The online marketplace industry is growing rapidly, and it has become one of the most profitable business trends at present. In this context, if you don’t make your brand prepared now, you won’t be able to seize the marketplace opportunities in the future.

The global online marketplace industry has been experiencing an average of 15 to 20% growth in sales for the last several years which is expected to continue in the coming years!

Statista

Then, how could you make your brand prepared, what kind of opportunities are actually waiting for you, and where to find them?

Don’t worry. We are going to cover all of these parts here in this article for you. We will also let you know how to do marketplace optimization to make your business thrive as a bonus. So, stay with us.

Why Marketplace and What are the Opportunities Laying Ahead

Online marketplaces are one of the most popular forms of eCommerce with an excellent business outlook. And it’s growing so fast as we mentioned earlier. So, the key benefits of choosing marketplaces are:

• It sells everything easily, quickly, and cost-efficiently
• Creates big and multiple sources of income
• Makes your business global with 24/7 sales opportunity
• Has a diverse customer base, helping earn a wide reputation
• Benefits all types of businesses and traders

And what kind of opportunities are waiting for you? We are going to talk about it with some numbers. Let’s check out some astounding statistics which will help you understand what kind of marketplace opportunities you are going to seize:

• Global marketplace sales were $3.5 trillion in 2020, expected to hit $8.8 trillion by 2025
• More than 2.14 billion people worldwide shop online as of 2021
• About 44% of e-retailers are planning to shift into marketplaces
• Amazon sells around 300 million products every month

Sources: Be STF, Retail Week, Statista.

It doesn’t matter if you are a retailer or an entrepreneur, now it’s time to start considering marketplaces and plan how you can integrate this new opportunity into your business strategy.

How to Find the Best Marketplace Opportunities for Your Business

There are some marketplace giants, like Amazon, Alibaba, and eBay, who already exist. At the same time, several established brands are launching online marketplaces to deliver convenience to their customers and expand their business.

But how and where you can find the best marketplace opportunities suitable for you? The opportunities are already there. All you have to do is open your eyes, do some research, and plan to find it out. Follow our tips below to know more:

1. Do Some Basic Research

You should do some basic research before enrolling in any marketplace. The key areas you need to cover in the research are – revenue, target customer, reliability, vendor, and customer policy. Whether you choose a new or already established marketplace, just don’t forget to do prior research.

You can seize the opportunities we mentioned earlier in both already established marketplaces and the new (but trusted) ones. It mostly depends on your business strategy. So, we will suggest you do some basic research and choose the ones suitable for you.

2. Determine Your Goals

Finding the best and most suitable marketplace opportunity is heavily reliant on your goals and future planning. For instance: if your plan is to stick to something big and you know how to stand out from the crowd, then you can choose giants, like Amazon and Alibaba.

3. Join the Community Platforms

You have finished your research and planning. Now, you can hear from real people about the marketplaces and the opportunities by joining the community platforms, like Reddit, Shopify Community, LinkedIn, Mirakl Connect, and more.

4. Consult with Experts

If you are yet to find the best and most suitable marketplace opportunities, we will lastly suggest you consult with the experts. It will cost you a bit but help you out. You may contact our eCommerce experts to get a free consultation.

Top Tips to Prepare Your Brand to Seize the Marketplace Opportunities

Enrolling in a marketplace is not just selling products online; it’s also about establishing your brand, giving your customers convenience, becoming global, and earning a wide reputation.

If you want to leverage all the benefits, not just focus on the financial ones only, you will have to make your brand ready. Follow our top tips to prepare your business to seize the marketplace opportunities:

• Prepare a business strategy specifically for online marketplaces
• Research your target audience, particularly their online shopping behavior
• Enhance web presence – build a nice website, open social media pages
• Carry out social media campaigns and ensure customer engagement
• Do a SWOT analysis to understand your current status and the competition
• Monitor your competitors regularly to find what they’re doing better
• Build a brand personality and fix your focus to defeat the competitors
• Invest some in SEO, apply it after enrolling in a marketplace as well
• Educate yourself and your employees about eCommerce trends

Now, we are going to share with you a real-life example so that you can learn how to make your brand ready more effectively and become successful. It’s about Camper, a footwear company based in Spain. We have collected this case study from Mirakl.

Case Study: How Camper Prepared Its Brand and Became Successful

Camper joined Spain’s first online marketplace in 2011 and was amongst the first two brands in the country to have an active marketplace strategy. The company sells on 35 marketplaces across Europe, the US, and Asia.

Fabien Ploet, Head of Digital/eCommerce & Marketplace at Camper, shared their experiences and success story with Mirakl in 2019.

“We first look at the overall business potential, with a honed-in focus on the positioning.  We need to maintain a certain identity and integrity for our brand, and the marketplaces that we sell on need to be on-brand. 

We then evaluate the ease of integration and operational limitations. This could include actual technical integration, logistics, and customer service, which are all data points that feed into the 70-point checklist we use to measure the desirability of the marketplace opportunity.

The geographic region also factors into the selection. For example, the U.S. market is a great focus for Camper’s expansion, so a marketplace in this region would be higher up in the priority list,” said Fabien.

Bonus: Marketplace Optimization Tips to Make Your Business Thrive

There are some marketplace optimization/SEO practices, by following which you can rank your products higher in the search results – both on Google and within your marketplace.

It’s the best way to give your products more exposure, beat the competitors, and increase traffic and sales for free. It is also related to making your brand ready to seize the marketplace opportunities.

We have divided our marketplace SEO tips into 8 points. We will explain some of the points briefly where it’s necessary.

1.    Build a Fast and Responsive Website

• Use attractive yet fast and responsive eCommerce themes
• Buy fast and secure hosting services (dedicated hosting if possible)
• Use lightweight media files, and compress them before uploading
• Stop installing unnecessary plugins, only install those you need regularly

2.    Make Product Pages Informative & Attractive

• Make your product page simple and easy to navigate
• Give all necessary information, arrange them nicely instead of stacking
• Use meaningful images, useful videos, and demos
• Use ratings, reviews, views, and likes to create appeal

3.    Make Your Site Mobile Friendly (create an AMP version of your site)

4.    Do Adequate Keyword Research

• Set the words with higher volume but less difficulty (less than 40) as the main keyword
• Select compelling and self-explanatory keywords 
• Keep your main keyword in the title of your product
• Put the main keyword within the first 120 words of your product description

5.    Focus on Visuals and Alt Texts

6.    Write Readable & Search Engine-Friendly URL

• Use the focus/main keywords in the URL
• Keep it relevant to your product, short and simple
• Use hyphens to separate words, not underscores

7.    Use Trackers & Analytics for Personalization

8.    Promote Your Products on Social Channels

We hope you will follow our tips to make your brand ready to seize the marketplace opportunities. After enrolling in a marketplace, will suggest you apply the marketplace SEO practices to make your brand thrive. Just follow tips 2, 4, 5, 6, and 8 properly.

Read this article if you are interested to know more about marketplace SEO.

Final Thoughts

We are now going through an age of eCommerce revolution. So, it is the high time you and your business shall keep pace with the changes. Otherwise, it will be too late.

You will have to find out the best and the most suitable marketplace opportunities for you and make your brand ready for it.

Seizing the marketplace opportunities will help make your brand thrive. On the other hand, ignoring the opportunities will make you face extreme challenges in the future. Because most of the businesses in the world are gradually going digital.

We hope our efforts will help you find suitable marketplaces for your brand and make your business sustainable. You can do further research if you are interested.

Also Read: 9 Online Marketplace Ideas for You to Succeed in 2022