An assortment of e-commerce sites are available online and act as the best platform where B2B business takes place effectively around the globe. The cutting edge of a seller or a buyer is to choose where they (seller) have to place their product or where they (buyer) have to place their order for a particular commodity or service. Online retail operations takes place faster and more conveniently when people who posses similar trade profiles meet at the make marketplace website. As boosters of new business for online merchants these online marketplaces leverage the sales and purchase channels leading to increased business operations. Expanding your online retail operations is highly challenged by the very choice of the best online marketplace. E-commerce experts say, “From giants like eBay (eBay) to niche sites like Etsy to listing services like Craigslist, the choices can overwhelm a small business owner venturing into e-commerce”. So the huge platform can be narrowed by the seller by opting to operate in niche sites; provided you have clear idea on the credibility of the company and have found the best platform for the type of product you want to sell.
The popularity of online marketplaces is determined by the traffic that hits the sites and by the worth value of transactions. While the giants like eBay and Amazon still thrive and top the list of best online marketplaces there are many start up e-commerce platforms that are constantly emerging, but none so far looks perched up to grab a significant share from the industry leaders like eBay and Amazon. This is primarily due to the credibility they have earned through these years as well as the user friendly options with which products are easily bought and sold. eBay stores and eBay’s hosting company ProStores, can help you promote your business on the eBay site or your own site and list items more efficiently than the casual eBay seller. eBay provides services to sellers who can choose to auction or list “buy it now” prices; whereas in Amazon all sales are at fixed prices. A presence on Amazon can establish credibility with shoppers unfamiliar with your brand. Amazon has a reputation for “easier transactions” than online auction houses, with fewer customer service problems.
This is because buyers pay at the time of the sale; where generally on auction sites there are incidents where winning bidders does not pay leading to disputes that create negative feedback. Craigslist is another popular platform. The advantage of selling items on Craigslist is that you can list it free, but Craigslist is not an e-commerce platform, so there are no storefronts, shopping carts, payment systems, or other processes in place to handle sales. Yahoo Shopping is yet another platform for listing your products and the Yahoo store templates offer a quick way to get products listed online. But unlike Amazon or eBay, Yahoo is not primarily an e-commerce brand, so the audience may be less ready to buy. Another platform where online marketing takes place. Here anyone can list items and some merchants may qualify to sell excess inventory through the site. The advantage of this site is that it offers auctions or fixed-price sales at generally lower fees than eBay. However, even though the site boasts lower fees, it also has a much smaller audience. Finding the best online marketplace depend on the type of product you want to sell. At the end of the day what matters most on an online platform is how many eyeballs get to see your product and how much it costs you to get the results of what we say “good quality traffic”.
