Seller Intelligence Archives

Who Needs Market Price Benchmarking?

Before we discuss WHO needs market price benchmarking, let’s first address WHY it is so pivotal. No retail business, whether online or in-store, is an island. In order to gain the traction to succeed, it is crucial to understand where your products’ prices stand in relationship to your competitors’.

Market price benchmarking provides invaluable insight into several key issues: Where do your prices fall – are they above or below the average market price? What are your customers looking for and what kind of experience do they undergo in your shop? What makes your direct and indirect competitors’ offering appealing? Where can you fill in gaps that your competitors are missing?

Now that we understand why price benchmarking is vital, let’s see who can best profit from using this type of analysis:

Price Benchmarking for Online Enterprises

Online enterprises must constantly gauge the competition in order to gain an edge and boost sales. This process sounds easier than it actually is. Product prices are constantly fluctuating. New products are introduced to your inventory and other products are removed. Special sales are offered on competitive items. If you handle a large volume of products, keeping up with changing prices across the web is a formidable task.

While this type of task may have been handled manually in the past, businesses can now use dynamic AI-based marketing analysis platforms to gain dynamic insights into product prices across the web in real time. Online retailers can instantly add or withdraw products, or make special offers on certain items, thereby outperforming the competition and attracting customers.

Price Benchmarking for Brands

The main objective of most brands is to build a name and reputation for themselves. In order to do so, they need to offer a memorable and seamless customer experience that makes them stand out. Some brands operate their own websites, while others join a marketplace sales model.

Market price benchmarking provides insights into direct and indirect competitors, i.e, companies that sell identical or very similar products to a brand. After carefully analyzing your target audience, make your brand conspicuous by launching special offers to certain buyers on products they have purchased in the past. Use market price benchmarking to personalize your offerings and create a lasting connection with your brand.

Price Benchmarking for Marketplaces

Many marketplace owners use the commission model to claim fees from the businesses they work with. The fee may depend on whether the provider distributes products only through the marketplace or through other channels as well. Marketplaces do not want to price themselves out of the market, so in exchange for a sales spot, they should either offer lower fees or greater value to enterprises. Marketplaces also need to consider the different types of providers they host and if fees should be identical for all.

Market price benchmarking provides clear insight into all of these dilemmas: Actionable data analysis enables marketplaces to compare prices across the board, gauge the competition’s offerings, and offer top value to providers. Through price benchmarking, marketplaces can create a sustainable business model with affordable fees and mutually acceptable profit margins.

The Ultimate Winner – The Customer

Whether you are an enterprise, a brand or a marketplace, your primary goal is to engage new and veteran customers, and generate loyalty. Market price benchmarking can be combined with online catalog optimization to significantly increase traffic and streamline customer experiences.

Interested in learning more about how market price benchmarking can work for you? Book a demo.

How to Use a Barcode Lookup System to Find Products Quickly and Easily

Inventory management is a critical component of any business operation, and barcoding has emerged as a vital tool in streamlining the process. Barcoding helps businesses to accurately track and manage their inventory, reducing errors and improving overall efficiency. If you are struggling to keep track of your assets, barcode inventory management can be a game-changer. Learn how to lookup a barcode and return product data in a simple way.

What is Barcoding?

Barcoding is the process of encoding information in a visual pattern of lines, bars, and spaces, which can be read by a barcode scanner. The barcode scanner converts the visual pattern into digital information, which can be used for a variety of purposes, including inventory management.

Barcodes typically contain information such as product numbers, serial numbers, and batch numbers, which can be used to track inventory, reduce errors, and improve efficiency.

What is Barcode Inventory Management?

Barcode inventory management is a system that uses barcode labels to track and manage inventory items. Each barcode contains unique information about the item, such as its product code, serial number, or location. Barcode scanners are used to read the information, which is then processed and stored in a database. This allows for accurate and efficient tracking of inventory, from receiving to shipping.

How to Use Barcodes

Barcodes are used in a wide range of industries, from retail to manufacturing. The most common way to use barcodes is to scan them at the point of sale. This allows retailers to quickly and accurately track sales and inventory. Barcodes are also used in warehouses and other large-scale operations to track items and shipments.

Barcodes can also be used to identify people, such as in employee or visitor tracking systems. In this context, barcodes can be used to quickly check people in and out of an area, as well as to track their movements throughout the facility.

In addition to scanning barcodes, businesses can also use barcode printers to create custom barcodes. These printers can be used to create barcodes for a variety of purposes, such as tracking products, tracking shipments and identifying people.

Benefits of Barcode Inventory Management

Implementing a barcode lookup system for your business can provide a range of benefits, including:

1. Increased Efficiency

Barcoding enables businesses to automate the process of inventory management, reducing the need for manual data entry and reducing the likelihood of errors. This can save time and increase efficiency, allowing your business to focus on more important tasks, which leads to faster fulfillment and better customer service.

2. Improved Accuracy

Barcode product lookup reduces the likelihood of errors in inventory management, such as incorrect data entry, and misplaced items, eliminates the need for manual data entry or incorrect quantities. This can help to improve accuracy and reduce the risk of stockouts or overstocking. With barcode scanners, you can ensure that the right item is picked and shipped every time, reducing the risk of mistakes and rework.

3. Real-time Data

Barcoding enables businesses to track inventory in real-time, providing up-to-date information on inventory levels, locations, and movements, just by using the function “item barcode lookup”. This can help businesses to make more informed decisions and respond quickly to changes in demand or supply.

4. Better visibility

With real-time tracking and reporting, you can gain insights into your inventory levels, demand, and usage patterns. This can help you make informed decisions about purchasing, stocking, and pricing.

5. Cost savings

By reducing errors and improving efficiency, you can save time and money on labor, storage, and logistics.

How to Implement Barcode Inventory Management

Implementing a barcode inventory management system requires careful planning and execution. Here are some steps to follow:

Define your requirements: Identify your inventory needs and goals, such as item tracking, batch control, or expiration dates. Choose the right barcode symbology for your items and environment, such as Code 39, Code 128, or QR codes.
Select your hardware and software: Choose a barcode scanner that suits your scanning frequency, distance, and connectivity requirements. Select a software system that integrates with your existing inventory management, accounting, or e-commerce systems.
Create your barcode labels: Generate unique barcode labels for each item, with the necessary information and format. Test and validate your labels to ensure readability and durability.
Train your staff: Provide training and support to your staff on how to use the barcode system correctly, including scanning, labeling, and data entry. Make sure that they understand the benefits and the importance of accuracy.
Monitor and improve: Regularly monitor your inventory data and performance metrics, such as cycle counts, accuracy rates, and fill rates. Use this data to identify areas for improvement and to adjust your system as needed.

Why perform a barcode lookup?

Product packaging may not always provide sufficient information to meet your needs. It may fail to disclose crucial details, such as the product’s origin, manufacturer, durability, efficacy, and market price. Thankfully, item lookup by barcode provides a one-stop solution to this issue. By entering a product’s barcode, you can access an extensive global database with information on millions of products sold worldwide. This includes detailed descriptions, manufacturer information, and even customer reviews and photographs. Additionally, we provide you with a list of online stores that carry the exact item, so you can easily compare prices and avail discounts and special deals.

Main Barcode Types

There are four main types of barcodes that are commonly used in the business world: UPC (Universal Product Code), EAN (European Article Number), Code 39 and Code 128. Each of these barcodes has a different purpose and is used in different contexts.

UPC codes are the most common barcodes and they are used to identify products in stores and online. They are made up of a 12-digit number that contains information about the product, such as the manufacturer, product type and size. UPC codes are most commonly used in retail stores and are scanned at the point of sale.

EAN codes are similar to UPC codes, but they are intended for use in international markets. They are made up of a 13-digit number that contains information about the product and manufacturer. EAN codes are most commonly used in Europe and other international markets.

Code 39 and Code 128 are two different types of barcodes used for tracking and inventory control. Code 39 is the most common type of barcode and it is used for tracking items in warehouses and other large-scale operations. Code 128 is a more advanced type of barcode and it can store larger amounts of data, including product information, serial numbers and tracking information.

How Cluster Can Help?

In today’s fiercely competitive marketplace, it is crucial to have your products easily identifiable to potential customers. Without accurate product identification through barcodes, the chances of your products being discovered by shoppers are significantly reduced. This can have a detrimental effect on your search engine optimization efforts, making it less likely for your products to appear in natural search results on Google.

To overcome this challenge, Cluster has developed two unique service models – full-service and self-service – to help marketplaces tackle the problem of inaccurate barcodes. With these services, Cluster can ensure that all your products have the necessary barcodes to help them stand out in search results and improve your chances of being discovered by potential customers. Book a Demo!

How to Increase Sales With Data-driven Decisions

Today’s eCommerce landscape is highly competitive. With more and more businesses competing to capture a larger share of the market, it is important to understand the best ways to increase sales. One of the most effective methods for doing so is to make data-driven decisions. The use of data-driven decisions is becoming increasingly important in the modern eCommerce world.

Businesses are using data to make more informed decisions, increase customer engagement, and drive more sales. Data-driven decisions can help businesses understand customer behavior, target new customers, and optimize the customer journey. In this article, we will discuss how businesses can use data-driven decisions to increase eCommerce sales. We will discuss the importance of data-driven decisions and how businesses can use this information to make better decisions and improve their online presence.

In the world of online business, having a deep understanding of your customers and their behavior is crucial in maximizing your sales. This is where ecommerce data analytics comes in. By utilizing vast amounts of data generated from your website and other sources, you can gain valuable insights into your customers and make data-driven decisions to improve your ecommerce strategy.

What is Data-Driven Decision-Making?

Data-driven decision-making is an approach to making decisions that relies on the analysis of data from multiple sources. This data can include customer demographics, purchase history, website traffic, website interactions, and more. It is a way of using data to make decisions that are informed by the evidence, rather than assumptions or intuition.

Data-driven decisions help businesses to make better decisions that are based on evidence rather than guesswork. They can also help to identify key trends, understand customer behavior, and optimize marketing campaigns. This can be especially beneficial for eCommerce businesses, as they need to make decisions that are informed by customer preferences and the changing market.

The Importance of Data-Driven Decisions

Data-driven decisions are becoming increasingly important for eCommerce businesses. Data-driven decisions help businesses make better decisions by allowing them to understand customer behavior, target new customers, and optimize the customer journey. By utilizing data-driven decisions, businesses are able to gain valuable insights into customer behavior, which can help them make more informed decisions. Additionally, data-driven decisions help businesses understand the customer journey, enabling them to optimize the customer experience and maximize sales.

Data-driven decisions also provide businesses with the ability to target new customers. By understanding customer behavior and preferences, businesses are able to target potential customers with personalized offers and messages. This helps businesses increase their reach and attract new customers. Furthermore, data-driven decisions allow businesses to gain insights into customer preferences and buying habits, enabling them to better tailor their products and services to meet customer needs.

Using Data-Driven Decisions to Increase eCommerce Sales

Data-driven decisions can be a powerful tool for increasing eCommerce sales. By understanding customer behavior and preferences, businesses can optimize their online presence and increase sales. Here are a few ways businesses can use data-driven decisions to increase eCommerce sales:

Understanding Your Customers

One of the most important aspects of e-Commerce data analytics is understanding your customers. By tracking their behavior on your website, you can learn about their preferences, buying habits, and pain points. This information can then be used to optimize your website and improve the customer experience, leading to increased conversions and sales.

Segmentation

Data-driven decisions enable businesses to segment customers based on their behavior and preferences. Segmenting customers helps businesses understand customer needs and target potential customers with personalized offers and messages. Additionally, segmenting customers allows businesses to better understand customer behavior and optimize their online presence to meet customer needs.

Personalize Messaging

Data-driven decisions can help businesses personalize their messaging to meet customer needs. By understanding customer behavior and preferences, businesses are able to create targeted messages that are tailored to customer needs. Additionally, businesses can use data-driven decisions to create dynamic content that is tailored to each customer. This helps businesses increase engagement and drive more sales.

Optimize Product Pages

Data-driven decisions can help businesses optimize product pages to meet customer needs and increase sales. By understanding customer behavior and preferences, businesses are able to create product pages that are tailored to customer needs. Additionally, businesses can use data-driven decisions to understand customer reviews and feedback, enabling them to improve the customer experience and increase sales.

Pricing

Data-driven decisions are also useful for eCommerce businesses when it comes to pricing. By leveraging data, businesses can optimize their pricing strategies to maximize profits. For example, businesses can use data to identify the best price points for their products and services, as well as identify the most effective promotions and discounts. Additionally, data-driven decisions can help businesses create dynamic pricing strategies that are tailored to their customers’ needs.

Marketing

Data-driven decisions are particularly useful for eCommerce businesses when it comes to marketing. By leveraging data, businesses can identify customer preferences and target their marketing efforts more effectively. Additionally, data-driven decisions can help businesses create more effective marketing campaigns that are tailored to their customers’ needs. By leveraging data, businesses can identify the best channels to reach their customers and optimize their campaigns for maximum effectiveness.

Data-driven decisions can also help businesses create better customer segmentation strategies. By segmenting customers, businesses can create more personalized marketing messages and campaigns that are tailored to their customers’ needs. Additionally, data-driven decisions can help businesses identify new customers and target them more effectively.

Test and Measure Results

Data-driven decisions can help businesses test and measure the effectiveness of their strategies. By using data-driven decisions, businesses are able to track the results of their strategies and make adjustments as needed. This helps businesses understand customer behavior and optimize their strategies to maximize sales.

Key Metrics to Track

To gain the most valuable insights from your ecommerce data, it is essential to track the right metrics. Some key metrics to track include:

Website traffic and sources
Conversion rates
Average order value
Customer lifetime value
Cart abandonment rate

Utilizing Customer Data

Once you have a deep understanding of your customers and the metrics that matter most to your business, you can start to utilize this data to make informed decisions. For example, you may use this data to:

Personalize the customer experience by showing them products and content that align with their interests
Optimize your website’s layout and navigation to improve the customer journey and increase conversions
Offer targeted promotions and discounts to specific customer segments
Improve your product offerings by identifying popular and profitable products

Visualizing Data for Better Understanding

Visualizing data allows businesses to make sense of large amounts of data quickly and easily. It also makes it easier to see trends and correlations between data points. Visualizing data can help businesses identify areas of opportunity, such as new markets, products, or services. It can also help them identify areas of weakness, such as customer service issues or inefficient processes.

Data visualization tools such as charts, graphs, and heat maps can help businesses explore and understand their data in more detail. They can also be used to communicate data insights to teams and stakeholders in an easy-to-understand manner. Dashboards are a great way to present data in an organized and digestible way, allowing businesses to monitor performance and take action when necessary.

How Cluster Can Help

Cluster tracks pricing and promotions across sales channels to present high-demand and relevant items, help understand if a product is in high demand given its category and see how or why your share is shifting. Book a demo now.

5 Ways Power Sellers Can Make Or Break Your eCommerce Marketplace

Ways How Power Sellers Can Make Or Break Your eCommerce Marketplace

eCommerce sales account for nearly $5 trillion in revenue today. Regardless of what industry you specialize in, it’s clear that this is the landscape of business that we all need to capitalize on.

When building your own eCommerce marketplace, it lives and dies by your ability to attract the best sellers. These top performers, known as power sellers, are essential to the growth and success of your platform.

Keep reading to learn more about the benefits of improving the marketplace seller and buyer experience by encouraging power sellers.

1. Quality Sellers Bring More Shoppers

If you don’t have sellers, you don’t have shoppers. A marketplace power seller has the most volume and a vast inventory of products that people can choose between.

Not only does this attract new buyers, but customers will begin shopping exclusively with these sellers, offering them repeat business. These marketplace power sellers bring you the most revenue when you collect your fees.

Seller intelligence is a solution that can help identify power sellers providing you with the contact information that you need to build a rapport. This relationship can help you grow their conversions and improve your market share.

2. You’ll Increase Brand Awareness and Trust

When you have power sellers, they legitimize your marketplace on a larger level and build trust with consumers.

It typically takes at least 5 impressions for buyers to make a decision to purchase. Your marketplace vendors have a vested interest in getting more attention to their personal stores, which ultimately brings more awareness to your platform.

This is why encouraging power sellers ranks highly among the most important eCommerce tips you can follow. Buyers are more hesitant to shop with vendors that only have a few confirmed sales or reviews. Having more trusted sellers will give you a larger inflow of traffic and revenue for the long haul.

These sellers serve as your foundation, which you can build on the more you attract these power sellers.

3. Shoppers Will Have a Better Experience

Power sellers are full-timers with their online stores that are constantly making improvements. The customer wins most because these improvements reward them with a better shopping experience as a whole.

Power sellers also deal with greater sales volume, are more responsive to customers, offer more payment options, and tend to ship orders faster. They often run full-time businesses offline, such as a brick-and-mortar retail store that sells similar products.

Because of this, these professionals are more likely to stay up-to-date with new eCommerce ideas and trends to consistently accommodate their customer base. They often run blogs and post videos so that their customers are informed.

You’ll build shopper intelligence and attract your ideal customers when you’re always investing in improving their experience.

4. Your Platform Will Attract Different Segments of Business

Power sellers will consistently bring you more eCommerce leads. This is one of the best things to learn when figuring out how to attract sellers to your marketplace.

These power sellers will network with each other and always find new and different ways to improve what they do best. For instance, a power seller that is successfully selling products to consumers might choose to take the private label approach or look into things like dropshipping.

This ultimately expands the reach of your outlet and the type of service that you provide to consumers. When your shoppers have more options for the types of products that they can get on your platform, it’s a net positive for everyone involved.

5. Power Sellers Provide Constant Marketing

You can also count on power sellers to continuously market themselves and their brands. They have a vested interest in building their brand awareness, which will also raise more awareness to your platform.

When you have a relationship with these power sellers, you can use eCommerce marketplace data to study the demographics of their customers and how they get their conversions. This can help you with ad placements and figuring out which customers you’d most likely to target.

Having data at your disposal is best when you’re trying to figure out where to find eCommerce business leads because your goals will be more accurate and measurable.

You’ll be able to scale your platform to achieve the type of growth that you expect, and can collaborate with your power sellers on ideas.

For example, with Seller Intelligence, you’ll have the benefit of:

Taxonomy mapping
Analytics and price benchmarking
Access to seller store analytical tools
Product matching for more accurate categories
Real-time data to help get more sales and traction from seller channels
Product data enhancement
Catalog enhancement tools

It’s best to work deliberately with power sellers so that you can get on the same page with your marketing goals and steer them in the same direction.

The Ultimate Marketplace Seller Experience

The marketplace seller experience that you create means everything when you’re trying to grow your platform. Power sellers are your bread and butter, and will help you get the results that you’re looking for.

If you’re intent to get sellers to your eCommerce marketplace website, you need a helping hand. At Cluster, we have a team of professionals that are skilled and equipped to make all of your goals a reality.

With Seller Intelligence by Cluster, you’ll have the data needed to put it all together.

To book a meeting with us, use our contact form or send us an email at info@datacluster.com.

Seller Intelligence: Target the Right Sellers for Your Marketplace

On December 8, 2021, during a live webinar, we dove into the most popular ways our team works with major marketplaces, starting with the importance of catalog integrity as the foundation of any marketplace business, leading into insights around demand and product analysis, and diving into finding the right product assortment. (Read the transcript below and watch the accompanying video.)

The next key to rounding out marketplace success is making sure that you’ve got the most productive, A+ sellers working with you on listing the right products. So let’s focus on some considerations to think about when you’re recruiting power sellers to your marketplace.

Some of this may seem obvious, but I think it’s worth talking about because having quality sellers is critical to your success. And when we’re considering sellers, I kind of broke it down into four key elements that you want to think about.

Four Characteristics of A+ Sellers: What to Look For

First off, look at seller ratings. Amazon has given us a track record for sellers. There’s a couple of metrics that they provide that do a pretty good job in scoring the sellers. One is the seller rating and the second is actually the buyer’s feedback.

And so I’m going to elaborate on each one of those. First of all, seller ratings: What the heck is it? You might have seen that everybody seems to have a rating of 99 or above. Well, that’s because it’s not based on a 100-point scale. What actually is occurring is that fractions of a 10th of a percent matter in that seller rating.

So if you look at that seller ratings, you’re going to want to try to isolate and find sellers that have a rating of 99.8 or greater, and contrasting with that, you could eliminate sellers with a 99.5 rating. They can be considered horrible. And it may really seem like splitting hairs here, but the reason is that, again, you want to look at that decimal point in comparing those sellers because it’s that fraction of a 10th of a percent that matters.

The way that Amazon is calculating this is that the feedback ratings are based off of the stars left in reviews. And so they kind of look at all five or four stars and consider those positive feedback and everything below four is considered neutral or negative feedback. And the calculation is basically they’re dividing the sum of the positive ratings by the sum of all the remaining ratings. And again, that’s why we’re talking about how small differences in percentages make a big difference.

So in summary, you’re going to want to look for a 99.8 or greater seller rating. However, you also want to kind of dive into the buyer feedback and look at the negative ratings or the negative feedback that was recorded. Amazon has previously advised that best sellers average 0% negative feedback. Does anybody ever get 0% negative feedback? Not realistically.

So what the industry is kind of pinned on and identified, is that anything between zero and 2% negative feedback is considered great, anything greater than 5% could be a cause for concern and you might want to look at some other metrics around those sellers. So combining those two, 99.8 rating or better with less than 5% negative ratings is what you’re looking for. The second piece to consider is a seller’s portfolio size. The A+ sellers tend to have larger portfolios.

In fact, over 70% of million-dollar sellers have over 20 items in their catalog. You’re not going to want a seller with one or two items. They’re typically testing out whether or not they even want to get into eCommerce. You want to try to find sellers who are making this their business and are actively pursuing it.

One-third of million-dollar sellers, in fact, have over 250 items and they’re changing their mix regularly to make sure that they are relevant and have the right assortment to be able to meet market demand. So while you’re evaluating a seller, make sure they’re committed and active in their business indicated by a large number of items and a changing mix over time. These are the sellers that are also actively managing their portfolios and continuing to bring new products and new excitement to your marketplace.

Third, you’re going to want sellers who have fulfillment flexibility. This means trying to find sellers that are not FBA. These sellers have proven that they can deal with complexities of inventory management on their own and have the flexibility to pivot and deliver to their customers while having to deal with Amazon’s ever changing requirements.

So you don’t want to have them locked in and needing to send all of their inventory to Amazon to meet their requirements. Lastly, there are a couple of sales metrics and KPIs that you’re going to also want to consider. You’re going to want to find established sellers who have been in business for more than six months.

That’s because if they’ve made it to that six month mark, they’ve learned what works and what doesn’t work. They actively work their portfolios with social media, SEO, price monitoring, etc., in order to be a successful marketplace. And last, you should look for sellers with positive sales trends and a significant share of the Buy Box.

Finding Quality Sellers are Critical to Success

For example, we recently worked with a marketplace that was interested in adding paintball supplies to its portfolio. We did a seller analysis and what we found is that a large percentage of the market was supplied and serviced mainly by two sellers (over 50% of that marketplace). So if I’m trying to find the right seller, I’m going to look at those two first. But let’s dig down and take a closer look at those two sellers and kind of compare and see which one is going to be the best fit for the marketplace.

The first seller has a market share of 25% (the highest market share). It is selling over $330,000 in GMV, but it is actually trending down. They’re an FBA seller and they’ve been in business for about eight months. The second seller has a slightly lower category share and a lower GMV, but it is not an FBA seller and has been in business for over 18 months.

When you look at their different ratings, the second seller has much stronger positive ratings both recently and over the lifetime that it has been in business.

So when comparing two sellers and trying to recruit them to my marketplace, looking at the metrics, the sales, and the ratings makes it pretty clear that I would want to try to recruit the second seller rather than the first seller.

To summarize, there are four key elements to consider when comparing sellers on the marketplace: seller rating, portfolio size, fulfillment flexibility, and key KPIs like sales metrics. After you’ve established catalog integrity, promoted the most relevant products with the most informed, competitive pricing – and learned what might be missing from your mix of products that can accelerate growth, finding the right sellers are crucial to success.

7 Tips To Recruit Power Sellers to Your Marketplace

If you’re looking to create a multi-vendor eCommerce marketplace, one of the most important things to consider is how to attract the right vendors to your marketplace.

Although eCommerce marketplaces can be incredibly lucrative, recruiting sellers for your marketplace can be extremely competitive.

However, if you want to attract thousands of shoppers to your marketplace each day, you must give them what they want — quality sellers. And that means you must have a top-notch seller recruitment strategy.

Here are seven tips to help you figure out how to get vendors to sell on your website:

1. Contact eCommerce sellers on top eCommerce marketplaces

When you’re putting together your seller network, contact merchants on eBay, Facebook, or Amazon that meet the needs of your shoppers. More often than not, these sellers would love the chance for added publicity and likely would agree to also sell their services or products on your marketplace.

2. How to find a seller offline

Reaching out to sellers via social media and other online marketplaces is a great idea; however, in-person meetings are also highly effective. Today, more organizations are again holding-in-person events after holding virtual-only events during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. As such, you should take every opportunity to connect with vendors at meetings of merchant associations, trade fairs, and other offline events. After you get to know sellers at these events, add them to your social media contact list or send them emails to keep in touch and discuss collaboration prospects.

3. Offer a good user experience

A poor user experience is a major reason your target sellers would opt for Amazon rather than your marketplace so make it easy for vendors to publish and manage orders via your platform. For example, offer sellers an administration panel where they can track how many people viewed their products or service listings. You should also offer to help them publish their listings and provide 24/7 customer support. In addition, build a knowledge base to guide sellers as well as users around your platform.

4. Employ a smart marketing strategy

A smart marketing strategy is one of the most effective methods to promote your multi-vendor marketplace platform and attract sellers. There are a number of ways you can promote your eCommerce marketplace.

For example, using social media groups, forums, and communities. Social media is a great way to connect with sellers and bring results for your business. Try posting informative and promotional messages on social networks. Regularly sharing information on social media platforms will keep sellers updated about the latest news regarding eCommerce marketplaces in general and your website in particular. Joining merchant communities and forum discussions across different social media websites and channels will also help you connect with them directly.

5. Target ads properly

Another way to get the word out about your eCommerce marketplace and persuade merchants to join is by running Google search ads and display ads campaigns. Build ads so businesses can register on your online marketplace as sellers. You can also publish your ads on eCommerce websites.

6. Write blogs to attract vendors

Writing blog posts is another effective way to draw merchants to your multi-vendor marketplace. You can write about the successes of your current sellers, offer information about selling on eCommerce marketplaces, and other helpful business information for merchants. Post your blogs on your social media accounts as well as on your website. And you can boost your rank in Google search results by optimizing your blog posts for search engine optimization.

7. Target the right vendors at the right time

The types of merchant you want to attract to your marketplace varies according to where you are in the process.

Stage 1: Launch and development: focus on finding specific merchants rather than specific products. Seek out experienced marketplace vendors with large product catalogs to ensure you’re offering buyers a large variety of good quality products.
Stage 2: Established marketplace: after you’ve attracted a sufficient number of experienced vendors, you need to ensure that you’re offering all the products and services that meet the needs of your buyers. Now, you can also onboard and train sellers who are less experienced to ensure they are also successful. However, you still need to keep seeking out experienced vendors to expand your eCommerce marketplace.

Conclusion

Acquiring the right vendors is a critical component of a successful eCommerce marketplace. The tips we’ve offered here will help make your eCommerce marketplace a success. However, attracting vendors is an ongoing process so you should periodically re-evaluate based on the requirements of your buyers.