Mirakl have today released the 2021 Enterprise Marketplace Index showing 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 findings which represent more than 60 global retailer marketplaces reveal how ecommerce has truly been accelerated through the transition to a more digital world. According to the report marketplaces rapidly expanded their network of sellers by an average of 46% in the past year. Additionally, GMV per seller increased 24%. Taken together, the increase in sellers, and the GMV per seller growth delivered 81% marketplace GMV growth.
“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. 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.”
– Adrien Nussenbaum, co-founder and U.S. CEO, Mirakl
Key findings:
Some of the other key findings taken from the Index can be found below.
- 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.
