The Top Multi-Channel Marketplaces to Sell Worldwide

Aug 30, 2023

Selling on an ecommerce platform like gives you the greatest degree of control over your online store, advertising, positioning of your product, along with other facets of running your business.

However, what can you do to expand your reach internationally and reach out to new customers who wouldn't have any other means to locate your goods? That's how selling your products across multiple platforms can help expand an online businessit gives the opportunity to reach more buyers from more locations who will most likely not find your online shop.

There are a variety of best online marketplaces, with an international reach. depending on your business it is important to consider them all before deciding which ones can best advance the goals of your business, without compromising your autonomy.

How to choose the right marketplace

The most effective online marketplaces for multi-channel sales are those everyone knows, like Amazon and eBay. There are however many other marketplaces with a similar reach across the globe, and are even bigger in certain instances. They include Alibaba, Walmart Marketplace, Etsy, Rakuten, and Newegg.

This article will take a closer look at each of these in order to provide you with a clear picture of what each marketplace has to offer.

What regions of the globe engage with each online marketplace? How many users are on these websites and how faithful are they?

If you're looking to tap new markets through your product and are convinced that marketplaces on the internet provide the most effective way to do this, it is important to consider several key factors:

  • The way each marketplace serves sellers, protects autonomy, and increases revenue without hassle
  • Pricing: how much you'll need to shell out for access to each online marketplace
  • Audience: which kinds of individuals each market appeals to most
  • Reach: What volume of prospective customers could be from certain geographical areas that are able to access a marketplace?

Let's take a look at each of these top seven multi-channel marketplaces.

Amazon homepage

1. Amazon

Amazon has progressed a great deal since its beginnings as an online bookseller. It's now about what you would get to an everything-seller. The majority of the merchandise through Amazon originates from different online sellers, such as ecommerce businesses who want to expand their reach to new audiences.

Features

Amazon is doing this for quite a long time, and they've figured out how to make an eCommerce site function, to the point that the majority of e-commerce sites want to be able to use many of the same strategies. With the many extensions to your advantage it is possible to do the majority of what Amazon is doing in your online store.

These are the top features of Amazon Marketplace:

  • Global availability: set up an account from just about any nation on Earth
  • Phone support in most nations, chat support and email in the rest
  • You can set your own prices
  • An online platform that lets you create your own products and to promote your own offers and promote
  • Review collection is simple, and easy to use the same system that most people are familiar with
  • Ability to create your own products, and then store them around key words to appear on search engines.
  • Metrics tracking for performance, like order defect rates and rates of fulfillment cancellation
  • Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA), which gives you access to the Prime Badge and offers better shipping options
  • Pre-set product page layouts that take out the work

Fulfillment with Amazon is basically the process of shipping your goods to Amazon as well as they store your products in Amazon's warehouses. It is cost, however you are able to offer two-day free shipping to Amazon Prime members, and Amazon handles printing labels, packaging along with all the additional shipping requirements you'd think of.

Amazon FBA landing page

The shoppers are able to filter their searches so they can only view products offered by sellers with the Prime Badge and give buyers a sense of exclusivity and exclusivity.

Pricing

Amazon is one of the more expensive online marketplaces. There are a variety of charges, not just one.

First, you must choose either the Individual Plan and the Professional Plan. In the Individual Plan, you pay 99 cents per transaction you make. This is a better option for businesses with lower numbers of online sales. The Professional Plan costs $39.99 per month, which includes the ability to sell unlimited quantities.

There's also the referral fee. It is like the commission fees that every online marketplace charges. This is an amount of your total transaction which includes shipping charges. Prices vary according to product category. They typically range from 8-15%, but they range from 45% to as high as and can be as low as percent. After that, there's a fulfillment fee that's based on the weight and size of the product being shipped.

For use of Amazon's warehouses, the storage fees are dependent on the dimensions of your products. Storage fees increase by three times from October through December during the festive period.

Are you sure? There could be additional charges for specific circumstances.

What is the reason someone would be paying all of these costs in order to make a sale on Amazon?

Since there are built-in advantages and a huge market. It is possible to have an online store, you won't have to pay most of these costs. You will have control your inventory as well as your shipping.

Audience

Amazon is the largest company in United States, having achieved nearly total market saturation. 150 million Americans have Prime Memberships -- over 70% of all adults.

The number of monthly active users on their application in the US, and Amazon accounts for 56.7 percent of the total retail ecommerce sales across the U.S. Therefore, if your customers are in the US, Amazon can reach the people they want to reach.

In addition to the U.S., they have approximately 310 million active application users across the globe. This means you have the ability to reach people on mobile, too.

Amazon's audience covers all demographics in North America, and in many other countries, and 60% of consumers who use the internet usually begin their searches with Amazon.

Reach

Following the acquisition of Souq in 2017, which was an Middle Eastern ecommerce marketplace, Amazon was the most popular online seller worldwide. They are concentrated in North America, Europe, Asia and in the Middle East.

Amazon ships to over 130 countries as well as 2.7 billion shoppers have been on Amazon. Amazon has 2.72 billion per month in unique users.

As for the scale, you'll be able to connect with the most global market with Amazon. However, with great size comes competition. Amazon also has the largest quantity of online sellers. So it's not necessarily straightforward to get your items seen.

eBay homepage

2. eBay

eBay was initially created as a platform to offer used goods for sale via bidding battles. Although they continue to offer this service, just 12percent of items offered on their website are up for bid, and the majority of items offered through eBay are new.

So it's become an online market place with a more loyal group of consumers than Amazon. Many shoppers start their shopping online on Amazon, but many of them finish on eBay.

Features

eBay is a real marketplace. They do not offer items of their own, so your only competition comes from other sellers, not the online marketplace itself. Additional features offered by eBay are:

  • Concierge services for larger ecommerce brands
  • Seller Hub is the hub that you use to manage your ecommerce business on eBay It is where you are able to publish and manage listings and orders, manage promotions and sales, etc.
  • Customization of listings -- higher than Amazon
  • Uploading videos that are related to your product
  • Coupons, discounts and promotion capabilities, including coupons
  • It is possible to offer price discounts based on volumes
  • Subscriber options allows you to send out marketing emails to your subscribers, offer discounts to customers who subscribe, and build more customer loyalty than Amazon
  • Ability to access review of products.
  • Shipping label printing
  • The option to promote your business on Google Ads and other online shopping sites, as well as with eBay Ads
  • Advanced analytics
  • Daily or weekly pay schedules

Pricing

eBay's pricing model is simpler than Amazon's, but the charges are comparable in some respects.

First, there's an insertion fee at 35 cents per item, but the first 250 listings are completely free. If you create your own eBay store, you'll get additional listings for free.

You are then paid a portion of the sales price, which typically is 10% in most products, but it ranges from 2-12percent. That includes processing fees. If you are looking to reduce the cost of insertion it is possible to purchase a monthly subscription. If you are a seller with a higher volume that are looking to increase their sales, this is the best option. They have three choices that each comes with the added benefits that selling through the platform. Each is less expensive if you pay annually as opposed to each month. Costs per month are:

  • Basic: $24.95 per month
  • Premium: $74.95 per month
  • Anchor: $349.95 per month

Audience

eBay attracts hobbyists and people who are "enthusiast buyers" as well as people who are looking to get a great deal. eBay is a great choice for electronics. It is the number one seller at 16.4 percent of all products offered on the online platform.

eBay also sells a lot of accessories and clothing (16%) as well as automobiles (11 percent), Beauty and health (9 percent) as well as the outdoor and sports equipment. These five categories account for around 60% of the items that is sold on eBay. However, this leaves lots of opportunities to sell other items.

According to Edesk 61% of the audience on eBay is between 35-64 years old, and 60% of them are men, contrary to Amazon's nearly 50/50 divide. This means that your target audience is comprised of baby boomers at the tail end of their lives Gen-Xers and Generation Y. eBay doesn't get as much volume of traffic from the Gen-Z.

Reach

If you're researching "reach," it is important to differentiate between visitors to the site and buyers. The majority of sites that report on the reach of top known marketplaces for multi-channel selling is able to do a great job clarifying this. This is why you'll see wildly various numbers on different websites.

Furthermore, the shopping numbers changed dramatically in the years after 2020. Therefore, the data prior to that date is probably not up to date.

eBay currently gets about 885 million unique monthly visitors. Every year, approximately 135 million people actually buy something from eBay.

eBay has the third-most downloaded eCommerce app across the US, behind Walmart and Amazon with 60% of the buyers on eBay are from the UK and U.S., with Germany making up 15 percent. That means that about 34% of its users are in those three countries.


In terms of sellers the situation is quite different picture. 28% of eBay sellers are located in the U.S., and 25 percent are located in the UK. 17% are from China and 16% are from Germany while 3% are from Australia. Therefore, you are able to sell your products on eBay from almost anywhere, so long as you pay attention to where the majority of buyers are located.

Alibaba homepage

3. Alibaba

Most marketers in western countries do not know about this ecommerce giant that is based in China, founded by Jack Ma. But it owns over 60 percent of Chinese online market. This implies that any company seeking to expand its business into China as well as the nearby Asian markets must think about joining Alibaba or one of its other platforms such as AliExpress, Taobao, Lazada or Tokopedia. Each of these serves different nations in the region.

Features

The presentation of the capabilities of Alibaba isn't easy because it is a multitude of different platforms within its broad umbrella, and each has distinctive features. For simplicity, we're going to focus specifically on Alibaba and AliExpress. But if you're looking to increase your reach in certain Asian nations, it's best to look into the various platforms that they have, which will be discussed shortly.

Alibaba is among the best B2B online marketplaces. Alibaba lets you buy and sell wholesale products from and to other businesses. Through Alibaba you can:

  • Protect your customer's information, unlike on Amazon
  • Utilize communication tools to communicate directly with buyers
  • Use CRM tools to access analytics and data
  • Translate in more than 18 languages
  • Make customizations using an API integration
  • International freight logistics coordination
  • Support for onboarding is available to new sellers
  • Access product inspection and monitoring

Alibaba makes use of an RFP (Request for Quotation) procedure to allow clients to make orders because firms make use of Alibaba for bulk purchases from suppliers and manufacturers. Thus, prices do not have a fixed price. It depends on quantities of shipping and other elements.

Sellers also have the option of earning three different ratings: Gold, Verified, and Trade Assurance, which assure consumers that they're purchasing products from reputable vendors.

AliExpress homepage

AliExpress
AliExpress is among the many B2C E-commerce sites that Alibaba has in its global marketplace. As with Amazon sellers are able to offer individual products and ship direct to customers. You can also utilize AliExpress to dropship. Similar to Alibaba AliExpress, it is able to be translated into over 18 languages.

Some more features:

  • Marketing to increase exposure for products
  • Convert and accept 51 of the currencies
  • 38 local payment channels to facilitate secure transactions
  • Online storefronts with custom-designed online stores
  • AliExpress University, an onboarding service to help new sellers
  • Multiple shipping options
  • The buyer's protection policy covers damaged, defective or undelivered items

Pricing

Alibaba offers a greater quantity in comparison to B2C online marketplaces, which means their prices are higher too. There is no commission on sales that are charged by Alibaba -just a monthly fee. The cheapest one being that of the Basic Gold Supplier at $1899 per year.

AliExpress is a step closer than other B2C ecommerce platforms. The company does not charge a fee per year however, it charges between 5-8 percent commissions per sale.

Audience

If you're looking to sell online in volume to other businesses, Alibaba is one of the top online marketplaces for your needs. More than 10 million buyers from more than 190 countries purchase wholesale from other businesses through Alibaba. You can deal directly with the manufacturers and there are also traders, exporters, and agents. firms, as well as wholesalers.

Buyers could be different manufacturer and wholesalers who are who use your product to create various other products. They may also be sourcing agents or B2C retailers. Alibaba can be used Alibaba to build private labels.

 AliExpress

AliExpress is geared towards the general public as does Amazon, sells just about anything, from clothing to equipment to products for home improvement and electronics, to beauty items to.

In the countries where AliExpress or other Alibaba B2C ecommerce platforms operate the target market is just about everyone who shops online. There are buyers who could be re-sellers who are setting Dropshipping companies.

AliExpress sellers are required to be in China, Russia, Spain, Italy, France, or Turkey.

Reach

Alibaba is used by a variety of countries and nearly a billion people.

AliExpress along with the other B2C platforms engage millions of customers from more than 220 countries. They're the most popular in Asian countries. In China the marketplace is Taobao. Lazada is the platform for Southeast Asian countries such as Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, and the Philippines. Tokopedia will be the main platform that covers Indonesia.

Walmart Marketplace landing page

4. Walmart Marketplace

Walmart was initially a brick and mortar department store and not as an online marketplace. But around 2010, they began selling online with the help of massive money from their stores, Walmart has been successful in rapidly increasing its selling platforms online so that it can compete with the most prominent brands like Amazon.

However, Walmart Marketplace has fewer sellers and for now this means that there is lesser competition for getting your product seen. So you will likely receive more publicity for your items through Walmart Marketplace than Amazon.

Features

While Walmart's ecommerce platform has numerous similarities with Amazon however, its differences are significant. These are the most important features:

  • A stricter qualification process for sellers, not only anyone who wants to open a store
  • A chance to provide complimentary two-day shipping
  • Advanced listing and analytics tools
  • Secure checkout
  • Market report
  • Review options for customers
  • Walmart ads that provide more product exposure
  • A current supply chain infrastructure is in place
  • Walmart Fulfillment Services, which can store, pack and then ship your goods

Walmart Fulfillment Services works very similar to Fulfillment by Amazon. Your products are sent into Walmart's stores. When orders are made, they will pack and deliver your items for you.

Walmart fulfillment services

The stricter process for obtaining qualifications is a good reason to look into Walmart. They will only consider sellers that have a record of prior success in e-commerce. They ensure that their sellers are reputable and are selling high quality items.

Pricing

In contrast to Amazon, Walmart charges no fees for setup, listings and subscriptions. They just charge a fee per sale. This, like other ecommerce sites differs by category. The price range is between 6 and 20 percent, however the vast majority or product fees can be 8% or 15 percent.

Audience

Walmart has the advantage of having thousands of customers in the store They also have their marketplace online as an alternative to all of them. Walmart offers everything at their store, but their ecommerce counterpart does even more. They cater to anyone shopping online.

Reach

Walmart Marketplace gets about 410 million visitors per month, according an estimate that it attracts customers of Africa, Canada, Central America, Mexico, India, China, and Chile, as well as parts of the U.S. and parts of Europe.

The loyalty program at Walmart currently has over ten million members. So these are people who are enticed to buy with Walmart on the internet.

Etsy homepage

5. Etsy

Etsy was founded as a marketplace that allowed people to market exclusive and handmade items that were not mass-produced items. For the most part the company continues to fulfill that goal even today. for sellers selling on the internet, Etsy is the place to sell one-of-a-kind items and special merchandise.

If you sell a set of goods and you want to draw people to your online store on Etsy, use the platform to offer unique products, and then follow up by bringing them back into your main store that you have built on .

Features

Etsy offers some functions like other platforms, including secured transactions, apps, email and some phone assistance, as well as the capability to customize the appearance of your Etsy shop. Furthermore, Etsy includes:

  • Automatic deposits straight to your account
  • Discounted postage options
  • An Etsy advertisements platform that you can buy advertising to improve the visibility of your ads.
  • The Seller App allows direct communication with buyers via the Seller App
  • Seller protections
  • A program for affiliates that you could make use of to convince other people to sell your stuff
  • The newsletter for sellers and the handbook
  • Access to a community of other sellers

Etsy is known for its reputation of being a bit harder to show up on searches for particular items, which is why some purchase Etsy advertisements. You must be deliberate in how you create product pages, including the words and phrases that you employ to explain your products.

Pricing

Etsy is a basic pricing structure. It charges 20 cents for each listing and the listings are active for four months. For each purchase, you'll pay 9.5 percent transaction fee and a processing fee which covers all costs.

And, Etsy runs ads for your goods all over web, usually using displays that feature images of your items. There is no control you have over this and it costs nothing for you unless your ad produces sales. In the event that ads are successful and result in a sale and you're charged an additional fee for each sale.

Audience

Etsy's audience is very different from other marketplaces online. Shoppers on Etsy want products that they cannot find else. They want stuff no one would ever own. It's like treasure searching.

It is the best place to sell unique items that can be a source of fame as a creative, an artist and a creative design professional who put time and creativity into each piece.

grid of product types that do well on Etsy

The vast majority of shoppers on Etsy are women, generally between ages 18 and 40.

The top categories of their products are the categories of home and living, jewelry crafting supplies, as well as tools. They offer a variety of items for weddings and bridal parties.

Reach

Etsy has a lower reach as compared to other marketplaces. Though they have a presence in over 200 countries, and boast more than 86 million users, about half their sales online are shipped directly to U.S., and almost all the rest go to the UK, Germany, Canada, Australia, and France.

Etsy also has a base of regular buyers, which is 81% of purchases that are made by customers who have been buying from them repeatedly. So if Etsy's audience aligns to your product, you can win the trust of customers faster on this online marketplace in comparison to other more generic ones on this list.

Rakuten homepage

6. Rakuten

If you're keen on focusing your attention on the concept of affiliate selling, Rakuten is the top market on the internet for this.

Is it unclear what affiliate selling is? Rather than buying ads and delve into the complexities of digital marketing your products Instead, you join forces with businesses and other individuals, and they promote and sell your product for their customers instead. As a result, you offer them a share of earnings. It's an opportunity to reach more people than you otherwise could. The most effective affiliate marketers hold an enormous influence on thousands, or even millions, of followers.

Features

Rakuten helps you set up affiliate deals. Some key features that they offer:

  • Pay for the week of retailers
  • Custom reporting systems
  • The most appropriate methods to monetize your store's e-commerce
  • Dynamic coupons and other tools
  • Excellent customer service -- the management of seller accounts and partnerships teams.
  • The ability to set up automated workflows as well as automate
  • Assistance in identifying the influencers or affiliates who are best aligned with your products
  • The system tracks Affiliates and influencers

Pricing

As with other major markets, Rakuten charges a listing fee, a per-month fee as well as a percentage of commissions based on product categories.
The cost is 99 cents for each listing and $39 per month. The commissions vary from 8 to 15 in %.

Audience

Men are slightly more favored, but typically very wide, 25-34 year olds make the most active segment of users. However, the Rakuten audience is harder to specify due to the fact that it is contingent on which affiliates and influencers that you work with.

The software is intended to match you with affiliates whose audiences align to your product. Therefore, in theory, your audience will be the one you would want most.

Reach

Rakuten companies are situated in thirty countries in both Americas, Europe, and Asia Pacific. And their shoppers and affiliates can be found in over the globe in 190 countries. So this is a global marketplace which uses affiliate marketing model as its centerpiece.

Newegg homepage

7. Newegg

Newegg began as a tech-focused ecommerce marketplace, and it remains the leader in that segment. It has extended to other areas and has become one of the top marketplaces for ecommerce businesses to sell their products.

Features

Newegg delivers real benefits for its most popular sellers- those who pay for an annual membership. The benefits of this market are dependent on the membership you select from their three options of Free, Professional or Enterprise.

As with Walmart, Newegg requires sellers to be approved prior to when they can use their ecommerce marketplace. Therefore, this guarantees a level of quality for the items they offer. Some of their key features are:

  • A well-informed and targeted public
  • It is possible to sell secondhand and refurbished items
  • It is possible to market the products they sell on their website and even use Sponsored Video Ads
  • Affirmed support
  • API integration
  • Advanced product listings that can contain video or touchpoint images to help customers make good decision
  • The ability to access Newegg Studios -- they'll make videos and photographs for your products
  • Unlimited product listings when you join the Enterprise membership
  • Automated email post-purchase with the Enterprise membership
  • Discounts when you make use of Newegg Fulfillment along with the Newegg Shipping Label service
  • Benefits for sellers who set prices in a way that is competitive
  • The Premier Seller Program that grants you access to some of the largest buyers
  • You can advertise on Newegg's social accounts and email marketing campaigns

As with Amazon and Walmart, Newegg has a fulfillment and shipping label service If you've got enough inventory you can use it because it will cut your expenses.

Newegg shipping service

Pricing

The free version is available, but the Professional version at $29.95 per month and Enterprise membership at $99.95 per month will give you access to all the features you want.

Audience

Newegg's audience remains heavily technologically-oriented and well-informed. There are more early adopters here than most other places and generally an affluent crowd. Unlike Amazon, Walmart, and Alibaba those who buy on Newegg tend to have incomes in the range of $75k or more. Their customer base is 72% male, and mainly between the ages of 18-44.

Other than a wealth of electronic and other accessories, Newegg also does well in the kitchen and home appliances, and is growing to include sporting goods.

The Newegg customers love looking at the specifications of products, and this is not the platform to be a light touch on details. You want to include lots of detail on your product pages Consider seriously including videos. Three-quarters of their shoppers have been returning customers.

Reach

Newegg is home to more than 4 million customers who are active all over Europe, South and North America and Asia Pacific, the Middle East, and Asia Pacific.

So it's a smaller audience and yet one that is spending more and is looking for specific types of goods. Like Etsy there is a chance to build an even more loyal and devoted following here than on the vast marketplaces.

Why sell on as part of your global strategy

Marketplaces on the internet can be great gateways into the world of selling online. They're also an excellent way to meet your audience at the exact location they're in, and also in places they're already purchasing.

When it comes to the matter, it's clear that the best way to grow your online company and keep full control is to start your own store with . Let's take a review of a few arguments for this to be true.

1. Marketplaces promote competitor products

Third-party marketplaces want all of their customers to achieve success Your business doesn't come in their top priorities. Therefore, when buyers are scrolling through or searching for goods, they will not just see products from rivals alongside yours, but they could also be exposed to ads related to these items.

Through the marketplace, it's more convenient for consumers to select one of your competitors over the other. However, with tools like , you could create an online store that allows shoppers to find what they're looking for and seamlessly make a purchase and without the distractions of different stores.

2. Marketplaces offer a limited selection of design and functionality

When you sell your products on marketplaces online need to be able to alter your listings for products to satisfy their specifications for layout, pictures, formatting as well as categorization and the length of descriptions. This means you might not be able to provide every detail you'd like.

Since you're working with the template of a design, you may not be able to customize it to match your brand. The items you create will appear similar to everyone else's.

DVO suspension product page
Custom product page from https://dvosuspension.com/


With , however, you can design the type of store and product listing you'd like. Add lots of photos and videos, include sizes charts and ingredient lists to customize the look and feel to fit your company's image.

3. Marketplaces make up a portion of sales

Third-party marketplaces receive a portion of the online sales you make in exchange for using their platforms. If you increase your business the amount of money you earn increasing. The website doesn't charge charges for selling on the internet.

father's day card listing on the Offerman Woodshop website
Product page from https://offermanwoodshop.com/

4. Marketplaces limit your control

If you're selling your products on a third-party marketplace they'll enforce their rules and regulations. If they find that you're not complying with their regulations then they're able to shut off your shop, often without warning. That means that you'll suddenly lose your revenue stream and, possibly, the content that you've created.

With Jetpack, you'll enjoy full control and ownership over your site. You can also set up backups that will protect every element of your store, including sales and customer data. So if something ever goes out of the ordinary, you'll be able to quickly restore your store.

5. Marketplaces complicate marketing

Although some marketplaces offer built-in marketing tools, these may become more limited as you grow. There may be no way to incorporate the tools you'd like for advertisements, email marketing, customer relationship management, search engine optimization and many more. Also, it could be difficult to collect customer information and to effectively interact with customers.

 extensions

6. Markets can make it difficult to change

When you begin to grow your company it is likely that you will have to implement significant modifications to meet the demands of more customers. As an example, you may need to revise your shipping or marketing strategies, take a variety of currencies, change your content into various languages, or even integrate the fulfillment and inventory software for managing inventory or fulfillment.

Marketplaces that are third party can hinder the ability to implement these sorts of changes. They might not be compatible with the tools you want to utilize. Perhaps they don't permit users to change the settings necessary to be able to sell internationally.

You can take many different currencies, set up shipping in many ways, connect with a variety of software, and design your shop in any manner you'd like to as your business grows. You can also choose any hosting provider necessary to offer the necessary resources, instruments, and help necessary to cope with growth in customers.

When it comes down to it, the best option to create and expand a successful online store. The benefits include a system that is easy to utilize (no code required! ) with the ultimate flexibility, excellent support, and total control.

Amazon FBA extension