Expanding Your Brand: A Guide to Selling on Marketplaces

Over the past few years, ecommerce has undergone a remarkable transformation, continuously proving its value as consumer behavior shifts and technology advances. The pandemic-driven boom in 2020 accelerated online shopping growth by 19% beyond projections, forcing businesses to pivot quickly to digital and contactless shopping solutions.  

By 2021, retailers had embraced omni-channel strategies like buy-online-pickup-in-store (BOPIS) and curbside pickup, while mobile commerce surged to account for nearly half of all online transactions.  

In 2022, social commerce exploded, with platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook integrating in-app shopping, leading to increased engagement and impulse purchases.  

By 2023, global e-commerce sales skyrocketed to $6.09 trillion, marking an 8.4% annual increase. The U.S. market alone surpassed $1.19 trillion—more than double its 2019 value.

As of 2024, AI-driven logistics and regional sorting centers reshaped fulfillment efficiency, while retailers worked to redefine in-store shopping through interactive, experience-driven retail, proving that physical stores still have a place in the digital era.

With marketplaces continuing to evolve, brands that haven’t yet expanded into online platforms may be missing out on critical growth opportunities. Whether you’re looking to establish your presence or scale further, understanding the advantages of selling on marketplaces can help you unlock new revenue streams and future-proof your business.

1. Increased Visibility and Customer Reach

Online marketplaces attract millions of shoppers daily, offering brands immediate access to a vast global audience. Instead of building traffic from scratch, sellers can leverage these high-traffic platforms to gain exposure, drive sales, and establish credibility. These marketplaces act as powerful discovery engines, connecting brands with consumers who are actively searching for products.

Search Visibility

Suppose your brand sells fitness equipment and has a strong direct-to-consumer (DTC) website. If a customer searches for “kettlebell” on Google, your website may not rank on the first page of search results. However, if your product is listed on an online marketplace, these pages are more likely to appear at the top of the search results—often outranking individual brand websites. This means your kettlebell listing could show up in multiple places, giving you more digital shelf space and increasing the likelihood that a shopper will click on your product.

Brand Authority

Selling on established marketplaces helps validate your brand in the eyes of both consumers and search engines. Google recognizes marketplace listings as authoritative sources, which can indirectly boost the credibility of your own DTC website. The more visibility and engagement your brand receives across marketplaces, the stronger your overall online presence becomes, leading to higher organic search rankings for your site. This creates multiple entry points for potential buyers, driving more sales both on and off these platforms.

 2. Diversified Sales Channels and Risk Reduction

Relying solely on a single ecommerce channel can be risky. Unexpected factors like search engine algorithm changes, platform policy shifts, or marketplace restrictions can significantly impact sales. By expanding across multiple marketplaces, brands can diversify revenue streams, increase customer reach, and reduce dependence on any single platform.

• Competition and Saturation: High competition in one marketplace may limit visibility. Expanding to niche or emerging marketplaces provides additional sales opportunities where competition may be lower.
• Fluctuations in Demand: Different marketplaces have unique customer demographics, peak seasons, and shopping behaviors, ensuring sales are not solely dependent on trends from one platform.
• Operational Disruptions: If a fulfillment issue, warehouse delay, or supply chain challenge affects sales on one marketplace, brands can still generate revenue through other channels.
• International Reach: Global marketplaces like Amazon Global, MercadoLibre, or Rakuten help brands mitigate economic downturns in specific regions by diversifying revenue across international markets.

3. Marketing & Advertising

While most advertising channels require significant testing and optimization to generate a strong return, marketplace advertising offers a more targeted approach. And, since 53% of U.S. adults begin their product search on Amazon, investing in on-marketplace advertising ensures your products appear where customers are actively shopping.

• Sponsored Product Ads: These are pay-per-click (PPC) ads that appear in search results and product detail pages, helping boost visibility for specific items.
• Sponsored Brand Ads: These ads showcase a collection of products along with a brand logo and tagline, appearing at the top of search results.
• Display Ads (Programmatic & DSP): These ads target shoppers on and off marketplaces through display banners, retargeting, and audience segmentation.
• Promotional & Lightning Deals: Running time-sensitive promotions, such as Lightning Deals or coupons, helps boost conversions and sales velocity.

4. Access to Advanced Analytics Tools

Most marketplaces provide sellers with critical insights to improve their strategies. While these analytics don’t include direct consumer information, they provide valuable intelligence on product performance, pricing trends, visibility, and listing optimization. Sellers can leverage these insights to enhance their decision-making and gain a competitive edge.

• Customer Behavior: Understand how shoppers interact with your products, including click-through rates (CTR), bounce rates, and time spent on listings.
• Pricing & Competitor Trends: Marketplaces offer tools to monitor real-time pricing trends, competitor benchmarks, and dynamic pricing adjustments to help sellers remain competitive. Platforms like Amazon’s Automated Pricing Tool assist in optimizing pricing strategies based on market conditions.
• Search & Visibility: Many marketplaces provide data on keyword rankings, organic vs. paid traffic, and product discoverability. Tools like Amazon Brand Analytics and Walmart’s Search Insights help sellers enhance search ranking.
• Performance Metrics: Access to data on sales velocity, conversion rates, and purchase patterns helps brands identify opportunities to improve product listings and advertising effectiveness.
• Demand Forecasting: Marketplaces provide real-time inventory tracking, and predictive demand insights to help sellers avoid stockouts and overstocking. Amazon’s Inventory Performance Index and Walmart’s Replenishment Insights are key tools for supply chain management.

5. Lower Customer Acquisition Costs

One of the biggest advantages of selling on marketplaces is the built-in audience they provide, in addition to marketing, traffic generation, and customer acquisition. This significantly reduces the cost and effort required to attract customers compared to running an independent ecommerce store.

• Paid Advertising Costs: Since marketplaces run their own paid ad campaigns, brands benefit from marketplace-driven traffic without needing to invest heavily in external digital ads like Google Ads, Facebook Ads, or influencer marketing.
• Traffic Acquisition Costs: Instead of spending on retargeting ads to bring back potential customers, marketplaces use personalized recommendation engines, cart abandonment emails, and promotional tools to keep shoppers engaged.
• Order Management Costs: Many marketplaces offer fulfillment solutions (e.g., Amazon FBA, Walmart Fulfillment Services) that include customer support, shipping, and returns—eliminating costs related to hiring customer service teams.

As online shopping grows more competitive, brands that embrace marketplace selling gain access to vast audiences, advanced analytics, and marketing tools that drive growth and mitigate risks. Regardless of your brand’s current online presence, marketplace expansion provides the infrastructure and reach needed to thrive in the digital economy. Now is the time to harness these opportunities and position your brand for long-term success.