Online marketplaces are driving digital transformation

Someone typing at a keyboard, with an ecommerce shopping cart symbol floating in the air.

(Image credit entry: Song_About_Summer / Shutterstoc)

It's no surreptitious that the UK retail landscape has undergone a huge period of change, as many retailers receive had to pivot their business models at speedy rate to cater to new slipway of living and working. Retailers have invested with in new technologies and sales strategies to keep in operations in changing circumstances, and to sustenance up with the rate of wild fluctuations in call for.

Post pandemic, retailers had to consider how they cater to consumer needs both in-store and online. Now more than e'er, these businesses are being challenged to provide a circular-knit shopping experience while simultaneously adapting to the perpetually evolving customer necessarily and behaviors.

Or so the author

Luca Cassina is Executive V.P. of Customer Success B2C at Mirakl.

The new retail environment is defined by viral trends, sudden surges in demand, and the client anticipation that products mustiness arrive inside 48 hours or less. To address these pressures, retailers have been turning to marketplaces; these networks of third-company sellers get enabled retailers to meet fast-evolving consumer demands without the added costs of warehousing, supply range and logistics for thousands of additional products.

The marketplace success formula

Many of the most important players in eCommerce — including Amazon, Ebay and AirBnB — rely on marketplaces to connect sellers and buyers with ease. All the same, the marketplace model is not just for these appendage giants. Both B2B and B2C platforms are revolutionizing the way we coiffe clientele by meeting the "anything, anytime, anyplace" expectations of today's consumers. Enterprise marketplace platforms offer the productiveness, lightness and flexibility needed to thrive in an increasingly member world.

In recent years, marketplaces have grown exponentially, helping more brands cater to the dynamical inevitably of their consumers. Our own research into this sector found that marketplaces grew past 81% year-happening-year in the quarter quarter of 2020, more double the rate of general eCommerce. Additionally, retailers who leveraged the market model saw a 34% lift in overall organic site traffic, benefiting from additional necessitate and relevance without the added marketing spend. This striking development indicates that companies turned to the mart model for flexibility during one of the most complex years in the history of DoC.

With the acceleration of enterprise marketplaces crosswise the globe, sellers from all industries cause been taking advantage of the opportunity, with 36% of Peter Sellers having joined enterprise marketplaces in the 15 months prior to summertime 2021. The market model not only enables retailers to position themselves as trusted shopping destinations online, just also provides shoppers with a immensely widened product offering, all without the added expense of stocking products sold by third-party partners for the mart operator. The manakin allows retailers to curate a selection of sellers that array with their core brand DNA. In turn, this process of curation at scale leaf helps retailers to grow their customer base, increase sales, and foster dedication without making any sacrifices in damage of make identity.

Marketplace sellers have as wel been creating retailer and shopper swear through high customer satisfaction. We found that the most experienced Peter Sellers earned an incredible rating of 4.5 out of 5 from shoppers, a clear-thinking sign of customer gratification. Additionally, enterprise marketplace sellers incur a much lower normal of order refund rates compared to generally eCommerce. Across all verticals, shoppers sought refunds on only 3.3% of orders, less than incomplete the rate of eCommerce as a whole (7.2%). In the fashion industry, where refunds are more common, eCommerce sites average 12.6%, while enterprise marketplace sellers once again cut to the charge per unit in half, at 5.7%.

Looking forward

So where can retailers go from here? We know that the mart model offers a sterling customer experience, an increased product offering, and considerable emergence opportunities.

Consumers are increasingly expecting more miscellany from their shopping experience, which presents a real opportunity for retailers. Those World Health Organization adopt the marketplace model, and create a broad ecosystem of sellers, can enable the best practicable path forward, allowing them to continue up in an progressively competitive extremity Earth.

As businesses continue to wanted in-stash awa visitors, those WHO are able to make up intelligent and accelerate their digital translation will be those best positioned to go above and beyond their consumers' needs. Through marketplaces, retailers will be able to continue to grow their websites and collect data on what their customers really want and demand, giving them the insights to continue to refine their offerings. This improved digital experience will keep customers return for more, offering retailers a significant capitalist advantage.

Now is the time for businesses from all industries to proactively leverage marketplace technology, or lose proscribed to the member natives who already have.

We feature the best small occupation software.