What Is Google Merchant?
Google Shopping If you have an online store that sells and ships products, then you already qualify to sell on the Google Shopping platform. This platform encompasses the following Google…
Marketplace Strategy
Service Overview
Marketplace Strategy
Marketplace Under Performing?
If you have an ecommerce website and you’re also selling on one of the large marketplaces such as Amazon, Walmart, or eBay, then you probably want to read this page as it may open doors you didn’t know existed.
Most of our customers who have ecommerce websites sell in the marketplaces, there are some that due to vender constraints are not allowed to sell in them but for those who can they make a killing!
While we don’t usually give trade secrets away, we can here because very few marketers will be able to duplicate this strategy. There are two main factors that help you greatly increase cross-selling between your ecommerce store and your marketplace store. One is trust, that’s a no-brainer and doesn’t need to be explained. The other is presence, when your ecommerce store has gained trust and authority (if you work with Affordable Marketing it will), and if you build the “right” presence on your marketplace store, you can then transfer that authority and trust into your marketplace store and your presence explodes.
“When done well”
Marketplace Connect
Marketplace connections are basically product feeds that take products from your ecommerce store and add them into your marketplace account. Installing feeds in your ecommerce store can be very misleading for the merchant. But its not the merchants fault because merchants are often led to believe that vendors who offer these feeds such as ecommerce platforms like Shopify or WooCommerce plugin vendors are giving them a complete solution to their marketplace account needs.
It’s unfortunate for merchants who need more help than just a connection, as they are on their own once the connection is made. This is where Affordable Marketing experts step in to complete the proper setup and configuration of the merchants marketplace account. We optimize your product feed to send accurate data, and make sure that you send only data that you want in your marketplace accounts. Often merchants don’t want to send 100% of their products to a marketplace account due to vendor restrictions, or they may want to change prices or inventory between their ecommerce store and their marketplace account, we can do that.
Connecting your ecommerce store with your marketplace account is so much more than just making a connection, in fact the connection is just the beginning. Once the connection is made, the feed itself needs to be configured and optimized. This is where most ecommerce platforms and plugin software vendors neglect to inform merchants, leaving merchants to assume their account is complete. The reality is that the job has just begun, especially for merchants who have strict vendor controls over what they can and cannot sell in marketplaces. The last thing you want is an angry call from a vendor telling you to take down products that are not supposed to be on a marketplace. This is also not a one-time thing, every time a software vendor updates their code, your feed can reset and that means stepping in to ensure that your original configuration remains correct.
Don’t be fooled by slick marketing that makes it look like its so easy to get your products from your ecommerce store into your marketplace account, because that is simply not the case. Talk to the experts to find out more, we offer a free Zoom consultation to get you headed in the right direction, saving you time and money.
Marketplace Advertising
Marketplace advertising can drive amazing sales, but it can also drain your profits if you’re inexperienced in marketplace advertising and exceed your advertising budget. With some marketplaces such as Amazon and Walmart, there are so many competitors all competing for the same demographic it makes it almost impossible to generate substantial sales without advertising and that means another added cost. Its easy to see with so many potential clicks and competitors, the risk of overspending on ads is real.
Understanding that advertising in marketplaces will be necessary to generate substantial sales, you should first decide on an advertising budget. While considering your ad budget you should also consider the marketplace merchant fees. You can’t get around the basic merchant fees, and you will also have to pay a service fee for using the marketplace credit card gateway. With all the additional costs associated with your marketplace account, your advertising campaign needs to be carefully planned and managed to increase sales without overspending and wiping out your profit margins. This is where an expert marketplace advertiser can make or break your profit margins.
If you have not done so already, you will need to formulate an acceptable acquisition cost, then you know what you’re willing to spend for each sale. Once you have your acquisition cost and add your merchant costs, you simply factor in your expected profit. You will be left with a reasonable advertising budget, which scales once your sales start to increase (and they will). The bottom line is that you will need to carefully consider who is managing your marketplace account and advertising campaigns to make a profit.
While advertising your products in a marketplace is essential to achieving increased sales, if you have not yet optimized your marketplace account you could easily overspend on your ads. Since most marketplace advertising is charged by the click or PPC, products that have been optimized have a far better chance of selling with fewer clicks than those which have not been optimized. The marketplace account that is not optimized will always need to pay for more clicks to produce fewer sales than an optimized account, and that will drive your acquisitions costs higher and your profits lower. To learn more about optimizing your marketplace account, continue reading the next section for MPO.
Marketplace MPO
Are your marketplace products not performing very well? Are your accounts disappointing the effort you spent in getting your products listed? If you answered yes, then you are not alone. Most merchants who create marketplace accounts don’t have much insight or experience in how to optimize their listings to achieve the buy button or get a better ranking than 344,598. And marketplaces can be a bit complicated, with so many rules and policies it can seem impossible to make everything work in your favor. The fact is marketplaces don’t exactly make it easy for merchants to increase their ranking or revenue.
What you need is an optimized account, whatever was done to get your products listed probably was just the beginning. Affordable Marketing marketplace optimization (MPO) experts not only optimize your account and products once but continue to make changes as needed and monitor your account for issues that might disrupt your progress.
The term Marketplace Optimization or MPO is like SEO, as it involves reviewing every aspect of your account to find opportunities for increasing your products sales performance. An MPO reviews critical account performance factors such as product configuration, shipping, connections, advertising and more. MPO’s find the big things and the little things that are impeding your marketplace accounts progress in achieving higher sales numbers. The fact is that marketplaces, when managed by experts perform significantly better, becoming a new leg of revenue that merchants can start to depend on. After all, isn’t this why your started your marketplace account in the first place?
If your marketplace account is not meeting its potential in generating revenue, we can help. Let our marketplace optimization team show you how we can optimize your account and start to increase the revenue in your marketplace.
Marketplace B2B
B2B marketplaces are a great tool for increasing sales without disturbing your current sales chain, and if you want to increase sales without waiting for relationships to mature then marketplaces can be essential. Marketplaces are often faceless, which makes doing business easier without the need for traditional relational management. While B2B marketplaces usually have far fewer customers than Amazon or Walmart for instance, the trade-off can be worth it to find new customers.
If you have B2B marketplaces where you want your products to display, we can help to propagate your products onto these marketplaces and even help with the account setup, configuration, and management. Keep in mind that due to requirements B2B companies have, the setup can be more complicated in B2B marketplaces which might be a bit too much for typical marketers without the technical knowledge.
Once you have found the right fit for you products on a B2B marketplace and your account has been created and products uploaded, the real work has just begun. As with any online property that sells merchandise, you will need an account optimization and advertising strategy to generate sales. While having these extra sales funnels seems like a great idea, they can be very competitive and have fewer customers, which means your B2B will need every opportunity to increase sales to make the account profitable.
Whatever your needs may be as you venture into the B2B marketplace, we can help to clarify your expectations by creating a plan for increasing sales. Contact us today to schedule a free ZOOM consultation, we’ll answer all your questions.
Marketplace Dropship
Dropshipping is a great way to generate revenue without taking on the associated risks of leasing a warehouse, inventory, labor, insurance and so on. The trade-off as you already know is the reduced revenue due to the lack of risk. If your dropshipping business is new and you are exploring marketplaces to sell on, or if you already have a dropshipping business generating revenue and want to increase sales on your marketplace account then we can help.
Understanding how the dropshipping business works and taking into considerations the slim profit margins associated with most dropship businesses we can help increase your sales and ensure that the appropriate sales data is passed to your dropshipping partner.
Schedule a free Zoom consultation to learn more about how we can help to increase your sales and properly manage your marketplaces account.
Free Zoom Consultation
Schedule a free Zoom consultation with Affordable Marketing.
We’ll show you how we can increase your revenue without breaking your budget!
We’ll show you how we can increase your revenue without breaking your budget!
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