Marketplaces: world trend and Brazilian receptivity

Research conducted by the Associação Brasileira de Comércio Eletrônico shows the importance and the rise of e-commerce in Brazil, even in times of political and economic instability: in relation to 2017, there was a growth of 12% and sales in the order of 59.9 billions of reais within this trade modality. However, many sellers do not sell  their products on their own online store(the traditional e-commerce) but choose to sell in third party Marketplaces.

This text intends an explanatory approach to the concepts and nuances of the MarketPlaces, as well as the Brazilian companies that work in this field.

Definition

Marketplaces are a business model for selling goods known for connecting directly customer and supplier, through a virtual platform (websites or apps), possessing high quantity of traffic and a large quantity of products. According to the Business Model Canvas, the business model of the MarketPlaces can be illustrated as Daniel Pereira formulates

Marketplace Types

• Traffic Generators: In this model the marketplace is contracted only to direct traffic to the seller’s website through the display of its product catalog. After the customer accesses the seller’s own website, the seller is responsible for all the other steps in the sales process. Thus, this kind of Marketplace is limited to marketing actions in order to attract a bigger volume of visitors. The charge, in this model, is usually per CPC (cost per click).

• Order Generators: In this model the marketplace’s performance in the sales process is larger . In addition to marketing management, this kind of marketplace is responsible for purchase executions,  receipt of payment. and fraud analysis. A seller only receives the orders that have been paid and approved so that he continues with the billing and shipping to the customer. Given this model, the charge is usually per CPA (cost per acquisition), and the marketplace holds a % of the sale that was made to cover your costs.

Integrators

The conceptual confusion between the term Marketplaces and Integrators is also frequent . Integrators are companies specialized in facilitating the insertion of the store within marketplaces, mainly contracted by sellers who intend to make their products available in various marketplaces. Among the main Integrators are: 00k e-business tools, 2lig integração e e-commerce, AJ Desenvolvimento, Connect HUB, among others listed in this list.

Skyhub, one of the largest integrators in the market with clients such as Ambev, Sony and Claro, recommends some prerequisites before choosing an integrator , such as system stability, number of channels available and fidelity clause.

Companies in Brazil

MarketPlace Brazil, a business specialised in marketplace strategies, has developed an extensive list of Brazilian companies that offer this kind of service. It is noticeable that, despite a delay in adopting many technologies within the Brazilian ecosystem and culture, the use of marketplaces as sales platforms is on the rise.

For exemplary purposes,  is worth highlighting some platforms that operate as marketplaces, as wall the different characteristics between then.

Mercado Livre

Created in 1999 in Argentina with the intention of being Latin America’s eBay, it was recognized as the most visited marketplace on the web, reaching the mark of 110 million registered users.

Mercado Livre’s differentiated service are: 1) Possibility of registering for sellers who do not have corporate taxpayer identification number 2) It allows the creation of customized templates by using  HTML codes, images, videos and links. 3) By having their own payment system – of MercadoPago 4) User reviews are displayed in a transparent way, and both shop owners and users can be banned from the site.

B2W Marketplace

Within this platform, a business  can sell its products in the B2W group of  e-commerces, that is, com, Submarino and Shoptime.

B2W Marketplace’s differentiated service are:  1) The seller only pays commission, which revolves around 16% over the order value (product + freight) 2) American Prime and Submarino Prime, have premium delivery service, where the customer makes unlimited purchases and pays, in addition to the price of the product, a fixed value of freight per year

Repassa

This is an online thrift store , created by Brazilian businessmen aiming to stimulate a more conscious and sustainable consumption.

Repassa’s main services offered are: 1) For a new seller to enter the community of Repassa, he needs to be invited by someone who already sells within the platform, or buy some product at the site 2) The platform rewards users with 1% pass-through of the value of all sales made. 3) It has product delivery guarantee 4) Monetization through a 17% rate plus a flat fee of 1,99 reais when the sale a  product is made.

The growing of this type of trade within the Brazilian scenario and importance for the country’s own economy, it would be interesting to boost these platforms through an efficient and rapid regulatory system, as well as the development of public policies for the improvement of professionals able to develop and manage such tools.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Institute for Research on Internet and Society.