Definition:
A marketplace is a large online shopping center,where products from many brands are offered and in which you can find any product, anytime and from anywhere.
Marketplaces work in a simple, effective and economical way. The goal is that both customers and sellers have it easy when it comes to selling and buying.
These online shopping centers act as intermediaries,offering buyers the full range of products they house, facilitating the work of sellers and guaranteeing the security of the purchase and sale.
Advantages
Marketplaces have many advantages for those who sell their products on these platforms:
- It is relatively easy to work with them.
- They bring a lot of traffic,which is not comparable to what a smaller online business can have.
- Marketplaces allow you to sell products without having an E-Commerce.
For Buyers it also brings advantages:
- As there is competition between brands, prices are low and there are always promotions or offers.
- The guarantee that the payment will be made safely,without jeopardizing the user’s data.
Main marketplaces
Among the main marketplaces are:
Amazon:
Company created by Jeff Bezos in 1994 in the United States and has become one of the most important online shopping centers in the world.
It offers both its own products and those of other businesses or brands.
Ali Express:
It is the Marketplace created by the Chinese giant Alibaba, which is dedicated to the sale of other people’s products and that is notpear with products from China, but allows you to make the purchase from anywhere in the world.
With the arrival of AliExpress Plaza in Spain, Spanish brands can now sell in this business conglomerate.
The particularity of AliExpress is that it does not pay the seller until the consumer has received his order and has confirmed the delivery in perfect condition, making consumers feel protected throughout the purchase process.
Google Shopping:
The Mountain View giant also wants to exploit the marketplace phenomenon, but in its own way. Google Shopping is more of a showcase since it does not sell, nor does it interfere in the economic transaction. It only makes a huge catalog of products available to the customer and helps them compare them and then direct them to the eCommerce website.
El Corte Inglés:
The main Spanish shopping center has its own marketplace, which coexists with its eCommerce.
It has a solid platform, the same one with which its main competitors operate.
One of the particularities of El Corte Inglés is that it establishes a brand filter. It is not enough that a brand wants to offer its products in El Corte Inglés, but it must pass the approval of the business to obtain a place in its catalog.
Ebay:
It is the first marketplace to achieve worldwide fame. Here you can sell products, in addition to through the normal purchase and sale, through its auction system.
This platform is the owner of PayPal, an online payment system that offers security to users when making the transaction.
Ebay does not sell its own products, it only works with the products of other users or companies.
Etsy:
This marketplace was born in New York in 2005 and it can be said that it is an online market, since it is mainly designed for people who sell artisanal products or artistic pieces. They support many small creators, designers, and illustrators so that they can sell their products, from jewelry to furniture.
Rakuten:
It is the largest e-commerce platform in Japan and was created in 1997 by Hiroshi Mikitani. Rakuten’s services are not dedicated to selling, but it is only an intermediary that puts buyers in contact with sellers.