Want to sell more products? We all do! Look beyond your e-commerce website and social media platforms for new sales channels. There are lucrative opportunities to sell your products through online marketplaces.
No matter what you sell, one of the best strategies to grow your brand, earn more customers, and improve sales is to increase your sales channels. It's simple: The more sales channels you have, the more opportunities you have to sell your products. Fortunately, there are a lot of sales channels online. Beyond your eCommerce store and social media channels, online marketplaces allow you to access new markets and reach new customers.
How Online Marketplaces Work
Online marketplaces are just like traditional local markets. They're just digital. Vendors from all over come to one place to showcase and sell their products. The way online marketplaces work is pretty simple. You sign up for your business as a vendor with the marketplace. You then build a profile, connect payment systems, and list your products and services. Customers then query the marketplace to find the products they want to purchase. If your products match their needs, they can then purchase them through the platform. You will receive their order from the customer and fulfill it.
Upsides To Selling On Online Marketplaces:
Reach more customers
Reduce your marketing expenses
Sell to overseas market
Showcase your competitive advantages
Connect with new suppliers
Build more brand trust
Downsides To Selling On Online Marketplaces:
Online marketplaces charge commissions on sales
Some online marketplaces have a listing fee
They may have restrictive terms and conditions
There are sometimes limits on customer communication and branding
There is more direct competition
Considering both the advantages and disadvantages, it is clear that selling on online marketplaces is a good idea for most businesses.
Online Marketplaces To Consider For Your Products
There are several marketplaces available to sell your products. Some are massive and allow vendors to sell almost any product. Other marketplaces focus on a specific product niche. Identifying which of these marketplaces matches your business needs is key to your success with third-party selling platforms. The best place to start is to align your buyer personas with their typical audience demographics. If there is significant overlap, then start by listing the products that will most get their attention.
Selling Your Products On An Online Marketplace
There are three key ways to sell products on online marketplaces. You can sell:
as a retailer;
as a wholesaler; and
internationally.
Depending on your business model, you can pursue multiple options and run as many online marketplace seller profiles as you have company bandwidth. Having a strong operational strategy upfront will support expanding your digital sales channels.
Where To Sell Your Products As A Retailer
As a retailer, your best bet to sell your products is on a marketplace platform. These platforms help you connect directly with consumers. Here are the top-selling platforms for retailers, including their primary competitors:
Amazon: 2.45 Billion unique monthly visitors
Top Selling Products On Amazon:
Video Games
Electronics
Clothing
Shoes
Jewelry
Books
Home & Kitchen
Beauty & Personal Care Products
Pet Supplies
Toys
If you find success on Amazon, consider also listing on:
Walmart: 100 Million unique monthly visitors
Sears Marketplace: 16 Million unique monthly visitors
Rakuten: 36 Million unique monthly visitors
Opensky: 1 Million unique monthly visitors
Wish: 30 Million unique monthly visitors
LightInTheBox: 12 Million unique monthly visitors
Etsy: 377.4 Million unique monthly visitors
Top Selling Products On Etsy:
Beads
Pins
Pendants
Stickers
Books
Paintings
Mugs
Charms
Dangle & Drop Earrings
Decals
If you find success on Etsy, consider also listing on:
Not On The High Street: 39 Million unique monthly users
Amazon Handmade: 300 Million unique monthly users
Goimagine: 80,000 unique monthly users
Facebook Marketplace: 1 Billion unique monthly visitors
Top Selling Products On Facebook Marketplace:
Fashion Apparel
Furniture & Home Decor
Mobile & Accessories
Books
Baby Care Products
Sports Supplies & Fitness Equipment
Health & Wellness Products
Toys
Seasonal Goods
Electronics
If you find success on Facebook Marketplace, consider also listing on:
Craigslist: 250.6 million unique monthly visitors
Nextdoor: 69 million unique monthly visitors
VarageSale: 888.1 thousand unique monthly visitors
Offerup: 20 million unique monthly visitors
BooKoo: 494.7 thousand unique monthly visitors
eBay: 100 Million unique monthly visitors
Top Selling Items On eBay:
Electronics & Tablets/Desktop
Clothing & Shoes
Fitness Equipment & Gear
Furniture & Home Decor
Jewelry & Watches
Collectibles
Pet Supplies
Crafts
Video Games
Baby Essentials
If you do well on eBay, you should check out:
Where To Sell Your Products As A Wholesaler
Selling as a wholesaler is a completely different strategy than selling retail online. You need to connect with decision-makers, purchasers, and businesses that align with your products. Here are the top online platforms to connect with retailers as a wholesaler:
Powered by Shopify, Handshake is an online B2B marketplace connecting wholesale suppliers and small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) . Products are available across various categories like fashion, beauty, home goods, and more. Handshake offers a range of tools and features to make the buying and selling process efficient and streamlined. Suppliers can showcase their products, manage orders, and handle payments through the platform. Buyers can browse products, place orders, and track shipments. Overall, Handshake aims to make it easier for businesses and suppliers to connect with each other in a global marketplace.
Bonanza is an online consumer product marketplace for businesses to buy and sell a whole variety of products, including clothing, jewelry, electronics, home goods, and more. It has over 50,000 sellers and millions of products available for purchase. Bonanza offers features like easy listing tools, a simple checkout process, and tools for marketing and promoting products.
AliExpress is a leading global e-commerce website, offering millions of products from thousands of sellers at competitive prices. AliExpress connects buyers and sellers from all over the world who offer a wide range of products, including electronics, clothing, home and garden, jewelry, and more. Customers order products directly from manufacturers, wholesalers, and retailers through the platform.
The ultimate B2B platform connecting wholesalers and manufacturers. eWorldTrade offers products and services across various categories, including agriculture, construction, electronics, beauty and personal care, and more. The platform enables businesses to discover new markets, expand their customer base, and connect with suppliers and buyers from different parts of the world.
Where To Sell Your Products Internationally
It is a global marketplace, so why not sell your products globally? There are so many benefits to selling globally, including:
Increased customer base
Revenue stream diversification
Unique competitive advantage
Expand brand exposure
Access to new resources
If you're not sure where to start, this is a great guide for entrepreneurs and businesses looking to expand their reach internationally. Selling through a third-party marketplace is one of the easiest ways to get started. Here are some international marketplaces to consider:
Honorable Mentions:
Depending on your company niche, there are many other specialty selling platforms online. If you fit without in their mandate, we highly recommend considering the following:
Ruby Lane: Perfect for antiques and collectibles dealers
Chairish: Ideal for furniture and home decor manufacturers
Newegg: Great for tech and gadget manufacturers
Red Bubble: Perfect to design and sell custom merchandise
Poshmark: designers, second-hand apparel, and accessories
Vestiaire: Great for designers, second-hand apparel, and accessories
SEO Tips For Writing Top-Selling Product Listings
If you plan on listing your products on any of these websites, make sure that your listings have a search engine optimization (SEO) strategy.
An SEO strategy is important because it improves the visibility and ranking of your products on both these e-commerce websites and the featured product sections of search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing.
When customers search for products to buy online, they typically search for descriptive words about the product they are looking to purchase. Including these descriptive words increases the likelihood that your business' products will appear first on the search results page when potential customers search the relevant keywords or phrases about your product.
Higher visibility and ranking on results pages allows you to reach more potential customers, increase traffic to your products, and ultimately bring you higher sales. By using relevant keywords, meta tags, structured data, and other SEO techniques, you make it easier for these platforms and search engines to understand the content of your product listings and present them to users who are most likely to be interested in your products.
To help you plan your product listing strategy, here are some SEO tips for product listings:
Optimize Your Product Titles: Make sure your product titles are descriptive, accurate, and contain relevant keywords that people might use to search for your product. Avoid generic titles that do not accurately describe your product.
Use High-Quality Product Images: High-quality images improve the user experience on your product page, which improves your rankings. Make sure your images are high-resolution, properly sized for the platform, and show your product from multiple angles.
Write Catchy And Informative Product Descriptions: Write unique and informative product descriptions that accurately describe your product, its features and benefits, and what problem it solves. Use keywords throughout your description, but avoid keyword stuffing.
Optimize Product URLs: On some platforms, you can customize your URLs. In those cases, make sure your product URLs are short, descriptive, and contain relevant keywords. Avoid using dynamic URLs or URLs that are too long or complex.
Use Internal Linking: Link to other relevant products or pages to help users to help users find your other products. Linking increases your brand visibility, brand recognition, and sales. It also helps improve the authority and visibility of your product pages.
Encourage User Reviews: Encouraging user reviews helps improve the credibility and authority of your products, which improves your product rankings and attracts more customers. Here are some strategies to help you get reviews for your products.
Hire A Content Writing Expert: Product listing writing experts know exactly how to optimize your product listings. They will write product headings and description copy and include valuable keywords.
Adding more sales channels increases your sales, but it also increases your workload. We can help. Our content marketing team will write high-converting product headlines and descriptions for your products to maximize your sales potential across all platforms. Your listings will stand out, attract more customers, and drive conversions.
Whether you're expanding to new sales channels or need to optimize your existing ones, the content team at Borrowed Pen can handle the writing so you can focus on growing your business. Contact us now to get started.
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