So, I have excess inventory or I have an older model product or something that’s becoming more obsolete, I want to move that through an eBay or somewhere where I’m not damaging my brand or impacting my brand by selling that product at a more discounted price than I want to be selling my current product.” If I have a high labor content for my products, I want higher price, higher margin, but not necessarily that high a volume on there for example and then there’s other merchants, we see there’s a lot in our customer base where they want to use a specific channel for a specific purpose. “If I’m selling custom jewelry, for example, that may not be the answer.
So they’re opening that channel up or they’re opening that merchant up to be exposed to lots and lots of different people. What a lot of these major markets like Amazon and eBay are doing, they’re doing on the demand side what Walmart did on the supply side of things. In many cases, a merchant has a product that’s a higher priced product, a specialty product, or a particular brand that they just don’t want to get commoditized. PEC: Can you think of an example where a merchant would not want to sell on additional channels? “Generally speaking, our customers’ first step is they do a profile of who their ideal buyers are, and then their second step is to find where are the most number of people that fit that profile – that’s how they’re making the decision on to where they go, because more is not necessarily better if you’re not getting in front of the right people.” Other merchants that have a more specialty product, they’re going to look for a niche site.
For the merchants where just getting a lot more product out there even - if it’s at lower margins - is a benefit, then the big marketplaces that bring together lots of people are the spot for them, and they don’t mind being price compared against other shops. Then they should select channels depending on their particular product category and price point. How is a merchant supposed to know what channels to use?įred Lizza: “Well, the merchants always start with their own websites, their own branded environments. Practical eCommerce: Your company works with merchants who sell products across multiple channels.