7 Online Marketplaces for Ecommerce Businesses to Sell More
Each online marketplace offers different opportunities and charges various fees, making it challenging to know what works for you and your budget.
That’s why we’ve compiled this list of the top seven online marketplaces for ecommerce businesses looking to sell more.
This list includes:
Need help launching your presence on these marketplaces? With a team of over 500 marketing experts, our team at WebFX can help you build a presence on multiple platforms. Contact us online or call us today at 888-601-5359 to speak with a strategist!
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What is an online marketplace?
An online marketplace allows sellers to list and sell products via third-party sites. With these platforms, the transactions are processed by the marketplace owner. Essentially, you use a trusted intermediary to host and help sell your products.
7 top ecommerce marketplaces to sell
So, where should you sell your products online? Here are four online marketplaces for ecommerce!
1. Amazon Marketplace
One of the top online marketplaces to sell your products is Amazon Marketplace. This platform is highly competitive, but when you consider that 92% of Americans have bought something from Amazon, it’s a great place to start.
Amazon Marketplace fees
If you want to sell on this online ecommerce marketplace, you must take the fees into account. Multiple fees apply to every order, as well as some additional fees for specific products.
You can see a complete breakdown of the fees on Amazon’s website.
How to set up an Amazon Marketplace account
If you think Amazon is the right place for you to sell your products online, follow these steps to start selling:
- Go to amazon.com
- Sign up for an account
- Choose your plan (Individual or Professional)
- Add products to your store
- Create your storefront
- Start selling!
How to sell successfully on Amazon
Selling on one of the top online marketplaces can be a challenge. Here are a few tips to help you sell your products on Amazon successfully:
- Optimize product listings for keywords: Integrating relevant keywords into your product listings will help you appear in the right search results. Use a tool like KeywordsFX to find the right terms.
- Create a branded storefront: If people like the products you offer, they’ll check out your Amazon store to see what else you sell. You want to build a branded storefront to help build brand awareness and create an engaging and cohesive experience for your audience.
- Manage your inventory: Stay on top of your inventory levels to ensure your numbers match what you have in your warehouse. It prevents you from overselling or missing out on sales, which ultimately leads to a better customer experience.
- Offer excellent customer service: Great customer service is key to keeping customers happy and earning positive reviews. Positive reviews can lead to more sales, which can help your products rank better in search results.
2. Walmart Marketplace
Next on our list of online marketplaces for ecommerce is Walmart Marketplace. This marketplace enables you to list your products beside Walmart’s products. With over 385 million monthly visits, you have an excellent opportunity to reach people where they shop.
Walmart Marketplace fees
One of the most significant benefits of selling on this online ecommerce marketplace is that there is no monthly fee to sell on the platform. The only fee you pay is a referral fee for each item you sell, ranging from 6-15%.
For example, apparel has a 15% referral fee, while consumer electronics only has an 8% fee.
You can see an extensive breakdown of the fees in Walmart’s Seller Help Center.
How to set up a Walmart Marketplace account
If you want to sell on Walmart Marketplace, you must apply and get approved. Walmart thoroughly vets the sellers on their platform to make sure they’re a good fit.
So before you can even start thinking about selling your products, you must meet Walmart’s requirements and apply. Those requirements are:
- Global Trade Item Number (GTIN) or Universal Product Code (UPC) GS1 company prefix number
- Competitive pricing
- Fast and reliable product fulfillment
- Prior marketplace experience
- Great customer service
- Business-to-consumer (B2C) U.S. warehouse
- Tax ID number
- W-9 form
If all the following apply to you, you can complete your application to sell on Walmart’s Marketplace.
Once Walmart approves your application, you can start uploading products to your store page and start selling.
How to sell on Walmart Marketplace successfully
If you’re looking to maximize sales by selling on one of the top ecommerce marketplaces, follow these best practices:
- Keep your pricing competitive: One of the most significant factors with Walmart is pricing. Since Walmart offers low prices, they want their Marketplace sellers to offer similar prices. Make sure you competitively price your products to earn more sales.
- Use ads to boost product listings: With Walmart Marketplace, you can opt to promote specific product listings or promote your brand. This paid option is a great way to get your products to appear higher in search results and drive more sales for your business.
- Ship products quickly: Walmart takes your shipping rate into account when determining if you can still sell on their platform. You want to ensure that you ship products fast, within a day or two, to ensure you can keep selling products on the marketplace.
3. eBay
Another one of the best ecommerce marketplaces for sellers is eBay. This platform isn’t just for old or used products that people bid on to win. eBay has evolved into a platform that combines selling old with the new.
eBay fees
eBay has multiple fees you must consider when choosing this online ecommerce marketplace.
First, there’s a fee if you decide to open an eBay Store. The fee depends upon which plan you choose:
| Plan Type | Cost (if renewed anually) |
| Starter | $4.95 per month |
| Basic | $21.95 per month |
| Premium | $59.95 per month |
| Anchor | $299.95 per month |
| Enterprise | $2999.95 per month |
On top of the monthly fees for having a store, there are also fees for listing and selling products:
- Insertion fee: The insertion fee is charged per listing and per category. You get up to 200 zero insertion fee listings (and even more if you open an eBay Store). Once you go beyond 200, each insertion fee is about $0.35 per listing.
- Final value fees: This fee is eBay’s selling fee. They charge a percentage of the item’s total sale price. These fees are typically around 12% plus a $0.30 transaction fee.
How to set up an eBay account
To start selling your products through eBay, follow these steps:
- Sign up for an eBay account
- Choose a business plan for your eBay store
- Create your My eBay page
- Add your product listings to your site
It’s that simple!
How to sell on eBay successfully
If you want to be successful on one of the best ecommerce marketplaces for sellers, follow these tips:
- Use high-quality product images: If you want to sell effectively on eBay, you need to use high-quality product images. Your product images can be the difference between someone clicking on your listing or scroll past it. Refrain from using grainy, stretched, and low-quality images.
- Offer low-cost shipping to increase sales: When people buy products on eBay, shipping is a significant factor that impacts whether people buy. If you offer low-cost shipping, you can drive more people to buy your products over your competition.
- Optimize product titles and descriptions: If you want your products to appear in search results, you’ll want to optimize your product titles and descriptions to help them rank in the right search results. Use relevant keywords to help your products rank.
4. Target Plus
The last of the top online marketplaces we’ll look at is Target Plus. Target Plus is an exclusive online marketplace that can help you reach more interested shoppers for your business.
Target Plus fees
When you sell products on Target Plus, you pay a 5-15% referral fee for your products.
How to set up an account with Target Plus
If you want to sell on one of the biggest ecommerce marketplaces, you’re going to have to have an in with this platform. Target must invite you to sell on their platform, so it’s often a waiting game to get an invitation.
You can try to accelerate the process by filling out the Supplier Registration form and show you’re interested.
If you get invited to join Target Plus, you can go to the Partners portal and create your account. There you’ll list the brands you own and complete the onboarding process, like adding products.
How to sell on Target Plus successfully
If you want to sell products effectively through this online ecommerce marketplace, follow these best practices:
- Use high-quality product images: When you sell on Target Plus, you want to ensure you use high-quality product images for your listings. Use photos that are clear and showcase your products.
- Create descriptive listings: If you want people to buy your products, you need to sell them on it. Create descriptive, keyword-filled product descriptions to entice people to buy your products.
5. Wayfair
Next on our list of top online marketplaces is Wayfair. This online marketplace is great for ecommerce companies that sell furniture and home goods.
Wayfair fees
Wayfair doesn’t charge fees to host items on their site or take a percentage of your sales. Instead, Wayfair pays you for the wholesale cost of your items and sets a higher price on their website to make a profit.
How to set up an account with Wayfair
If you want to start selling on Wayfair, you must become a partner. You can become a partner by filling out an application.
Once you’re an approved seller, you’ll become a part of Wayfair’s dropship model. When someone buys one of your products listed on Wayfair’s site, they send you the information and you pack and ship the order to the customer. Wayfair covers the shipping cost.
It’s that simple!
How to sell on Wayfair successfully
If you’re looking to sell your home goods through Wayfair, here’s what you can do to help increase your sales:
- Offer multiple high-quality photos: If someone’s buying a piece of furniture or décor online, they want to see every angle, the size, and how it looks in a room. You can provide that though your high-quality product photos to help people visualize it in their space.
- Take advantage of promotional opportunities: Wayfair offers Way Day, where shoppers can get a lot of discounts on different home items. You can promote this day on your social media to help increase sales.
6. Alibaba
Another great place to sell online is Alibaba. Alibaba is one of the best ecommerce marketplaces for sellers looking to reach the Chinese market and sell bulk products.
Fees for selling on Alibaba
To sell on Alibaba, you must have a business account. You can see the fees for selling on Alibaba on their website.
How to set up an account with Alibaba
If you want to start selling on Alibaba, you can do so by creating an account for your business. Alibaba will take you through the steps of creating your account and choosing the plan that’s right for you.
You’ll also have to go through a Business Verification process to ensure your company is legit.
Once you have an account and pass the verification, you can post your products and start selling!
How to sell on Alibaba successfully
Need help selling on Alibaba? Here are some tips for selling on Alibaba successfully:
- Optimize for relevant keywords: When you list your products on Alibaba, they’ll appear in search results based on the keywords tagged to your products. You can only have three keywords per listing, so choose them wisely.
- Run ads: A great way to promote your products on Alibaba is to run ads. With Keyword Advertising, you can target people based on their geography and click history. You can help your products appear higher in search and drive more qualified leads for your business.
7. Etsy
The last of the ecommerce marketplaces we’ll discuss is Etsy. Etsy is a great place to sell if you offer unique products and custom-made products for your customers. If you’re a crafter, artisan, or vintage shop, Etsy is a great place to sell your products online.
Etsy selling fees
Etsy has multiple selling fees you must keep in mind when you host your products on their website. You can see a complete breakdown of their fees on their website.
How to create an account on Etsy
If you think Etsy is the best online ecommerce marketplace for your business, you can set up your account by following these steps:
- Create an Etsy account
- Set your shop location and currency
- Choose your shop’s name
- Add product listings
- Determine your payment method
- Set your billing method
Once you’ve completed these steps, you can start selling on Etsy!
How to sell on Etsy successfully
Ready to sell on one of the top online marketplaces successfully? Here are a few best practices that can help you sell more products:
- Use high-quality product photos: As with any platform, you want to ensure you’re using high-quality photos that provide your audience with insight into what you’re selling. Better photos will lead to more sales for your business.
- Run ads: If you want to get your products to the top of search results, consider running ads. Launching an ad campaign will help you appear in more relevant searches
What are the benefits of using an online marketplace?
Now that we covered the top online marketplaces, let’s look at two significant benefits of choosing to sell your products via ecommerce marketplaces:
1. You have access to a pre-existing customer base
The biggest benefit of hosting products on ecommerce marketplaces is that you have access to a pre-existing customer base. Instead of trying to drive a steady stream of leads and customers to your website, you can skip straight to having access to a pool of customers.
As a result, you can spend more time promoting your products and optimizing your listings to help you earn sales.
2. You’re partnered with a trusted marketplace
As a small-to-midsized business (SMB), one of the hardest things to do is build trust. When people don’t know your brand, they’re more hesitant to buy from you because they don’t know if you’re trustworthy.
By selling on an online ecommerce marketplace, you automatically gain trust.
Marketplaces like Amazon and Walmart earned the trust of consumers years ago, hence their success. When you sell on these marketplaces, you’re backed by the marketplace owner (Amazon, Walmart, etc.), which builds trust with your brand.
Not to mention, if something goes wrong, they know the marketplace owner will step in and resolve the issue.
Need help choosing ecommerce marketplaces?
If you’re feeling overwhelmed with trying to decide which of the top online marketplaces is best for you, you’re not alone. That’s where a professional marketing team, like the one at WebFX, can help.
We have a team of over 500 marketing experts that can help you figure out the right online ecommerce marketplace for your business and get you set up. From Amazon to Walmart, we have experience creating marketplace stores that drive success.
In the past five years alone, we’ve driven over $10 billion in revenue and handled over 14.9 million transactions for our clients. You can feel confident we can help you sell successfully through online marketplaces.
Ready to sell more? Contact us online or call us today at 888-601-5359 to speak with a strategist!