Going Global in E-Commerce with International Marketplaces

For all retailers, international marketplaces are a great way of entering a new market.

In 2020, the top 100 online marketplaces worldwide sold $2.6 trillion worth of products.

With so many marketplaces available all over the world, where do you start in order to make the most of them?

The Current State of E-Commerce

Direct-to-consumer retail has seen a massive push during the peak of the pandemic. Establishing the type of direct-to-consumer marketplace that is most appropriate for your product is important, whether that be mass appeal (Amazon), discount (eBay), or something more niche.

Most people think Amazon is the top online marketplace when they actually rank third globally, behind China’s Taobao and Tmall.

There are a number of other opportunities to compliment your presence on larger platforms, such as Amazon, so it makes sense to take note of all marketplaces available when looking to expand internationally.

Entering International Marketplaces

When it comes to setting up your brand on a marketplace, there are a few things you should focus on to make the most out of each opportunity.

Inventory Location Strategy

Where does your stock sit, and where do you want it to go?

Between brand- or distribution-owned warehouses and warehouse networks fulfilled by individual marketplaces or third parties, you need to make sure that your set up is appropriate and logical for each market.

For example, global trade platform Mamenta can help streamline supply chains and increase global reach by linking up distributors and warehouses around the world that are outside your business network through their centralized platform. They also have their own warehouses around the world that help fill infrastructure gaps and allow distribution regionally or locally in new target markets.

Brand Voice Control

Understand where your product sits in the global landscape.

Often, your brand’s product might already be out in the world, whether through unauthorized sellers or gray markets.

Marketplaces are either set up to be product-centric or brand-centric. Having a brand-centric setup with an official store will enable you to tell your brand story across marketplaces.

Content Is King

Since each marketplace is different, you’ll need to figure out if you should focus on driving traffic to your official store or product detail pages.

Having top quality content is key to establishing your brand’s pages as the place where consumers should go rather than unauthorized sellers.

Ensure your content is properly localized and, in some cases, consider how the imagery and design works and tailor it for each market.

Marketplace-Specific SEO

Similar to how search engines like Google work, there are algorithms at play within each marketplace. Appealing to these algorithms becomes more difficult when setting your brand up on sites that aren’t in your native language.

Understanding each market and ensuring you have localized your SEO strategy is crucial to driving customers to your product pages.

Review Building

We know how important customer reviews are.

With a marketplace storefront, you should aim to secure five to 10 reviews per product detail page (PDP) to help legitimize your brand in the eyes of the consumer.

These reviews can be secured using programs like Walmart Spark Reviewer or something similar.

Keep in mind that each marketplace has a slightly different method of introducing new reviews.

It’s important to have these reviews in place before focusing on targeted marketing to drive traffic to PDPs.

TransPerfect recently partnered with leading audio technology retailer Harman and Mamenta. Together, we hosted a webinar that discussed how to make the most of international marketplaces.

If you’d like to learn more about taking your brand global via online marketplaces, get in touch with us today.