E-commerce 4.0: Is it worth replacing e-commerce with a market?

* Author: Rodrigo Garcia Petina

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After the Covid-19 pandemic, markets grew by 68% according to the 2021 report of the Brazilian Association of Electronic Commerce (Abcomm), becoming an online storefront where consumers can search for their “consumption dreams” directly from home, without having to go to physical stores . As a result, evidence of these channels grew rapidly, attracting new customers.

There are several advantages of investing in selling products through the marketplace. Because, in addition to having much more visibility, sales platforms end up generating more benefits and profit margins, resulting in more significant sales and, automatically, more financial income.

As e-stores do not have a large selection of products, they have gradually been replaced by marketplaces that have a wider catalog, creating a better experience for customers. This is because the platforms bring together several merchants, making the offer larger than that of e-commerce, which is usually managed by a single company.

Since the marketplace has become the first choice of purchase for many consumers, several e-commerce platforms have joined this modality to increase sales and billing to stay high and keep up with the marketplace.

With that in mind, I’ve listed below 4 reasons why e-commerce stores have been replaced by marketplaces:

more modest investments

To work on the market, the cost is much lower because the trader is connected to the platform and can start selling directly through it. Only a commission is charged on the completed sale, which is deducted from the transfer/payment, that is, you do not have to pay anything in advance. Even if the buyer pays in 12 installments, the seller only gets one installment.

In e-commerce, the entire process of website traffic such as Google ADS, Shopping, Facebook ADS and Instagram, represents a higher cost. And it’s worth mentioning that when a click sale is made, the seller has to pay upfront and it’s not guaranteed.

Shipping policy

Many markets have simple and direct logistics, where they hire external companies to deliver products to customers faster. This is because there is company-run collection and recharge functionality.

E-commerce owners, on the other hand, have to ship orders themselves, which can lead to high costs and unintended delays, as a logistics operator is needed to fulfill requests.

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Product diversity and visibility

Usually, e-commerce sites do not have such a good browsing experience compared to the marketplace, so customers turn to them as a second option and look for platforms that have different products and from different sellers.

In addition, marketplaces are great storefronts, and it’s much easier for Internet users to access them than to access their own websites, not to mention platform apps, like Mercado Livre, which has more than 300 million listings on its site. So, with greater visibility and a wide range of goods, consumers often end up using markets via mobile phones, where they perform about 60% of transactions, and buy more items than they planned.

Security in receiving payments

Although both forms of selling are safe, market traders are more certain to get their bargain. As they are registered on the platform, there is a whole sales approval cycle, from the moment the customer puts the product in the cart, until payment.

If something unexpected happens, they will, with the support of the website, have direct contact with the customers in order to solve the problem of the sales error in the best possible way. On the other hand, those responsible for e-commerce should carry out the entire process directly with the customer, without any mediation.

This can be used to check the profitability of betting on markets, because besides being “lure” for customers, they offer multiple advantages in relation to the business model and sales logistics, which makes transactions happen faster. easy and safe.

* Rodrigo Garcia is an expert in market management, graduated in ADM, with an MBA in project management, and has been working in the digital market since 2008. Today, he is the CEO of Petina Soluções Digitais

Image: Marko Aliaksandr (Shutterstock)

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