The Doing Business in Bentonville Podcast
To create an ecosystem that connects leaders of all kinds – industry, community, student, educational, civic, investment and entrepreneurial – to help overcome Omnichannel Retail barriers through exclusive, insight-rich content.
The Doing Business in Bentonville Podcast
Ep. 76 - Jim Okamura on Navigating the Future of Marketplace Strategies
What if digital marketplaces could redefine the future of retail? Join DBB's Scott Benedict on the Digital Front Door for an enlightening conversation with Jim Okamura from McMillanDoolittle, as they unveil the transformative power of digital marketplaces, predicted to hit a global gross merchandise value of $3.8 trillion in 2024.
Discover the various marketplace models shaping the world, from specialized platforms like Zalando and Newegg to titans like Alibaba and JD.com, and see how hybrid marketplaces are revolutionizing traditional retail with omni-channel capabilities.
In this engaging episode, Jim and Scott shine a light on why having a solid marketplace strategy is now crucial for consumer product companies. Learn how brands have shifted from skepticism to embracing marketplaces as a vital growth component, as illustrated by initiatives such as Walmart's brand shop program.
The evolution from third-party to one-piece sellers is examined, highlighting how brands are now dedicating specific teams to harness these opportunities, transforming what was once a nuisance into a strategic strength in their retail ecosystem.
As marketplace models evolve, so do the roles within retail teams. Scott and Jim discuss the rise of lean teams and bridge roles that ensure seamless operations across digital and traditional channels, and how companies are leveraging these changes to gain consumer trust and ensure product authenticity.
The episode concludes by exploring the expansive opportunities that marketplaces provide for international growth and niche market alignment. Dive into these insights and explore more about this burgeoning field through the Ebeltoft Digital Marketplace Study available at McmillanDoolittle's website.
Well, hello everyone and welcome to the Digital Front Door. I'm Scott Benedict. For those of us involved in the retail community here in Northwest Arkansas, we have seen an increased emphasis by Walmart on their marketplace business, on Walmartcom, both here in the US, as well as growing their marketplace efforts in other markets such as Canada and Mexico. Now, some might say that this effort is a competitive response to Amazon, and yes, it certainly is. That Others in our industry might say that the growth of the marketplace segment is also an opportunity to generate revenue beyond just selling merchandise. Walmart, for example, sells services to marketplace sellers, including fulfillment services, provide advertising services, access to new markets and the opportunity for sellers to sell to Walmart customers directly without having to go through and negotiate with a category buyer. And if you thought that, yes, all of those factors are true.
Speaker 1:However, missing in all discussions and strategies related to marketplace selling is the fact that the rivalry between Walmart and Amazon, particularly here in the US market, is just a small part of the broader story of digital retailing globally.
Speaker 1:In fact, according to a recent study, the projected global gross merchandise value, or GMV, of global marketplace is projected to reach $3.8 trillion in 2024. Marketplace selling is expected to garner 12.4% penetration of global retail sales overall and approximately 30% of e-commerce sales worldwide. So clearly a big, big opportunity for everyone across the retail ecosystem. And with a retail market opportunity of that size and scale, both today and in the future, retailers and consumer brands alike are rightfully asking themselves what is our strategy to take advantage of this fast growth engine, and, for my part, I've been reading a recent study on digital marketplace published by the ebblet off group. Ebblet off, if you're not familiar with them, as a global alliance of brand and retail consultancies with experts in 20 retail markets around the world, and one of those experts is my friend, jim Okamura from Macmillan Doolittle, an affiliate of the Eppletop Group that is based in Chicago, and Jim joins us today from his home outside Chicago. And, jim, welcome and thank you for joining us today.
Speaker 2:Well, thanks for having me back, scott.
Speaker 1:Jim, welcome and thank you for joining us today. Well, thanks for having me back, scott. It is my pleasure and I'm really excited, was really excited to read this study and to kind of get your thoughts a little bit about this, to kind of maybe set up the conversation, if you would Tell us a little bit about this study and why you and the team at Ebbletoth felt it was an important aspect of what's going on in the industry, important enough to pull this study together.
Speaker 2:Yeah, thanks, the background within the Ebeltoff group was we always kind of look at our clients as a whole, and our clients are kind of an interesting mix of retailers, brands, tech solution providers, as well as investors, and digital marketplaces is a topic that has been growing around the world and really touches all of these stakeholders. So we thought this was kind of good timing to perhaps raise some awareness amongst clients that perhaps needed to dive a little bit deeper, you know, into the whole digital marketplace sector and decide, you know, are we doing everything that we really can be doing?
Speaker 1:Makes sense. Now, for many of us, the view of marketplace selling is really rooted in Amazon, Walmart, maybe some other major retailers. One of the things I got from this study and what the study tells us is that there are a number of different types of digital marketplaces around the world. I'm sure I didn't really know that. I'll bet a lot of folks in our audience didn't either. Can you kind of lay out what are the different types of marketplaces that you are seeing out there worldwide?
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, it is something that we've seen, this proliferation of marketplaces, you know, in a lot of different countries and I think, from a US lens, I think we obviously are so familiar with, you know, the biggest players, amazon and Walmart, obviously at the top of the pyramid. But really what we've seen take place over the past decade or so is really seeing where there's been a lot of vertical marketplaces. Vertical marketplaces, you know. So something like Zalando in Europe, you know, focusing in the fashion sector, or a Newegg here in the US, you know, that has specialized in computers and electronics. We obviously see a lot of the big global players, you know, and their various, you know versions of marketplaces that they're standing up across different marketplaces. So I'm not sure how many people really know that JDcom is really behind TEMU globally, or Alibaba is really behind the Spanish marketplace, moravia. So again, you see some of the global players you know really starting to spread their geographic, you know footprint. So countering this, you know we often see what we call local heroes. So these again are often, you know, country specific, general merchandise marketplaces ballcom, bol in the Netherlands, you know is a great example. Or Allegro in the Polish marketplace, you know, notably did their IPO about five years ago and it was a huge, you know, like listing in the markets, you know, over there Seed discount, you know. In France, you know, is another one. So again, we see a lot of these. You know local hero marketplaces, you know, also really competing against some of these players.
Speaker 2:But the one type of marketplace that you know we thought also deserved a little more scrutiny and analysis, you know, was what we call the hybrid marketplace. These are traditional store based retailers who have decided to to really evolve their e-commerce operation into a third party. You know digital marketplace and we find this kind of fascinating just in the general. You know digital transformation, you know. You and I have been living across the retail sector now, you know, for decades. But when we start to look at you know, the marketplaces and the opportunity now for unified or omni-channel capabilities within a third-party marketplace, that kind of gets exciting, at least for the guys like us who live and breathe retail. So, just seeing again where these hybrid marketplaces and obviously that would include Walmart and Target here, but you may not know that JCrew has their third-party marketplace or over in Europe, leroy Merlin in the DIY sector or Maison Demande in the home sector. You know, again, the traditional store-based retailers who have really been building out, you know, their digital marketplaces at the same time. So lots of different variations.
Speaker 2:You know that we're seeing out here and I think a lot of this was really driven, you know, in the past. You know, decade or so, as these different types of retailers were really, you know, looking at what are some ways that we can be growing right, and I think you know the marketplace model certainly has a lot of attraction. You know in terms of the business model itself, and I think you know that's something that I think is still a lot of attraction. You know in terms of the business model itself, and I think you know that's something that I think is still a lot of brands and retailers aren't as familiar as they should be with. Okay, what is my opportunity here? You know, not just to sell more product but to really, perhaps, you know, look at, you know this changing business model and you alluded to it earlier. What kind of you know services might we provide? You know that. You know leverages, our back end, for example.
Speaker 1:It's neat and I think that just the sheer number and type of marketplace business models that exist to your point, not only here in the US but around the world, was one of the key learnings that I got out of the study that I don't think as close as I am to retailing I don't think I really saw, and you know it's interesting. Digital marketplaces are not really new, but it feels like marketplaces are becoming a bigger growth driver than many in our industry, than the retail community really perceive. Would you agree with that assessment?
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, it reminds me of a conversation we were having in our global e-commerce conference that we host commerce conference that we host where we were asking some large global brands who were very actively selling through digital marketplaces in various countries around the world. We're kind of saying are these the new distributors, are these the new international distributors that really take clearly a digital first approach? We've heard from a number of these brands over the years, as they have been doing a full-scale review of their distributor partners and kind of saying what do you bring to the digital party, so to speak? And the answer to that generally is it really varies across those distributors.
Speaker 2:Some distributors we do find, you know, are very digital first and really have been, you know, built to, you know, help sell through you know digital channels. Others are clearly of you know, kind of old school, you know wholesale, you know distribution being a classic middleman and hopefully providing you know some added value through those you know wholesale, you know distribution being a classic middleman and hopefully providing you know some added value through those you know services. But they're not really bringing a lot, you know, from a digital, you know perspective. So just something like that where we see you know brands, kind of, you know almost looking at marketplaces as a new way that you know we should be. You should be really thinking about distributing our products across various markets.
Speaker 1:All right. One of the interesting quotes that I saw in the study it was early on in the study was, and I quote every consumer products company needs to have a marketplace strategy, and I thought that was interesting and a little bit profound, to be honest. My question is I suspect that quote is in there because that's not really the case, and if that's so, why is that important?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I do agree with that statement. You know, when one of the experts that we interviewed in this study, you know, said that you know, it made a ton of sense to me that you know every consumer products company really does need to take a look at you know how they are approaching marketplaces as a whole. I think that's kind of why you know our two you know, primary hypotheses in this study were kind of focused on brand control for the seller as well as data and insight sharing between you know, the marketplace operator and the third party. You know brand seller, and both of those are, in our view, certainly big strategic. You know issues. You know brand seller, and both of those are, in our view, certainly big strategic. You know issues. You know what is that customer experience? You know we as a brand strive for what are our brands, the standards and values and everything that you know there's so much work that goes into any branding book or Bible that might, you know, you might see a big brand kind of operate their business by. So, not surprisingly, they would, you know, look at marketplaces, especially, I'd say, marketplaces of old. You know where they might eye them suspiciously, as are we really going to have a brand experience that lives up to our expectations. You know for our brand right, and so that's something we've clearly seen. You know for our brand, right, and so that's something we've clearly seen.
Speaker 2:You know kind of change, you know, over time. You know, and I think you know Walmart's, you know brand shop, you know program, you know is a great example launched earlier this year the ability, you know for you know, again, a third party brand seller to to really customize, you know their storefront within. You know, for you know, again, a third party brand seller to really customize, you know their storefront within. You know the Walmart, you know marketplace and really stay on brand, you know, while doing so. So those are things that you know, we've seen, you know happening, you know, and yet it's not across the board with all marketplaces. Hence you know why we were kind of assessing or auditing you know, the different capabilities across these marketplaces in 11 countries.
Speaker 2:The second, you know hypothesis, you know was really, you know, grounded in again, something, a topic that you and I, you know, love you know, which is data and insights. Right, I mean, you know, from from day one. You know, in the digital retail world, you know we respect and the data and what we can really do with that. So it's almost a natural evolution, you know, for us to see, well, how will the retailer again help the seller by perhaps sharing, you know, some of those data insights in the form of, you know, technology and tools or other programs that they might, you know, have in place. So these are things that you know we think will change, you know, kind of gradually. It's not going to happen overnight. We know people you know want to really protect you know that data Everyone kind of knows you know the value of that.
Speaker 1:It's everyone kind of knows. You know the value of that, so I think, judiciously sharing you know some of that are now beginning to assign a leader on their team in their organization to their marketplace strategy and I'm wondering if, through your lens and through your colleagues at Ebbletop, is that a trend that you're seeing, that brands are saying we're going to, in addition to selling to a retailer directly and having the team associated with that, we're going to put a body, or perhaps multiple bodies, focused on the marketplace strategy as a component of the broader strategy with that retail partner.
Speaker 2:You know this is not something that I think you know we're seeing as commonplace, but I love you know what I'm hearing. Tell me a little bit more about this. You know, scott, what do you give me an example of? Okay, you know, for a given category team, you know, like, where's the marketplace specialist sit within that?
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, it's interesting because I've seen a couple of examples of it One where it is a person that sits on and reports up through the Walmart account team, and in some other examples, with some major brands, I'm seeing that it's a home office-based or corporate office-based leader that not only does it for a retailer like Walmart, but for some of the other platforms as well.
Speaker 1:The big change for me that I have seen is the fact that so many brands went from treating marketplace selling as for lack of a better description a bit of an annoyance, something that was handled by somebody else that occasionally caused some headaches or some heartburn or some problems for the Walmart team because they didn't have knowledge or control of what was going on. It's transitioned to be hey, we're going to control this strategy, we're going to control how our brand is depicted on this platform, whether it's products we sold to the buyer or products that we place we, the brand place onto the marketplace. So that's the thing I've started to see and, to your point, it's not widespread, but I've seen it more than once and enough that the ex-buyer in me says I think I see a trend beginning to emerge.
Speaker 2:And has that been translating then to what was once strictly a third party seller on the marketplace, now being, you know, a one, one piece seller, or again you know that that relationship is kind of broadening, expanding. You know they're selling more, you know products through multiple means yeah, I.
Speaker 1:I think the thing that I'll tell you. I've seen here, jim, and on walmart supplier teams, is a scenario where one, as part of the joint business planning process between this brand and the walmart team, the challenge has come we want all of your products, you want your full catalog on Walmartcom, and marketplace selling is how they accomplish perhaps some of those getting some of those long tail items on the site when a buyer has not selected it and Walmart has not placed an inventory investment in it. Number one and then number two has been that there's a great in addition to revenue and sales. There's a great Intel opportunity some of the things that you were talking about previously to understand consumer acceptance of that item Perhaps it's an item that isn't available in the broader marketplace or new design, new packaging, new price points.
Speaker 1:It's a way to gather intel and data in addition to selling more revenue. But it falls within the purview of the Walmart account team. So now they have the visibility, the control and the insights that come from that within their purview instead of leaving it to somebody else. And, to the point that you were making, that's something that is garnering greater and additional interest and again, it's starting to be a trend. It has gone broad-based yet, but I'm going to continue to watch it and it just in the context of this study. It felt like an interesting development.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I totally agree. I think it's going to be a really interesting thing to kind of monitor in coming years. You know what type of team structures you know. Might we see? I mean, in the study we were able to access some good headcount. You know benchmark data for hybrid marketplaces. So you know, one of the first things you know we observed was kind of light. You know like it's just not a big team, right. I mean, you know you're talking. You know like pretty big. You know like you know complex. You know retail. You know businesses with lots of deep, you know categories and yet really it's a pretty thin. You know crew that are responsible for. You know managing. You know the marketplace. So as the marketplace, business models kind of grow and we assume, you know like you know, some will flourish, you know I do expect we'll see more of.
Speaker 2:You know those types of hybrid or matrixed types of. You know roles, right. I mean this brings me back to some of the earliest org design studies that I did for the NRF, you know, dating back more than you know 15 years ago now. But you know, at that time you know we were looking at the bridge roles, as we call them right, those classic matrix roles. Poor person who was in those roles had to straddle both the digital and the core traditional team and yet that worked right. It still does to this day, to this day. I still think we find a lot of those kind of matrix roles Very hard to plan for secession.
Speaker 2:But you know, it's a really interesting role again that allows, you know, both teams to be informed. I mean less things fall through the cracks, you know essentially. So just that kind of level of communication. You know we expect to see more of that right. So who's going to be in those roles? You know, at a category, you know, level right To, again, you know, make sure that the core, you know merchant team realizes have you seen this one third party seller? They're knocking it out of the park right. And again, what are they doing differently? How do we take a look at them? And you know, perhaps you know, look at a different way to, again, you know, build that kind of relationship. So I do hope we see more of these kind of, you know, matrix or bridge roles kind of emerge. You know, as you know, more of a spotlight is put on the marketplace model itself.
Speaker 1:It feels like certainly an additional opportunity, naomi, for the seller, for the consumer brand, but for the retailer as well, because they obviously can get some key learnings from those broader items in the marketplace in terms of understanding what their customer is interested in or are really looking for, and they're not constrained by the physical space requirements of a physical store. So you know one of the things, that, if we go backwards in time a little bit, one of the initial plays for retailers in developing a marketplace strategy seemed like it was expanded product offerings, offering a broader assortment, when that was the key driver of shopping online without having the inventory investment. But it feels like, while that's still true, there's a lot of benefits for the retailer beyond just those initial wider product offerings plays. It feels like there's other benefits for them. Would you agree?
Speaker 2:Absolutely. You kind of mentioned this earlier in terms of some of those services, whether it is fulfillment services or advertising services, and I think this is where we're starting to see the convergence of. You know another mega trend within retail in terms of retail media networks Right, and who's at the forefront of retail media networks? But you know digital marketplaces surprise, surprise, right, but you know digital marketplaces surprise, surprise, right, you know. So again, you start to see some of these. You know services, you know being offered. You know, and when you really take a deep dive, you know at the financials and kind of the business model you know this is. I think you know what you know gets a few eyebrows raised amongst you know some say long time. You know retail executives when they kind of look at you know what's that contribution margin you know of. You know the, the product they might be selling. You know in in a traditional manner versus. You know again, you know taking this, this bundle of you know revenue from a third party. You know seller, you know, and again and all, all doing so without you know again, having to put forward the capital you know for inventory investment. You know that's certainly what has caught a lot of you know like attention amongst senior executives. Now, that being said, we also know that you know that rush for companies to kind of stand up their own, you know marketplaces was fraught with, you know, risk for those you know who didn't. You know know that, okay, this is not something you can flip a switch all of a sudden. You know. And again, you know, be a successful marketplace, right. So you know, that's what I found kind of interesting that so many companies were kind of enamored of the marketplace model for all these. You know kind of positive, theoretical, you know factors, but without, I think, you know, really taking a close look. You know a good hard look in the mirror and go do we have the bones, you know, for this, right, and if not, what do we need to do to build those bones or that foundational layer before we start to? You know, kind of aggressively, you know, grow this. You know business.
Speaker 2:So you know and this is where I think you know there's been also a lot of discussion again in our global e-commerce, you know conference. You know around the role of marketplaces in international growth strategies, right. National growth strategy, right, in some cases, you know, because of the faster speed to market you know of selling on. You know marketplaces. It's been a great way for a brand you know to really test out their brand equity in another market. Do you know the consumers actually they know of us. Do they understand what our brand you know stands for and the values you know we have? You know behind it.
Speaker 2:But again, just being able to do that you know so quickly, as opposed to again in a more traditional model, whether it's distributor based or standing up your your own direct e-commerce, you know in another country, you know marketplaces have a lot of advantages, so we we see that happening with.
Speaker 2:You know, in another country, you know marketplaces have a lot of advantages, so we see that happening with. You know a lot of brands. You know how do we strategically use marketplaces as a global growth driver, whether or not the long game, you know, means that, yeah, we're going to have the majority of our international sales going through that, or, again, we start to bring that into some of our own channels, right, whether our own stores or our own DTC e-commerce. So, yeah, a lot of different ways that you can for both a brand and a retailer to think about their marketplace and a retailer to think about their marketplace and that's why you know, we think that you know they're at this I'd still say early-ish days of you know for a lot of you know marketplaces. We're going to see, I think, a lot of those business models kind of change and evolve over time and the teams supporting them just to your earlier point, I think you know will be you know also evolve.
Speaker 1:Yeah, one of the things that occurred to me while you were sharing those thoughts is I can't help but see things sometimes through the lens of a former buyer, and there's that saying about speed kills and occasionally that focus on speed led to items getting placed on the marketplaces that had not had the proper buyer scrutiny about. Is this authentic product or fake? Is it safe product or not safe? Is it outdated or not really legal for a particular market? Perhaps came from another market in the form of a gray good purchase, and I think that's one of the things that, for all the positives and there's countless and now there's a lot of guardrails put in place by Amazon and others to keep those things from happening, but in many cases those guardrails were sold of some hard learnings about. Yeah, some stuff got sold on our site, got placed on our site and got sold on our site that should have never been presented to a consumer for all those reasons I just mentioned.
Speaker 2:Right, you know, and those are clearly you know, some of the, I'd say, operational risk of the marketplaces and I think why we see different, again, variations to marketplaces out there. Targets marketplaces, famously, invitation only. It's not like any third party can start selling on Targets marketplace. Any third party can start selling on Target's marketplace. So they've clearly had a tighter control in terms of, you know, third party sellers. So I think it really depends on the model.
Speaker 2:Are we, you know, again, you know, looking to get as big and broad and deep of selection as possible? Well, that certainly suggests a much more you know, open marketplace. But I think we're seeing kind of all points in between that fully open versus you know, invite only, I think you know, emerge. And I think that's where, you know, we'll start to see the retailers again put any third party seller through their own brand filter. Right, right, you know, and I think you know that that's we've yet to really, I think you know, see that you know take place. I think we're starting to see that in certain you know, like, you know, businesses, but again, still pretty early days it is, and for the challenges or concerns that maybe some retailers had.
Speaker 1:Consumer brands in some cases had their own kind of war stories, if you will, and to some degree it felt like a lot of brands used marketplace sellers as perhaps an outlet for selling outdated or distressed products. But now those benefits feel like they're a little bit more strategic and, to our earlier comments, they're now taking a more strategic approach to the benefits of marketplace selling. Would you agree?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I certainly agree that early days of marketplace selling was often seen as an end-of-product lifecycle channel and certainly we did see a lot of that. And yet I think as marketplaces have proliferated and the different variations have kind of emerged Again, the specialty marketplaces, you know that we don't see over. You know, in North America, for example, like the lifestyle marketplaces, all organic, you know, or fair trade types of you know marketplaces. You know these are different. You know opportunities, you know for brands, you know. But I do think you know one of the interviewees, you know a very experienced, you know brand executive who has sold a lot through marketplaces, both domestically, you know, and internationally, kind of you know put it well, we were talking about again the brand control hypotheses, you know in particular, and he says we were talking about again the brand control hypotheses, you know in particular, and he says you know you can't. You have to be active in the marketplace in order to really manage your brand. You know appropriately, right, you know just seeing where. You know he was saying that you know it's not the job of the marketplace. You know they cannot. You know police, you know your brand. You know for you you have to do that. You know yourself.
Speaker 2:So, again, just just where, where we're seeing, you know brands, you know really, look at the, these channels, as you know, not just a place to, again, you know, sell, end of life cycle. You know products, you know as much as how can we, you know, look at this from? Perhaps you know a differentiated, you know like, product strategy, right, in some cases unique to the channel, you know product, and this is where we've seen the convergence, you know, with a lot of social commerce and marketplaces. Right, we've heard this, you know, from a lot of brands who have been, who we consider successful in their social commerce. You know strategies, they've all said we have really had a bespoke product or merchandising strategy for. You know that channel right and use, you know the whole medium, you know, and the customer experience to, again, you know, really showcase, you know to, and the customer experience to, again, you know, really showcase, you know unique products.
Speaker 2:So I think you know this is where, rather than an across the board, you know, let's put all of our assortment out there, I think, a lot of considered thought in terms of, well, what is that right mix, you know, given, you know who shops there, right, it'd be no different in a sense, you know from. You know if we were looking, say, at our real estate, you know. And merchandising strategy, you know like, for you know some. You know super regional. You know mall we're probably going to have a different assortment, you know. Then you know some. You know tier three, you know kind of. You know mall, strip mall or something like that, right. So you know kind of you know mall, strip mall or something like that, right? So you know these are all things that I think you know we're only now starting to see these refinements, you know, happening, where you know whether, from a brand or a retailer's perspective, they're really starting to optimize. You know the channel, it makes sense.
Speaker 1:You know, one of the key learnings I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts on is if you look at markets outside the US. You touched on this a little bit, but maybe when you look at markets outside the US, are there applicable learnings or best practices or best practice operators? Perhaps that, as you participated in this study, you would maybe hold up as a great learning or a best practice for those of us here in the US to look at and say, wow, that's someone to watch. There's learnings that have come from the way that they've done it and there's leverageable best practices that we can apply to to our business.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, I think. I think Europe is going to be Europe as a whole is going to be great to watch. You know, over the next 10 years, let's say, within the marketplace sector overall, just because there has been such a proliferation of, you know, marketplaces. So, unlike the US market which, again, the biggest players still really dominate, any brand might have, you know, in saying, ok, how do we look at marketplace channels as a whole? And you know, with where do we want to be kind of selling through? Well, you know, I think you know that that's where there's no single. You know best practice. You know leader. You know leader, but it's not necessarily a slam dunk. You know that.
Speaker 2:You know a brand would naturally start with a big player, like you know Amazon. They might go directly to a vertical specialist like a Zalando. Or, again, you know, look to build relationships. You know, with a hybrid marketplace, like we were impressed with Media Mart, you know kind of the biggest electronics. You know retailer in Europe and what they were doing with their third-party marketplace, right, one of the things that you know really kind of stood out for us was where they're now testing out showcasing some third-party marketplace sellers within a physical store, right. So, again, carving out some real estate, valuable real estate within the store to really promote some of these third-party sellers on the marketplace. So we expect to see more of these kind of like omni-channel merchandising approaches. And here's the thing that you know I mean you and I have talked about this in the past I think I always look to kind of promotional cadence right when it comes to omni-channel. And again, where are we going to be consistent versus where might we be channeling or specific with some of our promotions? And really there's never any one size fits all, right. So how do you really hone in on that and kind of optimize? We've yet to kind of, you know, see that type of next level kind of optimization. I would say so again, no single way to kind of, you know, go to market. And I think that's kind of what makes it interesting right now.
Speaker 2:Whether you're a US brand looking to sell, you know, internationally, or looking to sell more, you know, domestically, right, I mean, marketplaces, you know are clearly a viable option. So you know, again, how does that stack up, you know, when we compare it against you know, the cost and effort of, you know, standing up our own channels, you know. Or again traditional. You know distribution in a wholesale manner. You know whether through distributors or either through a traditional retailer. You know relationship. So all of these you know the marketplaces, just kind of add. You know like an interesting level of choice. You know for both. You know the retailer and the brand. And I still think a lot of you know companies are a little bit on the fence and haven't, you know, really kind of committed to that. You know one way or the other Right, but I think they too are probably feeling the heat to. You know really carve out, you know what's right for them. Yeah.
Speaker 1:And I think that's maybe the biggest takeaway is as I read through the study. Jim was yes, it's a huge sales and growth channel today, but the learnings that come from participating not standing on the sidelines, but getting in the game, so to speak is probably where the longer term benefits. But it feels like the advice that we would want to give both brands and retailers is, at the very least, get in the game, participate, get the learnings and build a strategy over the course of time. Would you agree?
Speaker 2:I totally agree. And I'd add to that add an analyst to that team. Get an analyst to dive in, right, just rooting around. Analyst to that team. Get an analyst to dive in, right, just rooting around. You know for, for, for you know opportunities, right, I mean we, we've seen that. You know in, I'd say, early stage, digital retail.
Speaker 2:You know strategies. You know like over the years, right, I mean that relatively. You know like low, low costs. You know kind of analysts will pay for their salary many fold, you know, with just kind of the insights and often the revenue opportunity that they can unearth, right, and that's, I think that those are the kind of light bulb moments that we think are so important for the organization as a whole because all of a sudden you know what that analyst unearths. You know kind of floats up to the senior team, you know and you know and that that can have, you know, like a very big. You know kind of floats up to the senior team, you know and you know and that that can have, you know, like a very big, you know, snowball effect for sure.
Speaker 1:Well, that is awesome, jim. Thank you so much for bringing your insights and bringing this study to into focus, for us Feels like it's an exciting growth opportunity, certainly for retailers and consumer brands alike, and I thank you for joining us today.
Speaker 2:Well, again, thanks for having me back, scott. You know, always a pleasure to have you know a chat like this. You know, and certainly look forward to hearing from you. Know different companies in terms of you know where they're at now but really where they go, and you know with their marketplace strategy.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. In fact, I'll offer our listeners. If you'd like to get more information on this topic or download your own copy of Ebeltoff's Digital Marketplace Study, you can visit Macmillan Doolittle's website and download the study yourself at macmillandoolittlecom. Slash global publications, and the neat thing is, not only will you find this study, but a treasure trove of other white papers and other studies on a number of retail topics, not only from the US but from around the world, and so just a lot of great learnings, a lot of great opportunities. Thank you all for listening today and for joining us for the Digital Front Door. I'm Scott Benedict. Thanks for listening.