Gartner Shines a Light on Marketplace as a Key Driver of Digital Commerce Growth
The marketplace model continues to gain momentum and headlines. Once solely the domain of a few enormous brands, including Amazon and Alibaba, the marketplace playing field is expanding rapidly. In Gartner’s recent report, Predicts 2019: New Deployment Models, Channels and Technologies Spark Digital Commerce Growth1, the leading research and advisory company forecasts that, “By 2023, 15% of medium- to high-GMV digital commerce organizations will have deployed their own marketplaces, thereby creating a digital ecosystem on their path to digital business.”
It’s not surprising that Gartner is anticipating this kind of growth. The data behind the biggest marketplace successes is nothing if not inspirational. Overall, eCommerce in North America grew by 16% in 2018 to top $500 billion. Even more interesting to any organization considering launching a marketplace, data shows that 53% of the units Amazon sold were provided by third-party sellers. Add to those figures the emergence of strong B2B marketplaces, and it’s easy to see that the overall marketplace trend will have far-reaching effects across a broad range of industries.
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Percentage of Units Sold by 3rd Party Sellers on Amazon Platform as of Q4 2018 In Predicts 2019: New Deployment Models, Channels and Technologies Spark Digital Commerce Growth, Gartner features the marketplace model among five broad trends that they expect will be key drivers of digital commerce growth: marketplaces, voice-enabled commerce interfaces, AI, aPaaS innovations, and subscription services. The report also provides detailed insights about the kinds of considerations organizations should bear in mind when contemplating the possibility of launching a marketplace of their own.
For instance, Garter notes that, “the integration between systems for product data, order data and customer data will be paramount.” This makes a lot of sense since marketplace operators need a reliable and seamless way to easily manage their sellers and grow their product assortment while at the same time providing the best possible experience to the end customer.
Gartner’s report outlines additional market implications as well as strategic recommendations for how innovative digital eCommerce organizations can make the most of the marketplace opportunity. One piece of advice Gartner offers retailers is to, “carefully evaluate the enterprise marketplace business model and recognize that their direct competitors might be ahead of them in this area if they have already become a digital commerce marketplace operator.”
The need for speed is one reason that Mirakl is such an appealing solution to companies entering the marketplace arena. As an experienced provider, we’re able to dramatically accelerate time to market without sacrificing functionality or scalability. With our help, a diverse range of organizations have been able to successfully launch a complete marketplace in only four months. Our fully integrated marketplace management platform covers all the bases from seller onboarding and governance to SLA management, security, tax compliance, and more. With more than 700 configurable features, over 100 customizable APIs, and unlimited scalability our platform offers the flexibility required by the brands we serve including Siemens, J. Crew, Kroger, and Catch Group. Just as important as our technology is our team of more than 80 marketplace experts who have honed their considerable skills leading hundreds of successful marketplace implementations.
So, if you’re one of the B2C or B2B eCommerce organizations thinking about adopting the marketplace model to offer your customers more choices and strengthen your organization’s market position, we invite you to download the full Predicts 2019: New Deployment Models, Channels and Technologies Spark Digital Commerce Growth report to learn more about Gartner’s predictions and insights for the marketplace business model.
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1Gartner, Predicts 2019: New Deployment Models, Channels and Technologies Spark Digital Commerce Growth, 10 December 2018, Jason Daigler, Christina Klock, Sandy Shen, Penny Gillespie, Mike Lowndes, Mark Lewis, Dayna Ford
