Brands on marketplaces_ pros and cons
Even those brands that until recently resisted online sales during the pandemic realized that there was no getting around it.
A user entering the site of any of the marketplaces is consciously ready for a variety of products. He assumes that he will come across many recommendations of similar or related products. At this moment, he is ready to flip through many pages, go through the offered goods. This is where the opportunity arises for introducing niche brands and products into his life.
You can find a product of interest in a previously unknown store at a lower price or higher quality. And without a marketplace, this would hardly have happened at all. Unless you can try to find information about discounts in small stores on social networks, for example, on Instagram. But small businesses that have not yet gained popularity are unlikely to be included in your recommendations. They need to buy Instagram followers a few more times to become famous.
For niche brands, selling through marketplaces solves the difficulties of shipping to different parts of the country. Some of the sites have their own warehouses, to which you need to ship the goods, and then not send them to the end consumers themselves.
It is clear that no marketplace can compare in terms of expertise with individual small online stores, but their accessibility to the audience is much higher. In addition, the seller does not need to maintain and develop the online store himself. He can spend the saved money on developing his brand on social networks and, for example, buy followers Instagram.
However, the disadvantage is that it is quite difficult to promote your small brand if there are no other channels of communication with the end consumer on the marketplace.
Sometimes small brands are overloaded and cannot keep up with the increased demand. It would seem that they started buying you, these are solid pluses. But when the demand far exceeds the supply of your store, you can start stimulating the sales of your competitors. Because the mechanisms of the marketplace pull similar products from other manufacturers into recommendations. Therefore, you need not only to calculate your strength, but also to think over a block of recommendations.
It should be borne in mind that you have to work with each site in its own way. Each has its own nuances and characteristics. Open the instructions for entering the platform, select your popular product and ship the first batch to the marketplace warehouse. Make documentation, photos and descriptions based on site recommendations and start experimenting with price, assortment, and other settings.
If you are not confident in your abilities, then there are services that can help you enter the marketplace market. But it is important to remember that if you have a large enough company, then it is better to single out a separate manager.
With certain difficulties and disadvantages of working with niche brands with marketplaces, in the end, you can get more benefits. These are at least additional sales and points of contact with consumers. But we do not recommend focusing only on this site if you want to develop a brand.