series products to a wider target group and sell off stocks without discountering the product price.

Another example: a low-value product with a selling price of less than €20 will not make a profit. The costs incurred by the marketplaces do not allow for a sufficient margin. It is therefore recommended to sell it in batches.

For example, some companies that sell on marketplaces set up SMUs, or Strategic Market Units, which allow them to differentiate their distribution channels with dedicated teams and marketing and communication strategies. This allows them to create incremental revenue.

4. Increase credibility and brand awareness through customer reviews

Marketplaces work like a search engine: the more qualitative the content, the higher it appears on the search pages, the more it is sold and the more it is seen as qualitative. It is a virtuous circle that you need to take into account in your strategy. If you respect these first principles, your products will have a better visibility and will generate more sales.

To further boost this phenomenon, customer reviews are crucial to highlight the satisfaction that your products bring. In addition, the quality and quantity of the reviews have an impact on the algorithm of the marketplaces and will allow you to stand out better in the ranking.

So, as soon as you launch your business on the marketplaces, encourage your customers to leave reviews and ratings to increase interaction and thus the visibility of your offer.

In addition to improving your visibility, they will allow you to get customer feedback to improve your offer.

5. Vary your marketplaces

Once you are generating sales on a marketplace, and the processes are mastered, we advise you to deploy on other platforms to reduce your dependency.

It can be comfortable and efficient, but it is dangerous for the stability of your business. It is based on a communication and distribution channel that brings together many players and therefore many potential failures: this is the major risk to avoid.

In addition, large marketplaces tend to make decisions without the approval of their customers, which can be detrimental to your business.

Thus, using other marketplaces allows you to spread the risk over several distribution channels. You will have more possibilities to adapt in case of problems.

Just as you would not rely on a single customer, do not rely on a single distribution channel.

Finally, by using several marketplaces you will be able to collect different customer feedbacks and link them to continuously improve your offer.

Although this article is not exhaustive, these tips are the first to be integrated to perform on marketplaces.

Today, marketplaces represent a huge potential in the world of brands, so it is impossible to ignore them.

In any case, marketplaces represent such a potential in today's economic world that we invite you to take advantage of this opportunity.
Call on a specialist to avoid the pitfalls that will make you waste time and, secondly, to receive qualitative advice through feedback for the rest of your project.

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