Success on marketplaces in five steps

At Swiss Post, we have set ourselves the target of helping our customers to harness their full potential in online retail, and an important part of this is online marketplaces. This is why we advise our business customers on the preparation and onboarding process for selling on marketplaces, which allows them to achieve rapid sales success in a straightforward, efficient manner.

Marketplaces becoming more important

Online marketplaces have been gaining in importance for some years now, often growing at above-average rates. And more and more retailers are using the opening up of their platforms to third-party providers as an opportunity to broaden their range. In our blog post “The growing importance of digital marketplaces” we look at this development in more detail.

Many retailers have concerns

When we speak to our customers, we regularly come across concerns that are keeping retailers from giving the prospect of selling on marketplaces more serious consideration. Common concerns are excessive costs, high price pressure, or even the risk of marketplaces absorbing products performing well into their own range. Of course, selling on marketplaces doesn’t just come with benefits, but our experience has shown that, with a well thought-out strategy, a comprehensive assessment and a professional approach, marketplaces actually represent a major opportunity to many retailers. This is where our marketplace enabling service comes in.

The complexity of marketplaces

Starting out on marketplaces comes with a whole host of potentially very complex tasks, especially if you are looking to work with multiple marketplaces with varying requirements at the same time. The risk here is that retailers end up wasting a lot of time, and therefore money too. We help our customers to make a quick and easy start on marketplaces,

and we go through five important steps:

1. Potential analysis
2. Product data
3. Processes
4. Efficient integration
5. Continuous development

Potential analysis

First off, we work with the marketplaces to analyse the potential of the products the retailer is selling. This allows us to objectively assess which marketplaces promise the most success. Amongst other factors, it’s important to determine how suitable the range is for the marketplace, what the competition is like on the marketplace, and what prices and costs are involved.

Product data

Secondly, we assist our customers in finding the best way to prepare and transfer their product data. We help our customers decide what the best source for the data transfer is (e.g. online shop, ERP, etc.), what format to use to transfer data, and what additional information might optimize sales success.

Order data

Handling order data also needs to be an efficient process. This doesn’t just mean customer orders, but potential returns and warranty claims as well.

Processes

Retailers need to comply with certain rules when working with the marketplaces. This applies in particular to compliance with stated delivery deadlines, or indicating correct product availability. We help retailers roll out efficient processes, which allows for a smooth working relationship with the marketplaces. At the same time, orders from marketplaces also need to be processed efficiently.

Continuous development

Even after the initial onboarding, we help our business customers maximize their success on marketplaces. Additionally, we support existing marketplace retailers in optimizing their existing offer, and assessing the possibility of collaboration with other marketplaces.

Swiss Post’s marketplace enabling service

What is your strategy for marketplaces? Get in touch with our marketplace experts in the Digital Commerce team and benefit from free, impartial and holistic marketplace advice in all strategic, technical and logistics matters. Here at Swiss Post, we will be happy to help you with the onboarding process to get onto digital marketplaces with our marketplace enabling service.