Selling on marketplaces: where to start?

Marketplaces give you access to millions of buyers who are already there, already confident and already ready to buy. For a brand, it is a real opportunity. But selling on a marketplace is not just about putting products online. Each platform has its own rules, fees and codes.

Here is how to approach it, step by step.

1. Clarify your goal

Before choosing a platform, ask yourself: why sell on a marketplace?

• Gain visibility with customers who don’t know you yet;
• Test a product or a new market at a lower cost;
• Find professional resellers;
• Complement sales on your own online store.

The answer guides which platforms you choose, which products you feature and what budget you plan.

2. Choose the right platforms

Marketplaces are not all alike. A few pointers:

• Amazon: a very large audience, strong competition and strict rules on product listings and logistics.
• Faire: a wholesale marketplace, useful for finding independent shops that will resell your products.
• Rakuten and Cdiscount: platforms with a strong presence in France, each with its own categories and requirements.
• Mirakl: a technology used by many retailers to open their websites to third-party sellers, giving you access to those retailers’ marketplaces.
• Shopify: not a marketplace, but a solution for building your own store. It can connect to several sales channels.

It is better to start with one or two platforms you master than five you only half manage.

3. Prepare your catalogue

This is the most underestimated step. Each marketplace requires precise information, often in a set format: titles, descriptions, attributes, product codes, images, dimensions, weight, prices.

A few good practices:

• Keep all your product information in a single reference file that you keep up to date.
• Write clear titles that include the words customers actually type into the search bar.
• Plan quality images on a neutral background, plus lifestyle photos.
• Check the mandatory information for your category (composition, allergens, standards, warranties…).

A clean catalogue saves a huge amount of time, at launch and with every update.

4. Work out your profitability

Marketplaces take a commission on each sale, and some charge a subscription, fulfilment or storage fees. Add the cost of on-platform advertising and returns.

Before you start, calculate your margin product by product, platform by platform. Some products will be profitable everywhere, others only on your own store.

5. Organise logistics and customer service

Who packs the orders? How fast? Who answers customer messages? How are returns handled?

Marketplaces measure their sellers’ service quality: shipping times, response rate, customer reviews. Poor follow-up can reduce your visibility or even get your account suspended. Better to organise these points before your first sales.

6. Launch, then optimise

Once your first products are live, the real work begins:

• track sales, reviews and customer questions;
• improve listings that get visits but no sales;
• test on-platform advertising with a controlled budget;
• gradually add new products or new platforms.

In short

Selling on marketplaces is a climb in several stages: choosing the right route, preparing your gear, then moving forward steadily and adjusting the pace.

We help brands open and manage their marketplaces: account set-up, product listings, content optimisation, advertising and after-sales. Your first audit is free.