Online Marketplaces: Helping Small Businesses Grow and Stay Cyber Safe
Online marketplace sales are projected to reach $3.832 trillion in 2024. Every small e-commerce business should learn how to maximize profits and capture market share. Instead of competing head-to-head with giants like Amazon or Taobao, consider leveraging their expertise to your advantage by becoming a seller on their marketplace.
The numbers don’t lie when taking the leap, nearly 70% of small business owners stated that online marketplaces helped them increase sales. Let’s look at how online marketplaces can help these businesses expand while staying cyber-safe.
A Marketplace Helps You Grow Faster
Marketplaces allow businesses of all sizes to sell products efficiently without additional technical infrastructure. They’re an enabler for small companies, letting them tap into capabilities, data and resources they might not otherwise have access to and potentially even save some money. Let’s dial in on a few of those advantages.
Lower Operational Costs
According to research by Connected Commerce Council, small businesses that opted for online marketplaces saved on average $20,000 annually. These savings can come in many ways. A brand-new business can start selling quicker by using an online marketplace’s infrastructure and integrated tools, including customer service systems, payment processing and shipping and fulfillment.
As you grow, your sales strategies will likely evolve as well. This could include working with vendors like Shopify to expand e-commerce offerings. Make the right choices for your business based on current needs and costs. For example, e-commerce vendors may have monthly subscription fees on top of transaction fees which may not be possible for a small business sometimes.
Nevertheless, it’s worth remembering that working with marketplaces reduces operational costs, then small e-commerce companies will be able to focus more on their products and other priorities such as investing in employees’ skills development, driving social media channels, and exploring new product lines. Instead of having to manually set up payment processing methods or have someone on the clock for 24/7 customer service, they might get to know their customers or plan for the busier shopping seasons.
Data Analysis
Online marketplaces’ data-collecting capabilities provide more scope than small businesses can typically get on their own. Additionally, they provide broader market insights. G2A.COM offers sellers a full package of data, for example, a list of all best-selling items and price comparisons against other sellers. Additionally, if the sellers use G2A Ads, they get the full report on the return on investment. That way it’s easier to manage pricing and marketing strategy.
We equip our sellers with a dashboard that provides the top performance metrics, like traffic and conversion metrics, ad performance, inventory levels and customer feedback to help them make the best decisions when it comes to how they market their offers. Having this cross-seller data available, our partners can view insights across vendors, something standalone e-commerce platforms don’t typically offer.
Enhanced Customer Reach
Online marketplaces attract millions of global visitors daily, offering much more visibility than an independent e-commerce site. And building up traffic can be a costly struggle.
G2A.COM offers sellers G2A Ads mentioned before, a promotional tool based on a cost per click model. They gain access to an ROI report to see exactly how the planned budget was distributed and how sales were influenced by the campaign.
In addition to ads, many marketplaces offer premium placement options within the store. In our case, we highlight a “Selected Offer” based on the best-selling products. These items are featured on each digital page to gain maximum exposure.
Furthermore, recommendation engines built into online marketplaces help fuel future purchases. When these systems analyze past purchases and other customer behavior patterns, they offer shoppers personalized offerings. This solution helps small businesses get their product showcased to relevant customers without extra costs.
Cybersecurity is the Biggest Reason to Partner With Marketplaces
Marketing and logistics aside, cybersecurity is the main reason a small e-commerce should partner with online marketplaces. With a solid cyberinfrastructure in place from the get-go, businesses don’t need to worry about taking the time and money to build theirs up from scratch or outsource it.
Online marketplaces have accelerated security measures through the use of AI. Acting as the initial layer of defense, the system tracks user behavior patterns and provides small businesses with insights to identify and address any unusual activity.
Over time, the AI-powered system learns from previous cyberthreats and adapts to new patterns, providing an evolving defense against hackers.
On top of an alert system, online marketplaces offer an arsenal of specialized tools that protect both sellers and customers. For example, penetration testing simulates attacks to identify weak points, while threat intelligence monitors global trends in cyberattacks to proactively guard against them. G2A’s AI solutions keep fraud much lower than the global rate due to our internal cyber defense team who constantly improves the AI-powered solutions, along with external partners to provide additional tools to protect customers through the entire buying journey.
Online marketplaces also provide educational resources for small business owners to upskill themselves and their teams. A full 50% of small business owners said their employees receive no cybersecurity training. Neglecting this sort of training puts e-commerce at risk. Their employees may be mishandling sensitive data, fall for phishing scams, or let certain threats go unnoticed for too long causing significant losses in data and money.
So don’t waste time on fighting the giants, instead join them, get all of the advantages and scale your business.
