Discover Local Marketplaces
These days with omnichannel approaches to eCommerce being adopted by top tier retailers, most of them are searching for alternative places to sell their products in order to multiply their profits and expand their brand. When it comes to global selling, Amazon, eBay, Aliexpress and Alibaba are usually the first sites that come to mind.
If you’re running an online store and are considering entering a global marketplace, this is a great step toward making that a reality. But before you take that big step and join the other big players on the scene, it’s always a good idea to take a look around you — this includes the markets in your own backyard. Maybe you’ll discover some local marketplaces you might have overlooked or ignored at first glance. The reason for looking at local and global markets differently, and how to use either to your advantage, can be considered in terms of pros and cons.
If you have no experience with selling via marketplaces starting off may be a bit tricky unless you understand how the system works. We recommend choosing one big marketplace initially, and after you feel comfortable and can handle it, to then consider gaining another. Start slow, and build up!
It’s also advisable in the beginning to try to expand into smaller local marketplaces. While individually they might not seem significant, having a network of these less popular avenues can add up in the end, and strengthen the framework of your business.
The Power of Local Marketplaces
1. Knowing your audience
…is a big advantage of selling at local marketplaces. You know the culture, habits and purchase behavior of the customers from your own or neighboring country which makes your sales more comfortable and streamlined.
2. Preserved identity of seller
Okay, you’ll be still one among thousands of other sellers, but it’s easier to increase awareness about your brand within small territory compared to the whole world. If your brand is reliable, unique, and unforgettable, popularity can speak for itself.
3. Ideal place for unique products
When you want to purchase a cover for your cell phone you might choose to order it from eBay for around $3. But if you’re looking for something special and stylish, chances are you’ll need to look elsewhere. There’s no better place for local, handmade, and original products than local marketplaces.
4. Good option if you just start with your online business
…and need to gain more customers. You can gather email addresses and test your products and campaigns on a great audience, learning what works and how to improve your main sales channel. Depending on the stage of your business, you might also find yourself having to depend on marketplaces less and less as you develop other sales channels.
5. Higher control over the process
Having a business in a local market makes it a lot easier to manage the details, and allows you to control possible suppliers, shipping and manage customer’s satisfaction.
The critical factors when choosing between local and global market is the character of your products and your business intentions. Maybe you won’t enter any marketplace ever, if your products are not suitable for it.
To demonstrate why it’s worth focusing on the local marketplaces we took a look at two Dutch marketplaces. Let me introduce BOL.com and MARKTPLAATS.nl
BOL.com
- Originally, it started out as an online bookshop (as Amazon) and became the biggest marketplace for all kinds of products in the Netherlands.
- It operates also in Belgium. That’s why there’s no English version of the site needed, but you can translate it with Google Translate easily. As an evidence of Bol.com popularity in english speaking countries such as US and UK there is a statistic by Alexa:
- Bol.com has 15 million visitors monthly and it’s able to reach 6 million visitors at once and earn revenue around $128,790.
- No fixed monthly fees for Bol.com account, you pay per sale.The commission is from 5% to 17% — compared to Amazon.uk.com where commission starts on 7% up to 15%.
The mediation fee consists of a fixed amount per item sold and a percentage of selling price that differs by category.
Bol.com evolved in 2011 to Bol.com Plaza — selling platform and fulfilment partner for third-party sellers. According to Bol’s managing director Daniël Ropers “We are building a network of expertise, retailers, services and products,” similar to business model of Alibaba.
- The typical user demographics of Bol.com are males with a university background, and there is an equal spread between those who are employed or who work from home.
MARKTPLAATS
- Dutch advertising site where new and secondhand items can be sold (but also includes cars and services). It was founded in 1999 as one of the first websites in the Netherlands to focus on classified ads.
- Marktplaats is popular also in Belgium, Germany and United Kingdom.
- With daily unique visitors Marktplaats is able to earn $8,139 daily, in monthly overview it’s 5,475,000 unique visitors and earns revenue $244,189.
- If you’re applying omnichannel strategy in your business, being aware of the importance of social engagement with marketplaces is essential, and Marktplaats has focused mainly on Facebook with over 46,200 users. They`ve chosen which social media platforms work best for them, and as an example of this haven`t engaged with Pinterest at all.
- Advertising is free in almost all categories.
- Typical Marktplaats’s visitor is alike to Bol.com’s.
Build a Strong Brand
If your preferred business model is toward building a strong brand by targeting a local level compared to selling globally (under a no-name label), then digital presence on these smaller more accessible markets can definitely help. But the next natural step for any type of store with this model is opening a brick-and-mortar store that can open up your products to new customers and can incorporate “show room” functionality. Even on the timeline of a single year, you’ll find you can easily sell in multiple places and increase your sales and extend your brand. With POS systems, like Lightspeed support, you can basically sell anywhere.
And how to evaluate the performance of each sales channel?
With simple integration MonkeyData into your business. MonkeyData monitors your overall sales and particular incomes from Ecommerce, Point of Sale and Marketplace. Data from many other sources you use, like social media, MailChimp and Google Analytics keeps in one place.
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