Overview of Global E-Commerce Marketplaces – Which is Right For You?

Selling online?
Then you need to choose your channel.
Even if you’re “just” selling on your own website- that is a channel!
Today – we got you covered! This is an overview of various e-commerce channels (aka marketplaces)

Amazon has 300 million users, 110 million active users, over 2 million sellers, and 480 million products; it is indeed the biggest marketplace there is on the Internet. Amazon caters almost all consumer products you can think of. With their prompt shipping or delivery and hassle-free modes of payment, there’s no wonder why people these days prefer shopping online. For a seller, Amazon is a good place to put your products up, as it can expose your products to its millions of users sifting through every pages of Amazon. Although, the competition can honestly be stiff, if you just put your heart and mind into it, I’m sure you can deal with it.
Amazon’s top categories are: Electronics, digital music, home & kitchen, books, automotive parts & accessories, sports and outdoors, industrial and scientific, computers, collectibles and fine art and tools and home improvement. (source: Scrapehero)

Is selling on Amazon free? No. A professional account costs $39.99 per month for selling an unlimited number of products. If you opt for the Individual plan, it will cost you $0.99 for every item sold.

1. Fees – one of the drawbacks on selling at Amazon are the fees such as a $0.99 for every item sold if you opt for the Individual Seller plan and $39.99 monthly fee if you choose to be a Professional Seller .
2. Competition – Amazon has over 2 millions sellers, obviously, the competition is pretty stiff.
3. Regulations – Amazon is pretty strict with every item posted on their website, for example, they wouldn’t accept a product unless its image is professionally taken and properly edited with white background.
Is Amazon right for your business?
Amazon is big. Amazon has so much to offer for both shoppers and sellers. I guess the answer to that question relies on how dedicated and how competitive can you possibly be. With extensive research, resources and good marketing, I believe any business can go a long way at Amazon.

Wish is one of the most leading mobile shopping apps in North America and Europe, in fact, they have over 300 million users from all over the world. Wish is known for its low-price products that mostly came from China. Most of the buyers here are basically bargain hunters who may also be a seller like you, meaning, Wish is more likely a drop-shipping company. So, basically, if your products are cheap and resell-able, I guess Wish is the right marketplace for you.

1. Not everyone can sell on Wish. If you opt to sell branded products, Wish will seek authorization documents such as license, permits, certification, invoices, and any document to prove you’re authorized to sell a particular brand of product. Moreover, refurbished and used items are not allowed to be sold at Wish. To cut it short, Wish only works better with unbranded merchants with low-price items.
2. Reputation of Wish in regard to counterfeit and low-quality items is quite at stake.
3. Shipping takes as long as 1 month or longer
Is WISH your perfect marketplace?
I can say that Wish is not for everyone. Most of Wish users use Wish to find low price items, apparently, Wish isn’t for you if you plan to sell branded and expensive items. Wish is well-known for its wide variety of cheap items, hence expensive stuff just do not get along well with Wish’s existing products.

Recently, we have put up a more detailed blog post about Shopify, you can read it here.
Shopify is basically an online tool or a hassle-free platform that helps you build your retail business. One of its goals is to keep up with fundamental changes of e-commerce over the coming years. Basically, shopify has one whole package of tools you need in putting your products online – from having your own domain name to putting your products in the spotlight.
In other words, Shopify is for sellers who want to start and own their brand. Shopify is more likely a guide or shortcut to get your own store up and running.

1. Shopify is not free, neither are some of its third-party apps and plugins.
2. Exposure isn’t guaranteed. Unlike Wish and Amazon, thousands or maybe millions of users lurk around their marketplace, on Shopify, it’s all you – hence you need to exert much effort in order to get your products exposure.
3. Blogging platform is not Shopify’s forte – sadly, Shopify’s blogging platform isn’t as advanced as WordPress.
4. You’re entirely dependent on Shopify and its third party apps – although this is not totally a CON for Shopify, it still is better to be independent in running your own store so you can have control over everything.
Is Shopify your perfect Marketplace?
Shopify is perfect for e-commerce beginners because it has every tool a seller would need to put up an effective sales channel. Personally, I recommend Shopify even to professional sellers, it’s just nice to have everything you need in one place: domain, themes, effective SEO, social media integration, sales reports, etc. I mean, it’s a time-saver and even cost efficient.

JD stands for JingDong, which was previously known as 360buy.com. JD.com is a Chinese e-commerce marketplace from Beijing China that was founded in July 1998 and was put online sometime in 2004. Just like any other marketplace, JD offers wide variety of products such as electronics, clothes, shoes, furnitures, e-books and so on. Rumours say JD is the Amazon of China, for having almost the same number of users which is about 200million or more. In actuality, JD is really almost similar to Amazon, they even have their own fulfilment infrastructure just like Amazon’s FBA.

1. Language – JD is for the Chinese, hence its website are all in Chinese characters, there’s an English version of the website though, but I noticed that not all of its pages are converted to English. Moreover, Chinese customers hardly speak English, so it’s a CON if you cannot speak Chinese.

2. Interface – Is it just me or JD’s interface is a little bit of an eyesore? Too many products flashed on its homepage you can get lost.

JD seems almost as big as Amazon, and I think well-established brands / companies are more suited for JD.

Also, JD’s most top selling items are mostly from the category of consumer electronics or home appliances. Most of its users visit JD for these products. Apparently, if you plan to sell or already selling electronics, JD may be the right Chinese marketplace for you.

First off, Taobao and Tmall aren’t the same; neither they are competitors to each other. TMall is basically an e-commerce website for business-to-consumer (B2C) while Taobao is a consumer-to-consumer marketplace. Both are operated by Alibaba group. Taobao has over 300 million members and Tmall has about 500million users. Apparently, these two are e-commerce giants in China which basically both aim the same thing – to connect Chinese consumers and sellers through their platform.

1. Language Barrier – Apparently, speaking Chinese is important not only to reach and connect with Chinese customers but also to figure out everything about their buying habits and do effective marketing. Even though Tmall does not require international merchants a physical presence in China, it still is imperative to get a local team to do things such as customer service and work through marketing and logistics.

2. Opening a shopfront on Tmall Global is not free and the fee depends on what your category your merchandise belongs. Moreover, there are associated fees such as commission and Alipay service fee.

3. Tmall is open for foreign and international brands, yes, but not all can qualify and open a store immediately. They’ve honestly become more selective and prefer products from USA, Australia and Germany.

Most users of TMall/Taobao purchase under the categories of Personal Care, fashion and cosmetics, probably because most of its users are women. If you cater products under these categories and want to take advantage of the rapidly growing market of China, maybe Tmall is for you.

Wechat is the largest and most well-known social media app in China. The app was founded in 2011 and caters instant messaging, e-commerce and payment services. Wechat is basically everything all wrapped into one app, no wonder why it has a whopping 963 million monthly active users.

1. Limited scalability – advertising on Wechat is limited.
2. Cut throat competition – because of Wechat’s gigantic user base, the marketplace has become undeniably crowded.
3. Language barrier – Wechat’s users are mostly Chinese and connecting with Chinese users can be a bit hard if you cannot speak Chinese