How to sell through marketplaces?

A marketplace is an online platform where various merchants offer their products and services. The concept is similar to shopping centres and markets, where lots of merchants are gathered in one place to sell their goods. Their purpose is to make shopping online easier for customers. Thus, they can buy products of different brands from one site, instead of visiting each online shop separately.
In order to achieve the best results, it is important to thoroughly research the specifics of each marketplace in advance, such as types of products offered, audience profile, geographic specifics, traffic, etc. Pay attention to the payment and delivery methods, as well as the pricing.

1. eMAG

Founded in 2001 in Romania, eMAG is a leading e-commerce platform in Eastern Europe. It entered the Bulgarian market in 2012 and now offers more than 1.5 million products in different categories. There are more than 5,000 merchants on the Bulgarian eMAG Marketplace. In 2021 the traffic on the platform grew by 47% with over 1.3 million orders.

2. Vivre

Vivre is a Romanian e-shop, specialising in the home and deco industry. It entered the Bulgarian market two years ago, currently offering over 700,000 products from all over the world. It has over 100 brands in its portfolio and more than 4 million delivered orders.

3. Amazon

Amazon is the largest online store in the world, with sales of more than 870 billion dollars in 2021. The platform offers over 12 million products and generates nearly 1.6 million daily orders. The number of active merchants using Amazon is just under 2 million. It is practically impossible to find more products and services in one place.

4. Etsy

Etsy.com is an e-commerce website with a focus on handmade and vintage accessories. The platform is suited for creators and people looking for unique products. In 2021, there were over 90 million active buyers and approximately 7.5 million sellers from over 200 countries.

5. eBay

The platform connects millions of buyers and sellers worldwide. It was founded more than 20 years ago in the USA. Both new and used products from all over the world are traded. In 2019, 90 billion dollars worth of goods were sold on eBay. The platform currently has approximately 1.6 billion listings and 142 million active buyers. It operates in more than 190 countries around the world.

6. Olx.bg

Olx is a website for online sales of various goods, mostly 'second-hand'. In 2021, users sold over 26 million items in 19 countries through the global platform. Posting listings is usually free.

7. Facebook Marketplace

The social network created its own marketplace more than 5 years ago. Users can shop while scrolling through their newsfeeds, and brands can reach an extremely large audience. As of 2022, there are 2.9 billion Facebook users, of which approximately 1 billion are actively using Facebook Marketplace.

Listing products on several marketplaces could take too much time if you have a large portfolio. Therefore, it is a good idea to consider automating the processes of updating information. This will not only save you time but also reduces the risk of mistakes. The most important activities include:

• Publishing and updating offers (products) in the marketplace;
• Management (renewal) of stocks;
• Order management;
• Creation of bills of lading (even if you have courier integration on your own site, the data from the marketplace is not transferred there).

It is common practice for marketplaces to pay merchants sales revenue in local currency. This necessitates managing multiple accounts for payments from each country and currency. Which leads to higher costs for currency conversion and international money transfers. With the Paysera account, you save time and money for your business by consolidating all payments into one multi-currency account. You have an IBAN for receiving payments in Bulgarian leva (BGN), Romanian lei (RON), Hungarian forints (HUF), and Euros (EUR). You can also operate in over 25 currencies at favourable exchange rates and with low international transfer fees.

1. More traffic

One of the great advantages of online platforms is access to a wider audience. Greater product visibility enables increased sales and higher brand recognition. Marketplaces attract customers who want to buy everything they need in one place. In addition, the platforms invest in attracting more traffic through various campaigns, advertisements, etc.

2. It does not require technical expertise

Creating your own website or online store often starts from scratch. It takes hours of work to prepare the overall look, optimise the layout, and add different features to each page. Posting listings to marketplaces is a lot easier. It is important to select high-quality photos of your products and add an attractive and detailed description.

3. Low maintenance costs

You do not have to invest money in the technical provision of the platform and maintenance. You can even benefit from promotional activities that generate good traffic and thus save on marketing and advertising costs.

4. Possibility of cross-border sales

By using international e-commerce platforms, you reach audiences across country borders more easily. Some marketplaces even save you the hassle of organising the delivery by using their own logistics solutions.

Offering products on e-commerce platforms undoubtedly has many positives. However, marketplaces should not be used as the primary and only sales channel. Here's why:

You cannot collect customers’ personal data.
Customer data is one of the most valuable resources in e-commerce. People who buy your products are not actually your customers, but the customers of the marketplaces. So you cannot use their data for marketing purposes or create your database for promotional activities and campaigns outside the platform.

You struggle with the competition for the same attention.
If a user has reached your online store, and they are looking at your products, your task is to keep them as long as possible and encourage them to make more purchases. Whereas with marketplaces, you have to fight for the attention of buyers with your competitors. Companies using such platforms need to stand out as brands, which can be more difficult in platforms with a unified approach. Especially when the focus is on the products and not on the brands behind them.

You don't manage all processes.
The customer experience is largely dependent on the marketplace, not the merchant offering the product. This means that image transfer can be a two-way process. If a user is disappointed with the platform in the purchase process, this can create an unpleasant feeling about the brand itself. The same is true in the reverse situation – if the delivery of the product is delayed, the customer is likely to blame the marketplace, no matter how the logistics are performed.

The Paysera Checkout payment gateway is a convenient and popular online payment processing tool, allowing you to accept payments in different countries and in different currencies – by card, e-banking, and other popular payment methods – at a good price.

Contact us and get an individual offer!