This blog post is part of our 2018 Holiday Planning series. Be sure to check back often or, better yet, subscribe to the blog to stay updated with this year’s latest holiday trends, tips, best practices, reports and more!
Amazon may be the go-to destination for many holiday shoppers, but the marketplace giant is far from the only online channel consumers will use this season. As buyers get increasingly savvy at exploring products and comparing prices, they’re turning to a fast-growing array of options to meet their needs.
How many of them will discover your products outside of Amazon?
With the holiday shopping season fast approaching, now’s the time to ensure your products are visible on as many marketplaces as possible. Here are five niche, emerging and fast-growing options to consider.
Google Express
If you haven’t yet started testing out Google Shopping Actions and Google Express, now’s the time. This fast-growing marketplace is going to be a BIG attraction for holiday shoppers this year.
With the holiday shopping frenzy in sight, many sellers are already racing to get products listed on Google’s transactions platform. As the future of Google-based shopping, this fast-growing marketplace opportunity will allow you to surface inventory via Google Search, Google Express and the Google Assistant — all through one centralized interface.
Pricefalls
Last year, this fast-growing niche marketplace experienced its highest holiday sales performance ever. From Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday 2017, net revenue was up 32%.
That number is just one indicator among many of where Pricefalls is heading. With a reported 37,000+ categories available to sellers, and with the number of active users increasing at a 122% compound annual growth rate (CAGR), there’s an abundance of opportunity to reach purchase-ready holiday shoppers.
And unlike many other marketplaces, Pricefalls shares full marketing rights with all sellers. That means you can contact consumers directly to help drive sales throughout the season.
Wish
With more holiday purchases than ever happening on smartphones, optimizing for mobile is a must. And Wish is the perfect marketplace to achieve just that. The original mobile-first, app-based marketplace is now the world’s sixth largest e-commerce company with 300 million active smartphone users in the US and Europe.
Shoppers favorite and save products in mobile wishlists, and then see products and promotions filtered to match those preferences. So if your products fill a highly targeted holiday shopping need, Wish is a great way to go.
Tophatter
Need to move inventory in jewelry, home, electronics, apparel or beauty this holiday season? On Tophatter, products move fast. Really fast. Millions of shoppers in the US, UK, Europe, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and elsewhere compete in high speed, 90-second auctions to win deals of up to 80% off popular products. Thanks to this model, nearly every item sells. At any given time, 3,000 to 4,000 unique shoppers could be on the site looking at your products.
It’s a great option not only for the busy holiday season, but also a great way to unload any excess inventory you have after the season ends.
Walmart
With online sales soaring 40% in recent months, Walmart is one of the most promising opportunities for e-commerce holiday sales. With an ever-expanding range of categories and competitive shipping options, Walmart’s online marketplace should be an integral part of every growing seller’s portfolio this season.
Looking for more marketplace ideas you can use to make this your most profitable holiday season yet?
We have plenty! Rithum supports more than 100 channels globally, and is developing new partnerships every day. We’ve pulled together some of our top recommendations for expanding sellers that will be especially helpful in preparing for Q4. If you’d like to discover even more marketplace opportunities to take your holiday sales to the next level, be sure to check out these resources:
- Google Shopping Actions: Prepare Your Products for Online Holiday Sales
- Reaching Wider Audiences: A Rithum Review of 7 US Marketplaces
- 7 US Marketplaces for Niche Audiences
Editor’s note: This blog post was originally published on September 13, 2017. It has been updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness.
