One of the first rules of commerce is that you must be where your customers are. And for most brands, that means having a presence on marketplaces.
But commerce is increasingly omnichannel. For all the popularity and dominance marketplaces enjoy, consumers don’t want just one option. They want the freedom and flexibility to move between multiple channels on a single shopping journey, online and off.
We call this omnichannel. But where do marketplaces, with all their pros and cons for brands, specifically fit in with an omnichannel approach?
Based on independent research, this guide pulls together what we learnt about brands’ perspectives on marketplaces now and in the future. We have rounded out a point of view with input from a number of VML marketplace and digital commerce experts across the world.