Brand & Recognition
For this section, it is worth making a small distinction between vendors selling third-party products and those selling their own products, such as digital native brands or those selling under their own brand.
In the case of first sellers, they may not be too interested in building a community or generating brand awareness since their products are sold by many other competitors under the same conditions. For this type of seller, marketplace platforms are often a good fit.
Marketplaces reach a lot of people but users often make purchases without knowing who the seller is, they only remember the platform through which they make their orders.
On the other hand, there are brands that market their own products and for this type of business, it is essential that their brand is recognised by customers. Ideally, such businesses should have their own website to generate brand awareness, as they will be able to personalise and brand their pages to the maximum. Through eCommerce, buyers will know who they are buying from and where to go if they need other similar products.
Generating this brand recognition and consumer trust is not an easy task. On the one hand, you must attract these users to your website through paid media and effective SEO and on the other hand, visitors must feel that they are on a secure website when providing their payment details or other sensitive data.
In contrast, the most popular marketplaces are already trusted by users and sellers will not have to invest extra for this purpose.
Building brand and user loyalty is a time-consuming and costly process that needs to be taken into account within the business plan.
