Page 6 - AeM_November_2019

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

Own web shop or platform -

that's the question

For years we have heard that in terms of flexibility, the On the other hand, such a marketplace presence is
online shop can hardly be beaten and for many reasons especially pleasant in the early days of business
there is no alternative. But now an increasing share of operations, in order to gain experience and not have to
the trading volume worldwide comes from platforms bear the same high initial investments that a dedicated
such as eBay, Amazon Marketplace and Co. In fact, online shop naturally brings with it. Fees and sales
there are not only situations in the beginning of the commissions remain plannable and manageable and
business in which your own web shop is only the second sometimes only apply to successful sales. Also, you do
-best alternative. Platforms simply bring additional not have to worry about the technology and the
trading volume and reach. But what role should retailer creation of product descriptions as a platform dealer. If
portals like eBay or Amazon play? necessary, make sure that you publish your offers in
accordance with the rules.
It is clear, on the one hand, that dealers only have full
sovereignty over their business in their own web shop. In Over time, merchants should consider developing their
the past, they have repeatedly had to recognize that for business on as many legs as possible - and not to be
some reason Amazon has blocked them (often involving too dependent on any partner. The own shop remains
allegations of selling inferior or fake goods or having crucial because of the possible branding: the fact is that
messed up at the service level). Therefore, the only a customer who comes through a trading platform
good advice is not to rely too much on platforms - such usually doesn’t care about which dealer he buys from
as the Amazon Marketplace, eBay or Rakuten etc., and and he will rarely come back if another dealer is only
make smart use of the additional trading options. slightly cheaper and has a similarly good rating.
Because the platform sets the rules and can change And even worse: many less experienced customers,
them largely independently - and at worst overnight. even with the branding-strong Amazon, are still barely
Higher fees, a change in the order and presentation of
dealer offers or a change in the presentation of aware that they are buying their product from a third
party. However, you cannot afford weaknesses in
recommended products - all of this can quickly lead to service or objections when processing a replacement
dealers generating significantly less revenue than request - both Amazon and eBay support the customer
before.
rather than the dealer - in almost all cases.

6 November 2019 - E-Commerce & Digital Retail Marketing