Selling on marketplaces should be something everyone is doing however I often find myself talking to clients that are opposed to doing this for various reasons. Read below to understand why those are non-issues and then how you can quickly get set up.
It’s hard to manage the website. How am I going to manage additional channels?
Yes, there is extra work involved with having additional channels BUT if you set it up correctly, the extra revenue and visibility outweigh the extra work. I’ve created a Case Study on using M2EPro for Magento you can use today.
I don’t have enough quantity to list on marketplaces – by the time I list I’ll most likely run out of stock.
If that is really the case, if you are going through stock so fast, then you are on your way to becoming very rich, very fast. You just need to buy a little bit more of everything.
But I doubt this. For example, clients in apparel get rid of popular sizes and colors and have some leftovers that stay with them for months. Marketplaces could give you that extra visibility that you need to get rid of those too.
Paying the marketplace comissions will destroy my profit margin
Only if you sell for the wrong price. Calculate what would be an OK profit margin on marketplaces. Take into account that marketplace sales won’t incur the same SEO/PPC/Email Marketing costs that your website does. Increase prices a bit and list. You have nothing to lose by testing. Only to gain!
My vendors won’t let me list their products
That has been a true issue for the last few years in the US but in recent months more and more vendors and brand owners are opening up 3rd party access to their partners.
Don’t just assume you will not be allowed – speak to your vendors and ask for your right to sell! If they accept you will have little competition as most of their buyers didn’t think about asking for this.
My pricinples are saying don’t support Amazon, Walmart, et all
I get what you’re saying but you’re looking at this from the wrong angle.
Use marketplaces to get what you need for your business – visibility, traffic, and getting rid of old inventory.
You want to have extra visibility for your brand – often times I’ll go and search for the seller’s name in Google and check their website out (free traffic).
Selling on marketplaces will allow you to get rid of extra inventory. You don’t need to list everything.
I will lose website sales and pay marketplaces comissions
Most of the sales you will get on marketplaces will come from marketplace customers. Odds are that you were never going to get those sales anyway as Amazon or Walmart customers would have shopped on the marketplaces anyway.
Tweak your marketplace prices and your inventory offering. Don’t miss out on sales without giving marketplaces a fighting chance.
Prices are very competitive on marketplaces and I don’t want to sell at a loss
You will be surprised to know that a vast majority of marketplace sellers don’t hold actual stock. They drop ship from suppliers directly or they use fulfillment services so their stocks are very limited. If you have stock at your warehouse you will see that you will get full-price orders for specific sizes that other sellers no longer have.
You don’t need to go into a pricing war, you have the advantage of holding physical inventory.
In conclusion, selling on marketplaces should be on your list of priorities. You cannot afford not to sell on Amazon, Walmart, Overstock, and others because you will not be able to keep up while your competition will only get stronger.
If you’re still not convinced have a look at Amazon’s Net Revenue Growth 2004-2019, Walmart’s New Sales 2006-2020, and eBay’s Anual New Revenue 2013-2019. These companies are growing and you should grow together with them.
Follow the above advice and if you still have questions reach out to me below or in the comments section.