5 Steps to Sell More with a Marketplace

Let’s start by conveniently defining what a Marketplace is.

Imagine that you enter the Centro Colombo in Lisbon or Norte Shopping in Porto. Within these malls there are many different stores, from various brands and sellers, with an incredible variety of products. Now transfer this concept to the digital world: enter a website and have access to several vendors, with an immense range of products and brands. This is what is defined by Marketplace.

So what’s the big difference between a Marketplace and an online store? It’s the same between a mall and a physical store. A Marketplace aggregates several sellers, an online store concerns only one seller /brand.

Some examples of Marketplaces in Portugal:

– Worten Marketplace

– Fnac Marketplace

– Stand Virtual

– Farfetch

– Dott

We now move on to 5 steps to sell more on a Marketplace.

1# Define the Marketplaces that are most relevant to your business

If you want to sell more with Marketplaces, you need to make sure you’re on the right Marketplaces. This way you’ll be able to focus efforts and fine-tune your sales strategy.

Therefore, you should start by analyzing a Marketplace considering the target audience. Compare whether your audience is the same audience as the Marketplace you want to join and belong in.

Then review the Marketplace platform from the user’s point of view. Is it user friendly? Do you easily find the products you are looking for? Are the menus clear? Do product pages have good quality images or videos?

The more well-structured the platform, the better the advantage you will benefit from both SEO and its simplicity and effectiveness of use.

Finally, please consider the fees charged by Marketplaces. Even if some don’t charge registration fees, they always end up charging some commission on their sales. Therefore, always analyze the cost of these fees in your billing to choose the Marketplace that is most advantageous to you.

To help you search and define a Marketplace suitable for your audience, see this list of Marketplaces in Portugal.

2# Take advantage of the Marketplaces with greater notoriety

This tip goes very much in line with prior planning in defining the Marketplaces most relevant to you.

Imagine that you have a company that sells smartphones and even has your online store implemented. However, you are competing in an online marketplace that already has large players such as Worten or Fnac that have an online position much higher than yours.

Now, as we have seen, these two “big ones” also have Marketplaces where you can put your products on sale. It’s a way to expand your network of potential customers at lower costs, while increasing your brand knowledge.

If in the short term you can “only” generate sales within marketplace, in the long run it may be enough for customers to stop visiting marketplace and go straight to your online store because they already know and trust your business. See these Marketplaces as a tool to increase your company’s awareness, long-term sales, and online positioning.

3# Invest in advertising or more prominent positions

Let’s take the example of The Virtual Stand, the most notorious automotive marketplace in Portugal.

By using the virtual stand, you can “buy” more prominent positions for your products, thus increasing the likelihood of selling.

In addition to the sales positions you can buy, there are 2 more common ways to sell more on a Marketplace: investing in advertising or participating in an online event organized by Marketplaces. Of course, all this has a cost and that brings us to the next point.

4# Do the financial calculations and make sure it’s profitable for you

Before investing in prominent positions, you must be sure that this will be profitable for you.

So, you will have to balance very well the investment made in these positions, the probability of selling and fees and commissions charged by Marketplace, either by your presence on the platform or by the commissions charged on sales.

To sell more with Marketplace we must invest, but to invest, we must make sure it’s worth it.

5# Promote the Marketplace on your social networks

If you don’t already have an online store, we advise you to promote your Marketplace page as if it were your online store. To do this, develop a digital marketing strategy that allows you to promote your page, such as through social networks or branded content.