VTEX knows that the marketplace model is one of the most important strategies for ecommerce players, big and small. Last October, we announced our 2022 VTEX Marketplace Release, with enhancements to our marketplace module. Now, brands and retailers can better manage multiple third-party sellers, onboard new ones, and enable their sellers to manage products and offers more easily.
The results are already visible: seamless catalog expansions above 300% and sales increases of over 200%. Below, three global leaders in their categories share the positive impact they are experiencing with the VTEX Marketplace Seller Portal, one of the new features announced with our 2022 VTEX Marketplace Release.
Electronics retailer Doto launches marketplace to avoid disruptions
Jacobo Sutton is the co-founder and director of doto.com.mx, a pure-play ecommerce business focused on electronics. In 2020, when the pandemic affected its supply chain, it turned to VTEX to become a marketplace.
“VTEX offered us the Seller Portal so that we could operate with sellers who didn’t have VTEX technology, and that’s what we did. By combining Seller Portal and a WMS that we integrated via API, we managed to onboard the first five sellers in less than two months. Thanks to the marketplace strategy, we were able to expand our catalog by 300% and have a more competitive price. We were thus able to increase our sales by 240% in 2021”, Jacobo Sutton, co-founder and director at doto.com.mx.
Doto was one of the first companies to adopt the Seller Portal and has been using it since the alpha version, so they have witnessed how much it has evolved and the new features that have been added. Today, more than forty sellers sell their products on Doto’s marketplace through the Seller Portal.
Imaginarium, a home decor retailer, improves the onboarding experience for third-party sellers
Rafaela Auler is responsible for all digital initiatives at Imaginarium, one of Brazil’s largest and most innovative home decor brands. Currently, they have over 180 stores spread all over the country and a digital presence on social media, their website, and marketplaces.
The company chose to launch its own marketplace because it felt the need to offer the greatest experience and product assortment on its website. “The customer who visits the website needs to find Imaginarium products or products of complementary brands that meet their needs,” says Auler.
VTEX’s new Seller Portal was relevant for Imaginarium because it allowed the company to easily connect with sellers that are not VTEX clients, in addition to the ones that are, through a straightforward process.
“We used to use an internal platform, which did not deliver the best experience to our partners. So far, the feedback we have gotten from our third-party sellers is that the Seller Portal is easy to use and very functional. When they enter new information or make product changes, we can quickly see them in our VTEX account,” says Auler.
Multicategory ecommerce retailer Elefant builds flexibility into its business and adds new product categories
Alexander Minza is CTO at Elefant.ro, one of the leading ecommerce companies in Romania and the region. It started selling books about 12 years ago. Today, it is a multicategory business that offers more than 1.5 million products, serves more than 3 million customers in Romania and Moldova, and delivers more than 1.5 million orders annually.
Elefant formed a strategic partnership with VTEX to evolve its ecosystem into a marketplace in February 2022. Currently, the marketplace has more than 350 active sellers and more than 270 thousand products across more than ten categories.
To be able to process many sellers’ applications and effectively connect them to the marketplace, Elefant uses a customized onboarding process. It includes an online seller questionnaire, a backend system for processing seller applications, a review and approval process, and integration with payment providers to perform legal and background checks.
Naturally, when scaling a business this fast, there will always be growth challenges: how to effectively manage an increasing number of sales and orders, enforce rules to ensure quality, and ultimately provide the best end-user experience.
“The flexibility and composability of the VTEX APIs and the versatility of the VTEX IO Platform powered the implementation of our vision, enabling us to be agile and responsive to the ever-dynamic ecommerce and marketplace landscape,” Alexander Minza, CTO at Elefant.ro.
Watch the full testimonials here.
A worldwide trend
At VTEX, we know shoppers demand convenience and choice, evidenced by marketplaces representing over 67% of online sales in 2021. At the same time, 37% of retailers state their ecommerce businesses don’t meet profitability goals, highlighting the need to control costs and streamline operations.
With today’s economic uncertainty, the low-risk and high-reward approach of a marketplace business is a sought-after growth strategy for ecommerce sellers that want new ways to grow revenue and maximize profit. This bet becomes even more attractive when, like all of VTEX’s solutions, it’s supported by AWS’s robust cloud infrastructure.
If you want to take advantage of the 2022 VTEX Marketplace Release and see what it can do for your business, contact a specialist now.
