Page 24 - CBM17

~ ChannelEngine ~

Why should you sell on marketplaces? marketplace challenges faced by brands. Finally, they will
The most important reason is, that’s where your customer is. be able to extend their offering by becoming a marketplace
If you’re not present with your products, you will be missing themselves (when big enough).
sales.
Which cross-border marketplaces would you choose?
Going cross border on marketplaces has a faster and larger There are significant differences, especially in the types
impact than launching a country webshop yourself. The of marketplaces that are used. Each country has its local
marketplace already has a lot of customers potentially hero: In Germany, Amazon is quite big; if you go to France,
searching for your products. you have Cdiscount and Fnac as the leading players; in the
Netherlands, the market leader is Bol.com; and Allegro is
If you are a brand selling on the marketplace instead of big in Poland (which is actually 5 times bigger than Bol.
being a vendor on, for instance, Amazon, it provides more com).
control over pricing, positioning, and product availability.
Amazon is a great platform to sell on, but your products
What are the opportunities for brands and retailers? need to compete with more than 600 million other products.
With the right strategy and technology, brands and retailers The local marketplaces are less crowded with products, but
can harness the power of global marketplaces. they do have a large stream of buyers. Because of this, we
typically see some sellers sell much more on Bol.com or
Brands gain more control over pricing and availability Zalando compared to their Amazon sales.
by selling on marketplaces. They can leverage the same
logistical infrastructure and stock positions for their D2C Our advice would be to start with one marketplace in a
(Direct-to-Consumer) shops, marketplaces, and resellers. country to test your process and then add all other relevant
marketplaces in that country.
Retailers will benefit from their current B2C infrastructure
and processes with a high level of delivery, product
availability, service levels, and competitive pricing. They
could also be working closely with brands and become
a part of their overall strategy, which solves some of the

24