An e-commerce marketplace is a digital platform that connects multiple sellers and buyers, functioning as a centralized technological intermediary. In the online commerce universe, a marketplace represents much more than a simple sales site: it’s a complete ecosystem where different merchants offer their products under the same user interface. Unlike a traditional online store that only sells its own products, a marketplace aggregates offerings from multiple vendors while managing transactions, often logistics, and taking a commission on completed sales.
This commercial revolution is radically transforming the global e-commerce landscape. Marketplaces now represent 67% of global e-commerce sales compared to only 40% in 2014, illustrating their meteoric rise. For e-merchants using PrestaShop or other CMS platforms, understanding marketplaces becomes essential as they offer immediate access to millions of potential customers while creating new strategic challenges that must be mastered.
Different types of e-commerce marketplaces
B2C marketplaces (Business to Consumer)
B2C marketplaces largely dominate the French market and constitute the most familiar model for consumers. Amazon maintains its undisputed leadership position with 310 million active users worldwide and 2.45 billion monthly visits. In France, this marketplace generates over 50% of total marketplace traffic, offering sellers immediate access to a massive audience.
Meanwhile, Cdiscount holds 8.8% of the French market share with 60% of its revenue coming from its marketplace. This French platform perfectly illustrates how a marketplace can transform a traditional retailer into a multi-vendor platform. Fnac Marketplace attracts 12.4 million unique monthly visitors, positioning itself as the preferred French alternative for cultural and high-tech products.
These B2C platforms are characterized by commissions ranging from 6.5% to 20% depending on product categories. However, they allow companies to sell directly to consumers without major initial investment in technical infrastructure or marketing. The main advantage lies in immediate access to a qualified customer base and instant credibility conferred by the platform’s reputation.
B2B marketplaces (Business to Business)
The B2B sector is experiencing accelerated growth, particularly since the pandemic that digitized professional purchasing processes. Amazon Business now has over 5 million business customers, representing 45% of the Fortune 500. This B2B marketplace illustrates how individual consumption habits influence professional purchasing practices.
B2B marketplaces are distinguished by considerably larger purchase volumes, longer sales cycles, and personalized quote systems (RFQ – Request for Quote). These platforms integrate specific features like multi-user account management, hierarchical purchase approval, and integration with client companies’ ERP systems.
However, commissions are generally lower than in B2C (between 2% and 8%) as volumes compensate for reduced margins. For PrestaShop e-merchants looking to move toward B2B, these marketplaces offer an expansion opportunity without developing complex B2B features on their own site.
C2C marketplaces (Consumer to Consumer)
C2C marketplaces remain dynamic despite B2C predominance. eBay generates $35 billion in GMV (Gross Merchandise Volume) in 2024, demonstrating the vitality of consumer-to-consumer commerce. Vinted, specialized in second-hand fashion, capitalizes on eco-responsible trends with 51% growth in 2024.
Etsy has 96 million active buyers globally, positioning itself in the craft and personalized products market. These C2C marketplaces are characterized by generally reduced fees and sophisticated evaluation systems allowing trust establishment between individuals.
For creators and artisans using PrestaShop, these marketplaces represent a complementary distribution channel particularly effective for testing new products or reaching specific customer segments without cannibalizing direct sales.
How marketplaces work: economic model explained
Platform intermediary role
A marketplace functions as a technological and commercial facilitator between sellers and buyers. It provides technical infrastructure (servers, bandwidth, security), user interface, payment tools, and often logistics services. This centralization allows sellers to focus on their products rather than technical aspects.
The marketplace ecosystem relies on a powerful network effect: the more sellers there are, the more attractive the offering becomes for buyers, which attracts more sellers. Amazon perfectly illustrates this dynamic with over 15 million active sellers generating 60% of its total sales. This critical mass creates a considerable barrier to entry for new entrants.
For e-merchants, marketplaces also offer integrated marketing services: algorithmic recommendation systems, sponsored advertising, customer review management, and internal SEO optimization. These tools allow visibility optimization without specialized marketing expertise.
Marketplace revenue sources
The marketplace economic model primarily relies on four complementary revenue sources. Sales commissions form the foundation, with rates varying by category: 2% for jewelry up to 38% for warranty services on Amazon, with an average of 12-15%. These commissions are automatically deducted from each transaction.
Seller subscriptions represent the second source. Amazon Pro costs €39/month in France, eBay offers different subscription levels up to €499/month depending on volume. These subscriptions provide access to advanced tools, higher listing limits, and sometimes reduced commissions.
Logistics services constitute growing revenue. FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon) generates $156.1 billion in revenue in 2024 with 19% growth. These services include storage, preparation, shipping, and after-sales service, representing a turnkey solution for sellers.
Advertising becomes the most profitable revenue source. Amazon Advertising generates $46.9 billion with an operating margin exceeding 35%. Sellers can purchase keywords, sponsor their products, and access premium placements for often high but highly targeted cost-per-click fees.
Payment and logistics management
Marketplaces centralize financial flows to simplify transactions. They collect payments from buyers, deduct their commissions, and transfer the balance to sellers according to a predefined cycle (usually 14 days). This centralization guarantees transaction security and protects parties in case of disputes.
Logistics represents a major competitive advantage for mature marketplaces. Amazon has over 185 distribution centers worldwide, enabling Prime deliveries within 24 hours. This logistics infrastructure would be impossible to reproduce for an individual e-merchant, creating a lasting competitive advantage.
However, this centralization also creates dependency. Funds are blocked during the settlement period, and any account suspension can paralyze activity. Hence the importance for sellers to maintain excellent account health and diversify their sales channels.
Why sell on a marketplace: business advantages
Immediate access to qualified audience
The most immediate advantage of a marketplace lies in instant access to a massive and qualified audience. Amazon processes 8,600 products sold per minute by third-party sellers in the United States, while 44% of consumers start their purchase search directly on marketplaces. This immediate visibility completely eliminates the ramp-up period necessary for a proprietary site.
Where a new e-commerce site requires 6 to 18 months to generate significant organic traffic through SEO, a marketplace offers visibility from day one. Recommendation algorithms automatically expose new products to relevant customers, creating immediate sales opportunities without prior marketing investment.
This audience is also pre-qualified: marketplace visitors are in purchase mode, with high purchase intent. The average conversion rate on Amazon (10-15%) far exceeds that of traditional e-commerce sites (2-3%), maximizing return on investment for each visit.
Reduced marketing costs and customer acquisition
Marketplaces revolutionize customer acquisition economics by pooling marketing costs. Developing a complete e-commerce site costs between €50,000 and €500,000, plus €3,600 to €50,000 annually for hosting and maintenance. In comparison, starting on a marketplace requires virtually no initial investment.
Subscription fees cap at €5,400 annually for premium plans, representing a 90% savings on initial investment. This difference frees considerable financial resources to invest in product optimization, innovation, or range expansion.
Customer acquisition costs (CAC) are also reduced through economies of scale. A marketplace amortizes its advertising investments across millions of products, enabling cost-per-click and CPM (cost per thousand impressions) rates lower than those individually accessible.
Turnkey technical and logistics infrastructure
Marketplaces provide sophisticated technical infrastructure without initial investment. They manage traffic scaling during peak periods (Black Friday, sales), payment security, GDPR compliance, and technological updates. This outsourcing eliminates technical risks and guarantees optimal availability.
Integrated logistics services like FBA transform operational constraints into competitive advantages. Storage, preparation, shipping, and after-sales service are completely outsourced, allowing sellers to focus on their core business. Over 55,000 sellers exceeded one million dollars in sales on Amazon in 2024, illustrating the platform’s growth potential.
International expansion also becomes accessible without infrastructure investment. Marketplaces offer immediate access to 14 countries on average, with a 55% increase in exports through these channels. SMEs particularly benefit from this opening, with 30% growth in rural areas thanks to eliminating traditional geographical barriers.
Major challenges and structural disadvantages
Increased competition and price wars
The concentration of sellers on marketplaces intensifies competition and mechanically triggers destructive price wars. On Amazon, only 4 of the top 20 search results are organic according to Marketplace Pulse 2024, the rest consisting of paid advertisements. This advertising saturation, combined with massive Chinese competitor arrivals via Temu and AliExpress, intensifies margin pressure.
The result is alarming: 25% of SME sellers on Amazon show margins below 5% or are unprofitable according to the Jungle Scout 2024 study. This margin erosion results from price transparency that facilitates immediate comparison and pushes toward price undercutting.
The race for the Buy Box (main purchase box) accentuates this pressure. Amazon’s algorithm favors low prices, forcing sellers to constantly reduce their margins to maintain visibility. This deflationary spiral threatens economic viability, particularly for standardized products where differentiation is limited.
Platform commissions and fees
The constant evolution of fees constitutes a major structural financial risk for sellers dependent on a marketplace. Amazon increased its FBA fees by 5% in 2024 and continuously introduces new costs: low inventory, inbound placement, returns for high-return-rate products, long-term storage fees.
This fee inflation, now representing up to 35% of selling price for certain categories, directly threatens economic viability. Amazon’s fee revenue reaches $21.38 billion with 20% growth in 2024, illustrating this continuous upward trend.
The unpredictability of these changes complicates financial planning. Sellers must constantly recalculate their cost prices and adjust margins, creating permanent instability that penalizes long-term investments. This pricing dependency limits strategic autonomy and transfers pricing power to the platform.
Loss of customer experience control
Marketplaces drastically restrict access to detailed buyer information, preventing direct marketing and building a proprietary customer base. This major strategic limitation prevents developing personalized loyalty programs, launching targeted email campaigns, or analyzing purchasing behaviors in detail.
User interface standardization also limits differentiation possibilities. All sellers use the same templates, same ordering processes, and same customer communication tools. This standardization can dilute brand identity and complicate creating a distinctive customer relationship.
Suspension risks represent a permanent sword of Damocles. Amazon suspended 52 million accounts in the EU in 2023, with average resolution times of 2 to 4 weeks, sometimes several months. These suspensions cause immediate sales stoppage, fund blocking for up to 90 days, and ranking loss difficult to recover, potentially destroying years of effort.
Marketplace vs online store: which strategy to choose?
Complementarity between marketplace and e-commerce site
The hybrid approach emerges as the optimal strategy for most modern e-merchants. 62% of sellers plan to extend their multi-marketplace presence according to Mirakl 2024, while 56% of experts recommend this diversification to reduce excessive dependency risks. This strategy capitalizes on immediate marketplace traffic acquisition while simultaneously building lasting proprietary assets.
The synergy between marketplace and proprietary site creates unique opportunities. Marketplaces serve as showcases for discovering new customers, while the proprietary site allows retaining them with higher margins. This “acquisition-retention” approach optimizes customer lifecycle by maximizing both volume and profitability.
Technical integration facilitates this multichannel management. Solutions like Linnworks or ChannelEngine enable centralized synchronization of inventory, prices, and orders across 100+ marketplaces from a single ERP. For PrestaShop, modules like Amazon Connector (Webkul, €199) or eBay Connector (Knowband, €299) automate bidirectional flows.
When to prioritize marketplace approach
Startups and new e-merchants should primarily start on marketplaces to validate their market and quickly generate cash flow. This approach allows testing demand without major investment, identifying top-performing products, and acquiring necessary e-commerce experience before developing proprietary channels.
Companies with standardized or highly competitive products also benefit from a marketplace-first strategy. In these sectors, differentiation relies more on price and logistics than brand experience, areas where marketplaces excel through their economies of scale.
New product launch phases constitute another optimal use case. Marketplaces allow quickly testing market reception, identifying promising segments, and optimizing product-market fit before investing in more expensive distribution channels.
Importance of multichannel strategy
The recommended distribution depends on company maturity and positioning. Established SMEs benefit from a 60/40 strategy (marketplace/proprietary site) to balance volume and margins. Premium brands prefer the reverse, using marketplaces primarily for exposure while strictly controlling their distribution channels to preserve their image.
Multichannel strategy success KPIs include net margin above 20%, diversification across minimum 3 sales channels, and dependency below 60% of revenue on a single platform. This diversification protects against suspension risks, algorithm changes, and unpredictable pricing developments.
Nike perfectly illustrates this approach with its successful transition to direct-to-consumer since 2011. The brand gradually eliminated commissions to maximize margins while maintaining selective marketplace presence to preserve visibility. This strategy increased margins by 4 points while preserving growth.
How to succeed on marketplaces: practical advice
Optimize product listings to stand out
Product listing optimization constitutes the main performance lever on any marketplace. Amazon’s A9 algorithm prioritizes relevance and conversions, with 70% of buyers never going beyond the first page of results. The winning strategy combines specialized keyword research using tools like Helium 10 for Amazon or Terapeak for eBay.
Professional high-resolution images (minimum 1000×1000 pixels) are essential. They must present the product from all angles, in use situations, and with technical detail close-ups. Comparative infographics and lifestyle images significantly increase conversion rates by helping customers project themselves.
Structured descriptions must naturally integrate search terms without over-optimization. An effective title like “Wireless Bluetooth Headphones Active Noise Reduction 30H Battery Sport Gaming” systematically outperforms generic descriptions by targeting multiple search intents simultaneously.
Strategic inventory and pricing management
Dynamic pricing management becomes essential in a saturated competitive environment. Automatic repricing tools like RepricerExpress (€45/month) or BQool allow real-time price adjustments according to predefined rules. A typical configuration maintains a minimum 15% margin while beating the lowest competitor price by €0.01.
This strategy typically generates 2900% ROI: for €100 tool cost, Buy Box rate improvement can generate €3000 additional monthly sales. Automation also prevents costly stock-outs that penalize SEO and seller credibility.
Inventory diversification by marketplace optimizes rotations. Certain products perform better on eBay (used items, collectibles) while others excel on Amazon (innovation, premium). This segmentation maximizes performance while reducing overstocking risks.
Build seller reputation
Building seller reputation requires a systematic and rigorous approach. Amazon metrics require Order Defect Rate below 1%, Late Shipment Rate under 4%, and customer response time under 24 hours. These thresholds leave no room for approximation and require flawless operational processes.
Automated review collection via tools like FeedbackFive (€24/month) with email sequences at D+1, D+7, and D+14 after delivery significantly improves ratings. These sequences must be personalized by product type and avoid overly commercial character that can generate negative reviews.
Standardized customer service response templates reduce processing time while maintaining service quality. Response within 2 hours for emergencies and within 12 hours for standard requests maintains excellent customer satisfaction while optimizing resources. Proactivity in problem handling (replacement before return, preventive goodwill gesture) often transforms difficult situations into positive reviews.