Today, eCommerce businesses are emerging globally. However, starting an eCommerce business is not an easy thing for small ventures. Instead of starting your own online store, you can sell the products from an online marketplace. An online marketplace, also known as an electronic marketplace, is an e-commerce site where third-party companies can sell their products or services to consumers. All of the transactions are processed through the website owner. E-commerce platforms let smaller merchants compete in the competitive retail markets.
The common key to expand with the top marketplaces is: prime vendors leads in more consumers, although an expanding client base draw in more vendors. The top marketplaces such as Amazon, eBay and Walmart are having a million products on their websites. These marketplaces introduce programs like eBay’s Promoted Listings and Amazon’s Sponsored Products, which allows marketer or seller to pay additional fees to sell their products with more visibility in the specified catalog. This strategy cannot feasibly used for all marketplaces to promote entire catalog.
That’s why Marketplace Optimization, or MpO, comes to debut. One of the most important first steps you can take to optimize your online selling is to understand the nature of the platform you are selling on. Each site has its own set of rules that you must play by, and while there are some similarities, there are a host of differences as well, especially where stylistics are concerned. Consider, for example, the differences in the shopping experience for the end user on eBay compared to Amazon. To add to the problem, it is often a possibility for one to find the same set of products from the same merchant on both platforms, often with inconsistencies in pricing, availability, description, or other crucial information that informs the buying decision. Below are some common optimization strategies for online marketplaces.
- Product Title Optimization
Title of the product is the conspicuous aspect while product listing. Its hefty SEO weighted factor for all the marketplaces so it’s important to invest the time in creating & optimizing keyword-rich title. eBay gives 80 characters, but other marketplaces like Amazon, Walmart recommends shorter title according to their guidelines.
- Product Cataloging / Categorization
Categorization is the second prominent factor in marketplace optimization. The marketplace category chosen by retailers is a validating data point. So most of the retailers associate the category value with customers who failed to evaluate an appropriate category value. If you’re selling cake molds tray that is popular for a small sized cupcake, then seeing your product categorized under Kitchen or Bakeware will be more validating than search results under Home Appliances categories. The search algorithm factors for different marketplaces classify into their operations likewise differently. So it’s crucial to check out the category you’ve selected.
- Search Terms
The search term is invisible keywords that are added to your titles, descriptions or specifics and considered as another most popular data point in marketplace optimization. It can be of 50 characters and you can use multiple words as one search term.
- Product Specifications
Product specifications differentiate among characteristics of the product and directly among seller as it is a way to refine search results. For Example, eBay calls these characteristics as an Item specifics similarly Amazon and other marketplaces call it as product attributes. This is not just about the search refinement but can also be used to match search queries to present more relevant results in search activities. Be sure to include all of the product’s main features.
- Description Optimization
The key is to think of the online buyer’s information needs first and foremost. Then, follow the best practices to make sure your product description skilled will get the attention of search engines. To follow best practices of online buyers information needs, make sure your product description should be winning with the net attention of search engines and marketplaces rules like:
- Write for Buyers, Not Bots
- Major on Benefits (Include Features)
- Target the Right SEO Product Keywords etc.
- Content Optimization
Optimizing the product content will ensure a better customer experience, more conversions and, ultimately, more sales.
- Quality of Inventory
Supplier and retailers all are having unique product inventory management systems with different data formats. It leaves significant gaps in formatting data. It may causes missing product information or duplicate listings problem. The best way to start with sublime product data that can be easily send and used on marketplaces without data duplication.
- Data Optimization
Relevant and optimized product data acknowledged as mapped data fields which are approved faster in marketplaces, results in happier customers and higher sales.
Final Verdict
Every retailer or marketer can sell their products through their own store as well as with selling products through a marketplace to reap the benefits of both. Not only selling in one marketplace but also selling in another. It’s just wise to take the time to figure each out one at a time. Nowadays many successful merchants gaining the exposure of both owning their business as well as a brand online for more sales and online reputation.