While it’s difficult to find an online seller that won’t have heard of Amazon, it’s very easy to find one that hasn’t taken a step beyond selling overseas through Amazon and tried some of the other fruitful online marketplaces found on the continent. We’ve profiled five of the top online marketplaces our sellers have used when tapping into European consumers.
CDiscount
France’s Cdiscount is a country-spanning marketplace that’s been around for years. Online sellers can list a wide range of products from consumer electronics to media to furniture.
While Amazon still takes the top spot in France, CDiscount isn’t far behind. The online marketplace boasts 16 million registered buyers and clocks over €3 billion of sales per year. For UK sellers, CDiscount have produced a very user friendly experience. There’s no commitment or contract to sign and they’ve got multi-lingual account managers to guide you from registration to first sale.
Bol.com
As with CDiscount, the key to these marketplaces is selecting your audience. For Bol.com, the target audience is Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg. Registering over 1 million visits per day, there will be plenty of eyes to draw to your products. Usually, Amazon are the go-to for consumer electronics and books. Not the case in the Netherlands, where Bol.com hold the top spot.
For sellers, Bol.com use their Global Trade Item Number (GTIN) system – so if your product has a GTIN, there’s no need for you to manually translate a thing. For Bol.com’s commission, there’s no monthly fee whatsoever, meaning you only pay them when you make a sale.
DaWanda
For those sellers looking to reach out to creative, artistic and imaginative audience should look to DeWanda. DeWanda differentiates itself from the rest by providing unique products from the design and creative community – so more like Etsy than Amazon. With responsible sourcing, ethical supply and exclusive products, this could be the marketplace for you.
The online marketplace boasts over 5 million shoppers and has a selling community of over 250,000, with more than 200 million page views per calendar month. Originally a German website, DeWanda now caters for English, Dutch, Spanish, Italian, Polish and French consumers.
Allegro
Looking to diversify away from Amazon? Allegro could be the way forward. Little known in the UK, Allegro is the fifth most-visited marketplace in Europe and caters to eastern Europe specifically.
With over 12 million registered users and boasting a large slice of one of the fastest growing ecommerce communities in Poland – currently on track to grow over 20% per year.
With Allegro, there are account costs and translation will need to be taken into account. However, being able to access both Poland and the surrounding countries with carefully selected products can be a great opportunity.
Zalando
Fast becoming a household name, Zalando is now one of the continent’s biggest names in fashion & clothing. It’s quickly becoming a rarity for global (and certainly European) fashion brands not to have a presence on the site and online sellers are becoming more aware of this fact.
To protect its brand and quality of suppliers, there are requirements that sellers have to meet to get their products listed on Zalando. Have a look at the website and figure out if your goods will fit in with the rest of their listings. Lastly, you have to have a registered office within Germany as well as a valid business licence. Once you’ve jumped these hurdles, you’ll be able to tap into their 13 million strong buyer base – a very worthwhile return on investment!