Launching a Marketplace? Set Yourself Up for Success

Are you gearing up to launch an online marketplace of your own? What an incredibly exciting venture for you and your business! As with many enterprise ventures, you may have some uncertainty about how to best achieve success.

We’ve partnered with Adobe and Marketplacer and created an eBook to compile commonly asked questions as a guide to help set you up for success in both launching and running your own third-party marketplace.

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A Summary

Because an online marketplace is a platform that hosts various ecommerce stores, it is a fantastic way to connect sellers and buyers. Advantages abound because marketplaces can reduce marketing costs, allow for new opportunities to reach customers, and are favoured by customers as they are convenient and offer a great level of ease and trust. For these reasons and many others there is a shift from individual online stores to marketplaces across the globe.

Two-thirds of B2C ecommerce sales are now captured via marketplaces1, with $3.25 trillion spent on the top 100 marketplaces globally2. It is little wonder why you are wanting to get in on the action.

And this is where a newly developed eBook comes in. The team behind it include experienced professionals from Web Force 5, Marketplacer and Adobe. Informative, clear and helpful, this tool encompasses their knowledge, advice and global stats and trends. It is key to have this guide on hand to set yourself up for success when launching a marketplace.

How you spend your time and money are crucial to your business, so consider whether it works best for you to custom create a marketplace or use existing technology.

 

“In our years of building successful websites and marketplaces, we see a much greater chance of success when businesses launch with enterprise-grade commerce platforms and marketplace technologies.”

Lou Fabian, Managing Director at Web Force 5 USA sums up that launching a marketplace can help grow your business by enabling you to expand what you are offering as well as branching out to new markets with less risk, scale easier than dropshipping and connect buyers and sellers to increase customer engagement and loyalty. Using existing technologies is faster and easier than a custom build.

Building an online marketplace from scratch will cost you significantly more up front as well as over time, and you have to factor in recruiting and training extra staff. You can find out more details on building a marketplace website in the eBook.

 

Marketplace Strategy Considerations

The difference in launching your own marketplace rather than selling on one that already exists, is that you can have more control over the functions and processing, as well as your community of sellers and products, all while minimizing the dent into your profits. Also, you will build revenue from the sellers who come on board your marketplace.

You are able to choose whether you extend your existing brand into your marketplace or launch something new, so consider what direction you want to take. If your brand is already established and trusted, it’s a good idea to extend as you may be currently using software that can be upgraded to include marketplace software.

Another consideration in your marketplace strategy is how to highlight sellers in your marketplace, and what you can offer them to entice them into your community. This all depends on how you want to work and how their operation will affect your brand.

Regardless, as the marketplace owner you must make them welcome and offer support and good communication. After all, they are there to help you sell your brand as well as their own. The success your sellers have selling their goods or services will contribute to the overall success of your marketplace.

 

Other Marketplace Considerations

The time you are prepared to spend to create an online marketplace will help determine how you go about it, including whether you custom build or use existing technology.

The number of staff your enterprise requires, along with their necessary skills and level of expertise will depend on the size and nature of your marketplace. You need to be sure to allocate the best people to certain tasks.

Creating excellent customer experience is critical when planning a marketplace. By launching your own you can work to ensure all aspects of your visitors’ experience is positive, from brand comparison and product availability through to checkout and shipping.

It is invaluable to partner with a team who have proven experience in launching online marketplaces. Choosing one that takes the time to understand the needs and goals of your business is essential, so you have the right group working with you through the technical side of things.

The not-so-fun topics like taxes, security and fraud protection are also covered in this Marketplace eBook, which highlights the tools available to assist you in getting it correct.

The brilliant team behind this eBook are experts on enterprise-grade technology and have proven themselves to be among the best to build online commerce sites and marketplaces. Get in touch with the Web Force 5, Adobe and Marketplacer team for access to their skilled and knowledgeable minds to start building a customized solution for your marketplace. We offer a no obligation chat with a specialist consultant to discuss your marketplace ideas.

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1 https://www.forrester.com/report/2021-online-marketplace-tracker-global/res162721?objectid=res162721

2 https://www.digitalcommerce360.com/article/infographic-top-online-marketplaces/