Until now, companies looking to advertise their products online have done so using ads on search engines, social networks or media websites. Now, there is yet another option: an increasing number of retail websites are offering space for companies to place ads. For the retail platforms, such advertising represents a lucrative source of income. The platforms offer a decisive advantage as well: first-hand access to data about what consumers want. And companies are seeing plenty of other benefits, too – for one thing, people visiting these websites are already in a buying mood.

   1. Top players such as Amazon, Zalando, Otto and Alibaba

Based on such data, being able to advertise and sell where consumer interest is at its peak is exciting. Top players such as Amazon, Zalando, Otto and Alibaba have long been aware of the marketing potential to be found here. These marketplaces are set to bring in significantly more income in the future, with increasing numbers of users (more than 50% on Amazon) not only wanting to search for products, but also to buy sooner or later in most cases.

Ad placement, budgets and costs have a significantly closer relationship to sales on marketplaces than they do in other channels or on other platforms. The logistical aspects of marketplace operators (availability, scheduled delivery, shipping costs, special consumer benefits, etc.) are already rated by many buyers as highly relevant to their purchases – alongside price comparability or coordinated, similar product ranges.

    2. What’s changing where strategies are concerned?

In order to appeal to consumers at the end of the consumer decision journey, it is essential that, in addition to performance marketing on search engines, companies also seek to make contact on marketplaces. Deploying user data on integrated retail media platforms in particular enables companies to make even more efficient use of different advertising formats. In addition, the advertising effect of brand messages beyond platforms like these should not be neglected, irrespective of the focus on conversions and sales. With often extensive coverage and direct placement within the competitive environment, retail media offer many options for generating additional income beyond simply optimising the cost-turnover ratio (CTR).

   3. What about consumer spending behaviour? What’s up and what’s down?

According to the latest eMarketer Report, spending on Amazon in the USA is set to almost double in the next two years – primarily at the expense of Google and Facebook. Other channels and platforms on the market will continue to develop at a stable rate, however. A new and exciting development will be represented by marketplaces springing up which offer their advertising clients even more options for placement and/or cooperation, and, if chosen correctly from a strategic point of view, provide at least one thematically relevant alternative to Amazon or price comparison websites.

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