The marketplaces have energized e-commerce for over 10 years. Nowadays, e-commerce can be considered the grand online shopping center, open 24/7. A key factor in eliminating the distribution barrier to the end customer, reaching larger audiences, new users, and even new markets.
In recent years, the transformation of physical stores has become evident, moving to a secondary role, or at least adopting a hybrid model that combines physical and online purchasing options. In particular, this mode of online transactions has given rise to their own e-commerce platforms and marketplaces, where we are increasingly accustomed to making daily purchases.
It’s no surprise to anyone that the majority of sales and traffic now originate from mobile devices, on a specific marketplace or e-commerce platform. In fact, these platforms have become the primary channels for product testing, experimentation, and market entry, as they provide almost instant user feedback and determine whether a product will be successful in terms of sales.
In this new landscape, it is crucial to be aware of the wide range of current marketplaces, their benefits, limitations, and target audiences. This knowledge allows us to focus our actions, resources, and efforts in the right places and in an appropriate manner. That’s why we have decided to present 10 key tips for selecting, selling, and enhancing actions in the digital ecosystem.
1. Evaluate the current Marketplaces.
Currently, there is a wide range of marketplaces in the European region, which vary in terms of their target audience, specificities, and even products. It is important to evaluate which ones are available in the region or country where your business is based.
It is crucial to understand the audience and the requirements or policies for sellers. For example, we know that Amazon is the most popular marketplace, with a wide range of categories and even one of the major product search engines. Additionally, there are marketplaces focused on handmade, DIY, and customization products, such as Etsy or Mano a Mano. There are also technology marketplaces or department stores like PCComponentes or Leroy Merlin, which have expanded their marketplace offerings and have greater segmentation among their users. This ensures that the products are in the right place and reach the correct audience.
Most marketplaces require businesses or self-employment status, which allows for invoicing and maintaining accounting records in order to register and enter the market as a seller.
2. Take care of the product online.
Marketplaces place a lot of importance on the quality of product listings. Sellers must optimize their product listings to stand out among the thousands of available offers. For this purpose, it is important to have high-quality images that are appropriate for the product, clear, and contain relevant information.
Your listings should include clear and simple explanations, using keywords, search terms, and other details that enhance the search. These actions that improve our position on different marketplaces are key to attracting consumers and positioning ourselves better than our competitors.
3. Maintain competitive prices.
The prices of products are one of the fundamental pillars of any business. They provide positioning, profitability, and attract consumers. Therefore, it is important to conduct a market study in the relevant category where your product and existing competition are found. This will help identify the average offered price and the recommended retail price (RRP), considering that your price can be above or below the average.
It is important to compare yourself in the appropriate category and in the correct marketplace. As we know, there are offers from different parts of the world, varying in quality and even in terms of condition (new, refurbished, second-hand), all within the same space. This can generate price competition among products that are not direct competitors. That’s why it is important to set the price based on the characteristics of the category, market leaders, and even products that can substitute your product.
This RRP – Recommended Retail Price, is key to determining the benefits of the digital channel, ensuring that it takes into account costs such as logistics, storage, taxes, and the cost of the product itself. This will help to establish a selling price that covers my basic expenses.
4. Use marketing and communication strategies.
Once you determine the price, it is vital to establish in which stage of the product’s life cycle our product is within the marketplace. Each of the stages of Positioning (awareness), Knowledge, sales growth (upselling), market development, and internationalization is crucial for the development of a proper strategy. At Década, we specialize in developing comprehensive strategies for our clients that provide value and take them to the next level of the life cycle process within the marketplace.
Once the product and brand’s life stage is determined, it is important to evaluate the use of the offered strategies such as promotions, coupons, or top/flash discounts that impact this measurement. These strategies usually vary among different marketplaces and according to the category functionalities, country, and region where they are located.
Why is it so important? These strategies support the marketing plan or channel goals that are set and are crucial in quantifying the growth and investment made in the marketplace. They also allow us to see how the market and users respond to these price changes during periods of higher or lower traffic on the platform. Events like Spring Sales, Prime Day, Home Week, among others, are key to boosting sales and providing visibility to the product.
Important: Remember that coupons can only be applied to products with ratings higher than 3.5/5.0.
5. We offer excellent customer service.
Customer service is crucial for success in marketplaces, especially in resolving doubts and providing greater support to users or buyers. It is important to emphasize that we should follow the recommendations sent to us, regardless of the marketplace we participate in.
- This process is viable thanks to the fulfillment of the account ratios, which are measured based on the product niche in the last 30 days’ historical data.
- Respond within 24 hours. Maintain delayed shipments below 4%. Cancellation ratios below 2.5%. Shipment tracking ratios above 95%.
- Once the account health and performance indicators have been verified,
This is equally important as the health of the account in the marketplace. By registering, we accept shipping policies, compliance with rules, and timely responses. Controlling these performance ratios or performance indicators, which measure my account and provide greater reliability within the marketplace, is crucial.
6. Manage your inventory."
Sellers must carefully manage their inventory to ensure that products are available when buyers are looking for them, 24 hours a day.
It is necessary to consider the possibility of automating inventory management using specialized software tools, or alternatively, maintaining a daily updated inventory with unit control if generated manually, ensuring a smooth and recurring product purchase.
It is important to determine the logistics to be used for this purpose. There are typically two logistics options, each of which has applicable fees and key points to review in order to fulfill the customer’s promise and provide an easy and effective purchasing process:
The first option is managed by the seller, who is responsible for delivering the product to the end customer and ensuring correct and timely delivery.
The second option is managed by the marketplace. In this case, the logistics processes are carried out by the marketplace, which is responsible for responding to and delivering the product to the end consumer. Not available on all marketplaces.
How to ensure availability? Generate forecasts based on the demand for the product, using the sales history obtained for each product. With this information, you can plan a traffic calendar and actions to be carried out according to the demand for each item in each market.
7. Use market analysis tools.
In the new updates from Amazon, we can integrate the use of Data for the creation of marketplaces, websites, and even re-branding of the Company.
In this case, sellers can use market analysis tools to better understand trends and buyer behavior on the platform. By utilizing this information, sellers can optimize their product listings and pricing strategies to improve their sales, where any changes will be visible in the target countries.”
8. Understand the product life cycle
These websites, such as Amazon, eBay, Etsy, and MercadoLibre, are very popular among consumers and have become an important part of the online shopping ecosystem. However, selling on marketplaces can also be a challenge. Ideally, you should have high ratings on your products, achieve proper positioning, and sell a good number of units.
It requires understanding the product life cycle and accompanying the gradual growth process in the marketplace, according to increased visibility, purchases, and order management. This process usually becomes evident for some products within 2-3 months to achieve the expected results. Therefore, periodic review is important, aligned with the goals set for the channel, always supported by metrics and other pre-established actions.
9. Review changes reflected in the user
As we know, marketplaces position themselves through autonomous algorithms, which perform partial or periodic updates with metadata. That’s why it’s important to ensure that the changes made from my seller platform on each marketplace are ultimately reflected on the end user’s website.
These constant checking and reviewing processes of my brand, image, and product features reflect a care for the brand and products in the market. Often, these changes take processing time and even differentiation between adjustments.
Most of these changes are usually reflected within a 3-5 hour difference from the changes made. However, controlling references, qualities, and the content of each product listing is crucial to achieve user clicks and purchases.
10. Propose a follow-up strategy.
Marketplaces, as well as different sales and distribution channels, respond to user behavior and market trends. As we know, these trends are constantly changing, adapting, and developing new product niches. That’s why it’s important to stay at the forefront of search trends, update titles, images, and even periodically review products to discover new search terms, features, or details that users want to know about a product listing.
By doing so, just like the previous points mentioned, we can lead the search options, references, and presence on each chosen marketplace for product sales. We prioritize strategies for positioning, updating, and referencing available products for users and their search and buying process.
If you still have doubts about where the product fits best, what strategy to follow, or how to manage selling products on Amazon, Década has a specialized team in marketplaces ready to advise you throughout the process. They can also help you resolve any questions you have about maximizing the use of tools and new releases to enhance your online business on Amazon.
