Online Marketplace: New challenges to overcome

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article, Online Marketplace: New challenges to overcome

The marketplace model of eCommerce is one such breakthrough that allowed everyone to become a part of the new ecosystem of online commerce. There was a time when the entry of an online alternative in a market would scare the hell out of small offline retailers. The consumer behavior was changing and the prices were getting aggressively competing; it was not easy for small retailers to keep up with their online counterparts.

Then came the marketplace model that allowed even small retailers to claim a share from the multi-billion dollar pie of eCommerce. Now, instead of competing with the offline retailers, the eCommerce sites were connecting third-party retailers directly to their customers. We called this model the pure marketplace ecosystem, where the owner of the marketplace did not maintain the inventory but simply connect the people with inventories to the people who want to purchase. The marketplace was just an intermediary, which would make money from the commissions they charged on each sale generated for their retailers.

The time changed, markets evolved, competition became even harsh, and marketplaces required more innovative ways to make money than the mere commissions. This gave birth to different sub-classifications of the actual marketplace model, which still exists:

  • E-Bay: A peer-to-peer marketplace that sales only from the third-party inventories
  • Amazon: A hybrid marketplace that sales from both in-house and third party inventories
  • Walmart: A hybrid combined with the physical model to sell both in online and offline ecosystems

What’s next in the marketplace model of eCommerce?

The meaning of an online marketplace is changing as we speak. Today, the boundary that differentiates a physical marketplace from its online counterpart is as thin as a thread. The biggest names in the marketplace ecosystem, such as Amazon, Alibaba, and Walmart, have established both online and offline presence and securing major shares of the pie through their Omni-channel manifestations.

Today, the marketplace business is no more about massive catalogs of different categories of products. Instead, marketplaces are creating ecosystems for their customers. They are driving customers towards the business from all possible sides and earning customer loyalty by offering everything at one place on any channel. Take Amazon for example. Is there anything that Amazon can’t offer to a common consumer? From entertainment to finance, grocery, vegetables, electronics, home furnishing, and cloud services, Amazon is the best example to understand the rapidly evolving face of the Retail 4.0 marketplace model today.

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Is the marketplace is a profitable business idea in 2020?

It indeed is. Even the biggest entities in the market cannot cover everything. There are still numerous niches with profitable prospects for the new entrants. It certainly not an easy job to set up a marketplace and compete with the likes of Amazon, eBay, Alibaba, and Walmart. However, you don’t need to compete with them, if you identify some niche marketplace ideas. The marketplace model offers an array of benefits to the merchants and the customers, and all of them could encourage them to come along with your platform:

  • A combined channel: You could offer a hybrid channel to small retailers and merchants to generate sales from both online and offline markets.
  • Better exposure: Selling on a marketplace platform reveals new doors to the merchants who have been relying on traditional channels. They can even expand their business internationally.
  • Reduced marketing cost: Merchants need not spend a fortune to build eCommerce sites and then marketing them. They can save all these costs by simply signing up on your marketplace.
  • Established trust factors: Retailers get access to an established platform, which its customers already trust. This trust factor is induced to the sellers of the marketplace, too.
  • Competitive product prices: With so many sellers available for a single product, the prices are l always competitive. It encourages more customers to shop from your site.
  • Multiple revenue channels: As a marketplace owner, you need not depend on commissions alone to make money. You can make money from several non-traditional channels, such as showing featured products, sponsored products, and selling membership subscriptions for added benefits to sellers and the customers.

No doubt, the above benefits for everyone lay down the foundation of the marketplace model, but it’s not all breezy either. There are some pitfalls too that require strategic resolutions:

  • It’s all technology: The core that drives an online marketplace business is pure technology. From the marketplace software to web-hosting, content delivery networks, third party APIs, and compliance with the laws, everything is driven by technology. That makes a competitive marketplace setup quite expensive, complex, and workforce-extensive.
  • Chicken and egg problem: Sellers won’t board your marketplace until you have enough customers to make good sales, and customers can’t purchase until you have sellers. It makes the opening days for a marketplace business pretty complicated. You would need a significant amount of investment to market your platform, and then acquire sellers through handsome incentives.
  • Data security: When you are managing a massive marketplace with so many merchants, customers, and sensitive information onboard, there is a high risk of data security. Since the only asset you have is your platform and data, you have to be very particular about keeping it secure.

How you can start an online marketplace business?

It’s a big question – how to start an online marketplace business? There is the technology and there is business process development, both go hand-in-hand to form a complete marketplace ecosystem. If you have a business plan or a niche in your mind, you need to focus your efforts on handling the following four challenges first, and you could own a great marketplace business:

Note: You need to manage these challenges keeping your customers and sellers/merchants in thought. You can’t start a marketplace by conciliating with the needs of any of the two stakeholders.

Marketplace Software

Marketplace software constitutes your entire platform. You would need a collection of different marketplace solutions that work collectively to build your marketplace platform. One of the major constituents is – the marketplace website.

Marketplace website builder: You can develop your marketplace platform from scratch by outsourcing your project or hiring in-house developers. However, this would be a highly expensive and time-consuming undertaking. Instead, you can purchase a ready-made, open-source, multi-vendor eCommerce script to set up your platform in a few hours. There are various clone scripts in the market; you can get one of them and build your website. These scripts will provide all the fundamental features you need to build your platform. Since they offer open-source code access, you can also customize them the way you want.

Another alternative is using a free eCMS like Magento, PrestaShop, or OpenCart. However, these Commerce platforms are mainly suitable for inventory-based eCommerce sites, as they do not provide multi-vendor support out-of-the-box. You will have to purchase a corresponding multi-vendor module or extension from a third-party vendor to add marketplace features. They are open-source too.

Some SaaS solutions are also present in the market with ready-made marketplace sites. If you are ready to pay a monthly recurring fee, transaction fee per-sale, and can do with limited control over your site, this could be one of the fastest ways to build and launch your site in a day. These solutions are closed-source.

The choice is yours, you can use any of these options based on your preference and requirements. Do some research and select the most suitable option, as it would be a long-term commitment. You can’t switch your marketplace software every now or then.

Branding and Marketing

Be advised that customers don’t remember the seller but the marketplace platform itself. Therefore, every bad experience customers receive from your sellers directly affects your business image. All the discounts, Ads, and promotions, happen in the name of the marketplace platform. If you can’t get your customers to remember your brand identity, know that there is something wrong with your marketing and branding activities.

Supply-chain and Demand

The sole purpose of a marketplace platform is to fill the gap between supply and demand. Both the buyers and the merchants are your customers. You need to maintain a steady flow of demand and supply to keep both of the ends happy. Without buyers, you will lose customers and demand; without sellers, you will lose the supply-chain. Happy customers create demand, and sellers create the supply. You have to maintain an optimum balance between the two entities to succeed.

Flawless Customer Support

For both the buyers and the sellers, customer support is the most volatile constituent that might just ruin everything at any stage. There is a need for offering continuously impeccable customer support to the stakeholders. However, it cannot happen unless your sellers are supportive to the customers. You might try your best to give flawless experience to the buyers, but everything stops if your sellers don’t do their part. You must create an environment where everyone is doing his or her jobs properly. From quality control to addressing queries, processing refunds, and undertaking replacements, everything should work in harmony with each other. Consider professional grade customer service software or hiring professionals to build you efficient systems to reduce customer support issues.

To Conclude

Overall, the marketplace is a challenging business. However, easy businesses don’t furnish good returns. You can win this war with technical advancements and customer-friendly policies. If you want to create a hub of customers like Amazon and eBay, you shouldn’t arbitrate on the above four fronts. Invest in innovative marketplace software solutions, bridge the supply-demand gap, market your business, and extend the best customer support –this is the optimal way to command the new challenges of marketplace business and succeed effortlessly.

About the Author

Jessica Bruce a professional blogger, guest writer, Influencer & an eCommerce expert. She is currently associated with ShopyGen as a content marketing strategist. Jessica also reports on the latest happenings and trends associated with the eCommerce industry.

Follow her on Twitter @Jessicabruc (https://twitter.com/Jessicabruc)

Tips on How To Drive More Sales

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StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales Article |Drive Sales|Tips on How To Drive More SalesAnyone who wants a successful business needs to work on their sales techniques. It simply is not good enough to create an excellent product, stick it up on the shelves and expect it to sell itself.

Although you will make some sales that way, in order to maximize sales and profits and push your business forwards and grow, you need a fully-fledged marketing and sales strategy that considers every aspect of the sale, from the packaging to the individual customer. Remember, there is a lot of competition out there, and even if your product is far superior in every way to your competitor, if they have done the hard work of getting to know their customer and created a rapport with them, then they will sell more. In the end, it pays dividends to do the backgrounds and develop strategies and plans to drive more sales.

Focus on Your Brand

It’s all about excellent branding these days, and if you have not spent time and money on developing your brand, you will be falling behind. Your brand is like a foundation that all your sales and marketing material can hang off of. Moreover, it is something that your customer and, just as importantly, your staff can believe it. It is a great logo and coloring, and much more. It is a complete ethical framework with visions and goals that aim to improve society. It is also all the core values that you believe in, and it is all about the company culture. When your sales team and your marketing material use key messages in their pitches, that all go back to this foundation. This makes the company appear coherent and true to its word. People want something to believe in, so give them that. Being able to tap into the way your customer thinks and connect with them on a deep level will help you drive sales. Your brand is something that should be instantly recognizable from a core message, your sales team needs to be fully on-board with this idea, and all platforms need to comply.

The website is key and needs to demonstrate all these things, so that when a customer is interested, that can find that foundation there. Also create a brand narrative that incorporates all these ideas which is on the website. Also, consider a unique and hard-hitting story that sparked your inspiration to create the company in the first place. In a nutshell, branding is very important, and it may be an idea to sit down with a few instrumental people in your team and develop it if you haven’t done so already.

Define Your Customer

If you want to target your sales material, you need to have a clear understanding of who your key customer is. You need to pose some questions to create an ideal customer type, think about the demographics, whether or not they are likely to have children, how affluent they are, what interests do they have, their likes and dislikes, etc. Knowing who you are targeting your sales pitches and marketing material at allows you to create focused and targeted material. To help you get an idea of who your customer is, you should use toll such as social media. You could monitor the competition’s social media accounts as well, or if you do not have your own, yet. Social media will allow you to develop great insights into how you customer things. You can even post questions and ideas and see what comes back. When you start understanding your customer a little better, you may be able to work out the types of keywords they would use when typing something into Google when searching for a product that you sell. That means you can load your website with keywords and ensure your marketing material uses them too. Defining your customer and understanding what makes them tick is how to generate more sales and make better products.

What Problems Are You Solving

A product is created with a specific problem to solve in mind. You need to clearly define this problem with reference to your target customer. So, think about how you are adding value to your specific customers’ lives. You need to understand their lives pretty well to be able to do this because if you are not adding value, your product will not sell. So you need to focus on the benefit your products will serve. By doing this, you will ensure that the people you want to attract are attracted by your sales pitches.

Track the Competition

It is important that you monitor your competition so that you can develop your business’s competitive advantage over them and stay on top of potential new trends that they are benefiting from, among other things. Take a look at all the material you can and investigate their products too. Look at the language, images, keywords, etc., they use in their marketing material. Look at how their customers interact with them on social media. You could perform a competitive analysis that can give you insights into how your company is performing against theirs. Think about how you differ. What is your USP (unique selling point)? What benefits do your products offer in comparison? What is better about your product. What weaknesses can you exploit? The better you know the competition, the stronger your sales pitches can be.

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Use A Multi-Platform Strategy

These days you can use a variety of platforms to get your products out there. Don’t just focus on a single format. What’s more, the vast majority of them are free. You can use social media such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to advance your brand and promote your products. Creating a point strategy is key in the overall effectiveness of this. Social media is a great way to build relationships with customers and track the effectiveness of a particular post to further refine and update your marketing and sales material. Also, remember you can utilize your own blog to your advantage. Load it with keywords, and create new content regularly so it stays relevant, and Google finds it more easily. Also, consider Amazon and Amazon seller 3rd-party software from D8aDriven. Do not limit yourself to a single promotional avenue.

Pricing

Choosing the right price to sell your items at can be tricky. Too high and it turns people off, too low and people will question the quality of your products. You need to do quite a lot of market research in this field and think about where you stand in comparison to your competitor. If you have made a case that sees your brand a synonymous with quality, then you may well be able to charge a premium. You need to over-promote the quality aspect so that this issue is driven home, and people see you as superior in quality.

Packaging

Packaging is essential to the overall customer experience, and it will be one of the last times you can contact your customer to make an impression. Quality packaging that helps promote your ethical consideration, such as sustainable packaging, goes a long way to boost credibility. Also, something that is beautiful and creative to open makes the process a lot more alluring. These customers will remember your brand and are more likely to buy from you again. Additionally, they are more likely to be willing to pay that little bit extra. Any contact you can have with the customer should be jumped upon and exhausted.

Focus On a Strategy to Keep Your Customers

Once a customer has bought a product from you, you need to find ways to keep these customers. Packaging with a card and an offer in it is a good strategy. Also, when a customer buys from you, ensure you get their email address so you can add them to your email list. Freebies and offers sent via email are also good ideas. Also, think about content. Great content such as blog posts and vlogs that are designed to connect with your customer and entice them into using you again are a must. Use your social media pages to your advantage too.

Get Feedback

If you really want to know what your customer is thinking, ask them. There are many ways you can do this, from a poll on social media, to creating a questionnaire and linking to it from a social media site. You could put a postcard in the packaging material, or just a link to an online questionnaire. Ask what your products lack, ask about any specific problems that you may not have considered, ask what they like and dislike. It really is up to you.

Inside Information

Advise your customer on your company’s visions, make them aware of why you are creating specific products, and how you came up with this idea on a personal level. Tell them about a product that you have in development. Your customers would like to hear about these new things, and you will be able to develop trust.

The Growing Importance of Ethics in PR

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StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales Article |Ethics in PR|The Growing Importance of Ethics in PREthics have always been important in PR, but they have officially become more important than ever. The world is changing by a significant degree, and so is the public relations industry. Nearly every single PR organization follows a code of ethics. These can either be company policies that they will follow when working with clients or rules from a proper board. PR Council, PRSA, Institute of PR, ICCO, and Global Alliance are just a few of the boards that offer their own code of ethics.

However, the rising importance of ethics raises an important question about why it is becoming so important. And to answer that, it is best to look at what ethics really mean for PR firms in general.

What Is Ethics?

Simply put, Ethics are rules or principles put into place that every individual who is working in the firm will have to follow. These rules guide PR professionals in a way that allows them to act responsibly and treat their clients with fairness. These principles also happen to be very strict, as people who do not follow the rules set out by a board are blacklisted from the industry.

However, the perception surrounding PR firms and professionals alike is much less positive. Despite various ethics boards having their own rules in place, people have mixed feeling about them, to say the least. A 2018 global report on ethics and its evolution found that over 57% of participants in the US thought that PR, as a field, was unethical. This report tends to stand out compared to the 44% of individuals worldwide who believed the same.

Why Is Ethics In PR Important?

Despite what many have come to believe about PR in general, ethics is the glue holding everything together. A few reasons why Ethics in PR is important:

Helps Sustain the PR Profession

One of the most important reasons why ethics exist in the PR space is to promote healthy competition. If ethics were no longer part of the equation, healthy competition could very well go out the window. Firms will start a race to the bottom as they try to gain the upper hand regardless of the cost.
Without proper Ethics, companies will start relying on underhanded tactics to get ahead of each other. Aggressive procurement tactics and spreading misinformation are just two of the many dangerous ways companies will try to get ahead. As a result, PR firms, their clients, and their employees will suffer. The ethics boards strongly advise against unfair competition in the industry, as no one benefits from it in the long run.

Improves Relationships with Clients

Another important thing to understand about PR firms is that they rarely ever work independently. Whenever they work with another company, they become an extension of their beliefs and morals. And if they happen to act in a way different from their employer, that could be bad news for the entire industry.

With a proper code of ethics in place, PR firms will always be sure to represent their clients according to their public image. The PRSA code of conduct specifies various instances where professionals who act out of the interests of their employer will be violating their regulations.

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Maintains Positive Public Perception

Although most PR firms act as an extension to various companies, they also represent the greater industry. Therefore, their actions can carry consequences for other PR firms, where ethics comes into play.

The ICCO has even created its 10-point Helsinki Declaration, where it details the ethical standards that companies will have to meet to continue working under the board. This massive change came because of a major scandal, which included various PR firms. Buzzfeed chronicled the rise of such firms that were using unsavory methods to benefit their clients.

How is the PR Industry Changing?

Media consumption and the PR landscape, in general, are shifting so rapidly that it is hard for most companies to keep up. The shifting tide of PR is especially dangerous when considering how slow some boards of ethics can be when updating their rules.

The Rise of Convincing Sponsored Content

One of the major changes coming to social media and people’s consumption of it was the rise of paid content. According to the same global report of 2018, 64% of surveyed professionals believe that most people will not be able to tell the difference between content owned and paid for. What is more worrying is that 60% of the professionals believe that people will not care.

Therefore, if a PR agency has not aligned itself with a board of ethics, it will be under heavy fire from the public that cannot distinguish between fake and real news.

The Changing Multi-Media Landscape

70% of professionals believe that the PR industry as a whole will be changing drastically within just five years. 36% of these professionals believe that their firm is not ready for such a change, whereas the rest believe they are. The factors that are influencing this change are paid influencers, branded content, and fake news.

All of these three things can prove to be detrimental to a PR firm. Only with a proper ethics board on its side can PR agencies survive such a drastic change. Furthermore, the code of conduct board has the power to properly investigate the possibilities of PR firms engaging in such convincing under-handed tactics.

How Can PR Firms Prepare for the Future?

The future for PR firms is looking a little bleak, considering how quickly the industry is changing. Over time, fake content will be almost indistinguishable from curated content, putting PR firms in a difficult position. If PR firms focus on their code of ethics or align themselves with a specific board, they can better prepare themselves for such a future.

5 Reasons Why Selling Custom Bags Is One of the Best Ways to Grow Your Brand

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StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales Article |Custom Bags|5 Reasons Why Selling Custom Bags Is One of the Best Ways to Grow Your BrandCustom bags are a great solution for issues many retailers face. When creating the bags, the companies place their logo and slogan on the materials. This places their information in front of the consumer more often and encourages them to continue shopping with the business. Many consumers are going green these days, and reusable bags are a better solution for customers who don’t want to use plastic or paper bags for their products.

1. Indirect Marketing for Your Company

Custom bags provide the company with indirect marketing opportunities, and anyone who sees the bags will know the company name. The more people see the bags, the more likely they will take the steps to find out what the company is and what it has to offer consumers. This could increase foot traffic for the business and help them close more sales. Businesses can learn more about custom bag manufacturing by contacting a vendor now.

2. Customers Get A Reusable Bag

The added bonus of providing these bags to their customers is that the bags are reusable, and customers will reuse bags over and over for as long as the bags last. They can use them for storing items, going to the market, or even carrying items they have just purchased. The size of the bags defines how useful they will be for the customers, and the design determines how long the bags will last. If the company wants customers to use the bags frequently, they will choose materials that are durable and withstand heavy weights and frequent uses.

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3. They Are Inexpensive

Custom bags for the company will not present a higher cost, especially when ordered in bulk, because they will provide wholesale tote bags at low prices. Bulk orders provide a steady supply, allowing the company to give these bags to several customers each day.

Some retailers sell the custom bags for a minimal fee that allows the customers to use the bags for their groceries and prevents them from using other bag selections. The durability of the bags is the element that will appeal to the customers most often.

4. Eliminate Plastic Waste

Plastic waste has become a major problem for the oceans as more plastic is ending up in the water and having a negative effect on marine life. Companies that do not provide plastic bags for customer use do not generate plastic waste, and they won’t face the scrutiny of these negative effects.

5. More Appealing to Eco-Friendly Customers

Eco-friendly customers prefer non-plastic bags for their groceries and other items, and they will want to use the custom bags each time they visit the store. These opportunities make it possible for shoppers to use eco-friendly bags for their shopping trips, and they can avoid the hazards of paper or plastic bags on the environment. If the retailer sells the custom bags, they can make a little extra money, and the consumers get an eco-friendly alternative to the traditional bagging options.

Business owners could see a wealth of benefits by using custom bags for their customers. The products have their name and logo on them and keep the information in front of customers. Many businesses could increase residual earnings by selling the bags to their customers for a small fee. By offering custom bags, the company gets indirect marketing opportunities and makes a great impression on eco-friendly customers.

Budget-conscious promotions ideas for your business

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StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales Article |Budget-conscious promotion ideas|Budget-conscious promotions ideas for your business Marketing tips that pack a punch without breaking the bankMarketing tips that pack a punch without breaking the bank

The internet, social media, and technology have transformed business promotions over the last thirty or so years. Once companies were limited by traditional (and often expensive) marketing channels like TV, radio, print, and billboards, today, companies can pull on the vast reach and power of online marketing to help spread their message.

From viral marketing to online seminars and conferences, there are now almost limitless opportunities for firms to reach out into wider markets and find new clients.

If you’re looking for ways to improve your company’s marketing read on for some ideas that could help spread your message better and further than ever before without putting a strain on your finances.

Up your social media game and start connecting with your clients

These days consumers expect companies to have both a website and also a presence on social media, so you should target the major channels – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. To be effective on social media takes time and patience, but you should follow some basic guidelines for the best chances of success:

  • Ensure you use the same tag across all channels, i.e., the forward-slash address on account pages
  • Post quality content regularly that will appeal to your market
  • Remember your market – they are your reason for being online
  • Use attention-grabbing headlines and back it up with similarly high-interest content
  • Use video if possible (video has the highest engagement rate online)

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Attend conferences and events – or hold your own

Networking is one of the most important parts of running a business. If you have a wide variety of quality contacts, you’ll find it much easier to spread the word about your company and will likely end up opening doors and discovering opportunities that might pass you by otherwise.

Attending events or conferences is a great way to meet like-minded professionals working in your industry. Even better is to organize your own event – either delivered online or in a more traditional, real-world hosted event. If you’re new to event planning and organization, a company like The Vendry will help you every step of the way to ensure things go as smoothly as possible.

As the old saying goes, “it’s not what you know but who you know that counts,” so get out there and start building your contact list.

Don’t forget real-world promotions matter too

The online arena is great for expanding your marketing reach locally, nationally, and even internationally but don’t forget the importance of offline promotions too. So everything you send out from your firm should feature at least your logo, tagline, address and key contact details. Note, this also applies to email communications, press releases, etc.

Another great and very effective way to use real-world promotions is to invest in promotional items. As mentioned earlier, anything you send out should feature at least your logo, and promotional items offer a good way to do so. Of course, some promotional items can be very expensive. And since you’re looking for budget-conscious options, you can limit yourself to custom t shirts, keyholders, and calendars, as those are usually budget-friendly.

Think about branded vehicle livery

Using livery on company vehicles is one of the most effective and cheapest ways to get your company out there and in the minds of prospective and existing clients. Better yet, using branded vehicles is a form of mobile advertising, meaning your company image will go everywhere you go.