“No omnichannel retail without a marketplace strategy”

You can no longer ignore marketplaces in your online strategy: brands and retailers have to be present anywhere the consumer is. Any suspicion is unfounded: platforms benefit from successful sales partners.

Expertise in demand

One in two online purchases takes place on marketplaces such as Amazon or Zalando: marketplaces are therefore indispensable in a true omnichannel strategy. “You have to be present where the consumer is. And today that consumer is increasingly present in the marketplaces. Look at Dutch bol.com: five million visitors a day, that is unreachable for even the biggest of webshops. Platforms offer what the consumer expects: a very wide product range, a good service with a smooth return policy, and very competitive prices”, as Maxence Vercruysse and Frank Laenens of Merkado explain. Their marketplace agency is a joint venture between marketing agencies boostU (part of the Heylen Group) and Bossdata.

There is a huge demand for know-how and expertise when it comes to marketplaces: “When I was still working at bol.com, I saw that there were a lot of companies that were not yet present on marketplaces, often because they just did not know how to do that”, Vercruysse says. “These companies need help. With Merkado, we guide them both strategically and operationally.”

Extra – not instead of

Many brands and retailers are still hesitant: they are afraid to compete with their own sales channels if they enter marketplaces. An unjustified concern, Laenens explains: “The consumer’s search starts on those platforms. If you are looking for a barbecue set, you visit bol.com. Anyone who is not there with their barbecue range, will therefore automatically be left out. By being present on those major platforms, you create word-of-mouth advertising. This way you also generate traffic to your own channels: it is an addition, rather than a replacement.”

The fact that marketplaces demand you to pay a fee, should not be a problem: “If your own webshop attracts 8,000 visitors per month, then you are already doing well. With platforms, you are talking about millions of visitors… If you then have to pay a fee between 9 % and 15 %, that seems reasonable to me. Compare this to the costs you have to run your own webshop: you have to create it, update it, secure it, offer several payment options… The marketplace does all that for you. And you only have to pay the fee when you actually sell something.”

A marketplace for each slice

One of the most persistent fears among retailers is that the marketplaces will take over the sale of products that become successful. It is a story that keeps coming back regularly. Justifiably? “You hear that often, but I know from my experience at bol.com that it would be very stupid of a marketplace to do that. You shoot yourself in the foot, you drive your partners away. Which is easiest for a platform? Connect partners and let them sell. If you have to buy those products yourself and keep them in stock, your financial risk is much greater. Platforms benefit more from partners that are successful.”

The best-known platforms are very large players, such as Amazon, bol.com or Zalando. Is there also room for smaller, more specific marketplaces? “Certainly! You see that more and more. Decathlon has recently become a marketplace, just like Maisons du Monde and INNO did before them… You can see that there is a need for expertise in certain product groups. At the same time, it is also interesting for those retailers to open their platform to external sellers. This allows them to greatly expand their range. Amazon is probably not the most suitable channel for high-end products, but there are niche platforms that are successful in this. In the Netherlands, you have an upmarket example in Fonq, where you can find highly regarded design brands. There is a marketplace for every slice of the market.”

An exercise not to be underestimated

If you, as a retailer, are planning to open a marketplace yourself, you must already have a certain reach to be interesting for other companies: “You need brand awareness and a group of partners who are willing to start a new story together. It is an exercise not to be underestimated. In the Netherlands, for example, VidaXL has already closed its marketplace. They may have underestimated it. But Decathlon has launched its marketplace in eleven countries in one year – with Belgium as a forerunner. So it is possible, but you have to have a good starting point.”

Would you like to know more about the possibilities that marketplaces can offer your company? Merkado’s Maxence Vercruysse and Frank Laenens will elaborate on 24 March at the RetailDetail Omnichannel & E-Commerce Congress in Antwerp. The line-up further includes retailers like ZEB, Exki, De Gele Flamingo, Xandres and C&A. More than 200 participants have already registered. Do you want to be there too? Order your ticket quickly via this link.