Walmart is the most prominent example that e-commerce is the future. From Walmart to Sears and from Target to Best Buy, everyone is bringing their A-game to engage customers on the e-commerce front.

However, the transition is not that easy for these big basket retailers. These retail behemoths have to ensure their ethos reflect in their Digital Store as well. Moreover, add to that, Amazon is sitting with almost half of the US e-commerce share .

It has become easier for single business owners to move their traditional store to digital store with the help of eCommerce frameworks like Opencart. They can enhance the functionality of their stores by installing addons which completes their requirement such as newsletter subscription, BOGO, Upsell & Cross-sell, and more through official Opencart addons marketplaces.

Traditional Times vs Modern Times

In the classical era, buyers use to visit a dedicated retail store and have their products purchased. Now with '90s IT boom, eCommerce was/is/ and will be at the forefront. People use to visit their favorite e-commerce websites and buy the items.

Suddenly millions of websites cropped up and started to vie for the same spot. IT has increased the problems of business owners and marketers to attract relevant traffic and audiences to their website.

Here you've to reach out to them and tell them about yourself in the distinct way that it makes you stand out.

Moreover, it is the hardest part. Developing a social media strategy based on the most accurate buyer persona; creating content that addresses their problems and resonates with their aspirations and passion is what most are struggling.

The State of the Inbound report 2018, suggests that 60% of marketers agreed to attract similar audiences and lead their biggest challenge.

So what if we tell you a way which is as traditional but packaged into a newer version i.e., customers come to you rather than you approach them.

It lowers your customer acquisition costs; increases the visibility of your products in abundance and as a result, bring in sales. This approach is called Multi-channel marketing, and more and more third-party e-merchants are adopting it.

Here you connect Opencart store to the leading e-commerce marketplaces, comparison engines, and Google Shopping where customers already come to shop.

A combined USPS and comScore study found out that 96% of the customers first browse the products on marketplace s before making an end purchase.

These established channels have retained their targeted audiences, and customers make repeat purchases from them. Thus, listing your products on these avenues helps you to capitalize on their vast customer base.

However, everything great comes at a price, and this approach is no different. The most common fees are:

1. Commission on each sale of products

2. Listing fee for each product for a fixed duration

3. Monthly program fee

Most marketplaces have adopted different strategies. Some apply all the three types of payments, as mentioned above. Whereas some use only two. However, some are generous and follow pay-as-you-go model. It means they don't charge a single penny unless a sales happen.

The most popular revenue model is a commission-based fee.

Therefore it becomes quite essential to optimize your efforts in such a way to extract maximum profit from these marketplaces.

DO THIS AND ENSURE MAXIMUM PRODUCT VISIBILITY

1. Follow Marketplace SEO strategy:

Amazon.com, in itself, is an excellent repository for finding out the best keywords for sales inclined intent. Same goes for almost all of the marketplace, some things here and there, more or less, the majority of the marketplace's search algorithm takes the search term entered by the visitors and matches them with the text in Title, Item Description, and Tags, and suggests results accordingly.

Therefore choosing essential keywords to be strategically sprinkled in your content remains of the most crucial attribute.

Well because everyone at Amazon.com is potentially coming to purchase. They may or may not make a purchase, but no one enters the shop only for fun. So adopting a carefully scrutinized SEO strategy will help you maximize your product conversion rate. It is how, generally, the internal product recommendation system works at marketplaces:

a) Exact phrase search results appear at top positions. i.e., the item content (Title, Description, attributes, and category, and more) matches the user's search term word-to-word is given higher priority.

b) After that, the listings whose content closely resembles - includes synonyms or LSI words - with the user's search term are given priority.

Note: A lot of other factors come into play as well. The conversion rate of the listings, the positive reviews on the listings, the overall seller scorecard of the merchants and several other factors come into play while displaying the search results.

2. Create Awesome Content:

The product description (or, "About this item") section is responsible for the sale of your product. You must write all of the information which you believe is necessary for a buyer to take action in your favor. Ideally, an item description must include all of 'its aspects. From its make to occasions when it is/may most suitable for use, and it's utility and more. When you sit down to write the product description for any item, try answering below questions or add more as per your ideal buyer persona:

• what the product is;

• its color;

• its dimensions;

• the perfect person to buy for or gift to;

• its material;

• what is it used for

• its USP;

• how to return

• how to return

When you start writing the content for a product, the first thing is its Title. Some of the guidelines for writing SEO friendly title that customers can easily search and find your product are:

• It must be unique,

• user-friendly

• include keywords, generic terms, or any specific attribute

The Standard Title should be like

Brand Name + Its User + Make of the product + Most common feature.

You should not forget any information which makes a user still search for more details elsewhere, and if it's the case, you've lost the customer already. However if you've been successful in answering all the questions, a potential customer may witness the listing's conversion rate increase. Use a tone that best appeals to your ideal buyer persona are addressing their problems and how the product is going to solve it.

3. Cool Images:

An image is a thousand words. Yes, clear images do drive customers to take the decision. Image is your first impact. Therefore your main picture should show the visitor its most attribute which appeals to the users most.

There are certain guidelines if you follow, it can increase the conversion rate of the listing:

• The images should be in focus, well lit and centrally-placed with a white background.

• The images should not include accessories that are not part of the product.

• The images should follow Trust and Safety standards; they should not be obscene.

• Do not include watermarks, logos, graphics, illustrations or text on the images.

Also, use scaling to give visitors an idea of how its actual size would be, also avoid using too much white space in the image. Your product must utilize almost all of the space of the image. Also, if the product has several accessories then a bundle product image should also be there.

4. Use Marketplace Marketing tools:

Though Facebook and Google have almost achieved the duopoly when it comes to digital marketing. However, the majority of the marketers use this channel, and so should you. However, you shouldn't be limited to only these types of marketing channels.

As they say, data is the new oil, to monetize the gargantuan amount of consumer data related to their purchase behavior, many of the most popular e-commerce marketplaces are coming up or, have already developed their native ad platforms.

Therefore, you should not limit yourself to these traditional marketing avenues; instead, use these marketplace oriented native ad platforms. Here is the list of native marketplaces and their advertising platforms:

Image Source: Ecomm-nation.fr

5. Offer Clearance Products on Marketplace:

Every online store each year runs at least two clearance sales. However, it is these marketplaces that witness the maximum influx of visitors for these purposes as well. Therefore offer these products on the marketplaces with revised pricing accommodating their commission fees.

6. Offer your Secondary Products

It is here most businesses miss the trick. They offer all of their alpha products to the marketplaces. However, the method here is here to drive the audience to your store.

Once you offer all of the products at these marketplaces what happens is if a customer visits directly to your online store with the reference of seller name and finds out that your store has nothing unique to offer. He won't come back to your store ever.

Moreover, another strategy could be to offer secondary products or even one highly popular products, and if the users like it, then you get a new visitor to your website. Not only you sell your products, but you also acquire new customers as well.

7. Use CedCommerce Opencart Multi-channel Extension:

Then there are CedCommerce Opencart Multi-channel extensions , it gives you huge advantage — and the advantage is that with each of the order created on Marketplaces — Walmart, Amazon, and other online marketplaces their data is also created in your Opencart backend.

So in this way not only you make a sale you earn a crucial lead — that's called killing two sparrows with a single arrow.

Executive Summary:

As you already would have known it, validation is the first step towards producing any product in bulk. Therefore, these marketplaces not only offer you an opportunity to test your products but also, if your products are accepted, it gives you alternate sales channels to reach your targeted audiences.