Myer is launching its own online marketplace, that will allow for other vendors to sell products through their website. The model will be very similar to the layout of Amazons Marketplace, or Ebay.
The current Amazon Marketplace allows for third-party vendors to sell products on the Amazon website, then those third-party vendors receive a percentage of the sales price.
This has been quite successful in the United States, it accounts for 40% of total sales and is around $140 billion USD. Amazon won’t be stopping there with all their success. They are due to unveil the marketplace for Australia in a few months.
The online Myer Marketplace will be doing the same thing as Amazon, but will only focus on more high-end products.
Since Myer has claimed the launch of this to be a pilot scheme for the business, it has the potential to grow the business and increase revenue and sales for the department store giant. It also will allow Myer to better understand and monitor buyer behaviours and trends.
This announcement for the Myer has come the same day as Myer revealed falling sales in the last few quarters. Within the last three months up to October, Myer sold $699 million dollars’ worth of product, which unfortunately is almost 3% less than this same period last year.
The ecommerce advisor from online offline Scott Kilmartin explained that while Myer is good with its current online retailing skills it is not yet perfect.
“Big companies like Myer aren’t known for being nimble movers and I wonder if they have the depth of talent internally to throw at a new initiative whilst still trying to perfect their own ecommerce game.” Mr. Kilmartin said.
Now in the next couple of months the Amazon Marketplace and the Myer Marketplace will be in competition for 24.9 million Australians.
