“I’m nervous selling on Amazon. The sales are good, but Amazon’s bureaucracy is downright Kafkaesque. There are too many stories of people being suspended, or having their documents rejected, for obscure reasons,” says an Amazon seller, Dandelion, echoing concerns of many merchants trading on the marketplace.
This July saw Amazon overhauling their seller agreement in response to the verdict in a dominance abuse investigation by German’s cartel office, Bundeskartellamt.
The move saw Amazon changing their Business Solutions Agreement (BSA) for their marketplaces worldwide, allaying the scrutiny over the reportedly unfair treatment of sellers including terminating or blocking sellers’ accounts without justification, paying preference to their own sales as a retailer and handling merchants’ product information for Amazon’s own benefit and more.
The far-reaching improvements for sellers trading on Amazon have yet to convince them that the marketplace has improved. The waning trust is pushing many merchants to wish for the fairer trading system, raising a question of what would a good marketplace look like for them?
A new study by OnBuy took on this quest to discover what alternative marketplaces should offer to attract sellers. The research polled 1,148 UK marketplace traders to understand the underlying business principles marketplace must adhere to woo marketplace sellers.
The majority (88%) of the respondents say that they would consider switching if an online marketplace proposes unique offers that are unbeatable elsewhere, such as low commission and low monthly rates, with a slightly (84%) smaller share of the respondents saying an easy to use platform and payment system (78%) is vital.
Heightened nervousness over marketplaces often being ‘robotic’ in their communication with merchants has been highlighted in the study as 69% of the respondents wish for a dedicated sellers support team that would keep in constant communication with sellers, and 72% want a UK-based customer service team.
A flexible contract is advantageous to many sellers, especially if the marketplace is new as it gives sellers the chance to trial it (36%), with costs to be clearly marked from the beginning, to avoid incurring any extra fees (68%).
Cas Paton, managing director of “the UK’s number 1 marketplace,” OnBuy.com, believes there are various ways that marketplaces can act to ensure that sellers choose them, rather than Amazon.
“The best thing anyone can do for their business is joining a marketplace that is honest and provides a platform that treats both buyers and sellers fairly – something OnBuy knows well.
But, despite being branded as the UK’s number 1 marketplace, it took sellers a long time take a shot with our online marketplace due to big brand alternatives constantly stealing potential customers.
However, with buyers and sellers alike becoming all too aware of the shady tactics used by Amazon, OnBuy are soaring in numbers, again highlighting that people are beginning to turn their backs on the company.”
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