Would you like to launch, increase and/or optimize your sales and sell on marketplaces? Marketplaces are an opportunity for you to develop and secure your business. Choosing your strategy and marketplaces is not, however, a trivial matter, and requires a certain amount of upstream thought.
With over 95% of French people buying on marketplaces, and millions of visitors every day, marketplaces such as Amazon, Fnac, Cdiscount and Mano Mano are a real opportunity to capture as many buyers as possible, boost your sales, and go international with less effort.
So, whatever your business and parcel volume, it’s vital not to overlook the role of marketplaces in your omnichannel strategy.
But while marketplaces are a real showcase, they are also very demanding in terms of service quality.
To sell well on marketplaces and perform well, you need to set up successfully on the one hand, and meet performance criteria on the other.
In this article, we look at the strategies and practices you can adopt to increase your marketplace sales. To illustrate this, one of the first users of Shippingbo technology, Audilo, shares his experience of integrating marketplaces into his omnichannel strategy.
The Marketplace sales revolution
A marketplace, also known as a market place, is a multi-vendor e-commerce site on which professional, private or independent sellers market their products and/or services online.
In recent years, the rise of marketplaces has been meteoric. Now considered a must-have in e-commerce, this wasn’t always the case.
Indeed, between 2007 and 2017, few marketplaces existed, so competition was lower, as was QS – Quality Score, considered to have little impact. These were the company’s first steps into e-commerce. Small teams were in charge of setting everything up.
After 2017, a technological transformation in the world of e-commerce marked a turning point for the marketplaces sector. More than 100 marketplaces emerged, increasing competition. The QS then became very restrictive, and merchants had to become more professional in order to sell on marketplaces.
With the advent of digital technology and the development of marketplaces, more and more retailers are multiplying their sales channels as part of their omnichannel strategy. Many are deciding to sell on marketplaces to increase their sales volume.
How do you distribute your catalog and collect orders to sell successfully on marketplaces?
The answer: OMS (Order Management System). OMS is an intelligent tool for optimizing inventory and order management across all sales channels (CMS, Marketplaces, Private Sales), meeting the objectives of logistical efficiency, optimization and, above all, improved customer experience.
To put things into context, Audilo explains the market situation when he met Shippingbo: “In 2016, marketplaces were poorly structured, there were many different ways of distributing offers, brand and quality controls were non-existent, and so on. Shippingbo quickly understood this and solved the problem.”
Shippingbo and Audilo were able to find each other thanks to their shared goals of distributing catalogs and updating stock, despite the lack of control and structure of marketplaces.
Audilo confides, “The situation has totally changed since then, since marketplaces are now structured, supervised and much more demanding. Offers are concentrated and manufacturers have taken charge of their brand on distribution channels.”
Even so, the tool remains a considerable growth opportunity for e-tailers.
Logistics features
Audilo was faced with a number of constraints when it came to distributing their products and collecting orders. As everything was done by hand, the human error rate was far too high to guarantee maximum customer satisfaction. Managing the various order flows was also a problem.
Shippingbo technology enabled Audilo to concentrate all their sales channels and order collection on a single platform. Shippingbo enabled them to centralize and optimize everything, thanks to the following logistics functions:
- Centralize orders and synchronize inventory across all sales channels in real time, eliminating human error.
- Improving service quality
- Reduced preparation times (better visibility and fewer cancelled sales)
How can you organize your logistics to boost sales on marketplaces?
For any e-tailer wishing to sell on marketplaces, logistics are a key success factor. It’s not enough to know how to distribute your catalog and collect orders, you also need to establish precise, robust logistics processes:
- Order acceptance and validation
- Processing and delivery times
- Order tracking
- Inventory control (flow updates)
- Anticipating hazards
- Tools for managing your supply chain (Shippingbo)
- Outsource the supply chain if necessary
Audilo’s strategy
When Audilo was launched, the team consisted of just 3 people. Despite its growth, logistics remained virtually unchanged. This meant that the order pickers had to be fully conversant with :
- Product catalog (name, features, etc.)
- Warehouse layout and product placement
A relatively slow method, exposed to a high risk of human error. A major problem therefore arose during peaks in activity, leading to a temporary increase in the workforce. New staff required lengthy training. What’s more, they were difficult to replace.
The arrival of Shippingbo has turned the logistics organization of Audilo’s warehouses upside down. Firstly, the digitization of logistics processes has facilitated the work of order pickers. A short training course is now all that’s needed, facilitating access to the job of order picker. In terms of hardware, 1 single printer and 1 single software package are sufficient for all carriers.
As you can see, logistics have become considerably more professional, with an order-picking capacity of around 400-500 orders a day.
What does optimization mean across all sales channels?
- Preparation sessions reduce the preparation time announced without taking risks
- Better customer experience
- Buybox gains over competitors at the same price
- Session organization
- Real-time stock synchronization enables :
- Disappearance of cancelled sales (reduced SQ, risk of closure and loss of commission)
- Continue to distribute on all channels even with low stock levels
- A multiplication of transport modes:
- Easy to connect conveyors: 1 printer, 1 format for 40 conveyors
- Selection of the best carrier (rates, services): carrier mapping
How can you internationalize your business by selling on marketplaces?
Marketplaces represent a real opportunity for merchants wishing to enter foreign markets. Marketplaces are numerous, varied and differ from country to country. Some offer features to support merchants in their internationalization.
Selling internationally, thanks to marketplaces, has many advantages for the brand:
- Increase your online and international visibility
- Take advantage of high traffic in your target country
- Services and support programs for local customers (after-sales services, etc.)
- Increase trust in your brand (guarantees offered by the marketplace)
- Diversifying sources of income
- Increase market share
However, there are a number of best practices to adopt to optimize internationalization:
- Choose your marketplaces carefully
- Study your market (competition, target, demand, etc.)
- Implement a pricing strategy to stand out from the competition
- Find out how much each marketplace costs
- Prepare logistics in advance to anticipate sales
- Choosing the right carrier for your shipping strategy
Audilo’s strategy
To illustrate, here’s the Audilo internationalization strategy. The Audilo e-tailer used certain marketplaces as a first step to test its potential for internationalization in countries with no financial risk. This involves rolling out its business on international marketplaces such as Amazon, before launching on foreign and local marketplaces.
Audilo then used the international transport contracts provided by Shippingbo, while using a 3PL (Third-Party Logistics provider) and an in-country FFM to reduce costs.
Secondly, Audilo was able to deploy its CMS in countries of interest to its business. For this, a certain amount of upstream adaptation is necessary, especially in terms of SEA/SEO, currency, VAT, translation, etc. In addition, support in the local language is essential to avoid any confusion. In addition, support in the local language is essential to avoid any confusion.
Conclusion
In short, selling well on marketplaces represents significant growth potential for e-tailers. Not only do they offer high visibility, they also reach a very large audience, and all at a very low cost. Your presence on marketplaces will enable you to increase your sales.
However, marketplaces have their own specific workings. Audilo’s advice is therefore a real starting point for understanding marketplaces. Shippingbo also offers you a complete and unique solution to support you throughout your sales on marketplaces.
To find out more and discover the features of the market’s #1 technology for omnichannel e-commerce, click just below.
