Omniarch Marketplace & Expansion
Marketplace & Expansion
The seasoned consultants at Omniarch's Marketplaces and Expansion team excel in propelling your digital business into new markets.
Three things decide whether a marketplace turns a profit
The assortment, the margin and who owns the daily work. The order matters — most start at the wrong end.
The assortment
Which articles go live, on which market and when. At Ellos we built a tactical assortment plan to secure time-to-market — the right assortment available at the right moment, rather than the whole catalogue at once.
The margin
The platform takes its cut, and shipping and returns eat into what is left. Profitability is decided by pricing, availability per market and daily follow-up — not by volume.
The organisation
Marketplace sales are daily work: merchandising, campaigns and stock control. Someone has to own it. At Cellbes we did, in the role of Marketplace Lead.
What a marketplace assignment looks like
Four steps. You can stop after any one of them.
Position
Marketplace Assessment: what your assortment, your systems and your organisation can handle today, and which marketplaces are worth trying.
Connection
Product data, stock levels and prices out to the platform. This is usually where the real obstacle sits — PIM and integrations, not selling.
Launch
Brand home, assortment plan and campaign plan. At Ellos we built a brand home across seven markets on Zalando.
Operations
Merchandising, pricing and follow-up every day. We can hold the role until you have recruited for it yourselves.
Marketplace Assessment
Omniarch Marketplace Assessment (MPA) is designed for those who need a clearer understanding of their current position and the potential within their organization and working methods to grow in new markets.
- Discover our Marketplace Assessment
Marketplaces in practice
Ellos
- Role
- Marketplace Merchandiser, Marketing Planner.
- Focus
- Marketplace Zalando.
Sandqvist
- Role
- Business Development, E-commerce Manager, Marketplace Lead.
- Focus
- Digital Assessment, E-commerce growth, Procurement and implementation of CRM and MA, Procurement of performance marketing agency, KPI framework, Marketplace Assessment.
Nordiska Kompaniet
- Role
- Responsible for E-commerce.
- Focus
- E-commerce, UX, Marketplace, Digital marketing.
Questions about marketplaces
Which marketplace should we start with?
The one where your assortment is already in demand and where you can keep the delivery promise. For fashion in the Nordics and Germany, Zalando is usually the first conversation; for a broader assortment, Amazon. A Marketplace Assessment answers the question with your own data rather than with industry habit.
What is the heavy cost of getting started?
Rarely the platform fee. It is the work on product data and integrations that costs: PIM, stock levels and price files have to hold before the first article can go live. At Nordiska Kompaniet it was the detailed PIM knowledge that made the difference in the marketplace setup.
How long does a launch take?
That depends almost entirely on the product data. If it is in order it moves fast; if it is not, that is where the work sits. We give a timeframe once we have seen your data — anything else would be a guess.
Can we do it ourselves?
Yes, and many do. What tends to be missing is someone who owns the daily control of assortment, price and availability per market. We often step into that role until you have recruited.
How is a marketplace different from our own e-commerce?
You do not own the customer relationship, and you appear in the same view as everyone else. That makes assortment selection and pricing more important than brand content, and it turns daily data into a control instrument rather than a report.
Does expanding into new countries count as the same thing?
In practice, often yes. Marketplaces are the fastest way into a new market because the traffic is already there. At Ellos we supported a Swedish stock connection for the German market; at Cellbes we ran nine markets in parallel.
Book a call about marketplaces
Leave your details and we will come back with a proposed scope and timeline.