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(EN) Module 4 – Section 1

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Module 4
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Module 4 – Section 1

In this section you will find:

market place – what is it and how does it work? Overview of the most popular marketplaces possible alternative spaces

We see our customers as guests invited to a party, and we are the hosts. Our job is to improve every aspect of the customer experience every day.
Jeff Bezos
Although many consumers are unaware of it, e-commerce is much more than Amazon and eBay. These are the giants, but there are many successful marketplaces that meet specific consumer needs.
Oliver Prothmann

Marketplace

A marketplace is a website that connects sellers and buyers allowing them to carry out a commercial operation. On this type of platform,sellers and buyers remain in the technical and commercial context of the marketplace until the transaction is completed. Putting itself as a sort of guarantor, the marketplace therefore favors the sale and purchase agreement between buyer and seller and ensures that the transaction takes place under the best conditions. The marketplace can be horizontal, i.e. operating with multiple categories of products and services – such as: Amazon, Ebay, Alibaba – or vertical, i.e. organized around a specific category of goods or services, such as Etsy, Justeat or Booking.

Find more E-commerce Europe

 

This is the text that Prestashop uses to present its marketplace: “it provides companies with bulletin boards, shop windows or real virtual stores ready for use, communication tools, order management, customer care and above all a pool of potential customers already members and loyal to the platform “.

 

  • Through the marketplace, the products are sold in a tested, standardized and functional global eco-system
  • The marketplace catchment area consists of consumers already loyal and active on the platform
  • The commercial categories in the marketplaces are organized and promoted effectively on the homepage and on thematic portals;
  • The company that sells through a marketplace is not responsible for payment systems, transactions and any scams incurred on the platform (but the account could be suspended until the authorities check);
  • The marketplace can be used as a test space to test a product or service or explore new markets
  • To date, most platforms allow the integration of the marketplace on their e-commerce site

Not only Amazon

The marketplace scene is certainly dominated by Amazon and eBay, but in Europe there are interesting alternative or complementary realities that are worth knowing, exploring and on which sales can be planned.

To get an overview of the most visited sites in the world you can consult the Alexa site (a subsidiary company of Amazon.com that deals with Internet traffic statistics). The site also allows a search by country and by category. For a comparison and a graphic visualization, we present an image taken from the research of the Federal Association of Online-Trade “Marketplaces across Europe”.

Facebook Marketplace - The easy way to sell.

Selling items on Marketplace is as easy as 1-2-3. 1) Take a snap. 2) Add a price and description. 3) Post. Learn more about how to sell: //bit.ly/2i89CWX

Posted by Facebook Marketplace Community on Friday, 14 July 2017

Amazon

Amazon is the most well-known online marketplace and sales platform in the world. Founded in 1995, Amazon began as an online bookstore, but soon began expanding its product range. Starting in 2015, Amazon is the world’s leading e-commerce retailer, as well as the leading retailer in the world.

 

To find out how it works and have a go at //services.amazon.co.uk/?ld=ELITSOA-learning.me-commercer.eu

Amazon.com sells lots and lots of stuff. The direct Amazon-to-buyer sales approach is really no different from what happens at most other large, online retailers except for its range of products. You can find beauty supplies, clothing, jewelry, gourmet food, sporting goods, pet supplies, books, CDs, DVDs, computers, furniture, toys, garden supplies, bedding and almost anything else you might want to buy. What makes Amazon a giant is in the details. Aside from its tremendous product range, Amazon makes every possible attempt to customize the buyer experience.

When you arrive at the homepage, you will find not only special offers and featured products, but if you have been to Amazon.com before, you will also find some recommendations just for you. Amazon knows you by name and tries to be your personal shopper.

The embedded marketing techniques that Amazon employs to personalize your experience are probably the best example of the company’s overall approach to sales: Know your customer very, very well. Customer tracking is an Amazon stronghold. If you let the website stick a cookie on your hard drive, you will find yourself on the receiving end of all sorts of useful features that make your shopping experience pretty cool, like recommendations based on past purchases and lists of reviews and guides written by users who purchased the products you are looking at.

The other main feature that puts Amazon.com on a different level is the multi-leveled e-commerce strategy it employs. Amazon.com lets almost anyone sell almost anything using its platform. You can find straight sales of merchandise sold directly by Amazon, like the books it sold back in the mid-’90s out of Jeff Bezos’ garage — only now they are shipped from a very big warehouse. Since 2000, you can also find goods listed by third-party sellers — individuals, small companies and retailers like Target or Toys ‘R Us. You can find used goods, refurbished goods and auctions. You could say that Amazon is simply the ultimate hub for selling merchandise on the Web, except that the company has recently added a more extroverted angle to its strategy.

In addition to the affiliate program that lets anybody posting Amazon links earn a commission on click-through sales, there’s now a program that lets those affiliates (Amazon calls them “associates”) build entire websites based on Amazon’s platform. They can literally create mini Amazon websites if they want, building on Amazon’s huge database of products and applications for their own purposes. As long as any purchases go through Amazon, you can build a site called Amazonish.com, pull products directly from Amazon’s servers, write your own guides and recommendations and earn a cut of any sales. Amazon has become a software developer’s playground.

Source: //money.howstuffworks.com/amazon.htm

ebay

eBay is an electronic storefront and online auction market where consumers can shop for virtually anything they need. eBay advertises itself as “The Online Marketplace,” and it provides a venue not only for online shoppers to interact but also for online merchants.

Facebook Marketplace

Facebook Marketplace just made its appearance recently on some markets in a policy of selling within local community. Facebook is where people connect, and in recent years more people have been using Facebook to connect in other way: buying and selling. This activity started in Facebook Groups and has grown substantially. More than 450 million people visit buy and sell groups each month — from families in a local neighborhood to collectors around the world. To help people make more of these connections, Facebook introduced Marketplace, a destination to discover, buy and sell items with people in your community. Marketplace makes it easy to find new things, and find a new home for the things you are ready to part with. It will continue to build new options and features. To visit Marketplace, just tap on the shop icon at the bottom of the Facebook app and start exploring.
This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. Information reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
For more information contact: projektai@paneveziodrmc.lt