The Marketplace Strategy Blog

Kahuna partnered with Altimeter Research and digital futurist Brian Solis on a first-of-its-kind research report on the state of digital marketplaces. This original research is based on a survey on managers and executives at 100 leading marketplaces. The survey questions spanned business strategy and execution questions, with the result compiled by the data science team at Altimeter. Brian Solis delivers a sharp narrative that connects the rise of online marketplaces to the emerging platform economy and the well-established evolution of customer experiences, the latter of which he has been a leading voice on.

Two numbers inspired the creation of our Guide to Commerce for Manufacturers. First, Forrester estimates that US B2B eCommerce is about to hit $1 trillion. Second, B2B eCommerce World found that only 40% of US Manufacturers have an eCommerce platform, which means 60% of Manufacturers aren’t able to serve customers where they want to buy. That’s a pretty big gap. At SMITH, it’s our job to help manufacturers better serve their current & future customers.

Originally featured on Salmon.com

When using a PIM with your multi-vendor marketplace, quality standards can be embedded and automatically enforced, the performance of your vendors can be easily tracked, and non-performing vendors can be easily corrected or terminated.

Amazon and Alibaba have created massive marketplaces where buyers can purchase virtually anything they want from any location. To compete, many companies are looking to expand their product assortment and geographic reach by incorporating multi-vendor marketplaces into their existing eCommerce stores. There are risks to this strategy but most experts think the potential benefits outweigh them. For an in-depth look at both the pluses and minuses of a multi-vendor marketplace strategy, read on… 

Earlier this week, we blogged about the importance of Mirakl’s partner network as we announced our partnership with e-commerce service company Echidna. Now, we are excited to announce the next phase of Mirakl’s strategic partnership with SAP Hybris.  This announcement centers on the availability of our SAP-certified extension for the SAP® Hybris® Commerce solution.  The extension makes it even faster and easier to integrate the Mirakl Marketplace Platform™ with SAP Hybris Commerce by pre-configuring and automating a majority of the integration work. It gives our joint customers the opportunity to deploy a winning marketplace strategy within weeks.

At  Mirakl, our partner network is extremely important.  Partners bring expertise in all sorts of e-commerce areas that are important to our customers.  That is why we are excited to announce Mirakl’s partnership with Echidna, a leading cloud e-commerce agency.  This partnership gives both B2B and B2C merchants access to e-commerce strategists, technologists and marketplace experts. The goal of the Echidna and Mirakl partnership is to deliver on the promise of the digital enterprise and innovation for the online merchant.