‘It's more important than ever to differentiate your brand on marketplaces'

Do you want to know how to successfully build a brand via marketplaces? That's exactly what Dex van Hofwegen from ChannelEngine is researching. Together with Sophie Nijhout from bol and Emile Valkestijn from 10XCREW, among others, he is a member of the expert group ‘Successfully building your brand on Marketplaces’ by ShoppingTomorrow. In this interview, Dex shares some of his insights and tips!

• ShoppingTomorrow is an annual program involving over 500 digital commerce professionals.
• Each year, various expert groups research a specific question, development, or trend.
• In this expert group, hosted by ChannelEngine and bol, various marketplace experts come together to explore how companies can successfully build their brand on different platforms.
• At the end, each expert group writes a bluepaper with practical tips and insights to help your business take another step forward.

Dex, what expertise do you bring to the Marketplace expert group?

‘Over the past few years, at ChannelEngine, I’ve helped around 600 different brands, distributors, and retailers to sell via marketplaces and define a strategy for this. So, I have a good understanding of what motivates these brands to take this step and the challenges they encounter, in terms of content, profitability, and logistics, for example.’

Why is the main question ‘How can companies successfully build their brand on different marketplaces?’ so relevant?

‘With more and more companies offering their items via marketplaces, it’s becoming increasingly important for brands to differentiate themselves. Generally, there are two strategies you can apply on marketplaces: be the cheapest or offer the best brand experience.

Brands that focus on a low price compete with each other on that basis – and eventually run into the problem that the price cannot go any lower. Investing in a good brand experience is therefore more meaningful in the long term. We also see that online customers find the brand experience very important; they look for the right price-quality ratio and are willing to pay more for a qualitative and strong brand. These insights are supported by GfK research, which will be published this summer. By focusing on your brand experience, you create loyalty and continue to differentiate yourself in the long term.’

What challenges do entrepreneurs face in practice? And what solutions do you offer?

‘Many companies start with their own store or webshop and then want to take the step to sell via platforms. They often find it difficult to translate their brand image and brand value to marketplaces. Additionally, each platform has a unique target audience, and it’s not always clear which customers you reach with which marketplace. If there’s a mismatch, it can happen that items are frequently returned, don’t sell, or remain in the marketplace's warehouse.

To help entrepreneurs with this, ChannelEngine has Marketplace Partner Managers who are in close contact with the various marketplaces. This gives them good insight into what works and what doesn't on a specific platform. Together with our Customer Success team, they help our customers offer the right items on the right marketplace.

At bol, for example, these are the white and grey spots. These are items that customers are looking for but are not yet sold via bol, or items where the offer is not yet attractive enough.

We can then guide our customers here. This close collaboration with platforms is a win-win situation: the platforms receive more relevant items and content, and the entrepreneur achieves more profit because the right items that appeal to the target audience are offered. These are therefore returned less often and cost less in terms of marketing because customers actively search for these items.’

One of the sub-questions the expert group addresses is how entrepreneurs can integrate a healthy channel mix. How does ChannelEngine facilitate entrepreneurs in this?

‘A mistake many entrepreneurs make is to offer all their items at once via all channels. This leads to an unhealthy channel mix. For example, you first want to know what the white and grey spots are on the marketplaces, what kind of customers use the platform, what commission the channel charges, and what a fulfilment solution costs. Only then can you determine whether it makes sense to offer a particular item or not. Through ChannelEngine's software, you can then easily select the right items for the right channels.

Additionally, it works very well to create a unique online only or marketplace only offer that is tailored to the platform. We do this, for example, in collaboration with bol. The account managers at bol indicate which items sell well in sets, and we know which items have a lot of competition. We then advise our customers to create virtual bundles for certain items, where the content is automatically filled via Generative AI. This way, as a brand, you can scalably offer a unique range that matches customer demand and suits your brand.’

The ShoppingTomorrow final sprint event is on June 29th. What will happen on this day?

‘The final sprint is one of the events on the agenda for the ShoppingTomorrow research year. During the final sprint, all expert groups conclude their research, and we dot the i's and cross the t's for the bluepapers we are going to write.

In our case, we are trying to find an answer to the main question using four cases, including partners of bol. Each of these companies has a specific challenge, and together with the other experts from our group, we are looking for a solution. Our approach is very practical; we are already implementing possible solutions. In the final sprint, we will check if our KPIs have been met and if our hypothesis was correct.’

The result is a bluepaper. Why should brand owners definitely read this?

‘In the bluepaper that our expert group will write, you will find the cases we have covered this year. These are practical examples with insights that you can apply directly. Because the cases are so diverse and tangible, every entrepreneur will find useful tips in it. I recommend everyone who wants to build a brand via marketplaces to download our bluepaper in October.’

In the meantime, curious about last year's bluepapers? You can find them here!