Once one or more marketplaces have been decided on and the perfect purchase model is found, it’s time to focus on content optimisation and its appearance. How products are represented and displayed on the selected platforms has to be understood from the point of view of potential customers, to avoid the competetor to attract them. After all, on marketplaces the decision to purchase an alternative offer is always just a click away.

This discipline is generally referred to as marketplace optimisation (MPO) and is particularly relevant and essential for sustainable market success for three reasons:

1.  Appealing and convincing presentation of the brand and its products

Limited, poor quality and carelessly designed product presentations can quickly ruin all your hard (and capital-intensive) work creating your brand image. Use all the options you have available to optimally present your products. Extend brand experiences consistently across all touchpoints, including the digital point of sale.

High-quality images, videos and engaging content should clearly describe the purpose, benefits and boundaries of the product to the competition. In addition, various components of the listing can be used in many marketplaces to provide in-depth information. This may be promotional campaign elements (such as testimonials) or even product comparisons to aid decision-making. For a better user experience within the scope of the marketplace’s options, it is possible to individually present different variants and product portfolios in specific in-store areas.

2. Improved visibility of the listed products and increased organic traffic

Whether a search is classified as relevant for a particular product is determined by the marketplace algorithm, based on various criteria. In addition to correct category mapping, the content and keywords used on the product detail page play a particularly important role.

The starting point for any optimisation should therefore be a thorough and comprehensive keyword search. The most relevant search terms determined in this way must then be integrated into the content at a suitable point. For example, on Amazon, these are indexable sections, such as the product title or description of features. Important keywords can often also be added directly in back end. As a result, they are indexed by the algorithm and the product is displayed as a relevant search result for corresponding searches.

With the growth of the digital marketplace also comes increased platform competition. Consequently, the technical infrastructure and user experience are constantly being optimised and adapted. These changes directly affect product detail pages and brand shops. It is therefore of great importance for retailers to keep an eye on the presentation of their products and to quickly adapt or add to content when it comes to platform updates.

3. Increased performance

The essential heart of any marketplace business model is selling products. Therefore, offers with comparatively high sales are classified as particularly relevant. As a result, these products gain high visibility on the platform and in the users’ search results. But it’s not just strictly sales that make a difference at this point. A high click-through rate of ads or search hits on product detail pages, and the conversion rate of detail page visits to purchases are crucial metrics.

To be able to make both of these metrics positive, a number of other factors must be taken into account in addition to product presentation and visibility. The general availability of the product and speedy, free delivery are also significant factors in addition to an attractive and consistent price. Important psychological factors that also have a role to play are above-average product ratings and a high number of meaningful reviews. Public interaction with customer via product review and FAQ areas also increases brand loyalty and positively sets your offer apart from the competition.

But what to do if, despite optimised marketplace appearance, organic traffic is still low and your sales figures leave something to be desired? In this case, all major marketplaces now have a vast arsenal of advertising tools to reach communication goals along the entire customer decision journey. You can find an overview of these options as well as tips and tricks to make the most of the promotional inventory on digital marketplaces, in the fourth and final part of this series.

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