Small businesses are constantly on the lookout for ways to increase sales, where to find new customers, and how to get their attention. Among the many possible options, we can see that one of the most profitable ways is to start selling on marketplaces. According to the latest data, more than 50% of small businesses start selling on marketplaces.
Many experts suggest that in 15 years more than 90% of all purchases in the world will be made using the Internet.
In this article, we will talk about the reasons why small businesses are starting to appear more and more often on marketplaces.
Obvious benefits
The great popularity of services among buyers
Choosing new channels for the sale of goods, sellers pursue a common goal – to get as many new orders as possible. To get new orders, you need to be in great demand among buyers. In this case, marketplaces can provide small businesses with the opportunity to reach more users.
If you pay attention to the statistics, you can see that Taobao is the world leader among all platforms. Amazon is the most visited resource in North America, and eBay is especially popular among US sellers.
These platforms are becoming so popular because:
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They use multiple promotional tools. Such platforms invest heavily in all kinds of advertising channels to attract as many users as possible.
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They hold the attention of buyers in a variety of ways. We see how having made a purchase once, many users continue to return to purchases on marketplaces.
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They create applications that excel in usability.
The ability to create a site using an easy to use website builder
When choosing a marketplace, representatives of small businesses can choose among the opportunity to place their products in the website catalog, or create their website from scratch, and then see their products in the catalog of all products. The platforms offer particularly simple website builders.
You might want to use the opportunity to remove the image background for free to make product cards better than competitors’. In this regard, if you do not have skills in the field of creating websites, then this will not be a problem for you.
Technical support
Small businesses, getting on the marketplace, may not immediately begin to understand how the site works, how to run ads, and configure settings. In this case, sellers have the opportunity to use technical support. Most often, such support is available throughout the day.
This is one of the most important advantages, thanks to which you can start selling on the marketplace as quickly as possible.
The ability to use internal advertising
Given that there are thousands of entrepreneurs selling on marketplaces, each of them will want to stand out from all the others, so we can talk about a crazy level of competition. This is especially true for sellers who offer similar products to users. That is, such sellers try to use the promotion tools offered by trading platforms.
However, the maximum effectiveness of advertising depends on how the parameters are set correctly, what budget will be allocated, the product category, the quality of product cards, and the level of demand.
In this regard, it is advisable to do the following:
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Check current prices as well as the stock of goods;
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Add precise information about goods;
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Insert quality photos;
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Use tags so that your products were shown more often in search results.
The presence of additional tools for promotion
The ability to add products to various thematic selections of products. If you correctly specify the product category, add high-quality images, and the product is in stock, then such products may appear in the selections of products that are shown on the main page of the site.
The ability to use contextual advertising. Some marketplaces may offer to use services to set up contextual advertising. Technical support specialists can help you with this to correctly configure the settings and run ads.
The ability to appear on banners on the main page of the platform. This promotion opportunity is one of the most effective. In a week of placing banners, your store can get more than 1 million views. Such advertising is expensive but worth it.
Conclusion
Among the many opportunities to promote products, one of the most effective means for small businesses is to sell products on marketplaces. Each platform has its characteristics and advantages, due to which the choice of such a promotion channel is beneficial for small businesses.