Best Multi-Channel Marketplaces for Selling Worldwide

E-commerce platforms like gives you the greatest amount of control over your store's online presence, positioning your products, marketing along with other aspects of running a business.

What can you do to broaden your reach and connect with new markets that don't have a way to find your products? That's how selling your products on multiple marketplaces can help increase the success of an e-commerce company- they give the opportunity to reach more buyers in more places who would likely never find your ecommerce shop.

There are numerous leading online marketplaces with a global reach, and according to your specific business needs it is important to consider each one before you decide which one will best serve your goals for growth without compromising your autonomy.

What is the best way to select the most suitable marketplace

The top online marketplaces that support multi-channel sales are those we all know, such as Amazon and eBay. There are however many other marketplaces which have a comparable presence all over the globe and are even bigger in some instances. They include Alibaba, Walmart Marketplace, Etsy, Rakuten, and Newegg.

We'll take an in-depth look into each one so you'll have a clear picture of the features each one has to offer.

What regions of the globe engage with each online marketplace? How many users visit these platforms, and how loyal are these people?

If you're looking to tap new markets with your products and believe online marketplaces provide the most effective way to do this, it is important to think about a few key elements:

• Features: how each online marketplace assists sellers, ensures their autonomy, and generates more the revenue of sellers without any trouble
• Cost: the amount will you have to pay in order for each marketplace online
• Audience: What kinds of customers each marketplace attracts the most
• Reach: How many potential clients from particular geographical regions who can access each market

Let's examine each of these top seven multi-channel markets.

1. Amazon

Amazon has come a long way from its early days as an online book retailer. It's about the closest you could be to a complete-service retailer. However, the majority of merchandise sold through Amazon originates from different market sellers, which includes ecommerce businesses who want to reach new customers.

Features

Amazon has been doing this for some time and they've figured out how to make an eCommerce site function, to the point that most ecommerce stores want to be able to use many of the same strategies. With the many extensions to your advantage it is possible to do the majority of what Amazon can do in your online store.

The best Amazon Marketplace features are listed below: from Amazon Marketplace:

• Global availability: set up an account from just about any country on Earth
• Telephone support is available in all countries, as well as chat and emails in other countries.
• Ability to determine your own prices
• An online platform that lets you create your own products and to promote them
• Easy review collection, using an approach that people are comfortable with
• Ability to create your product and store it around key words to appear in search engines
• Performance metric tracking including order defect rate and cancellation rates for fulfillment
• Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) This allows you to access the Prime Badge and offers better delivery choices
• The pre-set layouts of product pages take out the work

Fulfillment with Amazon basically means that you send your goods to Amazon which stores them in their warehouses. This does come with an expense, however you're able to provide free two-day delivery to Amazon Prime members, and Amazon will print labels, packaging and all the other tasks associated with shipping that you'd expect.

The shoppers are able to filter their searches so they will only find products by sellers with the Prime Badge which gives you an air of quality and exclusivity.

Pricing

Amazon is among the more expensive online marketplaces. They have an array of fees, not just one.

In the beginning, you have to select from the Individual Plan and the Professional Plan. If you choose the Individual Plan, you pay 99 cents per transaction you make. This method is ideal for sellers who have lower online sales volumes. Professional Plan: The Professional Plan costs $39.99 per month and provides an unlimited number of sales.

Then, you'll have an additional fee for referrals, which will be similar to the commission fee for every online marketplace. This is an amount of the total amount you spend, including shipping costs. Fees vary depending on the product type. They typically range from 8-15%, but they range from 45% to as high as and as low as 3 percent. After that, there's the fulfillment cost, which is calculated upon the dimensions and weight of the merchandise being sent.

And, for access to Amazon's warehouses there's a storage fee based again on the size of your items. Storage costs triple during the October to December festive season.

Does that cover it all? There could be additional charges for certain instances.

What is the reason someone would pay all these fees just to sell on Amazon?

Since there are built-in advantages and a huge market. It is possible to have an ecommerce website, you don't need to cover the majority of these charges. But, then you have to control the inventory you have and your shipping.

Audience

Amazon is the biggest retailer of all in the United States, having achieved almost total market saturation. 150 million Americans own Prime Memberships -- over 70% of the population.

There are 197 million active users on their application, and Amazon accounts for 56.7% of all retail ecommerce sales within the U.S. So if your audience is located in the US, Amazon can reach the people they want to reach.

With the exception of those in the U.S., they have approximately 310 million active application users across the globe. You can also reach out to the mobile audience, too.

Amazon's customers are from all walks of life across North America, and in numerous other countries. 60% of consumers who use the internet usually begin their searches with Amazon.

Reach

After acquiring Souq in 2017 and establishing an Middle Eastern ecommerce marketplace, Amazon has become the biggest online retailer in the world. Its main markets are North America, Europe, Asia as well as across the Middle East.

Amazon ships to over 130 countries, and 2.7 billion shoppers have been on Amazon. The company has 2.72 billion unique monthly visitors.

So, as for scale, you'll be able to connect with the most global market with Amazon. With great scale comes competition. Amazon also boasts the highest number of online sellers. It's therefore not always simple to get your product recognized.

2. eBay

eBay was initially created as a platform to offer used goods for sale via bidding battles. While they still offer that service, only 12percent of products offered on their website are available for auction, and the majority of items that are sold on eBay are new.

So it's become an online marketplace that has an even more committed group of consumers than Amazon. Many shoppers start their shopping online with Amazon However, many will end their shopping with eBay.

Features

eBay is a true marketplace. It does not sell any merchandise of their own therefore your competition is from sellers who are not from the marketplace itself. Other features of eBay are:

• Concierge services for larger ecommerce brands
• Seller Hub is the hub from which you run your ecommerce business on eBay You can create and manage listings, orders, conduct promotions and sales, etc.
• Listing customization capabilities -- higher than Amazon
• The ability to upload videos that are related to your product
• Coupons, discounts, and promotion capabilities, including coupons
• You can choose to use volume-based pricing discounts
• A subscriber option -- you can create marketing newsletters to subscribers, provide discounts for customers, and build more customer loyalty than with Amazon
• It is possible to read reviews of the product
• Shipping label printing
• It is possible to advertise your products via Google Ads and other online stores, as in conjunction with eBay Ads
• Advanced analytics
• Weekly or daily pay schedules

Pricing

The pricing system of eBay is more straightforward than Amazon's, but they are alike in a few ways.

First, there's an insertion cost at 35 cents per item The first 250 listings are completely free. If you create an eBay store, you get even more free listings.

Then, you get paid a portion of the retail price. This is 10% for most types of products. However, the range is between 2 to 12%. It includes all processing fees. If you're looking to cut down on your fees for insertions then you should consider an annual subscription. For sellers with higher volumes, this is a smart option. You have three options that each comes with advantages from selling through the platform. And each cost less when you make payments annually instead of the monthly. Monthly costs include:

• Basic: $24.95 per month
• Premium: $74.95 per month
• Anchor: $349.95 per month

Audience

eBay attracts hobbyists and those who call themselves "enthusiast buyers" and also to those seeking a good deal. The site is particularly successful with electronics, their number one selling item at 16.4 percent of the items offered on the online platform.

eBay also offers a wide range of accessories and clothing (16 percent) and automotive (11 percent) in addition to Beauty and health (9%), and outdoors and sports equipment. The five categories listed above account for approximately 60% of all the merchandise that can be sold on eBay. However, this leaves a lot of room to sell other items.

According to the edesk 61% of the audience on eBay is between 35-64 years old The majority of them are male, contrary to Amazon's nearly fifty-to-50 proportion. So your audience includes baby boomers at the tail end of their lives Gen-Xers, as well as Millennials. eBay isn't getting as much volume of traffic from Gen-Z.

Reach

When researching 'reach,' it's important to distinguish between buyers and site visitors. The majority of sites that report on the reach of top established marketplaces for multi-channel selling can do an excellent job explaining this. That's the reason you will see vastly various numbers on different websites.

Furthermore, the shopping numbers changed dramatically following 2020. So any data before that is probably not up to date.

eBay is currently receiving around 885 million users per month. Per year, about 135 million of these customers actually buy items through eBay.

eBay is the third-most downloaded eCommerce application in the US, behind Walmart and Amazon 60 percent of the buyers on eBay are from the UK as well as the U.S., with Germany making up 15 15%. So, about three fourths of its users are within these three regions.

In terms of sellers the situation is somewhat different tale. The majority of eBay sellers are located in their native U.S., and 25 percent are located situated in the UK. 17% come from China, 16% from Germany, and 3% from Australia. Therefore, you are able to sell your products through eBay nearly anywhere as long as you pay attention to which countries the largest buyers live.

3. Alibaba

Most marketers in western countries aren't familiar with this e-commerce giant from China that was created by Jack Ma. It owns over 60 percent percent Chinese marketplace for e-commerce, which signifies that any business that is looking to expand into China and nearby Asian markets should consider jumping on Alibaba or one of its subsidiary platforms such as AliExpress, Taobao, Lazada or Tokopedia. Each of these serves different countries in the region.

Features

Presenting the features of Alibaba is a challenge because Alibaba is a multitude of different platforms within its broad framework, each having its own unique aspects. In order to simplify, we're going to focus specifically on Alibaba as well as AliExpress. If you're trying to expand your reach into particular Asian countries, you'll want to look into the various platforms that they have, which will be discussed shortly.

Alibaba is among the top B2B online marketplaces. It enables you to purchase and sell wholesale goods from and to other businesses. Alibaba lets you: Alibaba it is possible to:

• Protect your customer's information and not on Amazon
• Make use of communication tools in order to connect with buyers directly
• Use CRM tools to access analytics and data
• Translate to over 18 languages
• Make customizations using an API integration
• Coordinate international logistics for freight
• Get onboarding assistance for brand new sellers
• Inspection and monitoring of the product access

Alibaba utilizes an RFQ (Request for Quote) procedure to allow customers to submit orders because companies use Alibaba to buy in bulk from both suppliers and manufacturers. Therefore, prices cannot be fixed. It depends on quantities of shipping and other variables.

Sellers can also earn three distinct ratings: Verified, Gold, along with Trade Assurance, which assure consumers that they're purchasing products from reliable vendors.

AliExpress
AliExpress is one of many B2C ecommerce platforms under Alibaba's global marketplace. As with Amazon sellers, AliExpress allows sellers to sell individual products and ship direct to customers. Also, you can utilize AliExpress for dropshipping. And like Alibaba the service can also be translated into over 18 languages.

Some more features:

• Promotion to boost exposure of products
• Convert and accept 51 of the currencies
• 38 local payment channels to allow secure transactions
• Storefronts that can be customized online
• AliExpress University, an onboarding service designed to assist new sellers
• Numerous shipping options for shipping
• Buyer protection policy for defective, damaged, or non-delivery of products

Pricing

Alibaba offers a greater volumes than B2C online marketplaces, which means its prices are higher also. There is no commission on sales paid by the website -just a monthly cost, the cheapest of which is that of the Basic Gold Supplier, which is $1899 for the year.

AliExpress takes the approach closer to other B2C eCommerce platforms. The company does not charge a fee per year however, it charges between 5-8% commissions on each transaction.

Audience

If you're looking to sell on the internet in bulk to businesses of other kinds, Alibaba is one of the best online marketplaces for your needs. Over 10 million buyers from more than 180 countries buy wholesale goods from other businesses through Alibaba. It is possible to deal directly with manufacturers, and there are also trader agents, agents, exporters firms, as well as wholesalers.

The buyers may be other manufacturer and wholesalers who are using your products to make different products. They may also be sourcing agents, or B2C retailers. Alibaba can be used Alibaba to develop private label brands.

 AliExpress

AliExpress caters to the public at large and, just like Amazon, sells just about everything from clothes to appliances to tools to electronics to beauty products.

In countries in which AliExpress and others Alibaba B2C ecommerce platforms operate the target market is all those who shop online. Some buyers could also be re-sellers who are setting Dropshipping companies.

AliExpress sellers must be located within China, Russia, Spain, Italy, France, or Turkey.

Reach

Alibaba reaches dozens of countries, and nearly a billion people.

AliExpress along with those other B2C platforms connect millions of buyers from over 220 countries. The biggest growth is in Asian nations. In China there is a platform called Taobao. Lazada is the marketplace in Southeast Asian countries such as Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, and the Philippines. Tokopedia will be the main platform for Indonesia.

4. Walmart Marketplace

Walmart was initially a brick and mortar department store, and was not an online shopping platform. However, in 2010, they began selling online, with the help of massive capital from their stores, Walmart was capable of rapidly expanding its online selling platform so that it is able to compete effectively with the most prominent brands like Amazon.

But, Walmart Marketplace has fewer vendors and, for the moment it means there's lesser competition for getting your items noticed. So you will likely receive more exposure for your products on Walmart Marketplace than Amazon.

Features

While Walmart's eCommerce platform bears several similarities with Amazon, the differences are significant. These are the most important features:

• The stricter requirements for sellers. Not just any person can open the store
• A chance to provide free two-day shipping
• Analytics tools and Advanced Listings
• Secure check-out
• Market research
• Review options for customers
• Walmart ads which provide greater product exposure
• An existing supply chain network that is already in place
• Walmart Fulfillment Services, which can help you store, wrap, and ship your products

Walmart Fulfillment Services operates much like Fulfillment from Amazon. You send your products into Walmart's stores. When orders are made, they will pack and deliver your items for the benefit of.

A more rigorous qualification procedure provides a compelling reason to consider Walmart. They only accept sellers who are able to demonstrate previous ecommerce success. It is a way to ensure that all of their sellers are trustworthy and sell quality products.

Pricing

In contrast to Amazon, Walmart charges no charges for setting up, listing and subscriptions. There is a charge per transaction, and this like other ecommerce sites is different by product. The range goes from 6-20 percent, however the vast majority of the fees for products can be 8% or 15%.

Audience

Walmart has the advantage of having so many in-store shoppers, and they can offer their marketplace online in addition to the rest of them. Walmart offers everything they can in their stores, but their e-commerce competitor does more. Their audience is anyone shopping online.

Reach

Walmart Marketplace gets about 410 million unique monthly visitors, according to one estimation, and it engages shoppers of Africa, Canada, Central America, Mexico, India, China, and Chile and the U.S. and parts of Europe.

Walmart's loyalty program currently has over ten million members. This means that these customers are enticed to buy at Walmart online.

5. Etsy

Etsy began as a platform that allowed people to market original and unique items that were hand-crafted, not mass-produced products. In the majority of cases, it retains that mission still today. For ecommerce sellers, Etsy is the place for unique items as well as specialized products.

If you offer a range of items and wish to attract customers to your ecommerce store using Etsy you can use it to market unique items that you can then use with a follow-up to bring them to your primary store founded on .

Features

Etsy offers some functions similar to other platforms, like safe transactions, applications for email, some telephone assistance, as well as the capability to personalize your Etsy shop. Additionally, Etsy includes:

• Automatic deposits straight to your account
• Options for discounted postage
• A Etsy advertisements platform that you can buy advertising to improve your visibility
• The Seller App allows direct communication with buyers via the Seller App
• Seller protections
• You can use an affiliate program to use to encourage other people to promote your product
• A seller newsletter and handbook
• The ability to join a network of sellers

Etsy is known for its reputation of being a bit harder to show up on searches for particular items, that is the reason why some purchase Etsy advertisements. You must be deliberate in how you create webpages for products, such as your language, and the keywords you use to describe your items.

Pricing

Etsy has a very simple pricing system. They charge 20 cents per listing and the listings are active for four months. After that, for every purchase, you'll pay 9.5 percent transaction fee and a processing fee which covers all costs.

Additionally, Etsy runs ads for your products all over the internet. They mostly use displays that feature images of your items. It is not your responsibility to control this and it costs nothing for you unless your ad produces a sale. For any ads that result in a sale produce a sale there will be an additional charge per sale.

Audience

Etsy's customers are distinct from the other top marketplaces online. Etsy shoppers are looking for items they can't find anywhere else. They're looking for things that nobody else will own. This is a type of treasure hunting.

It is the best place to make unique and exclusive items that be a source of fame as an innovator, artist, and an imaginative creator of products who invests the time and effort into every piece.

The vast majority of shoppers on Etsy are females, typically between ages 18 and 40.

Their most popular product categories include homes and living, jewellery, craft supplies, and tools. They offer a variety of items that are suitable for bridal and wedding ceremonies.

Reach

Etsy has a narrower reach as compared to other marketplaces. Though they have a presence in over 200 countries, and boast 86 million active users approximately half of their online sales go directly to U.S., and almost all of the remainder go to the UK, Germany, Canada, Australia, and France.

Etsy also has a base of customers who are loyal, and with 81% of purchases purchased by regular buyers. Therefore, if the Etsy audience is in alignment to your product and services, you'll be able to win the trust of the trust of customers faster on this online marketplace as opposed to some of the more generic ones on this list.

6. Rakuten

If you're keen on focusing your attention on affiliate selling, Rakuten is the top market on the internet for this.

Is it unclear the meaning of affiliate selling? Instead of spending money on ads or tripping over the digital world of marketing your product, you instead partner up with other people and businesses to market and sell your products to their audience. As a result, you offer them a share of profit. It's a way to reach greater audiences that you would otherwise be able to. The best affiliate marketers have a strong influence over thousands or millions of people.

Features

Rakuten helps you set up affiliate deals. The main features of their program:

• The weekly pay of merchants
• A custom reporting system
• Modified methods for monetizing your ecommerce store
• Dynamic coupons and other tools
• Good customer support -- the management of seller accounts and partnerships teams.
• It is possible to establish workflows and automation
• Assistance in identifying the influencers or affiliates that align with your product
• An influencer tracking system that tracks Affiliates and influencers

Pricing

Like other markets, Rakuten charges a listing cost, a monthly charge along with a fee according to product categories.
The cost is 99 cents for each listing, and $39 for a month. The commissions vary from 8 to 15%.

Audience

Slightly favored by men but generally very broad the 25-34 age group makes the most active age group. However, the Rakuten target audience is difficult to define due to the fact that it is contingent on the influencers and affiliates you end up working with.

The system they use is designed to connect you with affiliates who have audiences that are compatible with your offerings. In theory, the audience will be the one you'd like to have the most.

Reach

Rakuten businesses have been based in 30 countries in the two Americas, Europe, and Asia Pacific. And their shoppers and affiliates can be found in over 190 nations. So this is a global market that has the affiliate marketing model as the basis.

7. Newegg

Newegg started out as a technology-focused eCommerce marketplace, and remains the leader in that category. However, it has expanded to several other categories and is now one of the most popular online marketplaces that allow businesses to market their goods.

Features

Newegg provides real benefits to its most popular sellers- those who pay for an annual membership. The advantages of the marketplace are dependent on the membership you pick between the three options of free, Professional, or Enterprise.

As with Walmart, Newegg requires sellers to obtain approval before they can access their e-commerce marketplace. Therefore, this guarantees an excellent quality level for the items they offer. A few of the key functions include:

• A well-informed and focused group of people
• It is possible to sell secondhand and refurbished goods
• It is possible to market the products they sell on their website and even use Sponsored Video Ads
• Support that is devoted
• API integration
• Advanced product listings that can be accompanied by video and images of touchpoints to assist customers in making good decision
• Access to Newegg Studios -- they'll create videos and images to promote your product
• Unlimited product listings with the Enterprise membership
• Automation of purchase emails for the Enterprise membership
• Discounts if you use Newegg Fulfillment along with Newegg Shipping Label. Newegg Shipping Label service
• Benefits for sellers who set prices competitively
• A Premium Seller Program that grants you access to some of the largest consumers
• Advertising on Newegg's social accounts and promotional emails

Similar to Amazon as well as Walmart, Newegg has a fulfillment and shipping label services If you've got enough inventory, that's a good option since it can cut cost.

Pricing

It's free and a paid version, however the Professional version, priced at $29.95 per month, and the Enterprise membership at $99.95 per month provide you with access to all the features you want.

Audience

Newegg's customers are mainly technologically-oriented and well-informed. There are more early adopters here than other sites and, in general, a wealthier audience. In contrast to Amazon, Walmart, and Alibaba, people who shop on Newegg tend to have incomes in the range of $75k or greater. And their audience is about 72% men and is mostly aged between 18 and 44.

Other than a wealth of electronics and accessories, Newegg also does well in the kitchen and home appliances. The company is expanding into categories for sporting goods.

Newegg shoppers love to look at product specs, so this is not the platform to be a light touch on specifics. It is important to provide plenty of details on your product pages here Consider seriously adding videos. Thirty-two percent of the customers are repeat customers.

Reach

Newegg has about four million active customers across Europe, South and North America as well as the Middle East, and Asia Pacific.

So it's a smaller audience however one who spends more money and seeks particular types of products. Similar to Etsy, you can gain a larger and more committed audience here than you can on vast marketplaces.

What are the benefits of selling on as a an integral part of your overall strategy

Marketplaces on the internet can be great entry points into online sales. They're also an excellent method to reach your customers at the exact location they're in, and also on the same places that they're currently shopping.

However, when it comes down on it, the best option to increase the size of your business while maintaining complete control is to begin your own online store . We'll review of a few arguments to support this:

1. Marketplaces promote competitor products

Third-party marketplaces want all of their users to be successful, and your business simply doesn't come in their top priorities. Therefore, when buyers browse or search for products, they'll not only see items from competitors next to yours, they might also see ads for the items they're looking for.

Through a marketplace, it's much easier for shoppers to choose one of your competitors over the other. However, with tools such as, you can build websites that help shoppers find what they're looking for and then make purchases seamlessly and without the distractions of different stores.

2. Marketplaces are a bit limited in terms of the design and function

When you sell your products on marketplaces online need to be able to alter your listings for products to satisfy their specifications for designs, layouts, photos, categorization, and description length. That means that you may not be able to provide all the details you'd like.

If you're working from an established design template you may not have the ability to alter the design to fit your company's style. Your products will appear similar to everyone else's.

With , however, you can create the exact sort of store and product listing you'd like. Add lots of photos and videos, including sizes charts and ingredient lists to customize the style and appearance to suit the brand you're trying to promote.

3. Marketplaces make up a portion of the sales

Third-party marketplaces take a cut of the sales made online as a reward for their services. If you increase your business it can cost you over time. The website doesn't charge costs for selling your products online.

4. Marketplaces limit your control

If you're selling your products on a third-party marketplace they'll enforce their rules and regulations. If they find that you're in violation of those rules, they can take down your store, sometimes without warning. It means you'll stop earning revenue and possibly the content you've put up.

However, with Jetpack you'll have complete control and responsibility over your site. Additionally, you can make backups which will save everything on your website including customer and sales data. So if something ever goes incorrectly, you're able to swiftly get back up and running.

5. Marketplaces make marketing trickier

Although some marketplaces offer integrated marketing tools, they may become more limited when you expand. There may be no way to integrate the tools you'd like for advertising, email marketing as well as customer relationship management search engine optimization and more. It may also be trickier to gather customer data, and effectively engage with those customers.

6. Markets can make it difficult to change

When you begin to grow your company and expand your business, you'll have to implement significant adjustments to make room for more sales. As an example, you may need to revise your shipping or marketing strategies, take various currencies, change your content to various languages, or even integrate with fulfillment or inventory software for managing inventory or fulfillment.

Marketplaces that are third party can hinder the ability to implement these sorts of modifications. They may not integrate with the platforms you'd like to use. Or perhaps they won't allow you to make the modifications necessary to be able to sell internationally.

With , you can accept many currencies, set up shipping in a variety of ways, connect with a variety of software, and design your shop in any manner you'd like over time as you expand. You can also select any host you like for the tools, resources instruments, and help required to handle the increase in traffic.

If you're looking at it, the best way to build and grow an online store that's successful. You benefit from a system that is easy to use (no code required! ) with the ultimate flexibility, top-notch support, and full control.