3rd party ecommerce and your business

Why should you consider 3rd party ecommerce channels with your business 

Whether you’ve just started out with your new business venture or you’re a well established selling machine 3rd party selling is something to consider to push your products further than you can imagine. 

So what are 3rd party shops and why should I consider them? 

You’ve definitely seen their names floating around with Amazon and Ebay being two of the biggest contenders in the 3rd party world but why would you send your products to be sold by them when you’ve got a site of your own?
One of your largest outgoings as a company is probably marketing to drive customers to your site, third-party ecommerce sites take some of the strain out of this by exposing your products to their existing and established customer base. A whole new market of customers that you’ve not had to spend money to find. 

What’s out there?

With more than 10 million visits per month from Germany, Italy, France, the Netherlands and Poland only 3% of Zalando’s traffic is from the UK. Zalando are great if you want to hit an international market.

Average of 417M visitors a month and leading the game. Third party sellers now compromise 60% of Amazon’s eCommerce sales.

Compared to other merchants, eBay charges lower fees for product listing. Though it charges a final fee (a sales commission after the sale) so you have to weigh up how much you’re willing to spend when listing products on Ebay.

 Etsy’s search algorithm prioritizes new listings, so you have an automatic boost the first time you get your products up on Etsy.

 named as the Global eCommerce marketplace for selling and purchasing furniture and home goods. Many 3rd party shops require you to send items in bulk, with wayfair sellers can use the direct shipping method from the suppler to the customer for cost-effective and time-saving selling.

Not On The High Street pays a lot of attention towards marketing their brand. They spend a lot on TV advertising and work closely with the press and advertising agencies giving you tons of exposure without paying the cost.

How do I stay on top of stock?
If you’re on Magento then sites including Amazon and Ebay can easily be integrated with M2E pro. This software allows you to manage stock and have multiple 3rd party shops connected with your Magento store.
Not on Magento? There are various other bits of software around that can integrate with your store whether that’s Shopify, Aero commerce, Woo or something else. Take a look at Bright Pearl, Channel Advisor and Trade Gecko as other intergenerational platforms when working with 3rd party selling. 

Don’t lose your brand, use it as an add on.

3rd Party selling should be viewed as supplementary if you’re already an established business. Be careful not to lose your company to the bigger sites. As your products start to do well on a 3rd party site they will want to order more but remember it’s your brand so you have control over how much you want to sell on your site and on a 3rd party site. It’s easy to throw everything into the 3rd party site if they’re performing well but remember they don’t owe you anything and you need to remain your own entity as well. 

3rd party sites are great and they enable you to diversify your brand into other sectors you may not have thought about. They take the weight of marketing off your shoulders as they push your products for you, some require you to send them bulk amounts of a product and others allow you to do direct shipping so ensure you pick the one that works best for you. The best part of 3rd party sites is you’re not contracted to only sell on one so you can list your products on as many sites as you desire. Just ensure that you remain in control, it’s your brand and you call the shots on how much you give to the 3rd party seller.