Defining the Blueprint for Growth with the Enterprise Marketplace Index by Mirakl
As the industry’s first and most advanced enterprise marketplace SaaS platform, we live and breathe marketplaces at Mirakl. Since our founding in 2012, we’ve worked hand-in-hand with hundreds of industry leaders as they launch and scale their marketplaces, defining the strategies that businesses can use to maximize their marketplace success.
Along the way, we’ve seen the desire that both new and existing marketplace operators have for peer data. They’ve asked for objective, reliable benchmark data that can inform all stages of a marketplace journey, whether it’s building an initial business plan or accelerating the growth of a live marketplace. Now, for the first time, Mirakl is releasing the most critical metrics that leading retailers worldwide are reporting as they launch and scale online marketplaces. The result is the Enterprise Marketplace Index by Mirakl: the largest and most comprehensive analysis of third-party marketplace data in the industry. Our team has crunched the numbers on enterprise marketplace performance in 2020, offering essential insights for retailers who want to supercharge their growth in this new digital-first era with an enterprise marketplace.
The data represents more than 60 global retailer marketplaces, generating billions of dollars in gross merchandise value (GMV) across more than 50,000 sellers offering over 60 million products. We also spoke with leading retail Platform Pioneers across regions, asking them to share their stories of marketplace growth. Their insights offer a further look into the very real impact of enterprise marketplaces.
The Index offers a true blueprint for marketplace growth, analyzing the strategic, operational, and merchandising initiatives that marketplace operators use to drive both growth and profitability. Here’s what we found:
1. In 2020, enterprise marketplaces grew at more than double the rate of overall eCommerce.
Last year was marked by an unprecedented acceleration of digital commerce. Even so, enterprise marketplaces far outpaced the growth rate of traditional eCommerce models. In the fourth quarter of 2020, marketplaces grew by 81% year-over-year, more than double the rate of overall eCommerce. This is a clear signal that retailers with marketplaces are becoming go-to shopping destinations for consumers.
2. Marketplace sellers form the foundation of overall marketplace growth.
To keep up with the surge in demand, marketplace retailers rapidly expanded their network of sellers by 46% in the past year. The Index shows that with this expansion, there was a concurrent rise in GMV per seller, which also increased by 24%. In other words, sellers do not cannibalize each others’ growth. In fact, the Index shows that the addition of new sellers leads to more growth for every seller – and that includes retailers’ owned product offerings.
"The sellers on Catch’s marketplace are the fuel powering our astronomical marketplace growth. This combination of sourcing new trusted sellers and ensuring that every one of our sellers has the data and support they need to grow are the key to Catch’s success." Pete Sauerborn, Managing Director, Catch
3. Responding to demand, retailers grew product assortment – and saw even larger gains in overall GMV.
Shopper needs became more urgent – and more specific – in 2020. As consumers sought out products in critical categories like personal protective equipment, groceries, and sporting goods, the retailers that could fulfill their needs immediately with in-stock products came out on top. In the Index, we see that marketplace operators were primed to win in this environment. On average, they were able to increase product assortment by 32%, corresponding to an even larger gain of 81% in overall GMV.
" In the first year that our marketplace was live, we tripled the number of offers on BestBuy.ca. This growing volume of relevant products boosted our results from SEO, leading to considerable year-over-year growth in organic traffic to the website during Year 1. Our marketplace has played an essential role in our SEO strategy ever since. " Thierry Hay-Sabourin, SVP eCommerce, Marketplace & Technology, Best Buy Canada
4. Marketplaces contribute to site traffic growth.
Marketplaces offer a “boost effect” to retailers’ eCommerce sites by contributing more product selection and improving the freshness & quality of content. The Index shows that retailers leveraging the marketplace model saw a 34% lift in overall organic site traffic – benefiting from additional demand and relevance without additional marketing spend.
5. Marketplace sellers drive bottom-line growth.
It all comes down to the bottom line. How much does a marketplace – this innovative new retail model – actually contribute to revenue growth? The Index found that, with a GMV contribution of $109,766 per seller factored by marketplace commission rates, retailers saw a revenue net contribution of nearly $15,000 per seller, providing direct benefit to the bottom line.
The data and analyses in the Enterprise Marketplace Index can unlock an entirely new phase of growth for your business. We encourage every retailer to discover the Index for themselves. You can learn more about it, and download a copy of your own, here.
