Why join an online marketplace or platform what’s in it for you?

Written by Pauline de Villiers Brettell

Coming up with the creative idea and concept for your business is, for many of us, the easy part. What can be more difficult is translating that creativity into sales and finally, a profit. Because, let’s be honest, one (sales) doesn’t necessarily lead to the other (profits).

The reality is that while the physical high street might be suffering, the virtual high street is getting both busier and harder to navigate – it can be challenging to find your space along with that elusive footfall. In the competitive market it starts making perfect sense to join forces and find a platform that is going to put your creativity on the top shelf, but is it that simple? We have been speaking to several creative business owners who have stepped up to various platforms and shared their experiences –hopefully making it easier for you to decide if this is a direction you want to explore.

At the risk of sounding a bit like the Antique Roadshow…let’s start with the basics. Being the broadest, most open and non–curated platform, Etsy can give you an outlet which, in my experience works well, providing you with a marketplace that shoppers in the US in particular are comfortable with and increasingly extending its reach here in the UK and Europe. There are minimal costs with no set-up fees, but you need to drive people there, which can be hard work. There is a lot of competition and your brand’s added value or quality may get lost in the crowd. Price points vary hugely, which can – as was my experience – leave you feeling like your products are being undervalued and in fact, undermined.

Stepping things up a notch, curated websites like Not On The High Street provide a great shop window for small creative businesses. Being based in the UK makes it a stronger platform here than Etsy, but unlike Etsy, you will need to have some brand presence before going through the application process and being accepted. They have a high-profile advertising strategy, doing a lot of the hard work for you, directing traffic to the site, but you will still need to work hard to get seen within the site. What needs to be remembered, as soon as you move into the realm of curated platforms, is that there will be commissions and costs, and these need to be worked into your costing – something that sounds obvious but an often underestimated point.

As online sales and traffic grow, so do the platform options, and with some of them being more focused, it is useful to do some research to find the best fit for your product. 1stdibs, for example, shines its marketing light on high-end homeware, while Wolf & Badger, although moving into the homeware market, started with a focus on fashion and, some would say, this is still its strength.

Looking a little closer at Wolf & Badger, this is a highly curated site that has set itself up to be both aspirational and inspirational. It prides itself on being an ethical shop window for independent designers and has recently become B Corp certified – so ticking all the right boxes.

“We founded Wolf & Badger with the intention of disrupting a deteriorating high street, and solving the problems of physical retail in a digital world.”

If you feel that Wolf & Badger is where you would like to pitch your products, and importantly is the right demographic for you, then there are a few things you will need to invest in before you open that door. You will need to spend some time, energy and money into developing your brand, and ensuring that your story engages with the platform.

Continued... You will also need to make sure that your images are great, and are going to sit comfortably and correctly within the platform. Having got all that under your belt you will also, again, need to look carefully at fees and commissions and build these into your costings to ensure that sales can actually translate into profit. Aside from sales, there are other benefits and tools that these platforms can offer a small business. It is up to you to grab hold of and utilise the full range of expertise and exposure they provide. As a small creative and luxury brand, getting on the Wolf & Badger shelf immediately gives you access to your target audience as they have a significant following and social media presence focusing on high-end products. Think about how to maxi-mise this access!

In conversation with textile designer Leila Vibert-Stokes, whose bright and beautiful textile creations found a comfortable fit on the curated shelves of Wolf & Badger, she made the point of the importance of having a strong visual identity before embarking on this journey. Leila also emphasised the broader opportunities these platforms can offer:

Post-Covid and mid-climate-change considerations, small businesses have identified the benefits of online wholesale platforms that don’t require the endless catalogue of trade show travel, which can be challenging on both cost and time. But, of course, it is important not to lose touch – literally- with the importance of networking, meeting, touching and supporting each other at these events in real time – although we are all getting pretty good at doing that online!

The wholesale platform model is undeniably a growing market – in fact as soon as you hit that search button your social media will be littered with options – Qalara, Findeling, Fairling to name a few, but at the moment the key players seem to be Ankorstore, Faire and Creoate. Discussing these platforms with various traders who use them, opinion is divided as to which functions best and it would seem that the best advice is to simply try a few and discover your best fit, paying careful attention (yes, I am repeating myself!) to the small print in terms of fees, payment structure, shipping and commission. The models are all similar, the demographics differ slightly with Ankorstore being based in France and therefore having a stronger European reach, while Faire seems to be better placed for the American market.

We spoke to Laura Colucci from Spritz Wellness who relies on both trade shows and online platforms for her business: “While real time trade shows are invaluable, as a small business it is impossible both time and cost wise to exhibit at more than one or two, so the wholesale platforms provide invaluable access to new stockists, especially in the international arena. You will soon get a feel for which ones work best for you, but for me, the costs and effort are minimal, so why wouldn’t you use them?”

Aside from the platforms mentioned, there is a lot of movement in this sector generally and it is worth digging a little deeper into your options. An interesting and more co-operative approach, iKRIX is a platform founded for small luxury Italian brands who joined forces after finding the profit margins continually eaten away by commissions and costs charged by online platforms. A creative solution - a smaller collaborative platform is certainly food for thought! Shifting gear into the wholesale marketplace, again, there is a plethora of options. At the risk of continually harking back to the impact of Covid, clearly a lack of trade fairs for the two-year period has given these platforms traction and traffic.

Ultimately, there is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ and it is all about finding the platform that works for you. While there might not be a single definitive answer or the perfect platform, there are some key takeaways to be had from this conversation. The one point that was made consistently in these conversations is that you cannot rely on any of the platforms doing your marketing for you - in fact rather than stepping back you need to step up. Whether you are using your own online shop, a retail platform, or a wholesale one, or all three, you need to be the creative energy driving traffic and sales. What these platforms do offer is access to a range of tools to help you with this, and of course, a significantly increased audience. If the platform offers a brand photography workshop, take them up on it, if there is a blog, provide them with a post. Link, connect and join in campaigns in order to maximise what is on offer. It’s all about the marketing…

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