Mastering the Marketplace Mix: Sell on Other Marketplaces, Create Your Own or Both?

Up to 47% of all ecommerce sales worldwide are now made on third-party marketplaces. As a result, global marketplace sales projected to top $5 trillion by 2025 and the opportunity to reach new consumers via these platforms is becoming hard for retailers to ignore. This session will explore the pros and cons of two different paths to marketplace expansion — selling on established marketplaces or adding a third-party marketplace to your existing dot.com. Key takeaways include:  

• Online marketplaces are too large to ignore. If you don’t take your products there, someone else will. It’s better to take your products there with intention, so you can maintain control of your online representation and customer experience.
  
• Adding a marketplace to your own direct website offers some significant advantages, including first-hand access to customer data (which can be used for retargeting emails and ads), more control over the customer experience, the ability to offer more personalized promotions, brand building, and more.
  
• The most advantageous route forward then is a combination of a direct website and third-party marketplaces. Each channel compensates for the shortcomings and yields data insights that can be used for the other. Brands need to go to where their audience is, and that means both channels. An omnichannel strategy is key to continued growth.