Six Australian marketplaces every brand and retailer should know

Simon Clarkson of ChannelAdvisor

10th May 2021

Brands and retailers are paying more attention than ever to online opportunities, with good reason. More than 16 per cent of retail sales in Australia came from e-commerce transactions last year — a number not previously anticipated until 2023.

This explosion in online shopping presents sellers with an array of pathways to reach digitally-savvy consumers. Marketplaces have the ability of  attracting millions of ready-to-buy consumers who often begin their shopping journey across a range of different channels before making purchases. In addition to setting the stage for a diversified selling strategy, marketplaces can be a key differentiator for sellers looking to increase product visibility, connect with more shoppers, and adopt various e-commerce acceleration strategies for sustainable growth.

There are now hundreds of e-commerce marketplaces around the world, each one designed to meet the needs of different global consumers. In Australia, a significant proportion of that activity occurs on several key channels that should be on every brand and retailer’s radar.

Amazon Australia: Launched in December 2017, this marketplace giant is proving to be a valuable channel for many brands and retailers. With global annual revenue predicted to reach a record-breaking US$500 billion by year’s end, it’s fast becoming an essential component of many online selling strategies. As Amazon continues to become firmly established in Australia, more and more consumers are participating in Amazon Prime, the membership program that includes exclusive access to free deliveries, deals and annual Prime Day specials — the latter of which generated US$3.5 billion for small and medium-sized retailers worldwide in 2020. 

Bunnings MarketLink: Created by Australia’s leading home improvement retailer, the Bunnings Marketplace was designed to fulfill all customers’ home & lifestyle shopping needs by offering them the widest choice online. With products sold directly by third party sellers, it’s proving to be a key channel for brands and retailers that offer home & lifestyle products in categories such as Indoor Furniture, Home Entertainment and Kitchenware.

Catch: Another one of the nation’s top e-commerce sites, Catch has been synonymous with leading household names for more than a decade. According to the company’s latest data, this marketplace has over three million active customers and attracts more than 30,000 new shoppers each week. More than 200,000 people have purchased Club Catch memberships for exclusive access to free shipping, special shopping events and other perks, and a new order is processed every 1.2 seconds. With so many Australians starting their shopping journeys here, Catch allows sellers to connect with consumers quickly and easily.

eBay Australia: With 12 million unique monthly visitors, eBay is Australia’s biggest marketplace. Every five seconds, for instance, someone buys a smartphone accessory. Tools are purchased every 32 seconds, home décor items every 29 seconds and car parts every six seconds. From apparel and accessories to electronics and sporting goods, people are actively shopping for items across a range of categories. 

Kogan.com: This marketplace is a go-to resource for more than 3 million active customers, and recently made headlines for tripling net profit. A household name, Kogan.com serves purchase-ready shoppers as they seek the most in-demand products. Many brands and retailers rely on it to sell across a wide range of categories such as consumer electronics, appliances, homewares, hardware, toys and more.

MyDeal: MyDeal has developed a loyal customer base since first launching in 2011, and today sends more than 130,000 parcels every month and currently lists over 300,000 products. Put simply, it’s the place brands and retailers come to take advantage of more than 2000 lifestyle departments — including household goods such as furniture and homewares — and to get products in front of the right shoppers at the moments they’re ready to buy.

As consumers continue to meet more of their shopping needs online, these and other marketplaces will be highly influential when it comes to consumer buying behaviour. Many people turn to them when researching products, right alongside search engines, making them increasingly vital for sales and revenue. And as brands and retailers discover their profit potential, many are turning to e-commerce platforms like ChannelAdvisor to list and promote products across multiple marketplaces.

ChannelAdvisor (NYSE: ECOM) is a leading e-commerce cloud platform whose mission is to connect and optimise the world’s commerce. For two decades, ChannelAdvisor has helped brands and retailers worldwide improve their online performance by expanding sales channels, connecting with consumers, optimising their operations for peak performance, and providing actionable analytics to improve competitiveness. Thousands of customers depend on ChannelAdvisor to securely power their sales and optimise fulfilment on channels such as Amazon, eBay, Catch, Google, Facebook, Walmart, and hundreds more. For more information visit channeladvisor.com/au.