Marketplace: how to make money successfully in the season

At peak seasons of holidays and large sales, revenue can be doubled. This is a marketing axiom. But you can burn out by making a number of mistakes by inexperience. How to stay in a good plus and what tools to use when preparing a company to work on marketplaces is in the material.

Experts highlight several key points needed to work on marketplaces. Defining a goal is a priority. This may be selling old stocks, attracting new customers, collecting contacts for further work with the base or increasing the turnover here and now. Different companies - different short-term strategies. And already proceeding from the goal, it is necessary to think over what mechanics will be, relying on information about the target audience and its needs.

From strategy to start

The easiest and most effective way to work out the season on marketplaces is to place them before it starts. In organic search engine results, marketplaces often take 1-3 places. That is, having entered the site with seasonal goods earlier than anyone else, the chances of those stores that will be on the first line in issuance increase many times over. At the start of the season, the number of sellers will increase at times, and the competition will already be quite serious, so you need to be proactive, which will bear fruit.

Layouts each have their own conditions for starting cooperation. Somewhere it’s enough to create a file for unloading goods (feed), and somewhere there’s a long process of filling out documentation and organizing content. This may take one month or more than three. Sometimes some sellers cannot go beyond the application phase. Having passed this level, the task is to create unique content, to prepare high-quality professional photos. Only then - to sell and receive as many positive reviews as possible, which affect the decision of buyers.

For successful work it is necessary as often as possible to monitor the relevance of prices and the availability of goods. Because if one of the buyers complains that it is not available, this position will be removed from the show. Failures in the range negatively affect the seller’s reputation.

“In order to buy from you - they should talk about the product. To speak well. And the more, the better. Or about you - as a seller who deserves attention among a huge number of competitors. Working with the marketplace is a willingness to play long, and in addition to the desire to be able to communicate with a wide audience, you need to be prepared for the fact that it is not so simple, ”Dmitry Romanovsky, founder and CEO of Destra Internet marketing agency.

In the black from competitors

In order not to get negative in marketplaces, you do not need to fall in price below competitors. It is most profitable to promote a product by placing it on marketplaces through internal advertising mechanisms, with pay-per-action. Do not advertise a product that is expensive. It’s best to run ads on numerous small items.

Companies that use advertising without reference to marketing promotion often just spend huge amounts of money. Only a clear understanding of their margin and meticulous accounting of all costs for logistics, advertising, cost of goods, etc. Otherwise, it may turn out that after the end of the sale the financial result will be unsatisfactory.

Another thing is if the purpose of the sale is to get rid of stock residues, for example, products from collections of previous years, and against the backdrop of increased demand, increase sales of actual goods that do not fall into the category of sales. Then the resulting minus from the sale of products at a discounted forecast.

“Proper pricing is always important. This rule has no exceptions. When trading seasonal goods, many incorrectly assess the factors affecting the cost, and it is during the season that the cost of logistics, risks, packaging, raw materials and other things increases ”, Dmitry Alexandrov, co-founder of the Word of scrub handmade cosmetics online store.

Are “seasonal discounts” really discounts?

If you follow the social networks before and after the sales period, you can certainly stumble upon publications about unscrupulous sellers. They are, and there are quite a lot of them. Many really overpriced and discounted before the holidays. Thus, the product is better sold, the psychology of the buyer is triggered. On Ukrainian sites, this is little tracked, but on the same Aliexpress support service monitors sellers and prices.

Experts believe that this is a sore point for Ukrainian retail. Indeed, most sellers want to attract as many buyers as possible, sell as much product as possible and earn as much as possible. That is, they are not ready to provide real discounts. Therefore, various pseudo-actions and “conditional” concessions arise. Some stores raise the price a few days before the sale, and then indicate a lower price on the price tag. But in fact, it becomes even higher than it was before. The rest give discounts selectively on certain categories of products, or even remove more liquid goods from the storefront and catalog on the site for the period of sale. And after the end of the action, he again appears on sale.

This is a very erroneous and short-term policy. You should not think that the buyer does not know how to count, is not interested in goods in advance, before the discount season, and does not remember what the price of the product he liked before the sale was. Moreover, the consumer, taught by experience, comes to the store in a week or two, asks, writes down, or even photographs the price tags. In addition, he willingly uses a search engine and resources to compare prices to see this product from competitors.

In addition, there is a Wayback Machine website - a digital archive of the World Wide Web and other information on the Internet. There you can insert the address of the page and see what has changed on it. Or see the google cache and saved copies of the page. Any buyer's fraud will sooner or later come to light and end with negative reviews on the Internet, leaving an imprint on the seller’s reputation and ongoing promotions. Well, of course, the buyer himself and his close circle will never forgive the deception and will be lost for you. So this approach is incorrect and unprofitable, because the company has already spent money on attracting a client and, as a result, can cancel all the work done by one “sale”.

“For a dishonest seller, short-term gains during Black Friday, Cyber Monday, or other Christmas sales can turn into big problems with customer loyalty in the future. The deceived buyer will not return for shopping, ”confirms the founder and CEO of Destra Internet marketing agency Dmitry Romanovsky.

No special secrets

Today, communication with the client and customer focus is the most important aspect that you should pay attention to. This also applies to marketplaces. Stay in touch, quickly answer questions. Solve problems with the product, even if it will be in the red. Use gifts and “compliments” - as an apology for the negative caused by the purchase, if any. Do not forget that the impression of the acquisition is the most important tool that will work “for” you or “against”, as it will be reflected in the reviews. The client whom the company hears feels trust because they understand him, appreciate him and are ready to help him. Such a client will ultimately advertise the services or products of the company so eagerly that it will not go unnoticed.

Speaking generally about e-commerce, then as such a magic tablet does not exist. “There is such an observation: when a new tool appears, those who are the first to use it to promote their goods and services collect all the cream, while the rest of the players are late for various reasons with the implementation of the necessary settings, understand the technology or think about expediency. So it was with push notifications, and with product listing ads with photos in the search results, and with dynamic remarketing. While some people think whether to use a tool or not, Internet sales leaders are testing it with might and main, ”said Dmitry Romanovsky, founder and CEO of Destra Internet marketing agency.