Grab yourself a slice of the channel-selling cake with third-party platforms

Third-party platforms often get a bad rep in the eCommerce world. After all, why give money to Amazon, Etsy, and eBay when you can keep all the money for yourself?

(It’s not like Jeff Bezos needs to take another trip into space anyway!)

However, utilising third-party platforms can be a great way to showcase your brand and sell your products to new audiences. Here are some reasons why they should be a critical part of your selling strategy.

1. You can experience significant reach

Amazon accounts for nearly 40% of eCommerce sales in the US. To put it another way, two out of every five products bought online are through Amazon. Not bad for a business that started out selling books!

Many people automatically default to third-party platforms when they want to buy something. They know how to navigate the website, they already have an account, and it’s likely their payment details are already set up so they can order in one click. This means you can reach a massive audience that might not have been aware of your brand.

2. You can get set up quickly

Creating a high-quality eCommerce website takes time. There’s an infrastructure to build, pages to create, and payment systems to integrate. And let’s not get started on the design!

It can also take time for your site to get recognised in the search engines. While SEO is effective, it can take between six to twelve months to achieve optimum results. Third-party platforms already have well-established search engine rankings for you to take advantage of.

The great thing about third-party platforms is that you can get started straight away. Set up an account, write your listing, and you’re ready to go. This means you can start selling while your developers work on your eCommerce site.

3. You don’t have to worry about the little details

Third-party platforms take a fee for their services, which can be a set payment, commission for each product you sell, or a combination of the two.

However, you get a lot in return for this, including:

• Hosting on a well-established website with exceptional domain authority
• Use of the platform’s own payment server
• Analytics so you can see your orders, the quality of your listings, and those all-important profits
• Thorough onboarding and support, for example, when it comes to fraudulent sellers or stolen listings
• Many third-party platforms (like Amazon) even offer ‘fulfilment’ where you ship your products to them, and they send them out to customers on your behalf

This can be a good way to ‘test the waters’ and see if your products will sell before you invest in your own eCommerce site.

Final thoughts

There are downsides to selling on third-party platforms. There’s a lot of competition, you have to pay seller fees, and it can be hard to foster brand loyalty when customers are looking for the cheapest products. Plus, you’re at the whim of the platform, meaning if they change their policies or up their prices, there’s not much you can do about it.

However, if you’re looking to amplify brand awareness, especially if you’re a fledging business, it pays to run a store on a third-party platform alongside your eCommerce website.

There are even lots of nifty site integrations you can use to quickly create product listings, view analytics and manage your orders – Magento, WooCommerce and Shopify are great for this. This means you save time and don’t have to worry about whether you’ve got enough stock for all your customers.

If you go down the third-party platform route, I recommend choosing just one to sell on. If you sell on multiple platforms, you risk spreading yourself too thin. Which marketplace is your target audience most likely to use?

Don’t forget; I’m always here if you want to talk eCommerce and digital marketing. Ping me a message or ask your questions in the comments.