Why Your Business Needs An Online Marketplace

An Online Marketplace

The idea of marketplaces is as old as business itself and while the medium of transactions and technology has changed over time, marketplaces remain a viable way for buyers and sellers from vastly far geographic regions to find each other and transact.

Fundamentally, every business in modern times needs a business website, and rightly so, but just like in physical stores, the flow of traffic or customers in any major market can hardly be compared with stores on the streets or other locations away from major markets.

The same way it is for Online marketplaces vs your business website. Both are important and have different roles in marketing your brand or business.

In this article, we share some important reasons why your business, asides having a business website, should be part of an online marketplace.

• Traffic
• Save Cost & Time
• Brand Exposure (Build Brand Trust)
• Buyer Preference
• Business Analytics
• Network/Community

Using a marketplace effectively for your business has other added benefits, but let’s delve a bit into the few highlighted above.

Traffic
As stated, previously, traffic is king when it comes to reasons why businesses use marketplaces. This is simply because just like in physical marketplaces, different people with different needs and segments visit, search through marketplaces, and discover your business, goods, and services in the process.

Given that a good marketplace is an aggregation of businesses from different sectors, the higher level of content and request on marketplaces make them rank higher in SEOs when compared to an average website.
Again, marketplaces are all about marketing, that’s exactly what they do.

A good marketplace will spend more cash and effort on marketing all over the internet than you would do with a personal or business website.

Save Cost and Time
The last point brings Besides saving cost on marketing allocation, the low cost of setting up an online store contributes significantly to your business overall profit margin when compared to creating and maintaining your eCommerce store.

This is especially important to businesses just starting, if you are starting an offline or physical store, for example, you need to worry about renting a store, hiring staff, and operational expenses.

On the other hand, using marketplaces like spronet.ng, you won’t have to spend any money either as setup or maintenance fee, because the service is completely free and you only pay little commissions when sales are made…which we can all agree is fair and a win for everyone.

Brand exposure (Build brand trust)

Marketplaces provide a good avenue to inspire buyer trust in your brand especially to people making the first contact with your brand.

This is mostly because marketplaces act as a neutral community brand vetting platform.

The more people experience your products and services and leave positive feedback, the easier it will be for others to want to engage you both on the same marketplace, in your physical store/outlet, or your website.

A positive business brand approval inspires a chain of word of mouth (People telling other people) testimonies about your goods and services making even more people want to check you out.

FYI: We have put up an article about what branding is and the difference between personal and business branding… you can check it out here.

Buyer preference

Most buyers and consumers visit marketplaces because of choices.

They want to compare different products and services with their prices, find out what other people think or are saying about your products and services, before making a purchase.

Your own e-commerce store is controlled by you and therefore people may not trust the process as much especially if you’re just starting and haven’t yet established a good brand reputation.

Business Analytics

Business analytics is a good way to learn about the performance of your business at a glance without needing to do any calculation or math.

Good Marketplaces provide business analytics for your online to show you how your business is performing, what sales are being made and the product is performing better.

This is important as it informs the decisions you make as a business and areas to focus on to increase your chances for success.

Network/Community

Building a successful business either online or offline requires creating relevant business connections. Marketplaces like spronet.ng provide that leverage to meet, network, and interact with other businesses and customers alike.

Learn emerging developments, new tools, products, and ways of doing business. What other way to be abreast with happenings and trends in your industry, local or global business community, or even other industries.

Spronet.ng is a good way to expand your network and business reach as we go beyond buying and selling to provide valuable business connections and community to support your business.

To get started with growing your business through marketplaces, visit www.spronet.ng and register for free all you need is a CAC certificate (if your business is based in Nigeria).

To learn more about what CAC is and why your business needs a CAC certificate please check out our article here.