Entering a marketplace (or several) can be a way to test international markets for all types of products.
"And the only investment will be the commission charged by our platform for the sales made," says Mónica Casal, CEO of Tandem. But that does not require a lot of investment does not mean that we should not plan our way of entry. “If I am a small yogurt manufacturer, just as I wonder if I am interested in being in Mercadona or Alcampo, I have to consider which platforms and with what price and product strategy I am interested in being in. Even if you do a good study, you come to the conclusion that it is better to try Amazon in the United Kingdom than Amazon Spain as the first launch market. One of the reasons why many SMEs and brands try the marketplaces channel is because they want to know the potential of their stock in international markets ”, says Mónica Casal.
Then, the first thing is to choose which markets interest you and which platforms (Amazon, eBay, Privalia ...). The second, with what products and at what price. If you are going to do promotions or enter with your usual price. And also the way you are going to be in the Marketplace: are you going to distribute your products yourself or do you let the chosen platform store and send them for you?
In which countries?
“Think that the same marketplaces can be in several markets. Privalia is in Mexico, Italy and Spain. If we choose those three markets, we must do three different microstrategies because Mexico does not sell the same as Italy. And Italy does not sell the same as France. We always prepare a plan for each of these windows. And the same goes for Amazon. You at Amazon can be present in the 28 countries of the European economic community, through its 5 European marketplaces, or you can go to Amazon Pacific and sell in Australia and Japan. Or to Amazon.com and enter the US ”, says Casal. And he recommends: “We normally start with an initial qualification phase in which we identify which markets are hot for our product. And a hot market is where there is considerable demand and where the competition is not very established. Based on that, we start by defining geographic markets. And once we have mapped the strategy for entering geographic markets, we identify which marketplaces in each of these countries we are going to be in ”.
And here it is time to avoid Amazon dependency. Not everything is Amazon. “The marketplace ecosystem is very fragmented. If you are an SME that sells pet supplies, you have to be in Mascoteros, you have to be in other highly specialized verticals. Therefore, in each country some marketplaces work more than others. France, for example, has a totally different outlook than Spain. France is one of the cradles of marketplaces. You have a lot of national and French marketplaces that are very powerful, like Cdiscount. And in Germany Otto is very strong. Hence the importance of defining geographic markets first, and since we know where that brand has to enter, we define the marketplaces mix and at what speed. That is, am I going to enter two at the same time or am I going to start with one and after three months I enter another? ”.
Regarding the way of “being” in a marketplace, Mónica Casal recommends leaving the distribution in the hands of the platform or looking for a mixed formula: “Enter with a significant percentage of your products distributed by the marketplace. Why? In the case of Amazon, for example, there will certainly be fewer glitches. And that will allow you to accumulate sales and accumulate positive opinions; and thus improve in the search ranking. Products with a lot of turnover, leave them in the hands of Amazon or whoever. Those with less turnover, save your storage on Amazon and distribute them yourself ”.
SOURCE: emprendedores.es
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