What is the best marketplace to sell online?

Do you want to develop your online business? Joining a marketplace is an effective solution for rapidly accessing a large audience and optimizing your sales. However, with the diversity of platforms available, choosing the one that best suits your business can prove complex.

Which marketplaces are best suited to sellers? What criteria need to be taken into account to make the right choice? This article will guide you through the process, with a comparison of the best marketplaces.

What is a marketplace?

A marketplace is a sales platform similar to a huge digital shopping mall. Inside, each store corresponds to a different brand. Merchants offer their products to all visitors to the platform, and benefit from a number of levers: loyalty program, personalized store, possibility of setting up discount coupons, etc.

Unlike an ecommerce site (Shopify or Woocommerce store, WordPress site…), a marketplace brings together a large number of sellers. While your products are certainly in competition with others, the downside is that you benefit from very high traffic and cross-selling opportunities. Let’s take an example: you sell PS5 video games on Rakuten, but you don’t sell consoles. A customer decides to buy a PS5 console from another seller. When they finalize their purchase, your games will be suggested to them directly from the console’s product sheet, thanks to the intelligent suggestions generated by the platform. By selling on a marketplace, you can reach new customers and generate sales opportunities you wouldn’t have had otherwise.

A marketplace is therefore an online platform that facilitates contact between buyers and sellers, and acts as a trusted third party in distance selling.

Why choose a marketplace to sell online?

To sell online, you could set up an e-commerce site. Creating an online store has its advantages, but can quickly become costly and time-consuming: buying a domain name, choosing a CMS, site architecture, creating product sheets, installing plugins… All of these tasks take time away from your core business: selling. A growing number of e-tailers are turning to a more affordable e-commerce solution.

Selling your products via a marketplace offers many advantages:

• Increased visibility: Marketplaces enjoy a high profile and visibility on the web. Whereas with your own e-commerce store, you’d have to optimize search engine optimization (SEO) yourself, marketplaces have entire teams dedicated to these improvements. As a result, they attract a large number of visitors, increasing your chances of selling quickly. Rakuten, for example, registers 15 million unique visitors every month.
• Easy access to qualified customers: Unlike an independent e-commerce site, a marketplace offers an ecosystem of active buyers already looking for products.
• Simplified management: From product catalog hosting to payment management, marketplaces take care of the technical aspects so you can concentrate on your business. Marketplaces are designed to provide a seamless user experience. All your orders, ads and promotions are generally accessible from a centralized back office, and you can manage all your sales with just a few clicks
• Powerful marketing tools: Some platforms offer promotional and customer loyalty services, such as cashback on Rakuten, which encourages buyers to repeat their purchases.

Our loyalty program, for example, is based on an attractive cashback system, which allows shoppers to accumulate a percentage of the amount of their purchases in the form of a kitty. Customers can then spend their kitty on the platform, which encourages repeat purchases and builds loyalty with sellers. On average, loyalty program members gain €900 in purchasing power per year

Criteria for choosing the best marketplace

Before selecting the best marketplace, it’s essential to analyze a number of factors to ensure that it meets your business objectives.

General or specialized marketplace

Marketplaces can be generalist (Rakuten, Amazon) or specialized (Etsy for handmade goods, Backmarket for refurbished goods).
– Generalist marketplaces enable you to reach a wide audience, and are ideal if you sell a wide range of products.
– Specialized marketplaces target a smaller but highly qualified audience.

If your aim is to maximize your visibility and conversion rate, a generalist platform like Rakuten is a strategic choice.

B2B or B2C marketplaces

Marketplaces can be based on a BtoC (products sold to private individuals) or BtoB (products sold to professionals) model. Some platforms are exclusively dedicated to one of the two models (Amazon Business for B2B, for example), while others combine the two approaches.

Depending on your target market and product catalog, you’ll need to decide whether to use a B2B or B2C marketplace.

Customer base and visibility

The volume of traffic generated by the marketplace is a key factor. The more visitors the platform attracts, the greater your chances of generating sales.

Rakuten sellers, for example, benefit from high traffic thanks to the 15 million unique visitors who visit the platform every month. Sellers therefore benefit from excellent visibility and access to a large, committed customer base.

Cost and business model

Marketplaces generally charge a commission on sales. It’s important to evaluate the relationship between fees and services offered.

• Some models incorporate fixed subscriptions, which can be advantageous for regular sellers.
• Others operate on a commission-per-sale basis, a more flexible model for smaller merchants or those just starting out.
• Sometimes, the two options coexist: on Rakuten, for example, you can choose the Starter pack with a 0€ subscription but higher commissions, or the Expert pack with a 49€ subscription and reduced commissions.

Services and support

Some platforms offer advanced webmarketing tools and loyalty programs. It’s a good idea to compare these features according to your needs. For example, Rakuten offers a free personalized e-shop service. In just a few clicks, you can create a personalized store that reflects your visual identity, a valuable asset for enhancing your brand image

The best marketplace for e-commerce sales

Every platform has its own particularities. To make sure you select the best marketplace, here’s a comparison of the leading platforms on the market, with their advantages and challenges.

Rakuten – A non-competitive marketplace for sellers

• Unique model: Rakuten sells no products of its own, and focuses exclusively on the success of its sellers.
• High-performance loyalty program: Club R rewards buyers and encourages repeat purchases
• Challenge: Optimize sales strategy to maximize visibility and sales on the platform.

Find out how to sell on Rakuten.

Amazon – A global audience with strong competition

• Unrivalled visibility: Amazon is the world’s busiest e-commerce platform, offering access to a global customer base.
• Powerful internal search engine: Thanks to its recommendation algorithms, Amazon enables well-referenced products to appear at the top of results.
• Challenge: To stand out in an ultra-competitive environment, where many sellers offer similar products and price wars are intense.

Etsy – A reference for crafts and handmade products

• Committed community: Ideal for creators, designers and artisans wishing to sell handmade, vintage or personalized products.
• Highlighting unique products: Etsy favors the visibility of handmade items thanks to an algorithm that values authenticity and personalization.
• Challenge: Managing the often artisanal production and logistics, while maintaining an active presence to capture the attention of buyers.

Backmarket – A platform dedicated to refurbished goods

• Growing market: Backmarket meets the growing demand for refurbished electronics, with a strong focus on the circular economy.
• Sustainability-conscious public: this digital platform attracts consumers who are sensitive to eco-responsible products and concerned about quality.
• Challenge: meet strict quality and warranty standards to build lasting trust with buyers.

In short, choosing the best marketplace depends on a number of factors: your business sector, your objectives and the services offered by the platform. Not sure which marketplace to choose? Our e-commerce experts are here to guide you and help you choose the platform best suited to your needs