Top Multi-Channel Marketplaces for Selling All Over the World

Selling through an online platform that offers you the highest degree of control over your online store, positioning your products, marketing along with other aspects of managing your business.

However, what can you do to broaden your reach and reach out to new customers with no other method to access your product? That's why selling on multiple marketplaces can help increase the success of an e-commerce companyThey give an opportunity for you to connect with customers across a wider range of locations, who would most likely not find your online store.

There are a variety of top online marketplaces that have a global reach, and according to your specific business needs it is important to consider them all before deciding which one will best serve your goals for growth but without jeopardizing your independence.

How to choose the right marketplace

The most effective online marketplaces for multi-channel selling include the ones we all know, such as Amazon as well as eBay. But there are several others which have a comparable presence around the world, as well as being larger at times. These include Alibaba, Walmart Marketplace, Etsy, Rakuten, and Newegg.

In this article, we'll look in depth into each one so you'll have a complete picture of what each marketplace offers.

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

If you are looking to expand your reach into 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:

• The way each marketplace serves sellers, protects the seller's autonomy and boosts the revenue of sellers without any hassle
• Pricing: how much will you have to pay in order for access to each online marketplace
• Audience: what sorts of individuals each market attracts the most
• Reach: What volume of potential customers from specific geographical regions who can access each marketplace

Let's take a look at each of these seven top multi-channel marketplaces.

1. Amazon

Amazon has evolved a lot since its beginnings as a book seller online. It's now about the closest you could become an all-in-one retailer. But most of what's sold on Amazon comes from other marketplace sellers, including companies that use e-commerce to expand their reach to different audiences.

Features

Amazon has been operating this for quite a long time, and they've come up with a way to make an online store function, to the point that most ecommerce stores would like utilize many of similar strategies. By using the various extensions that are at your disposal, you can do most of what Amazon can do with your own store.

Here are the best features that are available on Amazon Marketplace:

• Global accessibility: create an account for almost every country on Earth
• Telephone support is available in all nations, chat support and emails in other countries.
• Ability to determine the price you want to set
• Platform to build your own products and to promote your own offers and promote
• Easy review collection, using a system people are familiar with
• It is possible to design your own products, and then store them around key words to appear on search engines.
• Metrics tracking for performance, like order defect rates and fulfillment cancel rates
• Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA), which lets you access the Prime Badge as well as better delivery choices
• The pre-set layouts of product pages eliminate the work

Fulfillment through Amazon essentially means you ship your items to Amazon as well as they store them in their warehouses. This does come with a fee, but then you can offer free two-day shipping to Amazon Prime members, and Amazon will print labels, packaging as well as all other shipping tasks you would like to.

The shoppers are able to sort their search results so that they can only view products offered by sellers with the Prime Badge, giving buyers a sense of exclusivity and the exclusivity.

Pricing

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

The first step is to choose from the Individual Plan and the Professional Plan. In the Individual Plan, you pay 99 cents for each sale that you complete. This approach is better for sellers who have lower volume of sales online. The Professional Plan costs $39.99 per month, which includes unlimited sales.

Next, there's the referral fee. It will be similar to the commission fee for every online marketplace. The fee is calculated as a percentage of your total transaction, including shipping costs. Fees vary depending on the type of product. Most are between 8-15%, but they range as high as 45% and as low as 3 percent. After that, there's a fulfillment fee that's based upon the dimensions and weight of the item being delivered.

In addition, for the use of Amazon's warehouses, you'll be charged a storage charge determined by the size of the items you're selling. Storage fees increase by three times in the period from October to December holiday season.

Are you sure? There could be higher fees in specific circumstances.

Why would someone want to be paying all of these costs in order to make a sale on Amazon?

Because there are some built-in advantages and a huge market. However, it is also the case that when you have your own online store, you won't be required to spend a lot of these charges. However, you will need to control the inventory you have and the shipping.

Audience

Amazon is the largest in the United States, having achieved the goal of achieving complete market saturation. 15 million Americans own Prime Memberships which is more than 70% of all adults.

There are 197 million monthly user of their app, and Amazon makes up 56.7% of all online sales of retail across the U.S. If your target audience is in the US, Amazon can reach them.

In addition to including the U.S., they have about 310 million active app users all over the world. You can also reach out to your mobile users, 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 on Amazon.

Reach

After the acquisition of Souq in 2017, which was a Middle Eastern ecommerce marketplace, Amazon was the most popular online retailer in the world. The majority of them are located in North America, Europe, Asia as well as the Middle East.

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

In terms of scale, you'll be able to connect with the most global market with Amazon. But with huge size comes competition. Amazon also boasts the highest quantity of online sellers. So it's not necessarily easy to get your products seen.

2. eBay

eBay was initially created as a platform to sell used items through bidding wars. While they still offer that service, only 12percent of items sold on their site are open for bidding and 80% of products sold on eBay are brand new.

Thus, it's evolved into an online marketplace that has a more loyal group of consumers than Amazon. A greater number of shoppers might begin shopping with Amazon, but many will end their shopping their shopping on eBay.

Features

eBay is a real marketplace. They do not offer products of their own, which means that your only competition comes from sellers who are rather than the online marketplace itself. Additional features offered by eBay are:

• Concierge services for larger ecommerce brands
• Seller Hub is the hub that you use to manage your ecommerce business on eBay You can publish and manage listings and orders, conduct promotions and sales, etc.
• The ability to customize listings is more than Amazon
• You can upload videos related to your products
• Coupons, discounts, and promotion capabilities, including coupon codes
• You can choose to use price discounts based on volumes
• An option for subscribers lets you create marketing newsletters to subscribers, provide discounts for customers as well as build greater loyal customers than Amazon
• It is possible to read reviews of the product
• Shipping label printing
• It is possible to advertise your product via Google Ads as well as other shopping sites, as well in conjunction 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 respects.

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

You are then paid a portion of the retail price. This is usually 10% for the majority of product categories, though it ranges from 2-12%. That includes charges for processing. If you want to lower your fees for insertions, you can buy an annual subscription. If you are a seller with a higher volume it is an excellent choice. You have three options that each comes with advantages that selling through the platform. Each of which costs less if you pay annually as opposed to 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 people who are "enthusiast buyers" and also to those looking for a bargain. The site is particularly successful with electronics. It is the number one selling item at 16.4 percent of the items offered on the online platform.

eBay also sells a lot of clothing and accessories (16%), automotive (11%) as well as Beauty and health (9 percent), and the outdoor and sports equipment. These categories comprise about 60% of what is sold on eBay. But, that still leaves lots of opportunities for other products.

According to edesk the 61% of eBay's audience is between 35-64 years old, and 60% of them are men, unlike Amazon's near 50/50 split. So your audience includes baby boomers at the tail end of their lives Gen-Xers and Millennials. eBay does not get the same customers from Generation Z.

Reach

If you're researching "reach," it's important to distinguish between buyers and site visitors. Not every site reporting on the reach of the top well-established marketplaces for multi-channel sales 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 after 2020, so any data before that is probably not up to date.

eBay is currently receiving around 885 million people who visit the site each month. Each year, around 135 million buyers actually purchase something through eBay.

eBay has the third most popular ecommerce application in the US just behind Walmart and Amazon 60 percent of the buyers on eBay are from the UK and U.S., with Germany making up 15%. That means that about 34% of eBay's audience is in those three countries.

In terms of sellers, it's a slightly different story. 28percent of eBay sellers are located in the U.S., and 25 percent reside situated in the UK. 17% of them are from China, 16% from Germany, and 3% from Australia. Therefore, you are able to sell your products through eBay virtually anywhere provided you keep an eye on which countries the largest buyers are located.

3. Alibaba

Many marketers in the west are unfamiliar with this ecommerce bigwig from China that was created by Jack Ma. But it owns over 60 percent of the Chinese online market. This signifies that any business looking to expand into China as well as the nearby Asian markets must consider jumping on Alibaba or one of its other platforms like AliExpress, Taobao, Lazada or Tokopedia. They all serve different nations in the region.

Features

Announcing the functions of Alibaba isn't easy because it is a multitude of different platforms under its overall framework, each having distinctive features. To simplify things our focus will be on Alibaba and AliExpress. However, if you're hoping to expand your reach into specific Asian countries, you'll want take a look at the various platforms that they have, which we'll discuss in a moment.

Alibaba is one of the most popular B2B ecommerce marketplaces. Alibaba lets you purchase and sell wholesale goods with other companies. With Alibaba it is possible to:

• Protect your customer's information in a different way than Amazon
• Make use of communication tools in order to connect with your buyers directly
• Use CRM tools to access analytics and data
• Translate into more than 18 languages
• Customize your application using an API integration
• Coordinate international logistics for freight
• Receive onboarding support for new sellers.
• Access product inspection and monitoring

Alibaba makes use of an RFP (Request for Quote) process for clients to make orders since companies use Alibaba for bulk purchases from manufacturers and suppliers. Therefore, prices cannot be fixed. They are based on quantity as well as shipping costs and other variables.

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

AliExpress
AliExpress is one of the B2C e-commerce platforms that are part of Alibaba's worldwide marketplace. Like Amazon, sellers can sell items in small quantities and deliver directly to the consumers. It is also possible to utilize AliExpress to dropship. Similar to 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 local payment channels to facilitate secure transactions
• Customizable online storefronts
• AliExpress University, an onboarding service designed to assist new sellers
• Numerous shipping options for shipping
• Buyer protection policy for defective, damaged, or undelivered items

Pricing

Alibaba deals in much higher volume than B2C ecommerce marketplaces, so its prices are higher as well. No sales commissions are that are charged by Alibaba and there is only an annual fee. The cheapest that is charged is The Gold Supplier Basic, with a price of $1899 per year.

AliExpress adopts a similar approach than other B2C eCommerce platforms. It charges no annual fee, but instead charges 5-8 percent commissions per purchase.

Audience

If you are looking to market online in volume for other companies, Alibaba is one of the most popular online marketplaces available to you. Over 10 million buyers from more than 190 countries purchase wholesale from other businesses through Alibaba. The company can work directly with producers, but there are also exporters, agents, trading businesses, and wholesalers.

Buyers could be different manufacturer and wholesalers who are making use of your products in the production of different products. They might also be sourcing agents, or B2C retailers. Alibaba can be used Alibaba to develop private brand names.

 AliExpress

AliExpress is geared towards the general public and, just like Amazon offers just about anything from clothes appliances to tools from electronics to cosmetics.

Within the nations in which AliExpress as well as the other Alibaba B2C ecommerce platforms operate the target market is just about everyone who shops on the internet. A few buyers might also be re-sellers who are setting dropping-shipping business.

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

Reach

Alibaba reaches dozens of countries, and more than a billion users.

AliExpress as well as the other B2C platforms are used by millions of buyers from over 220 nations. The biggest growth is in Asian countries. In China, the platform is Taobao. Lazada is the marketplace for Southeast Asian countries such as Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, and the Philippines. Tokopedia is the platform that covers Indonesia.

4. Walmart Marketplace

Walmart began as an brick-and-mortar department store, and was not an online shopping platform. But around 2010, they started selling on the internet, with the help of massive capital from their stores, Walmart was able to quickly ramp up its selling platforms online so that it competes well against major brands, like Amazon.

But, Walmart Marketplace has fewer sellers and for now this means that there is lesser competition for getting your items noticed. So you can very likely get more publicity for your items on Walmart Marketplace than Amazon.

Features

While Walmart's ecommerce platform has numerous similarities with Amazon however, its differences can be significant. The key differences are:

• A stricter qualification process for sellers -- not just any person can open a store
• The ability to offer the free shipping service for two days
• Advanced listing and analytics tools
• Secure check-out
• Market report
• Review options for customers
• Walmart ads which provide greater visibility for the product
• A supply chain system is established
• Walmart Fulfillment Services, which can help you store, wrap and then ship your goods

Walmart Fulfillment Services operates similar to Fulfillment through Amazon. You send your products into Walmart's stores. After orders have been made, they will pack and deliver your items for the benefit of.

The stricter process for obtaining qualifications can be a reason to consider Walmart. They will only consider sellers that are able to demonstrate prior success in e-commerce. It is a way to ensure that all of the sellers they accept are reputable and are selling high quality items.

Pricing

Contrary to Amazon, Walmart charges no fees for setup, listings, or subscriptions. The only cost is per transaction, and this like other ecommerce sites varies by product category. It ranges from 6 to percent, however the vast most of their fees range from 8% to 15 percent.

Audience

Walmart benefits from having so many in-store shoppers, and they can offer their marketplace online as an alternative to every one of them. Walmart sells just about everything they can in their stores, but their online counterpart offers more. They cater to anyone shopping on the internet.

Reach

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

The loyalty program at Walmart currently has over ten million members. These are the people who have extra incentive to shop at Walmart online.

5. Etsy

Etsy started out as a place for people to sell unique and handcrafted items, not mass-produced products. And for the most part this is the same mission still today. for sellers selling on the internet, Etsy is the place for unique items as well as specialized items.

If you offer a range of goods and you want to attract customers to your online store on Etsy you can use the platform to offer unique products that you can then use with a follow-up to bring them to your primary store founded on .

Features

Etsy has some features that are similar to those of other platforms including secure transactions, apps as well as email and phone assistance, as well as the capability to customize the appearance of your Etsy shop. Additionally, Etsy includes:

• Automatic deposits straight to your account
• Postage discounts are available.
• An Etsy advertising platform on which you can purchase ads to increase the visibility of your ads.
• Direct communication with buyers through the Seller App
• Seller protections
• You can use an affiliate program to use to encourage other people to sell your stuff
• A seller newsletter and handbook
• A connection to a group of other sellers

Etsy is known for its reputation of being a bit more difficult to rank on searches of specific products, and this motivates some to purchase Etsy ads. You must be careful when creating webpages for products, such as the words and phrases you use to describe the products.

Pricing

Etsy offers a straightforward pricing system. They charge 20 cents per listing, and that is active for 4 months. For each purchase, you'll pay 9.5% transaction and processing fee, which includes all costs.

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

Audience

Etsy's audience is very distinct from the other top market places online. Shoppers on Etsy want items they can't find anywhere other than Etsy. They are looking for items that no one other person will have. It's like treasure searching.

It is the best place to offer unique products that will be a source of fame as a creative, an artist, and an imaginative product designer who puts the time and effort into every product.

The majority of customers on Etsy are females, typically aged between 18 and 40.

The top categories of their products are homes and living, jewellery crafting supplies, as well as tools. They offer a variety of items to help you plan your wedding and bridal party.

Reach

Etsy has a lower reach that other popular marketplaces. Though they have a presence in over 200 countries, and boast an active user base of 86 million however, only about half of the sales they make online go towards the U.S., and almost every other sale goes to the UK, Germany, Canada, Australia, and France.

Etsy is also home to a number of loyal shoppers, with 81% of all purchases that are made by customers who have been buying from them repeatedly. So if Etsy's audience aligns to your product and services, you'll be able to win the trust of regular customers much more quickly using this marketplace rather than some of the other less generic options on 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.

Not sure about affiliate selling? 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 who offer your goods and services for their customers instead. In exchange, you give you a portion of profit. It's a way to reach more people as you might otherwise. Affiliate marketers with the best reputations have a strong influence over hundreds, or perhaps millions of their followers.

Features

Rakuten helps you set up affiliate deals. A few of the key benefits that they offer:

• The weekly pay of retailers
• Custom reporting systems
• Customized methods of monetizing your online store
• Dynamic coupons and other tools
• Excellent customer service -- seller account management and partnership teams.
• The ability to set up workflows and automation
• Help in selecting influencers and affiliates that are most aligned with your product
• A tracking system of influencers and affiliates

Pricing

As with other major markets, Rakuten charges a listing fee, a per-month fee along with a fee based on product categories.
They charge 99 cents per listing and $39 per month. Commissions can range between 8 and 15 in %.

Audience

A little preferred by males, however generally broad in scope the 25-34 age group makes up Rakuten's most prolific segment of users. But in general, Rakuten's target audience is difficult to define due to the fact that it is contingent on the influencers and affiliates you end up working with.

Their system is meant to help you connect with affiliates who have audiences that are compatible to your product. In theory, the customers will be those you'd like to have the most.

Reach

Rakuten businesses are situated in thirty countries in the two Americas, Europe, and Asia Pacific. And their shoppers and affiliates are found in more than the globe in 190 nations. So this is a global marketplace that uses the affiliate marketing model as the basis.

7. Newegg

Newegg was initially a technology-focused eCommerce marketplace, and remains the leader in that category. It has extended to other areas and has grown to become one of the top marketplaces for ecommerce businesses to offer their merchandise.

Features

Newegg provides real benefits to its most popular sellersusers who subscribe to a monthly membership. The benefits of this market depend on the membership you choose between their three options of free, Professional, or Enterprise.

Like Walmart, Newegg requires sellers to be approved prior to when they can use their ecommerce marketplace. This ensures an excellent quality level for their products. The main features are:

• A well-informed and targeted audience
• It is possible to sell secondhand and refurbished goods
• The ability to promote items on their websites and even use Sponsored Video Ads
• Support that is devoted
• API integration
• Advanced product listings that can contain video or touchpoint images to help customers make good choices
• You have access to Newegg Studios -- they'll create videos and images for your items
• Unlimited product listings with the Enterprise membership
• Post-purchase email automation with the Enterprise membership
• Discounts if you use Newegg Fulfillment as well as the Newegg Shipping Label service
• Benefits for sellers who set prices at a competitive price
• A Premium Seller Program that grants you access to the largest consumers
• The option to advertise through Newegg's social channels and email marketing campaigns

Similar to Amazon as well as Walmart, Newegg has a fulfillment and shipping label service If you've got the inventory for it you can use it since it can cut costs.

Pricing

There's a free version and a paid version, however the Professional version priced at $29.95 per month and Enterprise subscription at $99.95 per month will give you access to the best features.

Audience

Newegg's customers are mainly focused on technology and is knowledgeable. It has many early adopters than most other places as well as, generally speaking an affluent crowd. Contrary to Amazon, Walmart, and Alibaba, people who shop at Newegg generally have a net income in the range of $75k or greater. The customer base of Newegg is 72% male, and mainly aged between 18 and 44.

In addition to a wide array of electronic and other accessories, Newegg also does well in the kitchen and home appliances, and is growing into sporting goods categories.

Newegg shoppers love to look at product specs, so this is not the place to be a light touch on specifics. It is important to provide plenty of information on your product pages, and seriously consider adding videos. Three-quarters of the customers have been returning customers.

Reach

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

So it's a smaller audience, but one that spends more, and are looking for particular types of products. As with Etsy there is a chance to build a larger and more committed fan base here than in the big broad marketplaces.

Why should you sell it as part of your global strategy

Marketplaces on the internet can be great gateways into the world of selling online. They're also a great way to meet your audience wherever they are and in places they're already purchasing.

However, when it comes down on it, the most effective way to grow your online company and keep full control is to begin your own online store . Let's 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 Your business doesn't come in their top priorities. So when potential buyers browse or search for products, they'll not only find items of competitors alongside yours, but 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 a different business over yours. But with a tool like , you could create a website that helps shoppers find what they're looking for and seamlessly make a purchase and without the distractions of the other shops.

2. Marketplaces provide limited options for design and functionality

On marketplaces that are online they require you to modify the product descriptions to fit their specifications for designs, layouts, photos as well as categorization and the length of descriptions. This means you might not be able to include all of the information you'd like to include.

And since you're working within an established design template you might not have the ability to alter it to match your brand. Your items will look very similar to everyone else's.

With , however, you are able to create exactly the kind of listing for your store or product you'd like. Include lots of images and videos, including dimensions charts and lists of ingredients to customize the look and feel to fit your brand

3. Marketplaces make up a portion of sales

Third-party marketplaces take a cut of the sales made online as a reward for their services. If you increase your business, this can add up increasing. However, there are no costs for selling your products online.

4. Marketplaces limit your control

When you sell through a marketplace that is third party, 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 warning. It means you'll lose your revenue stream and possibly the content you've created.

With Jetpack, you'll enjoy total control over and complete ownership of your website. Additionally, you can make backups that will protect every element of your store including customer and sales information. So if something ever goes wrong, you can quickly get back up and running.

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 integrate the tools that you're looking for in advertising, marketing via email, customer relationship management, search engine optimization and many more. Additionally, it can be more difficult to gather customer data, and effectively engage with those clients.

6. Markets can make it difficult to change

As you grow your business it is likely that you will have to implement significant adjustments to make room for more sales. In particular, you could need to revise your shipping or marketing strategy, accept a variety of currencies, translate your content to various languages, or even integrate with fulfillment or inventory management software.

Third-party marketplaces can create difficulties in making these sorts of adjustments. They could not work with the platforms you'd like to utilize. Or perhaps they won't allow you to make the modifications you need to sell globally.

With , you can accept many currencies, arrange shipping in many ways, integrate with lots of software, and design the store in whatever way you'd like as you grow. You can also select any host you like for the tools, resources tools, and support required to handle growth of traffic.

If you're looking at it, this is the most effective method to start and build an online business that is successful. It's a platform that's easy to utilize (no code required! ) and has the most flexibility top-notch support, and full control.