Growth · 5 min read
Before launching on a new marketplace: is your business ready?
Catalogue, pricing, logistics and team capacity: what to review before you start selling on a new marketplace.
In this article
Selling on a new marketplace can help you reach new customers. It also means planning for orders to prepare, stock to share and customer enquiries to handle. Before you apply, check that your team can meet those commitments.
Work through these five steps with your sales, logistics and customer service teams to choose which products to launch and resolve difficulties before you start selling.
1. Check that your offering suits the marketplace
Compare the offers already on the marketplace with your products, prices and delivery terms. You should be able to explain who your catalogue is for and what it offers customers.
Admission criteria depend on the platform. La Redoute lists catalogue fit, product availability, delivery quality and customer relations among its selection criteria. La Redoute’s seller selection criteria.
Prepare a brief covering your product categories, brands, delivery countries, prices and shipping capacity, then compare it with the marketplace’s requirements. A complete application does not guarantee acceptance: your business and products need to match what the marketplace is looking for.
Four checks before expanding.
Choose a tab to explore the example.
Choose products that suit the marketplace’s customers and requirements.
Products that fit the marketplace
A catalogue chosen for this channel, rather than a copy of your entire website.
- Customers and categories
- Initial product range
- Required listings and images
2. Check what your selected products could earn
Start with products whose costs and constraints you understand. A product that performs well on your own website may earn less once you add a commission, a shorter delivery deadline or more returns.
Amazon distinguishes between selling plan fees, referral fees, shipping and other possible expenses, such as storage or advertising. Your estimate therefore needs to go beyond the commission. Overview of Amazon fees.
For each product, bring together the selling price, purchase cost and expected expenses: order preparation, shipping, channel fees, returns and advertising. Compare the amount left in your expected scenario with a less favourable one. State which costs you have included and how you have treated VAT, with your accountant’s help if needed.
Take a hypothetical example: you are considering launching a lighting range, but some models need special packaging. You could start with those your team already knows how to pack, then test shipping the others before offering them for sale.
3. Test the journey of a product and an order
Choose a product and follow its information from your catalogue to the marketplace. Check that its identifier, description, variants, images, price, stock level and delivery time are consistent.
Then test the situations that require an update or action: a drop in stock, a price change, an order, a shipment, a cancellation and a return. Use the testing facilities provided by the platform.
At each stage, record where you keep the information up to date, how it is sent and who steps in if something fails. Having your catalogue accepted does not prove that orders will reach your system correctly. Testing shows what works and what still needs to be handled manually.
4. Assign responsibilities before the first sale
Assign each daily task to someone: monitoring orders, correcting rejected listings, tracking shipments, answering customers and checking payments. Decide who will cover for them when they are away.
Also decide which problems need immediate attention. Stock levels that stop updating can lead to orders you cannot fulfil; a missing secondary image can wait until the next check.
Look at the workload your team already handles. If returns are piling up or only one person knows the processes, resolve those difficulties before adding a channel. Some tasks can be automated, provided you decide who will follow up on cases that remain unresolved.
5. Review your findings, then launch an initial selection
Bring your findings together in a table. Mark each row “checked”, “needs correcting” or “unknown”, then add the relevant document or test result and the name of the person responsible.
| What to check | What to gather |
|---|---|
| Offering suited to the marketplace | Requirements reviewed and products selected |
| Product costs | Known costs and compared scenarios |
| Catalogue and data exchanges | Test results and remaining errors |
| Orders and customer service | Procedure, owner and backup |
| Launch monitoring | Metrics and date of the first review |
Do not settle for having most rows checked off. If orders are not being transmitted, that issue alone may justify postponing the launch, even when everything else is ready.
Choose an initial selection of products, a budget and a review date. Decide what conditions you need to meet before adding more products. At the review, look at sales, the amount left after the costs included, incidents and time spent. You can then decide whether it makes sense to commit more stock and work.
To help prepare your launch, our marketplace agency can review your catalogue, tools and team processes with you. This first conversation helps us identify what is ready and what still needs work. Let’s discuss your marketplace project.
Further reading
Sources used in this article. Illustrative examples are not client results.
