Best Multi-Channel Marketplaces for Selling Worldwide

E-commerce platforms such as Amazon gives you the most level of control on your store's online presence, marketing, product positioning, as well as other aspects of running an enterprise.

But can you do more to increase your global reach and engage with new markets with no other method to access your product? This is how selling on multiple marketplaces can help expand an online businessit gives you access to more customers from more locations who will likely never find your ecommerce store.

There are numerous leading online marketplaces with the potential to be globally renowned, and dependent on the needs of your company, you should consider each one before you decide which one will best serve the goals of your business, without compromising your autonomy.

Which is the best marketplace

The most effective online marketplaces for multi-channel sales include those everyone knows, like Amazon and eBay. However, there are many others with a similar reach around the world, and are even bigger at times. These include Alibaba, Walmart Marketplace, Etsy, Rakuten, and Newegg.

This article will take a closer look into each one so you'll have a complete picture of what each online marketplace can offer.

Which parts of the world are connected to each marketplace online? How many people visit these platforms and how faithful are these people?

If you want to reach new markets with your products and think that online marketplaces provide the most effective way to do this, it is important to think about a few key elements:

• Highlights: how each marketplace serves sellers, protects the seller's autonomy and boosts revenue without hassle
• Cost: the amount will you have to pay in order for access to each online marketplace
• Audience: which kinds of individuals each market is most appealing to?
• Reach: What volume of potential clients from particular geographical regions who can access each marketplace

Let's look over each of these top seven multi-channel marketplaces.

1. Amazon

Amazon has progressed a great deal since the beginnings of its existence as an online book retailer. The company is now as close as you can get to an everything-seller. But most of what's sold on Amazon comes from other market sellers, which includes ecommerce businesses who want to expand their reach to new audiences.

Features

Amazon has been operating this for a while, and they've come up with a way to make an eCommerce site perform, and so that most ecommerce stores want to be able to utilize the same methods. With the many extensions that are available it is possible to do the majority of the things Amazon is doing with your own store.

These are the top features that are available on Amazon Marketplace:

• Global accessibility: create an account in almost any country that is on Earth
• Phone support in most countries, chat and email for the rest
• The ability to set the price you want to set
• A platform to create your own offers and advertise these
• Simple review collection using an approach that people are comfortable with
• It is possible to design your own products, and then store them around keywords to be found by search engines
• Metrics tracking for performance, like order defect rates and rates of fulfillment cancellation
• Fulfillment through Amazon (FBA) is a program that gives you access to the Prime Badge as well as better delivery options
• Pre-set product page layouts that take out the work

Fulfillment by Amazon is basically the process of shipping your goods to Amazon as well as they store the items in their warehouses. It is a fee, but then you're able to provide free two-day shipping to Amazon Prime members, and Amazon takes care of printing labels, packaging and all the other tasks associated with shipping that you'd think of.

And shoppers can narrow their search so that they only see products sold by sellers with the Prime Badge which gives you an air of quality and exclusiveness.

Pricing

Amazon is among the largest online marketplaces. They have an array of charges, not just one.

First, you must choose from the Individual Plan and the Professional Plan. In the Individual Plan, you pay 99 cents per sale you make. This approach is better for sellers who have lower numbers of online sales. This Professional Plan costs $39.99 per month and provides the ability to sell unlimited quantities.

Then, you'll have an additional fee for referrals, which is similar to commissions that every online marketplace charges. It is a percent of the total amount you spend which includes shipping charges. The fees vary based on the product type. Most are between 8-15 percent, however they can be from 45% to as high as and can be as low as percent. Following that, there's a fulfillment fee that's based on the size and weight of the item being delivered.

For using Amazon's warehouses there's a storage fee determined by the size of your items. The storage fees triple in the period from October to December Christmas season.

Is that all? Actually, there may be additional charges for particular situations.

Why should someone pay all these fees for the sole purpose of selling on Amazon?

Because there are some inherent advantages, and an enormous audience. It is the case that when you have your own ecommerce website, you don't have to pay most of these fees. You will have control your inventory as well as your shipping.

Audience

Amazon is the biggest retailer company in United States, having achieved the goal of achieving complete market saturation. 15 million Americans own Prime Memberships -- over 70% of the population.

There are 197 million active users of their app in the US, and Amazon accounts for 56.7 percent of eCommerce sales for retail stores in the U.S. If your target audience is located in America, US, Amazon can reach the people they want to reach.

Including the U.S., they have around 310 million active app users across the globe. This means you have the ability to reach your mobile users, too.

Amazon's customers are from all walks of life throughout North America, and in many other countries, and 66% of shoppers who shop online usually begin their searches on Amazon.

Reach

After the acquisition of Souq in 2017 and establishing an Middle Eastern ecommerce marketplace, Amazon was the most popular online retailer in the world. They are concentrated in North America, Europe, Asia and in the Middle East.

Amazon ships to over 130 countries as well as 2.7 billion customers have made purchases through Amazon. They get 2.72 billion unique monthly users.

As for the scale, you'll be able to connect with the biggest global audience with Amazon. With great scale comes competition. Amazon also has the largest quantity of online sellers. So it's not necessarily straightforward to get your items recognized.

2. eBay

eBay started out as a site to sell used items through bidding wars. Even though they offer that service, only about 12% of merchandise sold on their site are up for bid, and 80% of products that are sold on eBay are new.

It's now an online market place with the most loyal consumers than Amazon. A greater number of shoppers might begin shopping on Amazon however, a lot end up on eBay.

Features

eBay is an authentic marketplace. They sell no products of their own, which means that your only competition comes from sellers who are not the online marketplace itself. Other characteristics of eBay include:

• Concierge services for larger ecommerce brands
• Seller Hub is the platform from which you run your ecommerce business on eBay You can publish and manage listings and orders, run sales and promotions, etc
• The ability to customize listings is higher than Amazon
• The ability to upload videos related to your products
• Discounts, coupons, and promotion capabilities, including coupon codes
• You can choose to use price discounts based on volumes
• A subscriber option -- you can create marketing newsletters to subscribers, offer discounts to customers who subscribe and increase customer loyalty than Amazon
• Ability to access review of products.
• Shipping label printing
• It is possible to advertise your business through Google Ads and other online shopping sites, as well together with eBay Ads
• Advanced analytics
• Daily or weekly pay schedules

Pricing

Pricing on eBay is less complicated than Amazon's, but the charges are comparable in some ways.

First, there's the insertion fee that's 35 cents for each listing However, the first 250 listings are completely free. If you create your own eBay store, you'll get even more free listings.

Then, you get you are charged a percentage of retail price. This is usually 10% for the majority of types of products. However, it ranges from 2-12percent. That includes costs for processing. If you want to lower your fees for insertions then you should consider the monthly service. If you are a seller with a higher volume, this is a smart choice. They have three choices, each of which come with the added benefits of selling on the platform. Each cost less when you make payments annually instead of monthly. Costs per month are:

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

Audience

eBay is a popular choice for hobbyists as well as those who call themselves "enthusiast buyers" and also to those seeking a good deal. The site is particularly successful with electronics. It is the number one seller at 16.4% of products offered on the online platform.

eBay is also a major seller of clothing and accessories (16 percent), automobiles (11%) in addition to health and beauty (9%), and sports and outdoor equipment. The five categories listed above account for about 60% of what sells on eBay. However, this leaves plenty of space to sell other items.

According to Edesk 61% of the audience on eBay is between 35-64 years old, and 60% of them are male, contrary to Amazon's nearly fifty-to-50 divide. Your audience also includes the Baby Boomers who are at the tail end Gen-Xers, as well as Generation Y. eBay doesn't get as much volume of traffic from Generation Z.

Reach

If you're researching "reach," it is important to differentiate between visitors to the site and buyers. The majority of sites that report on the reach of top established marketplaces for multi-channel selling is able to do a great job clarifying this, which is why you see vastly different numbers in different places.

Furthermore, the sales numbers have drastically changed after 2020, so the data prior to that date is very outdated.

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

eBay has the third most downloaded online shopping app across the US just behind Walmart and Amazon 60 percent of its customers are located in the UK as well as the U.S., with Germany accounting for 15%. So, about three fourths of the users on eBay are located within these three regions.

In terms of sellers there's a quite different picture. 28percent of eBay sellers reside in The U.S., and 25% are situated in the UK. 17% come from China and 16% are from Germany, and 3% from Australia. So you can sell on eBay from almost anywhere, provided you pay attention to which countries the largest buyers reside.

3. Alibaba

A lot of marketers from the west do not know about this ecommerce bigwig of China which was founded by Jack Ma. However, it controls nearly 60 of the market share percent Chinese ecommerce market, which means that any ecommerce company seeking to expand its business into China and nearby Asian markets must consider jumping on Alibaba or any of its subsidiaries platforms such as AliExpress, Taobao, Lazada, or Tokopedia. All of them serve various regions in the region.

Features

Announcing the functions of Alibaba isn't easy because it has so many different platforms under its overall scope, each with its own unique aspects. For simplicity our focus will be specifically on Alibaba as well as AliExpress. However, if you're hoping to expand your reach into specific Asian nations, it's best take a look at the various platforms that they have, which we'll discuss later.

Alibaba is among the best B2B ecommerce marketplaces. You can buy and sell wholesale products with other companies. Through Alibaba you can:

• You own your customers' data in a different way than Amazon
• Utilize communication tools to communicate with your buyers directly
• Access CRM tools and analytics
• Translate into more than 18 languages
• Customize your application using an API integration
• International freight logistics coordination
• Receive onboarding support for the first time sellers.
• Access product inspection and monitoring

Alibaba makes use of an RFP (Request for Quote) procedure to allow customers to place orders, since companies use Alibaba to purchase bulk quantities from manufacturers and suppliers. So prices are not fixed. It depends on quantities of shipping and other variables.

Sellers also have the option of earning three different ratings: Gold, Verified, and Trade Assurance, which assure consumers that they're purchasing products from trusted sellers.

AliExpress
AliExpress is one of many B2C e-commerce platforms that are part of Alibaba's worldwide marketplace. Like Amazon, sellers can sell individual products and ship directly to the consumers. It is also possible to utilize AliExpress to dropship. Similar to Alibaba the service can also be translated into more than 18 languages.

Additional features:

• Advertising for increased product exposure
• Convert and accept 51 of the currencies
• 38 payment channels local to enable secure transactions
• Online storefronts with custom-designed online stores
• AliExpress University, an onboarding service to help novice sellers.
• Many shipping options
• Buyer protection policy for damaged, defective, or undeliverable merchandise

Pricing

Alibaba is a marketplace that operates in a higher quantity as compared to B2C E-commerce platforms, therefore the prices for its products are more expensive too. No sales commissions are paid by the website and there is only an annual fee. The cheapest that is charged is the Gold Supplier Basic which is $1899 for the year.

AliExpress is a step closer to other B2C eCommerce platforms. There is no annual cost and instead, charges 5-8% commissions on each sale.

Audience

If you want to sell online in volume to businesses of other kinds, Alibaba is one of the top online marketplaces for those who want to sell online in bulk. More than 10 million buyers from over 190 countries purchase wholesale from businesses on Alibaba. It is possible to deal directly with the manufacturers and you'll also find traders, exporters, and agents. companies, and wholesalers.

These buyers could include other manufacturing companies and wholesalers using your products to make different products. They may also be sourcing agents, or B2C retailers. You can use Alibaba to create private labels.

 AliExpress

AliExpress caters to the public at large as does Amazon, sells just about everything from clothes to tools to home improvement products and electronics, to beauty items to.

Within the nations where AliExpress or other Alibaba B2C ecommerce platforms operate, your target audience includes just about everyone who shops online. Some buyers could also be re-sellers who are setting dropping-shipping business.

AliExpress sellers are required to be in China, Russia, Spain, Italy, France, or Turkey.

Reach

Alibaba is used by a variety of countries and nearly a billion people.

AliExpress along with the other B2C platforms connect millions of customers from more than 220 countries. They're the most popular in Asian nations. In China, the platform is Taobao. Lazada operates that operates in Southeast Asian countries such as Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, and the Philippines. Tokopedia will be the main platform that covers Indonesia.

4. Walmart Marketplace

Walmart started out as a brick and mortar department store, and was not an ecommerce marketplace. However, in 2010, they began selling online and because they have so much money from their stores, Walmart is capable of rapidly expanding its online selling platform so that it competes well against the most prominent brands like Amazon.

However, Walmart Marketplace has fewer sellers and for now, that means lesser competition for getting your product noticed. So you will likely receive more visibility for your product in Walmart Marketplace than Amazon.

Features

While Walmart's ecommerce platform has numerous similarities with Amazon, the differences are significant. Here are the key features:

• An even more rigorous qualification procedure for sellers, not only anyone can set up a store
• A chance to provide free two-day shipping
• Analytics tools and Advanced Listings
• Secure payment
• Market report
• Review options for customers
• Walmart ads that provide more product exposure
• A current supply chain infrastructure that is already in place
• Walmart Fulfillment Services, which will store, package, and ship your products

Walmart Fulfillment Services operates much like Fulfillment through Amazon. Your products are sent into Walmart's stores. After orders have been made, they will pack and ship your products for you.

And that stricter qualification process provides a compelling reason to think about Walmart. They will only consider sellers that have past success with ecommerce. It is a way to ensure that all of their sellers are reputable and are selling high quality items.

Pricing

Unlike Amazon, Walmart charges no charges for setting up, listing, or subscriptions. There is a charge per transaction, and this like other ecommerce sites differs by category. The range goes from 6-20%, but the great majority of the fees for products can be 8% or 15%.

Audience

Walmart benefits from having so many in-store shoppers as well as the ability to offer their online marketplace as an alternative to every one of them. Walmart has everything at their store, but their ecommerce counterpart does even more. They cater to anyone shopping online.

Reach

Walmart Marketplace gets about 410 million visitors per month, according to one estimate, and it engages customers who are from Africa, Canada, Central America, Mexico, India, China, and Chile, as well as parts of the U.S. and parts of Europe.

The Walmart loyalty program includes more than ten million customers. So these are people who have extra incentive to shop online at Walmart online.

5. Etsy

Etsy started out as a place for people to sell exclusive and handmade items and not products made by mass production. And for the most part this is the same mission even today. for sellers selling on the internet, Etsy is the place for unique items as well as specific items.

If you sell a set of items and wish to draw people to your store's e-commerce site using Etsy you can use the platform to offer unique products that you can then use with a follow-up to bring them into your main store that you have that is built upon .

Features

Etsy offers some functions similar to other platforms, like secure transactions, apps for email, some telephone service, in addition to the possibility to modify your Etsy shop. Additionally, Etsy includes:

• Automatic transfers directly into your account
• Discounted postage options
• An Etsy ads platform where you can buy advertising to improve the visibility of your ads.
• The Seller App allows direct communication with buyers via the Seller App
• Seller protections
• An affiliate program you can make use of to convince other people to sell your stuff
• A seller newsletter and handbook
• Access to a community of sellers

Etsy is known for its reputation for being less prominent in search for specific items and this motivates some to buy Etsy advertisements. It is essential to be conscious when you design your product pages, including your language, and the keywords used to describe your items.

Pricing

Etsy is a straightforward pricing system. It charges 20 cents for each post, and each listings are active for four months. Then, for each sale, you are charged a 9.5 percentage transaction and processing fee which covers all costs.

Additionally, Etsy runs ads for your items all over the internet. They mostly use advertisements that display photos of your products. It is not your responsibility to control this, and there is no cost to you, unless the advertisement result in a sale. In the event that ads do result in a sale, you'll pay an additional fee for each sale.

Audience

The audience of Etsy is different from other market places online. Etsy shoppers are looking for items they can't find anywhere else. They are looking for items that no one else will own. It's a form of treasure searching.

This is where you can make unique and exclusive items that earn you a reputation as an innovator, artist and a creative creator of products who invests time and creativity into each item.

The majority of customers on Etsy are women, generally between ages 18 and 40.

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

Reach

Etsy is a smaller market that other popular marketplaces. Although they are able to reach more than 200 countries and have 86 million active users, about half their online sales go directly to U.S., and almost all of the remainder go to UK, Germany, Canada, Australia, and France.

Etsy is also home to a number of customers who are loyal, and with 81% of all purchases that are made by customers who have been buying from them repeatedly. If the audience on Etsy is aligned with your offerings it is possible to gain loyal customers more easily on this online marketplace in comparison to other general ones in this list.

6. Rakuten

If you're keen on focusing your attention on affiliate selling, Rakuten is the top online marketplace to do this.

Is it unclear what affiliate selling is? Instead of spending money on ads and delve into the complexities of the digital world of marketing your product rather, you partner with other businesses and individuals, and they offer your goods and services to their audience. In exchange, you give them a percentage of the profits. It's a way to reach greater audiences as you might otherwise. Affiliate marketers with the best reputations have a strong influence over thousands or millions of people.

Features

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

• Pay for the week of retailers
• A custom reporting system
• Modified methods for monetizing your online store
• Dynamic coupons, as well as related tools
• Good customer support -- the management of seller accounts and partnerships teams
• Ability to create automated workflows as well as automate
• Help in selecting influencers and affiliates that are most aligned with your product
• The system tracks Affiliates and influencers

Pricing

As with other major markets, Rakuten charges a listing fee, a monthly fee along with a fee based on product categories.
The cost is 99 cents for each listing, and $39 for a month. Commissions can range between 8 and 15%.

Audience

Men are slightly more favored, but generally very broad, 25-34 year olds make the largest portion of Rakuten's age group. In general, however, Rakuten's audience is harder to specify because it really depends on the influencers and affiliates you end up working with.

The system they use is designed to help you connect with affiliates that have audiences that align to your product. So in theory, your target audience is the one you would want most.

Reach

Rakuten business operations have been based in 30 countries, across both Americas, Europe, and Asia Pacific. And their shoppers and affiliates are found in more than 180 nations. So this is a global market that has the affiliate marketing model to form its basis.

7. Newegg

Newegg was initially a technology-focused ecommerce marketplace, and it continues to dominate that industry category. It has expanded to several other categories and has become one of the best platforms for businesses using e-commerce to market their goods.

Features

Newegg delivers real benefits for its top sellers -- those who pay for the monthly subscription. The features for this marketplace depend very much on which membership you choose between their three membership options: professional, free or Enterprise.

Similar to Walmart, Newegg requires sellers to be approved prior to when they can access their e-commerce marketplace, so this ensures the quality of their products. Some of their key features are:

• A knowledgeable and focused group of people
• The option to sell used or refurbished products
• The ability to promote products on their site such as Sponsored Videos Ads
• Affirmed support
• API integration
• Advanced product descriptions that be accompanied by video and images of touchpoints to assist customers in making good decision
• The ability to access Newegg Studios -- they'll make videos and photographs for your products
• Unlimited product listings with the Enterprise membership
• Automation of purchase emails for the Enterprise membership
• Discounts if you use Newegg Fulfillment as well as using the Newegg Shipping Label service
• Rewards for sellers who price competitively
• A Premier Seller Program that gives you access to some of the largest spenders
• Advertising through Newegg's social channels and promotional emails

Similar to Amazon as well as Walmart, Newegg has a fulfillment and shipping label services as well, and if you've an inventory of it this is a great option since it can cut cost.

Pricing

It's free however the Professional version at $29.95 per month, and the Enterprise subscription at $99.95 per month give you access to the most advanced features.

Audience

Newegg's customers are mainly tech-focused and knowledgeable. There are the most early adopters on Newegg as opposed to other stores and generally, a wealthier audience. Unlike Amazon, Walmart, and Alibaba the people who shop on Newegg tend to have incomes in the range of $75k or greater. The customer base of Newegg is 72% male and mostly between the ages of 18-44.

Other than a wealth of electronic and other accessories, Newegg also does well when it comes to home cookware and appliances. It is also expanding into categories for sporting goods.

Customers on NewEgg love looking at the specifications of products, and this is not the platform to go light on the particulars. It is important to provide plenty of details on the product page Consider seriously adding videos. 32 percent of their shoppers have been returning customers.

Reach

Newegg boasts around four million users who have active accounts all over Europe, South and North America, in the Middle East, and Asia Pacific.

This means it's a smaller market and yet one that is spending more, and are looking for certain kinds of items. As with Etsy there is a chance to build a stronger and more devoted audience here than you can on large marketplaces.

Why sell on as part of your global strategy

Online marketplaces can be excellent entry points into selling online. They're also a great opportunity to connect with your customer wherever they are and on the same places that they're currently shopping.

However, when it comes down to it, the ideal option to increase the size of your business while maintaining complete control is to start an online store that you own . Let's look at a few reasons to support this:

1. Marketplaces promote competitor products

Marketplaces that are third-party want all their users to be successful which means that your company doesn't come in their top priorities. So when potential buyers browse or search for goods, they will not just see products from rivals in the same category as yours. They could also be exposed to ads related to the items they're looking for.

Through an online marketplace, it's easier for shoppers to choose an alternative business to yours. But with a tool such as, you can build websites that help shoppers find what they're looking for and make an easy purchase with no distractions from other stores.

2. Marketplaces offer a limited selection 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 requirements for layout, pictures, formatting classification, description length. So, you might not be able to include all of the information you'd like.

If you're working from a set design template, you might not have the ability to alter it to reflect your branding. Your products will appear similar to everyone else's.

With , however, you are able to create exactly the kind of store and product listing that you'd like. You can add lots of pictures and videos, include dimensions charts and lists of ingredients as well as customize the overall look and feel to fit your brand

3. Marketplaces make up a portion of sales

Third-party marketplaces receive a portion of the online sales you make in exchange for using their platform. When you expand, this can add up 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, you're subject to the rules and regulations of that marketplace. If they find that you're in violation of those rules then they're able to shut the store down, at times without notice. That means that you'll suddenly stop earning revenue and possibly the content you've put up.

With Jetpack, you'll enjoy total control over and complete ownership of your site. Additionally, you can make backups that will protect everything on your website including customer and sales information. In the event that something does go wrong, you can quickly restore your store.

5. Marketplaces make marketing trickier

While some third-party marketplaces provide built-in marketing tools, these may become more limited when you increase. There may be no way to integrate the tools you're seeking for advertisements, email marketing and customer relationship management search engine optimization, and much more. It may also be trickier to gather customer data, and efficiently engage those clients.

6. The marketplaces may make it more difficult to adjust

When you begin to grow your company, you'll likely have to implement significant modifications to meet the demands of more customers. In particular, you could be required to change your delivery or marketing strategies, take different currencies, change your content in several languages, or incorporate it your inventory or fulfillment management software.

Third-party marketplaces can create difficulties in making these sorts of modifications. They could not work with the tools you want to use. Perhaps they don't permit you to make the modifications necessary to be able to sell internationally.

Through this, you'll be able to accept many currencies, setup shipping in a variety of ways, connect with a variety of tools, and customize the store in whatever way you'd like over time as you expand. Additionally, you can choose any hosting provider necessary for the tools, resources instruments, and help necessary to cope with growth in traffic.

When it comes down to it, this is the most effective method to start and build an online store that's successful. You benefit from a system that is easy to use (no code needed! ) and has the most flexibility top-notch support, and full control.