In the era of Internet and eCommerce, more and more business owners prefer to take their business to a new level by going online. And when we talk about selling online, the two major options that come to mind are: Selling on your own web store & Selling on Marketplaces like Amazon, eBay etc. So if you own a web store that’s already making good sales, should you still consider selling on marketplaces? The answer is YES.
We often hear various merchants saying, “I’m an Amazon Seller” or “I’m an eBay seller” and so on. But have you ever heard a buyer say, “I’m an Amazon Buyer”? This is because shoppers are inherently multichannel. People care more about the overall shopping experience rather than just a particular shopping channel. They want to buy from wherever they feel the best from and don’t prefer limiting themselves to only a certain channel.
Based on multichannel consumer behaviour, more and more successful business owners choose to have a wider web presence by selling on multiple platforms. So even if a business owner has a successful web store running and a strong brand value, there are various reason why they still prefer having a marketplace presence.
Potential for More Sales
One of the simplest reasons for multichannel selling is that more channels you sell on, more sales you are likely to make. Listing your products on marketplaces makes them visible to more customers and that increases your probability of making more sales. Having a wider web presence ensures that you don’t miss out on customers regardless of the shopping platform they use. It is worth noting that 55% of the product searches begin on Amazon leaving search engines behind. So having your products listed on marketplaces, makes them visible to these product searches and ultimately increases its sales.
Marketplace Marketing
No business ever grows without right kind of marketing efforts. Big names like Amazon & eBay have invested a lot of efforts and resources to get where they are and they continue to do so. With their marketing efforts like advertising, search engine marketing, social media marketing, affiliate programs, loyalty programs and much more, it is ultimately the marketplace seller that benefits from all these.
One of our customers has their own web store as well as they sell on various marketplaces. They have the same products listed on their web store and on marketplaces. On doing a simple google search for one of their products we can clearly see marketplace marketing outcomes. With this, we can clearly see how marketing on marketplaces ultimately benefited our client by promoting their product.
Trust & Credibility
When a buyer is browsing on marketplaces, he may come across products sold by thousands of sellers. In reality, it is a particular seller from whom they buy a product. But they see it as buying it ‘off eBay’ or ‘from Amazon’. Nobody says they bought a product from SellerXYZ on Amazon. Marketplaces have built trust and credibility in the minds of the customers by ensuring genuine products and services and individual sellers can take advantage of this trust & credibility.
It takes a lot of time and effort for a business owner to build trust & credibility when it comes to their own web store. But when the same seller starts selling on marketplaces, sales go up. Shoppers are least concerned about a particular seller on the marketplace and trust the marketplace to ensure that they are served in best and safest way.
Testing New Product Sales
If you launch a new product on your own web store it carries a lot of risk with it. So before making a full-fledged launch of a new product on your own store, it is advisable to test its sales on marketplaces. A good buyer response from marketplaces can encourage you to sell it on your own web store and if for some reason the new product doesn’t take off, you can safely roll it back from a marketplace.
Suppose you decide to launch a new product. If you want it on your web store, you’ll need to stock up that product at your warehouse and that incurs additional expenses. Whereas if you choose to sell it on marketplaces, you need not worry about warehousing as the marketplaces offer you services to do it for you. More importantly, marketing a new product on your own web store is quite expensive and you’ll never have the marketing budget as big as that of major marketplaces like Amazon & eBay. With a strong customer base and intense marketing of marketplaces, launching a new product sails smoothly as compared to your web store.
Diverse Understanding of Online Business
The business methods and strategies involved in running your own web store are very different from being a marketplace seller. Selling just on your web store confines your knowledge to just one online business model whereas multichannel selling gives you a diverse understanding of how the overall online business operates across multiple sales channel. And this helps you gain insights and strategize better for boosting your overall business.
While it is true that selling on your web store and on marketplaces takes extra and diverse efforts, with the right strategies and right tools you can easily manage it. If you are using an ERP software like Odoo to manage your online business, you can use Odoo Connector Apps to manage marketplace seller accounts. Check out this Amazon - Odoo Connector & eBay - Odoo Connector that can help you with selling on these marketplaces.
However, if you prefer using a unified Enterprise eCommerce solution that gives you a single roof under which all your sales channel can be managed, I invite you to try Luceat. Luceat, an Enterprise eCommerce platform is the most appropriate solution for multichannel sellers of the present and future. With Luceat you can create your own stunning web store with the ease of drag and drop while also managing seller accounts on marketplaces like Amazon & eBay. And when you have your entire online business under Luceat, you can relax and focus on your core business aspects. Dive into the world of Multichannel selling confidently with Luceat.