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How to turn marketplaces and dropship into a profit engine with Bain and Cheney Brothers

A wide shot of a stage at a conference, featuring three male speakers seated in chairs. The man on the left, wearing a dark jacket, is gesturing with his hands while speaking. The man in the center is wearing a blue jacket, and the man on the right is in a grey long-sleeved shirt. Behind them, a large screen displays the Mirakl Accelerate logo in the center. On either side of the screen, there are headshots and names of "Russell Scott" and "Aaron Cheris" on the left, and "Rick Watson" and "Russell Scott" on the right. The audience is visible in the foreground, with several people holding up phones to take pictures.

At the 2025 Mirakl Summit in New York City, retail strategist and podcast host Rick Watson led a discussion with Bain’s Partner and Global eCommerce/Marketplaces Sector Leader Aaron Cheris and Cheney Brother’s Senior VP of Sales Transformation and Strategy Russell Scott on turning marketplaces and dropship into profit engines.

With margin pressure rising and shopper behavior shifting, the group’s discussion centered around the need for asset‑light models that protect cash and expand choice without inventory risk.

Centering on the customer-first roadmap, the trio talked about how to close demand gaps without owning inventory, add high‑margin services and organize for speed. Scott showed how a dropship need became a marketplace motion that ultimately cut lead times, activated field sales and preserved their brand trust with a single, seamless experience.

Watch this on‑demand panel to learn:

  • Why every retailer needs a marketplace and dropship strategy to close demand gaps, improve return on assets and grow beyond trade-profit with services like ads, fulfillment and data.

  • How Cheney Brothers moved from customer‑led dropship to a marketplace model to cut lead times, keep price control where it matters and lift early volume with field‑sales incentives.

  • How to align merchants and sales for scale, unify checkout and terms, resolve exceptions directly and use marketplace to test 1P vs 3P.

  • Where to accelerate next by broadening supply to manage tariff risk, tailoring retail media with better data, leveraging freight scale to lower costs and personalizing outreach by segment to lift adoption.

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A man and a woman are seated on a stage, facing each other in conversation. The man on the right, in a dark suit, holds a microphone and gestures with his hands. The woman on the left is wearing a shiny black jacket and a long, red and white striped skirt. A small table with two bottles of water sits between them. A large screen behind them shows a close-up of the man's face and a graphic with the name Olivier Bron, his title, and the Bloomingdale's logo.

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A panoramic shot of a large conference stage with a wide screen. Two male speakers are on stage; one in a light-colored jacket stands on the left, and another in a dark suit stands on the right, gesturing toward each other. The screen behind them is split into three sections. The center section shows a man in a blue shirt standing at a podium. The left and right sections show white diagrams on a dark background. The Mirakl logo is visible on the far left and right of the stage. A large audience is seated in the foreground, facing the stage.

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