As per latest Ecommerce Trends, 55% of online sales are done through branded webstores and 45% from different marketplaces.
Out of that 45% – 36% of them purchased from Amazon, 8% from eBay and 1% from Etsy and other stores.
No wonder, Amazon is a leading giant marketplace and is dominating the online retail market as it’s growth rate in terms of sales and profitability is accelerating every year.
It is not at all surprising that, the product search is higher on Amazon than on Google!!
If you are already owning an online store and are hesitant to sell on multiple marketplaces due to their selling criterion and policies, then you may be missing out 45% of online shoppers who prefer to buy online from these marketplaces.
We very well understand that there are lot many challenges involved with selling on marketplaces. Hence, we will discuss 3 pillars which can help you in overcoming these challenges and managing your multiple marketplaces successfully –
Product Data Entry & Management
Product data includes the images, content, and price viewed by the shopper on your product landing page. You need to have robust product data entry and management strategy for selling on multiple marketplaces. Accuracy is the foremost requirement when it comes to product data entry on multiple marketplaces.
Each and every marketplace is different when it comes to product data entry. There are applications available which can export your product details from your webstore to multiple marketplaces but that again comes with certain set of limitations.
Product data entry & management is labor intensifying job and can be time-consuming too. Still, being a very important pillar of multiple marketplaces management should be done with a lot of precision as a single wrong information on your product landing page can make you lose a customer forever.
Inventory Management
When selling on multiple marketplaces, you need to have a proper inventory management which can sync your inventory across your webstore and other marketplaces. The inventory needs to be updated if even a single item gets sold from your online store or any of your stores on marketplaces.
Inaccuracy in inventory management can create issues like low stock or overselling instances resulting to poor visibility of stock information on multiple marketplaces you are selling on. You can also lose customers if the wrong stock information is being displayed.
Inventory management being a crucial element of selling on multiple marketplaces if taken care of with precision can help you in maximizing the profitability of your online retail business.
Order Management
Order management becomes a big challenge when it comes to selling on multiple marketplaces. Selling products through multiple channels become confusing if you don’t have a proper order management system applied. It can become difficult to detect that which order has been received from which marketplace.
The more marketplaces you are selling on the more complex it becomes to manage orders. Moreover, you also need to track Amazon fulfilled (FBA), Walmart fulfilled and dropshipping orders. Tracking shipped orders is also very crucial to ensure that your buyers receive their orders on time. In case of returns, you need to make sure that the amount paid by the buyer has been refunded.
Ensuring that the task of order fulfillment is done seamlessly can definitely help you succeed in your endeavor of selling on multiple marketplaces.
Multiple Marketplace Management – Are you Prepared for the Challenges?
Selling on multiple channels is an amazing opportunity for online retailers to grow and expand their business. If you are not selling on different marketplaces like Amazon, eBay, Sears, Rakuten, etc., parallel to your own webstore, then you might be missing out many customers.
Selling through your own online store can be profit yielding for you but it requires lot many digital marketing efforts to drive traffic towards your eStore. On the contrary, the marketplaces like Amazon and eBay are already established and crowded with your potential customers.
Are you reluctant towards selling on multiple marketplaces just because you are not prepared for the challenges and risk associated with it? We have an option – consider hiring a marketplace management company which can streamline all processes related to multichannel selling, eliminating inefficiencies and risks associated with it.
