Best Multi-Channel Marketplaces for Selling All Over the World

E-commerce platforms such as Amazon gives you the most amount of control over the online store's positioning your products, marketing and other facets of running an enterprise.

But can you do more to broaden your reach and connect with new markets that don't have a way to find your products? That's why selling across multiple platforms can help grow an ecommerce business -- they give an opportunity for you to connect with customers from more locations who will most likely not find your online shop.

There are several top online marketplaces that have the potential to be globally renowned, and dependent on the needs of your company, you should consider each one before you decide the best one to help you achieve your business growth goals, 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 that everyone is familiar with, such as Amazon and eBay. But there are several others that actually have comparable reach across the globe, and even larger at times. This includes Alibaba, Walmart Marketplace, Etsy, Rakuten, and Newegg.

This article will take a closer look at all of them to give you an idea of what each marketplace can offer.

Which regions in the world use each of the online marketplaces? How many users are on these websites and how loyal are they?

If you are looking to expand your reach into new markets through your product and believe online marketplaces offer the ideal way for this, you need to take into consideration a number of key aspects:

• Highlights: how each marketplace assists sellers, ensures the seller's autonomy and boosts the revenue of sellers without any hassle
• Price: what you'll have to pay for access to each online marketplace
• Audience: which kinds of customers each marketplace is most appealing to?
• Reach: What volume of prospective customers could be from certain geographical areas that are able to access a marketplace

Let's look over the seven most popular multi-channel markets.

1. Amazon

Amazon has progressed a great deal since the beginnings of its existence as an online bookseller. The company is now the closest you could become an all-in-one retailer. The majority of the merchandise on Amazon originates from different online sellers, such as online retailers who wish to reach different audiences.

Features

Amazon has been doing this for some time and they've come up with a way to make an online store perform, and so that most ecommerce stores would like to utilize similar strategies. By using the various extensions that are to your advantage, you can do most of what Amazon does right on your own online store.

These are the top features from Amazon Marketplace:

• Global access: open an account for almost any nation located on Earth
• Phone support in most countries, chat and emails in other countries.
• The ability to set your own prices
• Platform to build your own offers and advertise your own offers and promote
• Simple review collection using a system people are familiar with
• It is possible to design your product and store it around key words to appear in search engines
• Metrics tracking for performance, including order defect rate and rates of fulfillment cancellation
• Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) This lets you access the Prime Badge and offers better shipping options
• Layouts for product pages that are pre-set to take out the work

Fulfillment by Amazon basically means that you send your products to Amazon as well as they store your products in their warehouses. This does come with an expense, however you are able to offer two-day free shipping to Amazon Prime members, and Amazon will print labels, packaging along with all the other shipping tasks you would expect.

The shoppers are able to sort their search results so that they only see products sold through sellers that have the Prime Badge and give buyers a sense of exclusivity and exclusivity.

Pricing

Amazon is among the most expensive marketplaces on the internet. Amazon has a range of fees, not just one.

The first step is to choose from your Individual Plan and the Professional Plan. With the Individual Plan, you pay 99 cents per sale that you complete. This method is ideal for sellers who have lower volume of sales online. 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 which every marketplace online charges. The fee is calculated as a percentage of your total transaction that includes shipping costs. Fees vary depending on the type of product. Most are between 8-15 percent, however they can be from 45% to as high as or as low as percent. Then, you'll have a fulfillment fee that's based upon the dimensions and weight of the product being shipped.

For access to Amazon's warehouses the storage fees are dependent on the dimensions of your items. Storage fees increase by three times from October through December during the Christmas season.

Are you sure? In reality, you could pay higher fees in particular instances.

Why would someone want to spend all this money for the sole purpose of selling on Amazon?

There are a few benefits built in and have a large audience. It is true that with your own eCommerce website, you do not have to pay most of these fees. But, then you have control your inventory as well as your shipping.

Audience

Amazon is biggest in the United States, having achieved the goal of achieving complete market saturation. 150 million Americans have Prime Memberships more than 70% of adults.

There are 197 million monthly active users of their app, and Amazon is responsible for 56.7 percent of the total retail ecommerce sales within the U.S. If your target audience is in the US, Amazon can reach them.

In addition to including the U.S., they have around 310 million active app users across the globe. You can also reach out to the mobile audience, too.

Amazon's audience covers all demographics throughout North America, and in many other countries, and 66% of online shoppers typically begin their search through Amazon.

Reach

After the acquisition of Souq in the year 2017, which was a Middle Eastern ecommerce marketplace, Amazon has become the biggest online seller in the world. Its main markets are North America, Europe, Asia as well as Asia and the Middle East.

Amazon has shipped to over 130 countries in over 130 countries, and 2.7 billion people have shopped on Amazon. They get 2.72 billion per month in unique customers.

In terms of dimensions, you will be able to reach the most global market with Amazon. However, with great size comes great competition, and Amazon is also home to the biggest amount of sellers on the internet. It's therefore not always simple to get your product recognized.

2. eBay

eBay was initially created as a platform to market used goods through bidding wars. While they still offer that service, only 12percent of items that are sold through their site are available for auction, and 80percent of the items that are sold on eBay are new.

Thus, it's evolved into an online marketplace with the most loyal consumers than Amazon. More shoppers may begin shopping on Amazon However, many end up their shopping on eBay.

Features

eBay is an authentic marketplace. They do not offer items of their own, so your only competition comes from other sellers and not from the marketplace itself. Other characteristics of eBay are:

• Concierge services for larger ecommerce brands
• Seller Hub is the platform from which you run your business's e-commerce on eBay It is where you are able to publish and manage listings and orders, conduct promotions and sales, etc.
• The ability to customize listings is greater than Amazon
• You can upload videos that are related to your product
• Coupons, discounts and promotion capabilities, including coupons
• The option to do volume-based pricing discounts
• An option for subscribers allows you to create marketing newsletters to subscribers, provide discounts for customers and increase customer loyalty than Amazon
• The ability to get review of products.
• Shipping label printing
• You can promote your products via Google Ads and other online shopping sites, as well as through eBay Ads
• Advanced analytics
• Pay schedules for weekly or daily pay

Pricing

Pricing on eBay is less complicated than Amazon's, however they are alike in a few ways.

In the beginning, you'll have to pay the insertion fee that's 35 cents for each listing However, the initial 250 listings are for free. When you open an eBay store, you'll get even more free listings.

In the end, you are charged a percentage of the retail price. This is 10% for most products, but it can range from 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 higher volume sellers that are looking to increase their sales, this is the best option. You have three options with each one of them coming with advantages of selling on the platform, and each is less expensive if you are paying annually, as opposed to each month. The monthly costs 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 people who are "enthusiast buyers," and also to those who are looking to get a great deal. It does really well with electronic items, which is their top selling item at 16.4% of merchandise offered through the website.

eBay is also a major seller of clothes and accessories (16%) as well as automotive (11 percent) as well as health and beauty (9 percent) as well as the outdoor and sports equipment. These five categories account for about 60% of what sells on eBay. However, this leaves a lot of room for additional products.

According to Edesk the 61% of eBay's customer base is aged between 35 and 64 The majority of them are men, in contrast to Amazon's close 50/50 proportion. This means that your target audience is comprised of the Baby Boomers who are at the tail end, Gen-Xers, and some Generation Y. eBay isn't getting as much traffic from Generation Z.

Reach

In researching the term "reach," it is important to differentiate between site visitors and buyers. There are many sites reporting the reach of the most established marketplaces for multi-channel selling can do an excellent job clarifying this. This is why you'll see wildly diverse numbers across different sites.

Additionally, the online number of purchases changed drastically after 2020, so any data before that is probably not up to date.

eBay is currently receiving around 885 million unique monthly visitors. Every year, approximately 135 million of these buyers actually purchase something through eBay.

eBay has the third most downloaded online shopping application in the US following Walmart and Amazon, and 60% of its customers are located in the UK as well as the U.S., with Germany being the largest contributor with 15 15%. Thus, around three-fourths of its users are within these three regions.

In terms of sellers there's a slightly different story. 28percent of eBay sellers are in their native U.S., and 25 percent reside situated in the UK. 17% of them are from China, 16% from Germany while 3% are from Australia. Therefore, you are able to sell your products via eBay from almost anywhere, provided you are aware of where the majority of buyers are located.

3. Alibaba

A lot of marketers from the west are unfamiliar with this ecommerce company from China, founded by Jack Ma. It owns more than 60 of the market share percent Chinese ecommerce market, which means that any ecommerce company looking to expand into China as well as the nearby Asian markets should think about joining Alibaba or one of its other platforms like AliExpress, Taobao, Lazada, or Tokopedia. They all serve different nations in the region.

Features

The presentation of the capabilities of Alibaba isn't easy because it has so many different platforms that fall under its umbrella, and each has distinct features. For simplicity our focus will be only on Alibaba as well as AliExpress. But if you're looking to expand your reach into particular Asian countries, you'll want to look into the various platforms that they have, which we'll discuss shortly.

Alibaba is among the best B2B online marketplaces. Alibaba lets you purchase and sell wholesale goods for other companies and from them. With Alibaba it is possible to:

• Protect your customer's information and not on Amazon
• Utilize communication tools to communicate with buyers directly
• Use CRM tools to access analytics and data
• Translate into more than 18 languages
• Make customizations using an API integration
• Coordinate international logistics for freight
• Get onboarding assistance for brand the first time sellers.
• Access product inspection and monitoring

Alibaba makes use of an request for quotation (Request for Quote) process for customers to submit orders because firms use Alibaba to purchase bulk quantities from suppliers and manufacturers. Thus, prices do not have a fixed price. They are based on quantity of shipping and other elements.

Sellers can also earn three distinct ratings: Verified, Gold, and Trade Assurance, which assure customers that they're buying from trusted vendors.

AliExpress
AliExpress is one of the B2C e-commerce platforms that are part of Alibaba's global marketplace. Like Amazon sellers, AliExpress allows sellers to sell individual products and ship them directly to consumers. It is also possible to make use of AliExpress to dropship. Like Alibaba, it can be translated into more than 18 languages.

Other features include:

• Promotion to boost exposure of products
• 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 that assists novice sellers.
• Many shipping options
• Buyer protection policy for damaged, defective, or undeliverable merchandise

Pricing

Alibaba deals in much higher volumes as compared to B2C ecommerce marketplaces, so their prices are higher too. No sales commissions are charged by the site -just a monthly cost, the cheapest of which is the Gold Supplier Basic which is $1899 for the year.

AliExpress takes the approach closer than other B2C eCommerce platforms. There is no annual cost and instead, charges 5-8% commissions on each purchase.

Audience

If you're looking to sell online to other businesses, Alibaba is one of the best online marketplaces for those who want to sell online in bulk. There are more than 10 million customers from over 190 countries purchase wholesale from businesses on Alibaba. The company can work directly with the manufacturers and you'll also find traders, exporters, and agents. firms, as well as wholesalers.

The buyers may be other wholesalers and manufacturers making use of your products in the production of various other products. They may include sourcing agents as well as B2C retailers. Alibaba is a great platform to use Alibaba to create private brand names.

 AliExpress

AliExpress targets the general public and, like Amazon, sells just about anything from clothes tools to home improvement products from electronics to cosmetics.

Within the nations where AliExpress as well as the other Alibaba B2C ecommerce platforms operate, your target audience includes almost everyone who buys online. Some buyers could also be resellers that are setting up dropping-shipping business.

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

Reach

Alibaba is used by a variety of countries and more than a billion users.

AliExpress along with those other B2C platforms are used by millions of consumers from 220 countries. They're the most popular in Asian nations. In China, the platform is Taobao. Lazada operates for Southeast Asian countries such as Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, and the Philippines. Tokopedia will be the main platform used in Indonesia.

4. Walmart Marketplace

Walmart was initially the brick and mortar department store and not as an online shopping platform. In 2010, the company began selling online and with so much money from their stores, Walmart is successful in rapidly increasing its selling platforms online so that it is able to compete effectively with major brands, like Amazon.

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

Features

While Walmart's ecommerce platform has many similarities to Amazon However, the differences between them are substantial. Here are the key features:

• A stricter qualification process for sellers, not only anyone who wants to open an online store.
• The ability to offer free two-day shipping
• Analytics and advanced listing tools
• Secure payment
• Market reports
• Options for customer reviews
• Walmart advertisements that give more brand exposure
• A current supply chain infrastructure is established
• Walmart Fulfillment Services, which will store, package and deliver your items

Walmart Fulfillment Services works very exactly like Fulfillment by Amazon. Your products are sent to Walmart's warehouses. Then, when orders are placed, they pack and deliver your items for the benefit of.

And that stricter qualification process is a good reason to consider Walmart. The company only allows sellers who have a record of prior success in e-commerce. It is a way to ensure that all of their sellers are reputable and sell quality products.

Pricing

Contrary to Amazon, Walmart charges no charges for setting up, listing or subscriptions. They just charge a fee per sale, which as with other websites, is different by product. It ranges from 6 to%, but the great most of their fees range from 8% to 15 percent.

Audience

Walmart is a great retailer because they have an abundance of shoppers in their stores, and they can offer the online market as an alternative to every one of them. Walmart has everything in-store, and their e-commerce competitor does more. Their audience is anyone shopping online.

Reach

Walmart Marketplace gets about 410 million unique monthly visitors, according an estimate that it attracts shoppers who are from Africa, Canada, Central America, Mexico, India, China, and Chile in addition to parts of the U.S. and parts of Europe.

Walmart's loyalty program currently has over ten million members. So these are people who are enticed to buy online at Walmart online.

5. Etsy

Etsy began as a platform that allowed people to market exclusive and handmade items that were not mass-produced items. And for the most part, it retains that mission to this day. If you are an e-commerce seller, Etsy is the place to offer unique products and specialized merchandise.

If you offer a range of goods and you want for people to visit your online store on Etsy make use of it to sell unique items followed by a follow-up by bringing them back into your main store that you have built on .

Features

Etsy includes some features that are that are similar to those of other platforms like secured transactions, apps, email and some phone support, and the ability to personalize the appearance of your Etsy shop. In addition, Etsy includes:

• Automated deposits directly to your account
• Postage discounts are available.
• A Etsy advertising platform on which you can purchase ads to increase visibility
• Contact with buyers directly through the Seller App
• Seller protections
• An affiliate program you can make use of to convince other people to sell your stuff
• The newsletter for sellers and the handbook
• Access to a community of other sellers

Etsy is known for its reputation for being harder to show up in search for specific items which is why some buy Etsy ads. You must be conscious when you design your webpages for products, such as your language, and the keywords that you employ to explain your items.

Pricing

Etsy is a simple pricing system. The company charges 20 cents per listing, and that listing remains active for four months. Then, for each sale, you are charged a 9.5 percentage transaction and processing fee, which includes everything.

Furthermore, Etsy runs ads for your products all over the web, usually using display ads featuring images of your items. It is not your responsibility to control the ads and they cost nothing for you unless the ad results in the sale. If the ads are successful and bring in sales, you'll pay an additional charge per sale.

Audience

The audience of Etsy is distinct from the other top marketplaces online. Shoppers on Etsy want items they can't find anywhere other than Etsy. They want stuff no one else will own. This is a type of treasure hunting.

This is where you can offer unique products that will make you known as a creative, an artist, and an imaginative product designer who puts time and creativity into each product.

The majority of customers on Etsy are females, typically between the ages of 18-40.

Their most popular product categories include home and living, jewelry, craft supplies, and tools. They have a wide selection of merchandise to help you plan your wedding and bridal party.

Reach

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

Etsy also has a large base of loyal shoppers, with 81% of purchases made by repeat buyers. So if Etsy's audience aligns to your product, you can win the trust of customers faster through this online marketplace as opposed to some of the general ones in this list.

6. Rakuten

If you're interested in emphasizing the importance of affiliate sales, Rakuten is the top market on the internet for this.

Is it unclear about affiliate selling? Rather than buying ads and delve into the complexities of the digital world of marketing your product rather, you partner with other people and businesses, and they promote and sell your product for their customers instead. In exchange, you give them a share of profits. It's an opportunity to reach larger target audiences than you otherwise could. The most effective affiliate marketers hold an enormous influence on thousands or millions, of followers.

Features

Rakuten helps you set up affiliate deals. Some key features of their program:

• Weekly pay for merchants
• A system for customizing reports
• The most appropriate methods to monetize your online store
• Dynamic coupons and related tools
• Great customer support seller account management and partnership teams.
• It is possible to establish automated workflows as well as automate
• Help in selecting influencers and affiliates that align to your brand
• A tracking system of Affiliates and influencers

Pricing

Like other market places, Rakuten charges a listing fee, a per-month fee as well as a percentage of commissions based on product categories.
The cost is 99 cents for each listing, and $39 for a month. The commissions vary from 8 to 15%.

Audience

A little preferred by males, however typically very wide the 25-34 age group makes up Rakuten's most prolific segment of users. But in general, Rakuten's customers are difficult to pinpoint due to the fact that it is contingent on the influencers and affiliates you end up working with.

The software is intended to match you with affiliates who have audiences that are compatible to your product. Therefore, in theory, your target audience is the one you'd like to have the most.

Reach

Rakuten businesses are located in over 30 countries in the two Americas, Europe, and Asia Pacific. Their affiliates and shoppers are found in more than 190 countries. Thus, this is a worldwide market that has the affiliate marketing model as the basis.

7. Newegg

Newegg began as a tech-focused online marketplace and is still the market leader in this category. However, it has expanded to several other categories and has grown to become one of the most popular marketplaces for ecommerce businesses to market their goods.

Features

Newegg provides real benefits to its best sellers -users who subscribe to an annual membership. The features for this marketplace depend very much on which membership you pick between the three options of professional, free or Enterprise.

Like Walmart, Newegg requires sellers to get approved before they can use their ecommerce marketplace, so this ensures a level of quality for their products. Some of their key features include:

• A knowledgeable and targeted public
• It is possible to sell secondhand and refurbished items
• The ability to promote the products they sell on their website and even use Sponsored Video Ads
• Affirmed support
• API integration
• Advanced product descriptions that include video and touchpoint imagery to help customers make good decisions
• You have access to Newegg Studios -- they'll actually produce videos and photos for your products
• Unlimited product listings with the Enterprise membership
• Automated email post-purchase with the Enterprise membership
• Discounts if you use Newegg Fulfillment as well as Newegg Shipping Label. Newegg Shipping Label service
• Reward for sellers who price competitively
• A Premium Seller Program that gives you access to the biggest spenders
• Advertising on Newegg's social accounts and the option to send out promotional emails

Similar to Amazon and Walmart, Newegg has a shipping and fulfillment service If you've got enough inventory you can use it as it reduces your cost.

Pricing

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

Audience

The Newegg audience is primarily focused on technology and is knowledgeable. There are more early adopters here than other sites as well as, generally speaking it's a more affluent audience. In contrast to Amazon, Walmart, and Alibaba the people who shop on Newegg generally have a net income of $75k per year or greater. The customer base of Newegg is 72% men and is mostly between the ages of 18-44.

Other than a wealth of electronic and other accessories, Newegg also does well with home cooking and appliances, and is growing to include sporting goods.

Customers on NewEgg love looking at the specifications of products, and this is not the platform to go light on the specifics. You want to include lots of details on your product pages here Consider seriously including videos. Three-quarters of customers are repeat customers.

Reach

Newegg has about 4 million customers who are active across Europe, South and North America as well as Asia Pacific, the Middle East, and Asia Pacific.

This means it's a smaller market however one who spends more money and seeks certain kinds of items. Like Etsy it is possible to gain a larger and more committed audience here than you can on large marketplaces.

What are the benefits of selling on as a part of your strategy for the whole world?

Marketplaces online can provide excellent entry points into selling online. They're also an excellent method to reach your customers where they are, on the same places that they're currently buying.

However, when it comes down on it, the ideal option to increase the size of your business and maintain full control is to begin your own online store . We'll look at a few reasons why this is true:

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. Therefore, when buyers are browsing or looking for goods, they will not just see products from rivals alongside yours, but they might also see ads for those items.

Through a marketplace, it's much simpler for customers to pick one of your competitors over the other. With a program such as, you can build a website that helps shoppers find what they're looking for and make an easy purchase, without distractions from other stores.

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

When you sell your products on marketplaces online, you have to adapt the product descriptions to fit their requirements for formatting, images, design, categorization, and the length of descriptions. This means you might not be able include every detail you'd like.

Since you're working with an established design template you might not be able to modify the design to fit your company's style. The items you create will appear like the other ones.

However, with this software, you can create the exact sort of product and store listing you'd like. Add lots of photos and videos, as well as sizes charts and ingredient lists, and customize the entire look and feel to fit your brand

3. Marketplaces are able to take a share of revenue

Third-party marketplaces take a cut of the online sales you make as a reward for their platforms. When you expand it can cost you increasing. But doesn't charge any 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 regulations and rules. If they decide that your store is in violation of those rules then they're able to shut down your store, sometimes without prior notice. That means that you'll suddenly be unable to earn a profit and possibly the content you've put up.

However, with Jetpack you'll have full control and ownership over your site. Additionally, you can make backups which will save every element of your store including customer and sales details. In the event that something does go wrong, you can quickly recover and get your business back on track.

5. Marketplaces make marketing trickier

Some third-party marketplaces have integrated marketing tools, they can become limiting when you expand. There may be no way to incorporate the tools that you're looking for in advertising, marketing via email, customer relationship management, SEO for search engines, and many more. It may also be trickier to compile customer data and efficiently engage those customers.

6. Markets can make it difficult to adjust

When you begin to grow your company it is likely that you will have to implement significant changes to accommodate more sales. For example, you might be required to change your delivery or marketing plan, allow different currencies, translate your content to several languages, or incorporate it the fulfillment and inventory software for managing inventory or fulfillment.

Third-party marketplaces hinder the ability to implement such changes. They might not be compatible with the tools you want to utilize. They might not allow users to change the settings that you require to make in order to market globally.

With , you can accept many currencies, setup shipping in many ways, integrate with lots of tools, and customize your shop in any manner you'd like over time as you expand. Additionally, you can choose any hosting provider necessary to offer the necessary resources, instruments, and help required to handle the increase of traffic.

In the end, it, is the best way to build and grow an online business that is successful. The benefits include a system that's easy to utilize (no code required! ) and has the most flexibility excellent support, and total control.