International export marketplaces: how to choose them

International Marketplaces

The e-commerce market is varied and full of marketplaces with very different requirements and features. If you would like to sell your products through the digital channels, you need to explore the different alternatives first by evaluating the usefulness of each platform based on your company’s needs and export goals.

Selecting the right platform is not always easy but monitoring the main reference marketplaces in terms of sectors and markets is an essential choice for a company that wants to implement a digital export strategy bringing tangible commercial advantages.

 

Il marketplace è un canale fondamentale perché consente di scambiare beni/servizi con distributori e clienti a livello globale, raggiungendo anche i mercati più lontani senza dover necessariamente investire grandi budget in personale e azioni commerciali in loco.

The Marketplace that’s right for you: 3 distinctions

1. Market-based: it operates globally (e.g. Amazon, eBay, EC21) vs. it is focused on a particular market (e.g. Allegro in Poland, Jumia in Africa);
2. Based on Sector: it operates in a specific area vs. cross-sectional on multiple sectors;
3. Based on regulations: “open” – it guarantees a reduced bureaucracy and a high level of accessibility for Italian brands that want to be present – vs. “restrictive” – it demands strict requirements for a display window presence.

Being present on a Marketplace: the benefits

• facilitated match between supply and demand
• Possibility to place your products in geographically distant markets (e.g. China)
• Easier management of international transactions
• Lower coststhan managing a proprietary e-commerce platform
• Marketing services (sponsored ads, advertising space)
• Logistics services (international shipments, customs clearance, return handling)
• Data analysis(user profiling services, sales report management) Increased trust from end customers
• Increased trustfrom end customers
• Monitoring of competition

Selling online: some critical issues

• Knowledge of each marketplace:some of them are more suitable for purchases than for sale;
• Understanding if the marketplace is more used by manufacturersor by retailers;
• Regularly updating your account and providing as much information as possible about your business;
• Selecting the products to be published on the marketplaces: it is not always advisable to trade on the marketplaces our best products; ;
• Understanding how search engines work to improve your visibility and rank on the web by providing the right product data sheets.

Nowadays, B2B specialized e-commerce platforms are countless.
We list here some B2B e-commerce platforms which can be defined as more “generalist“, where you can buy or sell many types of products or even services.
Major international marketplaces include Amazon Businessand Alibaba, Ebay Business Supply and Thomasnet; there are some other interesting platforms operating in more general areas such as Flipkart – Indian ecommerce leader – Qoo10 in Singapore Rakuten in Japan and Walmart in the United States.