How leading brands and sellers are fueling marketplace growth in 2026
How leading brands and sellers are fueling marketplace growth in 2026
In January, Mirakl gathered a group of brands and sellers — from global manufacturers to fast-growing jewelry and apparel brands — for a Connect Community Roundtable on scaling marketplace performance.
The discussion highlighted how marketplace growth in 2026 requires meticulous assortment and content strategies, as well as the ability to act on data faster than competitors. Sellers are refining how they evaluate new channels, measure performance and position their brands within a growing ecosystem of marketplaces.
Here are the five key strategies that brands are using to scale marketplace selling.
1. View performance data as a gateway to marketplace growth
High-performing sellers are shifting their focus away from surface-level metrics such as gross sales and focusing on nuanced performance metrics such as dollar productivity per SKU.
Brands pursuing a more performance-based strategy combine internal reporting systems, ERP integrations and marketplace analytics tools to build a unified view of which products are selling well and which aren’t. Some of the roundtable participants run structured testing windows of four to six weeks for new SKUs. If a product fails to gain traction within that window, it is removed.
This measured approach is especially important for brands with massive catalogs. For example, a sports and entertainment merchandise seller managing 150,000 SKUs explained that catalog complexity, not demand, is the hardest variable to control. Without clear productivity data, it is difficult to know when a product isn’t worth offering. As a consequence, catalogs quickly become overcrowded with too many low-volume SKUs.
What leading brands do differently
Treat SKU count as a practical tool for improving results, not a vanity metric
Remove underperforming products quickly
Monitor how markdowns affect both sales speed and overall margins
2. Be methodical with marketplace selection
Sellers can no longer choose marketplaces without a clear strategy. Instead, they need a structured, ongoing process for evaluating which ones are worth pursuing.
Roundtable participants cited the following criteria for marketplace selection:
Audience purchasing power — Do shoppers on this marketplace have the budget to realistically buy products at our price point?
Brand alignment and equity — Does the marketplace’s reputation, values and variety of sellers strengthen our brand image or dilute it?
Operational viability — Will expected order volume justify the time, fees and operational lift required to maintain the marketplace?
International readiness — Does the marketplace support global selling with clear guidelines for import compliance, contracts and logistics?
For premium brands in categories like jewelry or luxury accessories, brand alignment is just as important as potential sales volume. Selling in the wrong environment can damage positioning faster than it generates revenue.
At the same time, brands must constantly decide whether to expand into new marketplaces, double down on high-performing channels or pull back from underperforming channels.
For example, one apparel brand at our roundtable is reevaluating its marketplace plans after discovering that a single retailer’s high sales minimum and promotion requirements hurt profitability. Strict marketplace rules (yearly revenue minimums, mandatory discounts) often cut into margins, which is why leading sellers adjust their strategy regularly before small issues become big, costly ones.
What leading brands do differently
Review channel performance quarterly
Align marketplace mix with brand strategy, not just reach
Do not hesitate to exit underperforming marketplaces
3. Optimize content to create a competitive advantage
Product detail pages (PDPs) have become a battleground for marketplace growth, but content optimization doesn’t work the same across every platform.
Some marketplaces prioritize concise titles, while others favor descriptions rich with keywords. Some marketplaces support video while others don’t. Sellers that apply a single content template for all marketplaces risk underperforming everywhere.
As a result, high-performing sellers treat PDP improvement as a continuous exercise: they experiment with search-driven keywords, adapt copy and structure to each marketplace’s requirements, add video and audio where it’s supported and regularly review listings from the customer’s perspective to spot gaps.
Several brands at our roundtable reported higher engagement and click-through rates after refining PDP content, even before revenue gains fully materialized. This shows that content improvements can build momentum and lay the groundwork for long-term marketplace growth.
What leading brands do differently
Customize content (titles, descriptions, formats) for each marketplace environment
Use search data to guide keyword strategy
Test different elements (video, keyword variations, content structure) and double down on ones that drive clicks and engagement
4. Reduce return rates to protect profitability
Nearly every apparel brand at the roundtable highlighted the same issue: return rates on marketplaces are twice as high as those on their own direct-to-consumer (D2C) websites.
The reasons are structural:
Marketplaces make returns easy and frictionless
Customers often order multiple sizes
Some categories — like occasion wear — have inherently higher return risk
Rather than treating returns as an unavoidable cost, sellers are analyzing them as a data source. For example, tracking whether customers reorder the same item in a different size may indicate size chart issues or flaws in product descriptions.
What leading brands do differently
Benchmark marketplace return rates against industry averages
Investigate return patterns (i.e. how soon after returns do customers repurchase?) to diagnose root causes
Adjust sizing guidance and product copy to reduce returns
5. Don’t treat assortment strategies as one-size-fits-all
Assortment philosophy was split into two camps among our roundtable participants:
The curated approach Some brands launch with proven best sellers to validate demand before expanding. For instance, one apparel company began on a major department store marketplace with only a few dozen core styles and doubled its assortment after confirming there was traction.
The broad approach Other roundtable participants prefer to start with a wide catalog across categories, then analyze performance data to determine which SKUs belong on which marketplaces.
Both strategies work if paired with disciplined evaluation. Many sellers apply a “90-day rule” that gives products time to get visibility before making listing decisions. Even high-return items can remain profitable if they sell quickly enough.
What leading brands do differently
Tailor assortments by marketplace, not just globally
Accept that discovery takes time (90-day rule)
Balance experimentation with catalog pruning based on performance data
The marketplace growth advantage in 2026 The most successful brands and sellers in 2026 will measure performance based on profitability, choose marketplaces strategically and modify assortments and content by marketplace. These tactics help form an efficient operating model to meet multichannel challenges head-on.
Just as important, marketplace growth isn’t purely digital. Building strong human connections still drives insights and opportunities that algorithms alone can’t provide. Mirakl supports sellers as both a marketplace growth platform and a human connector through in-person events, introductions and guidance.
Throughout 2026, brands and sellers will continue viewing marketplaces as a key driver of growth, not just another sales channel. Mirakl Connect — a centralized ecosystem that helps brands find, join and grow on multiple marketplaces — supports that shift by simplifying operations, delivering clear performance insights and making it easier to scale across channels.
Learn how Mirakl Connect can transform your brand’s multichannel selling strategy and accelerate marketplace growth by contacting us today.
