Performing well on marketplaces is a major opportunity for your business to grow and succeed. By integrating marketplaces into your sales strategy, you can easily extend your reach to new customers, all over the world, with a minimum of operational constraints. Your sales benefit from their reputation and their traffic to increase the visibility of your products in new markets. Here are our 5 key levers to perform on marketplaces.
Optimise your offers
Providing accurate and reliable information is crucial to encouraging purchases: 62% of consumers buy a different product from the one they intended to buy because of a lack of product information (Akeneo Global B2C Commerce Survey, 2023). Product information errors can have lasting consequences: 63% of consumers surveyed are capable of permanently abandoning a brand following a single bad experience.
According to The Shotfarm Product Information Report, 48% of consumers surveyed believe that brands should offer a detailed product description, give access to the product’s technical characteristics (34%) and various quality visuals (33%).
Highlighting the features, functions and benefits of the products in your catalogue is a highly effective way of increasing the chances of conversion. Optimising descriptions with search terms improves your visibility and your ranking in the marketplace’s search engine results. Finally, adding high-quality interactive content, such as high-definition images, situational and 360-degree product visuals and videos, will increase your conversion rate by up to 35%.
Set competitive prices
It is strongly recommended that you compare your production and distribution costs with market research to assess the perceived value of your offer to customers. Analysing the prices charged by your competitors will enable you to set a price that sets you apart from similar products on the marketplace. 92% of French consumers compare prices before buying, and 56% do so online (Crédoc ‘Tendance et consommation’ survey, March 2024). Competitive prices will attract more customers and ultimately increase your sales. It’s also worth using the promotional features offered by marketplaces to attract customers’ attention. Special offers such as discounts, coupons and flash sales will stimulate sales and encourage customers to choose your products over those of competitors.
Our advice: Opt for intelligent repricing! This dynamic pricing strategy uses algorithms to automatically adjust the prices of your products in real time, according to the competition and demand. This ensures that your prices are always competitive, maximising your sales and margins.
Control your logistics
Keeping track of stock levels for each product sold is essential on marketplaces. Automating this process via a stock management system makes it easier to update stock levels in real time. Maintaining the right stock levels is extremely important, as 30% of consumers abandon their shopping basket forever if an item is out of stock (Salesforce, 2023). Such stock-outs are easily avoided by setting up alerts for critical thresholds. The benefits are threefold: avoiding missing the main peaks in activity, guaranteeing a successful customer experience, but also reducing costly stock immobilisation.
The more you expand your presence on marketplaces, the more resources you’ll need to prepare and dispatch orders. That’s why your stock management needs to be efficient. To facilitate and centralise the management of all your orders, you can opt for a fulfillment solution. Discover the advantages of outsourcing your logistics in our dedicated article.
Offer quality customer service
The quality of your customer service plays a key role in building loyalty and generating positive recommendations. Clearly stating your returns and guarantee policy reassures buyers. The ability to respond quickly to customer queries and handle them with absolute professionalism has a major impact on customer reviews and ratings for your products. Positive reviews boost the confidence of potential new buyers and start a virtuous circle for your sales. In fact, 90% of French consumers say that online customer reviews influence their purchasing decisions (IFOP study no. 715 553, 2023).
Analyse your performance
Marketplaces provide numerous indicators of your activity, enabling you to track the performance of your products. Regularly monitor your sales to identify consumer trends, the products that are performing best and those that are struggling, and the rate at which clicks are converted into sales. Using this data, you can optimise your pricing, marketing and replenishment strategy to maximise your revenues. For example, test targeted promotions, price updates or ad updates, tracking their impact on your performance.
Conclusion
In conclusion, 5 levers will enable you to perform well on marketplaces and boost your sales. Optimise your offers, set competitive prices, control your logistics, offer exceptional customer service and constantly analyse your performance. It is by combining these strategies that you will be able to exploit the full potential of marketplaces and significantly increase your sales. But don’t forget that what works today may not be as effective the next day. So stay tuned, and carry out regular tests to ensure that you are constantly adapting to market developments, trends and the expectations of your consumers.
Want to boost your sales on new marketplaces? Contact our experts!
