2019 Marketplaces Report - TRIBETALK EP 8

Check out this TribeTalk from our Marketing Specialist, Kathryn Betancourt chatting with one of our Co-Founders, T.J. Jones.

Amazon Snatching Up Brands

Amazon is offering brands what seems like an awesome opportunity to have prominent display placements. It’s called the Amazon Accelerator which is basically Amazon’s own incubator to help independent merchants with marketing support, product reviews, and prominent display. What brands don’t know when they are opting into this is in the fine print Amazon has the right to buy the brand for as little as $10,000. 

So will you risk having to sell your brand in order to get those prominent placements? 

Takeaways from the 2019 Marketplaces Report 

The 2019 Marketplaces Report recently dropped and Internet Retailer put out some interesting key findings. It’s always important to look at data in our industry to find trends and this report provides good stats that we can learn from. It shows what is working for the consumer and worries we can target. It helps get in the mind of the consumer. What are they searching, shopping, and buying? What are their pain points?

Consumers weighed in to give their reasons for marketplace shopping and coming in at number 1 at no surprise is to find the best prices. Following that, they said quick delivery and the number of choices. When marketing to consumers these are the positive adjectives to hit on to attract customers. 

What are consumers worried about? Most said product quality. Making sure the quality of your product is outstanding and marketing to this pain point will attract customers. Shoppers also love user-generated content such as pictures and reviews. These online marketplaces give a great space for that. Your customers will show off the good (or bad) for you. Give them nothing to worry about. 

We recommend checking out the key findings and even diving into the report if you have the time. 

eBay and Alibaba stepping up their game 

Trying to compete with Amazon, eBay and Alibaba recently announced some updates.

eBay announced they are coming out with their own fulfillment service. The new service will be called Managed Delivery and they plan to launch this sometime next year. It will use a network of third-party partners for warehousing, packing, and delivery services. This is huge for sellers on eBay that currently send around 1.5M packages in the US every day. As of now, about 40-50% of the items listed on its site will qualify for Managed Delivery.

Alibaba now plans to open its platform to manufacturers, wholesalers, and distributors in the U.S. This should provide some major competition for Amazon as it will give 30M SMBs in the US a new online marketplace to sell. 

What are your thoughts on these updates? Leave us a comment below.