Hello, dear readers! My name is Ida Johnson and I’m glad to see you on my blog, which is dedicated to marketplaces and business analysis. First of all, let’s find out what a marketplace is.
A marketplace is an internet platform where sellers and customers meet each other. Buyers get the opportunity to quickly find the necessary things in one place and then compare prices from different vendors. It makes shopping on marketplaces more convenient and beneficial.
I would like to highlight the following particularities of marketplaces:
- They have a wide range even within the same product group;
- The seller can be both the marketplace itself and third-party companies;
- The information about all purchases is stored in the unified system so the fraud risk is eliminated;
- Sellers have personal accounts with detailed sales and income statistics;
- Customers are able to leave comments to help other people find a high-quality product. Sellers can’t remove such notes.
A marketplace is an intermediary between two sides of market relations, so it must be available 24/7 without any outages and delays. Otherwise, sellers lose money.
Internet platforms make a living in several ways:
- Percentage of sales;
- Fixed annual amount;
- Monthly subscription.
Is it worth paying for a service that will own your site and take part of your income? There is no accurate answer. Generally, creating and maintaining an independent website leads to significant expenses. Small businesses are not able to bear them.
Working on marketplaces is a trend today, which is proven by some statistics. Popular companies have increased their income during 2020 years:
- Amazon: $386 billion (+38%);
- eBay: $10,3 billion (+19%);
- ASOS: $4,5 billion (+20%);
- Wildberries: ₽437 billion (+96%);
- Ozon: ₽195 billion (+140%);
- Yandex.Market: ₽28,8 billion (+50%).
Before choosing a marketplace, you should get familiar with their types.
- B2B. The business provides products and services for business. Such platforms focus on wholesale trade.
- B2C. Companies are serving individual buyers. This is the most common business model.
- C2C. Individual persons publish their goods, which they don’t need anymore. Other people can buy necessary things at a good price.
I’ll consider popular questions and help you make the right decision about the best way to do business. Perhaps, limited opportunities in the marketplaces will restrain your growth. Stay with me to become an expert in online trading. The blog is going to be helpful for both beginners and specialists. Subscribe right now in order not to miss new material.