Marketplace Aspects that Improve Market Penetration

A fundamental characteristic that improves market penetration for a marketplace eCommerce platform is providing significant value to specific niche segments of a market.

This is a strong method as the marketplace can start out with a very small target that it laser-focuses on, and then build around peripheral and related subject areas based on that credibility within the starting place.

For example, if someone is offering certain consumer electronics in a marketplace, it’s possible to deliver value by providing resources related to that particular set of consumer items.

It might be a particular brand of cell phone, for instance, and the site could provide videos that are related to that cell phone brand.

They can include the different marketplace business models with comparisons and evaluations. There can be an opportunity to help the consumer get rebates from the manufacturer, and guides for setting things up.

Focus on Region-Specific Niches

Niches in categories can be broken up by region as well. Therefore, in addition to focusing on particular offerings, manufacturers, or segments of offerings, you can also focus on particular regions. You can go after market penetration within particular regions and niches, and isolate your target market.

This will improve your ability to penetrate the market quickly. By doing that and spreading from one country or region to another, and leveraging proximity and similarity, you can quickly find yourself in seven or eight different countries focusing on a few key categories. Then you’re dominating those categories.

This is important logistically as well, because many people don’t necessarily consider the critical nature of the logistics, fulfillment, and overall customer service and support side of operating a marketplace. But this is a key portion of the governance and the promise of fulfillment that the marketplace is making.

Therefore, it’s important to consider as part of penetrating a market; being able to fulfill and deliver, and putting some infrastructural advantages in place so as you continue to grow you have the necessary distribution centers in ideal locations, even if it’s rented or shared. This helps with taxes, customs, duties, and other logistical overheads, like a delay in transit.

So, there's an optimization that can be had here with focusing on a few niche areas to let your marketplace grow and build from niche ownership and niche market penetration to overall category penetration.

Then, speaking to some of the topics we covered in our earlier content, it’s critical to leverage transactional emails.

Once you generate enough niche penetration within a particular niche, for example, a cell phone brand or model that you’re delivering significant value around, you can email all of those users and stay in touch with them and provide them with information.

For example, the information might be about the latest software update that’s coming out, or about accessories that they might find beneficial and helpful. And then whenever the upgraded model of that phone comes out, offer them resources and guides for choosing an upgrade path that they can complete with your marketplace, which can include a comparison between the alternatives, among other resources.

While it takes time to put them together, these transactional emails don’t cost anything themselves. With the right marketplace eCommerce software, these emails can be generated dynamically based on what people are purchasing and what they might be interested in. This is helpful to stay top of mind in front of your marketplace buyers, and the same thing is true for sellers.

Make the Marketplace Platform Appealing

These are all things that are really helpful to penetrate a market because ultimately, you want to focus on delivering an organic penetration of a market based on value add.

This is sustainable and viable for the long term for your business and it's at the root of what the buyers are looking for in a marketplace. They’re looking for value and governance that’s intelligent within the marketplace.

If the marketplace is going to treat them fairly, respect that they have a lot of different options out there, deliver the best value that's available, and everyone has integrity with how they operate, the buyers will keep coming back, even if the price is slightly higher, or if there’s a slightly lower value items.

One more thing about market penetration is that there can be a lot of parallel paths to pursue. So in addition to a more organic approach that’s self-reinforcing over time, it’s also helpful to supplement with direct marketing and advertising campaigns.

This is something that, given the right marketplace eCommerce platform, you can leverage the platform to make more intelligent ads and provide more dynamic advertising, more dynamic tracking, and validation of what is and isn't working.

These systems for advertising and leveraging affiliate marketing, potentially using social media etc., are significantly more beneficial if the tracking and the resources are in place, such that when someone does sign up, click on an ad or social media post, etc., we have good analytics we can roll up and intelligently drill down into this.

Having good information on how different campaigns are going will help your marketing and operations team execute at a much higher level in determining where to prioritize resources.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the key characteristics of a marketplace platform that improve market penetration?

Key characteristics of a marketplace platform to improve market penetration include focusing on specific niche categories; focusing on region-specific niches; leveraging transactional emails; operating the platform with integrity; and utilizing more than one of these strategies. These methods will yield the best results.