2021 Enterprise Marketplace Index by Mirakl Reveals Marketplaces Grew at More than Double the Rate of Overall eCommerce in 2020
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First-of-its-kind research analyzed data from 60+ third-party marketplaces to quantify impact of seller and assortment expansion on rising gross merchandise value (GMV), overall site traffic, and bottom-line revenue.
PARIS, BOSTON (March 3, 2021) – Mirakl, the industry’s first and most advanced enterprise marketplace SaaS platform, today released the 2021 Enterprise Marketplace Index by Mirakl, the largest and most comprehensive analysis of third-party marketplace data in the industry. The 2021 Enterprise Marketplace Index (“the Index”) shows that marketplaces grew by more than 80 percent year-over-year in the fourth quarter of 2020, more than double the rate of overall eCommerce growth.
The Index analyzes the benchmark metrics that leading retailers are reporting as they roll out and expand online marketplaces, quantifying the impact of the strategic, operational, and merchandising initiatives that marketplace operators are using to drive growth and profitability. 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.
“Every retailer needs a strong grasp on marketplace strategies to compete in today’s digital-first economy, and the Index provides them with a blueprint to do just that,” said Adrien Nussenbaum, co-founder and U.S. CEO, Mirakl. “For example, data found in the Index clearly demonstrates that retailers can simultaneously increase marketplace sales and lift overall eCommerce traffic by expanding their sellers and assortment – refuting fears of cannibalization. Insights like these are vital to marketplace success.”
Key findings include:
Enterprise marketplaces grew at more than double the rate of overall eCommerce.
Amidst an unprecedented acceleration of digital transformation, enterprise marketplace growth 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 surge is a strong indication that retailers with marketplaces are becoming true shopping destinations, with a growing volume of shoppers seamlessly browsing marketplace offerings alongside first-party product selection.
Marketplace sellers form the foundation of overall marketplace growth.
Marketplace retailers rapidly expanded their network of sellers by an average of 46% in the past year, while at the same time GMV per seller increased by 24%. This concurrent rise in seller count and GMV per seller shows that sellers do not cannibalize each others’ growth. In fact, the Index found that the addition of new sellers leads to incremental growth for every seller – including retailers’ owned product offerings.
Responding to demand, retailers grew product assortment – and saw even larger gains in overall GMV.
Shopper needs became more urgent in 2020, leading to runs on critical categories like personal protective equipment, groceries, and sporting goods. As shoppers hunted for in-stock products, the retailers that could fulfill their needs immediately were rewarded. The Index shows that marketplace operators were primed to win in this environment, responding with a 32% increase in product assortment on average. As a result, these retailers benefited from an even larger gain of 81% in overall GMV.
Marketplaces contribute to site traffic growth.
Marketplaces offer a “boost effect” to retailers’ entire eCommerce sites by contributing more product selection and improving the freshness and quality of content. According to the Index, retailers that leverage the marketplace model saw a 34% lift in overall organic site traffic, benefiting from additional demand and relevance without additional marketing spend.
Marketplace sellers drive bottom-line growth.
The clearest measure of the direct impact of marketplaces is their contribution to revenue. 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.
“In the first year that our marketplace was live, we tripled the number of offers on BestBuy.ca,” said Thierry Hay-Sabourin, SVP eCommerce, Marketplace & Technology, Best Buy Canada. ”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.”
“The sellers on Catch’s marketplace are the fuel powering our astronomical marketplace growth,” said Pete Sauerborn, Managing Director, Catch. “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.”
Learn more about the Enterprise Marketplace Index by Mirakl and download the complete report at: mirakl.com/enterprise-marketplace-index/
Media Assets
To download graphs and visuals from the Enterprise Marketplace Index, visit: info.mirakl.com/media-kit-enterprise-marketplace-index
The Enterprise Marketplace Index Methodology
The Enterprise Marketplace Index is a set of aggregated and anonymized insights of business-to-consumer (B2C) marketplaces powered by Mirakl’s platform, generating billions of dollars in GMV, 50,000 sellers, 60 million products, and 100 million offers.
Strict aggregation measures are employed to ensure customer anonymity. These measures include requirements on comparison set size, diversity, and consistency, in order to present credible and reliable information that is insulated from concentration risk, and cannot be reverse-engineered to identify any specific customer or marketplace.
To qualify for inclusion in the analysis set, a marketplace must have transacted throughout the entire analysis period, in this case Q4 2019 through Q4 2020. Additional data hygiene factors are applied to ensure accurate metric calculation.
About Mirakl
Mirakl offers the industry’s first and most advanced enterprise marketplace SaaS platform. With Mirakl, organizations across B2B and B2C industries can launch marketplaces faster, grow bigger, and operate with confidence as they exceed rising customer expectations. Platforms are the new competitive advantage in eCommerce, and the world’s most trusted brands choose Mirakl for its comprehensive solution of technology, expertise, and the Mirakl Connect ecosystem to unlock the power of the platform business model for them. As a result, companies like ABB, Astore by AccorHotels, Best Buy Canada, Carrefour, Catch, Changi Airport, Darty, The Kroger Co., Leroy Merlin, Maisons du Monde, Metro, and Toyota Material Handling gain the speed, scale and agility to win in the changing eCommerce landscape. For more information: www.mirakl.com.
Media Contact:
Maya Pattison Vice President, Corporate Marketing maya.pattison@mirakl.com +1-844-264-7255