Linn Academy 2020 On-Demand: Key findings from the Internet Retailing 2020 Marketplaces Report.

Ian Jindal, editor in chief of Internet Retailing, shares the results of the newly-published Marketplaces 2020 research report.

In this session, hear about:

• The growing importance of marketplaces
• Why consumers are no longer distinguishing between retailer and marketplace
• The main features of more than 170 marketplaces across Europe

More than half of the web traffic of Europe’s citizens is going to marketplaces, according to the results of Retail X’s new report Marketplaces 2020.

Ian Jindal, CEO and co-founder of Internet Retailing, presented the results of the recently-published report at Linn Academy 2020.

He said the research found that around 57% of all visits go to marketplaces, with around 30% of traffic going to retailers and around 10% for brands. “To get so much traffic going to a relatively small number of marketplaces they must be doing something right,” he said.

Consumers are starting to view marketplaces as like department stores.

The analysis showed that partly the growth is being driven by the fact that consumers are now seeing marketplaces as operating more like a department store. They view them as a place to find a variety of products, often with wider ranges, better payment methods and better content than their retail counterparts.

As a result the consumer is placing less emphasis on whether they are buying from a retailer or a marketplace, since they trust both. “The consumers don't make the distinctions that maybe we make in the industry,” said Jindal.

Retail X looked across all the European markets to understand how marketplaces compared to their retail counterparts, and how consumers view them. The results mean Jindal believes the formats will continue to merge.

“What we are going to find over time is a retailer is going to want to do everything a marketplace does and a marketplace is going to want to look to retailers and do everything that they do.” Success will depend on who gets the customers eyeballs first, he said.

The report examined more than 170 marketplaces to understand where and how they operate, payment types and requirements for selling, as well as looking at how the experience was for the end consumer on all the different marketplaces analysed.

Watch the on-demand session now.