There are some awesomely successful online retail marketplaces out there and it’s only natural for retailers to want a piece of the action by setting up their own marketplaces. Be that as it may, there are many other retailers with exactly the same idea, so it is crucial to get your marketplace model right. Also keep in mind that there are no instant successes – you will need considerable time, resources and skill to make a name for yourself.
Best Practices for Marketplaces
Attract as many sellers as possible
Include as many third-party sellers as possible. Perpetually scaling online marketplaces is the key to success. The more sellers you have, the greater your inventory and the lower the prices. This is what attracts buyers, and keeps them coming back for more.
Choose a niche
You might be thinking to yourself that all of this is easier said than done, and you are right. To begin with, you might prefer the option of focusing on a niche marketplace. In this event you would concentrate on a specialized type of product. This course would enable you to “become the Amazon” of a certain category.
Enrich your catalog
If you choose the more generic approach, follow this rule: The more products you have to offer, the more buyers will be attracted, and the happier your sellers will be. Use the Algopix AI-based platform to conduct product matching, thereby ensuring data consistency, accurate retail product analytics, and non-duplications.
A rich, detailed and constantly updated product catalog ensures easy searches and plentiful products at low prices.
Build categories based on customer preferences
The Algopix algorithm enables you to study online marketplace data and previous customer behavior. Drill down to understand the way your buyers think and how they conduct searches. Then build your categories and sub-categories accordingly. Algopix’s system enables you to build categories even before you actually have the products in stock (Jet.com has met with great success using this practice).
Make life easy for sellers
You can attract multiple sellers by making onboarding easy and offering affordable fees. Provide them with an advanced toolset to easily set up their own websites and upload short guidance videos to walk the sellers through each stage. Your package should provide all the advanced benefits that an AI-based marketing analysis platform has to offer, as well as the ability to integrate with sellers’ existing systems and programs.
Learn from leading marketplaces
Some of the most leaders adding marketplaces to retail today are Home Depot, Crate & Barrel, Office Depot, Best Buy, Target, J-crew and Urban Outfitters, just to name a few. You can learn a great deal just from studying their websites. Note the way they have structured their categories and sub-categories, observe product descriptions and imagery, and look at how they engage customers by promoting certain products.
Book a demo now and learn how Cluster can drive your marketplace ambitions by enabling your systems to query the ecommerce cloud.
