Best Australian Online Marketplaces for Selling Your Products

Australia has experienced two years of COVID-19 craziness with shutdowns and home-based working – businesses seem to have suffered. Well, this is the businesses that did not pivot into eCommerce that is.

According to Australia Post, eCommerce reached an all-time high in 2020, as the pandemic changed consumer behaviour and drove phenomenal growth in online shopping. eCommerce in September 2021 saw purchases up 27 percent compared with September 2020, bringing the number of households who shopped online in the 12 months to 30 September to 9.2 million.¹

But with a growing crowd of new businesses going online – the cost and efforts are becoming overwhelming. So, if you really want to expand your eCommerce business, online marketplaces are a must. But to ensure you join the right ones and you are not just wasting money, you will need to first identify the best online marketplaces for your brand.

Each online marketplace has its own unique requirements, product categories, listing fees, and audiences. So, if you want to be sure you’re making the right decision, some upfront research is necessary. You’ll want to understand the different strategies for selling on marketplaces, which ones hold the most promise for your products, and what you need to do to ensure a smooth start.

Does that sound scary? Not to worry. We’ll go over each of these areas in detail. In this deep dive, we’re covering all the need-to-know essentials.

Ready to get started? Let’s dive right in.

What Is an Online Marketplace?

Marketplaces are amazing channels that can elevate your online presence and boost your performance. At its core, an online marketplace is an eCommerce site that offers many different products from many different sellers. Some of the most well-known Australian marketplaces include:

• Amazon,
• eBay,
• BuyNatural,
• Catch,
• MyDeal, and
• Gumtree.

However, these are far from your only options.

There are also niche online marketplaces GraysOnline and Etsy

In fact, there are now 100’s of online marketplaces in Australia and around the world that you could potentially leverage to reach customers doing their online shopping with trillions of dollars in revenue potential just waiting to be tapped.

Yes, there is a lot to think about. But remember: you don’t need to go after all of them and you can plan a calendar for signing up that suits your business goals and budget. You just need to determine which marketplace is the best fit for your brand.

But first, why you should consider becoming a third-party seller in a marketplace.

The Biggest Benefits of Selling on Online Marketplaces

At the end of the day, Marketplaces are out spending brand sites in search marketing and branding campaigns – this is leading them to become the defector location for shoppers to look for products. Additionally, these marketplaces are constantly coming up with new ways to keep customers engaged and locked into their communities.

Leverage the marketing power of the marketplace and access their shoppers is great news for third-party sellers.

It means most marketplaces will go to great lengths to make it as easy as possible for brands and retailers to market, sell, and fulfill. Why? Because the easier it is for you to use the platform, the better the experience will be for shoppers — and the more likely they’ll be to keep coming back for more.

This takes shape in three particularly attractive advantages:

1. Fast launch times.

If you’re new to selling online, marketplaces can be an excellent way to generate revenue and build your brand as you work to drive traffic to a new eCommerce website. Once approved as a third-party seller on marketplaces, you simply upload your product feed and start selling.

Do you already have an established online store? Here’s another trick: Some brands use “where to buy” widgets to send visitors from their websites directly to marketplace product pages, where consumers can add items to shopping carts without being immediately exposed to competitors.

2. Established programs.

All of the biggest and most established online marketplaces have programs in place to help you easily navigate the waters of marketing, selling, and fulfillment.

For example, sellers on Amazon, eBay, and Google have access to Amazon Advertising, eBay Promotions Manager, and Google Shopping Actions. Each of these digital marketing programs are packed with tools to help you get products in front of all the right customers, at just the right times.

Similar options are available to help sellers meet consumer expectations for fast, free deliveries. With programs such as Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) and eBay Global Shipping, for instance, you can opt to have the marketplace warehouse, pick, pack and ship inventory on your behalf.

3. Large customer bases.

As you may have guessed, many online marketplaces have enormous built-in audiences of consumers who regularly shop at these sites. Just think: between Amazon, eBay, and Catch alone, you’re looking at close to 500 million active monthly visitors.

But did you know that many of those consumers start with marketplaces when they want to purchase products? They don’t even bother with Google or retail websites. In fact, 56% of all product searches now begin (and often end) on Amazon.

Source

If your products aren’t showing up in those search results, there’s a chance your competitors will land the marketplace sale before consumers ever think to visit your online store.

4. Outsourced logistics & fulfillment.

Although most Marketplaces, require the Seller to do self-fulfillment (within a tight window post-order), Amazon and BuyNatural offer platform fulfillment options known and FBA and FBN. Both of these services allow Sellers to send stock to their fulfillment centers and as orders are made, the platforms handle the pick, pack and dispatch. As well as any returns and customer service for these items. Apart from making it easy for the Seller by having almost no management overhead in running their Store, the costs for storage and shipping are hard to beat given these platforms can aggregate costs across large groups of Sellers.

Leveraging the FBA and FBN options for Amazon and BuyNatural is a must if you are time-poor and want an additional selling channel without the headache of managing this channel.

Business Strategies for Selling on Marketplaces

Contrary to popular belief, selling on marketplaces doesn’t have to be an all-or-nothing proposition.

Sure, there are ways to deeply embed your business within the world of marketplaces. But if you’d rather take your time and test out different options, there are equally effective ways to do that, too.

Here are two different approaches to consider:

1. Starting a new business on marketplaces.

If your small business is looking for a fast, easy way to get products in front of shoppers, selling on eCommerce marketplaces is an excellent place to start.

While your choices may be slightly more limited compared to those of established brands and retailers, plenty of options are available to consider.

Given new brands often don’t get the traffic to their websites as their domains are not SEO optimised or their paid search budgets (SEM) are just too small. Marketplaces are the right choice to build a digital footprint quickly and without a lot of fuss.

2. Creating multiple digital purchase points.

Even if you already have a thriving online store, uploading your products to select eCommerce marketplaces is an excellent way to expand your reach and create multiple places for shoppers to see and purchase your products.

In fact, I’d go so far as to say you could be missing out on sales by not incorporating marketplaces into your strategy.

Why? Because shoppers who see your products in multiple locations build a stronger ‘trust’ with the brand – it’s credibility increases and the opportunity for an online sale goes up.

For example, in the US an estimated 44% of Amazon shoppers say they always check prices on Amazon before making a purchase on another site. More than half go to the marketplace to read full product descriptions, and 60% visit it specifically to look at product reviews. What’s more, this consumer behaviour is likely to be mirrored in this market.

Many shoppers will also consult with other marketplaces like Catch and eBay to compare prices and buying options. By expanding your online store to these platforms, you can help shoppers find the information and offers’ they need to buy where, when and how they want to.

9 Essential Steps for Online Marketplace Success

While you could test dozens of different strategies on each marketplace, a handful have really stood the test of time. These seven steps will go a long way in getting your new marketplace account set up for long-term success.

1. Optimize product content.

There are product listings shoppers see, and product listings people buy.

The difference?

Your product content. Product titles, descriptions, and categories are often what compel consumers to make purchases. The more effort you put into these, the more likely you are to see your listings rise to the top of marketplace search results. Services like Feedonomics can optimize your marketplace listings to help increase sales and visibility.

Take time to find the right keywords, create compelling product descriptions, identify the best categories and optimize your images.

2. Prepare to advertise.

The vast majority of product pages are populated with ads. But these aren’t like the popups and banners that people tend to block or ignore. These ads get clicked.

If you want to be truly successful on marketplaces, you’ll need to invest in at least a little digital marketing to help put your products front and center. (Case in point: ChannelAdvisor sellers who advertise on Amazon grow 63% faster than those who don’t.)

3. Calculate profits.

Each online marketplace has its own set of seller transaction fees, commissions, and requirements. Taking time to understand these differences today can ensure they’re profitable channels for you tomorrow.

4. Structured Pricing Strategies

As shoppers become more attuned to the wide array of options for purchasing the same product at different prices, it’s no longer your item details and imagery that will capture their attention. Pricing plays a central role. And having a structured pricing strategy is essential to marketplace success. Two key areas include:

Automated Repricing

A rule-based or algorithmic is a must for competing on any major marketplace. Whether you want to adjust pricing based on the competition or guarantee more Buy Box wins without sacrificing revenue, repricing tools will ensure those changes are made without delay. The key is to use a system or tool that aligns your competitive prices across channels — think Amazon or eBay — so you can reduce your risk of breaching marketplace policies.

Performance-Based Pricing

A strategy that leverages business rules to create a dynamic pricing structure that’s automatically adjusted based on sales performance. If sales dip, so does the price. When orders occur with more frequency, the cost of that item rises once again. So if you want to keep a product moving, for example, you might set a product’s price to be automatically lowered by 10% when no more than five are sold in a week.

5. Diversify your shipping strategy.

Marketplace shoppers don’t just want fast, free shipping. They expect it. An astounding 96% of customers now expect free shipping, and 26% will abandon a shopping cart if shipping is too slow.

Without a cost-effective way to deliver on these demands, fulfillment costs could soon be eating up your profits. For this reason, having consistent access to the most competitive carrier pricing and delivery options is essential.

There are several ways to diversify your shipping and fulfillment strategy. Some sellers choose to leverage programs like Amazon FBA, BuyNatural FBN, while others rely on third-party eCommerce providers (3PL) to do the order pick/pack.

Many Sellers will use a mix of different methods to ensure the fastest, most affordable option for each order on different marketplaces. In this scenario, where you are doing self-fulfillment you might use private carriers such as Aramex and Sendle for some orders, and Australia Post for others.

6. Be ready to expand.

If you’re serious about growing an eCommerce business, you’ll eventually want to start expanding to multiple online marketplaces.

When you do, the key is to streamline your growth. Many companies do this by relying on an eCommerce platform built to integrate with dozens of different marketplaces. That way, instead of uploading your product data every time you decide to expand, you simply add your data and list products once — and then tell the platform when it’s time to share it with another marketplace.

7. Let your customers know.

Last but not least, don’t forget to spread the word! Send an email, do a push on social media or add call-to-action buttons on your website. Whatever you choose to do, make sure your customers know they can now buy from you on their favorite marketplaces. This social currency cannot be ignored.

8. Automate Fulfillment.

If your fulfillment operations still involve a lot of spreadsheets and manual tasks, it’s time to put things on autopilot. The more you automate, the better equipped you’ll be to speed up delivery times and cut down on shipping costs. For example, successful sellers often use:

• Intelligent order routing to have each order sent to the most effective fulfillment partner based on shipping speeds, delivery fees, warehouse locations, and other factors.
• Automated inventory management to ensure inventory levels are always up-to-date across multiple marketplaces.
• Automated shipment tracking to automatically mark packages as “shipped” as soon as delivery is initiated and ensure buyers have the most accurate, up-to-date information on package locations.

9. Diversify Your Shiping Strategy.

Today’s marketplace consumers don’t just expect fast and reliable fulfillment. They demand it. Having consistent access to the most competitive carrier pricing and delivery options is imperative if you want to stay ahead of these demands. It’s important to have a full range of options at your fingertips, so you can go with the fastest, most affordable delivery method for each and every order. For many shipping scenarios, it’s best to use carriers like Australia Post. For others, a lowercost option like Aramex or Sendle may be ideal. Diversifying your carrier strategy — rather than relying on one single option — is now a necessity when selling on marketplaces.

There’s no one right way to deliver orders, but as a general rule you should test out different options until you land on a mix that consistently gets the job done quickly, efficiently and cost-effectively. Consider all of your options, including:

• Fulfillment by Marketplaces – Amazon (FBA) & BuyNatural (FBN) when you want to entrust these Marketplaces’ fulfillment centers with packing and shipping to ensure the marketplace’s high standards for delivery and returns are always met.
• Third-party logistics (3PL) when you want to rely on fulfillment experts to warehouse, pick, pack and ship your goods for you.
• Dropshipping when you want to expand your catalog far faster than you would by housing or handling more inventory yourself.

Still, deciding which fulfillment options work best for your business model? When in doubt, focus on the customer claims and feedback you receive through marketplaces. Is there a common complaint related to delivery? Are certain shipments routinely late or failing to meet expectations? Use this information to make adjustments or decide when it’s time to consider new options.

Quick-Start Online Marketplaces

Based on ChannelAdvisor’s experiences with more than 2,700 sellers and processing more than $10 billion in gross merchandise volume, we know that the vast majority of sellers are able to launch quickly by starting with a handful of the most established marketplaces.

Each marketplace comes with its own set of seller fees, commissions, and requirements, so it’s important to weigh your options carefully. Here are five to consider:

1. Catch.com.au.

With over 3 million active customers, Catch.com.au is a major online shopping destination for Australia’s major, more established brands and products. Catch is a part of the Wesfarmers Group, which has Australia’s well-known retailers, Kmart, Target, Bunnings & Officeworks.

Catch is a curated cross-category marketplace, ranging from fashion to pet supplies and everything in between.

There is a monthly subscription fee of $49.99 inclusive of Goods & Services Tax (GST) plus seller fees.

Starting with Catch is easy and details are on their Catch Sell page.

 

2. Amazon.

Although still growing in Australia, Amazon is fast establishing it’s self as a must-have for a complete marketplace strategy. One of the biggest benefits to selling on Amazon is the access you can get to the marketplace giant’s 100 million Prime members in Australia and around the world. These consumers spend an average of $1,400 a year on Amazon, making it a goldmine for brands and retailers. Whether you choose to fulfill orders yourself or rely on FBA, making your products available to Prime members is key.

Once you start selling on Amazon, you’ll have plenty of other factors to take into consideration, but for now, your biggest decision will be which selling plan is the best fit for your business.

Amazon’s individual selling plan is enough for most third-party sellers that want to get started immediately. But if you have products in niche categories like collectibles or fine art, you’ll need to have a professional plan and apply for permission.

The professional selling plan is $39.99 a month, plus:

• Per-item selling fees, which vary by category (8-15%), and
• Variable closing fees and referral fees.

With an individual selling plan, you’ll pay $0.99 per sale, as well as selling fees based on each category. There are some tough requirements on shipping times if you are not using FBA and you become fixated on your ‘Buy Box’ percentage.

3. eBay.

If you want to tap into the power of yet another channel with a vast global market share, eBay is a great option. This expansive marketplace gives you access to 168 million active buyers worldwide who together generate $95 billion in annual gross market value. With 190 markets around the world, you’ll have plenty of opportunities to expand and grow.

When selling on eBay, you’ll be looking at two primary types of selling fees:

1. an insertion fee when you create a listing, and
2. a final value fee when your item sells.

However, there are no setup, monthly or annual fees to worry about. Unlike Amazon’s FBA and BuyNatural FBN, there is no platform fulfillment option. eBay Sellers are required to do self-fulfillment of their orders.

4. BuyNatural.

For Sellers with Natural, Organic, and Eco-Friendly products then BuyNatural is the right Marketplace for you. You’ll have access to customers who are specifically looking for these types of products. Whether you choose to fulfill orders yourself or rely on FBN, getting your natural, organic, and eco-friendly products in front of a highly targeted audience is pure gold.

When selling on BuyNatural, you’ll be looking at two primary types of selling plans:

1. Self-fulfillment – Independent Seller, and
2. FBN Managed – Basic, Starter & Professional.

The Seller fees are 12% for all plans, 3% PayPal fee – There is an AutoPay feature which means you get paid as each order is dispatched rather than waiting weeks to be paid.

If you feel your products will be a good fit on BuyNatural’s Marketplace, the first step is to visit the Seller Center

5. MyDeal.

MyDeal was established in 2012, as an online marketplace for home and garden retail. MyDeal states that it currently offers over 1 million lifestyle products in over 3500 different categories. 1,000 Sellers and 800,000 active customers. Given this Marketplace’s vertical focus, Sellers of home and lifestyle products would find an audience looking for these kinds of products.

MyDeal seller’s rates are dependent on product category but the actual seller’s fees are available on their site and you are directed to submit a request. Should you wish to find out how much selling on MyDeal will cost you, you can submit a request on their website.

Expanding to Global Marketplace Audiences

Did you know that 95% of the world’s population lives outside the U.S.? Or that 7 out of 10 online shoppers make purchases from international sites?

Once you get comfortable selling domestically on online marketplaces, the next step is to expand your online business to international audiences. More than 80% of retailers worldwide say cross-border ecommerce has been profitable, so this is one opportunity you don’t want to miss.

Many global marketplaces will handle translations, currency conversions, customs, and tax calculations on your behalf, making it easier than ever to reach international audiences.

When you’re ready to really dive in, BigCommerce’s complete list of all 49+ global marketplaces is a good guide to rely on. For now, here are several quick-start opportunities to keep on your radar:

1. Australia

• Amazon AU
• MyDeal
• Kogan
• Catch.com.au
• BuyNatural
• GraysOnline

2. Asia Pacific.

• AliExpress.
• Amazon China.
• Fruugo.
• Taobao
• TMall.
• TradeMe.

2. Europe.

• Amazon Germany.
• Le Redoute.
• Otto.
• Rakuten.
• Zalando.

3. Latin America.

• Amazon Mexico.
• Mercado Libre.

Key Take Aways

Whether you’re getting ready to launch a new eCommerce business or have been selling online for years, online marketplaces should be a central part of your strategy.

And thankfully, it can be relatively painless to get started with this business model. You can launch quickly, reach built-in audiences immediately and take advantage of established programs that make it easy to market, sell and fulfill within each platform.

By following the steps in this guide, you can be selling on these popular platforms in no time.

First, decide which marketplaces will be the best fit for your brand. This will vary from business to business and depend on factors such as marketplace fees, requirements, and top categories.

From there, you can move on to bigger and bolder strategies that will help get your own products in front of millions of purchase-ready consumers — perhaps even more than you dreamed possible.

Although it may all seem daunting at the outset, trust us: Once you start to experience the profit potential of selling on online marketplaces, you’ll never look back.

 

1 Insights based on the extrapolation of 2019, 2020 and 2021 parcels data recorded by the Australia Post