There are pros and cons on distributing your products on the marketplace. The advantages are obvious; it’s the disadvantages that no one thinks about. Selling on marketplaces can have a major impact on your business. This is the reason why a lot of online retailers are taking their products OFF marketplaces.
First of all, you need experience with databases in order to list a large feed yourself and update the inventory weekly. Then you need to comply with the marketplace strict rules and guidelines, such as keep your inventory current (no back order!), ship by next day, respond to emails under 24 hours, otherwise you will risk losing your account after a lot of hard work. Finally, listing on the marketplaces not only increase the competition intensity but also open doors to your financial books by giving out your product statistical proprietary info to the listing marketplace. All in all, it is still worth to join the crowd rather than being left behind.
The popular online marketplaces are:
Google Products: used to be Froogle
Amazon.com: the winner of 2011 Black Friday holiday shopping.
Sears: what a surprise to see Sears becoming an online marketplace for anything.
eBay: the most well-known online auction site.
iOffer.com: a place to buy, sell & trade.
eCrater.com: a free web store builder and an online marketplace. All products are submitted to Google Product Search.
Other marketplaces for local listing are:
Olx.com: free classifieds where buyers meet sellers.
No comments:
Post a Comment