Discover The Best-Selling Book Behind the Global Marketplace Acceleration
It’s hard to recall a time when marketplaces, with their vast assortment, quick delivery and unbeatable convenience, weren’t a central pillar of commerce. Today, platform models like marketplace and dropship represent more than two-thirds of global eCommerce. They’re essential for businesses to fulfill the promise of the eCommerce age.
But seventeen years ago, when the two of us entered our first business venture together, an online trading platform for video games, it was a different era. We realized that the only way for our idea to succeed would be to dramatically increase its scale. We needed to take inspiration from the burgeoning success of Amazon and Alibaba. We needed to create a marketplace that connected hundreds of sellers with thousands of products to the buyers who wanted them.
Over the next 16 years, through various iterations, investments and technology innovations, that first idea has grown into something much greater.
Today, Mirakl powers more than 350 of the world’s most successful marketplaces, representing more than $6 billion in gross merchandise value annually, and our first book, The Online Marketplace Advantage: Sell More, Scale Faster, and Create a World-Class Digital Customer Experience is an instant bestseller – proving just how far the marketplace opportunity has come.
The momentum behind The Online Marketplace Advantage is the latest proof that conventional first-party eCommerce strategies simply aren’t enough anymore – and businesses know it. Platform models, like marketplace and dropship, now represent more than two-thirds of global eCommerce. They are essential for businesses to fulfill the promise of the eCommerce age.
But recognizing the value of platform strategies, from economies of scale to greater growth to increase profitability, isn’t easy. If you’re going to fulfill the promise of platforms, you need to do it the right way, from vision to strategy to careful execution.
In The Online Marketplace Advantage, we provide a step-by-step guide for entrepreneurs to build and launch their own enterprise marketplaces, through the stories of more than 30 market leaders that have been through it. From iconic retailers like Macy’s Inc. to industrial powerhouses like Airbus Helicopters, from leading grocery chain The Kroger Co. to one of America’s top names in entertainment, NBCUniversal, there are dozens of case studies that share their experience, and demonstrate how you can do it too.
Finding your path to eCommerce dominance in The Online Marketplace Advantage
The Online Marketplace Advantage is fundamentally a personal book for us. Platform businesses are inherently entrepreneurial. They’re transformative, reshaping how your business works, and they require you to create something new from the ground up. We’ve seen that for ourselves – and we begin by telling that story, no holds barred.
We explore how the idea for a marketplace is born, and what inspires companies to make the marketplace investment, through six deep-dive profiles from leading organizations across retail and B2B industries.
We examine, in detail, exactly how to lay the foundation for marketplace success – not just with the marketplace design or the platform technology, but also by building relationships. Engaging early and often with stakeholders across the business is the only way to ensure that your marketplace gets the investment and the resources it needs to be truly successful.
We go deeper into the critical factors of a successful marketplace launch – that exciting, and maybe a bit terrifying, moment where you bring your marketplace to life, see how it’s working, and uncover ways to refine your strategy.
As your marketplace starts to gain momentum, we look at the many different levers you can pull to make your marketplace perform even better– and where the future of eCommerce is headed, with the Platform Pioneers who are leading the way.
We are so excited to bring this roadmap to success to each of you. If you haven’t read The Online Marketplace Advantage yet, we can promise you that you’ll learn something new – no matter how long you’ve been involved in the platform economy.
And for those who have made The Online Marketplace Advantage an instant bestseller – thank you. We are thrilled to be a part of your platform journey.
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The Online Marketplace Advantage: Sell More, Scale Faster, and Create a World-Class Digital Customer Experience is published by Wiley and available today from leading booksellers. Get your copy today!
