Marketplace Extension: Enhance your offering with external complementary products and services

Status Quo

In a world where time is gold, customers welcome solutions that will bring convenience to them while shopping – and time-saving, low-effort options are regarded as very relevant perks. B2B customers are no exception. Usually, when in need of a type of product, customers tend to look for it on marketplaces that sell that specific type of product. When customers need a certain type of product or service, they usually first look for it on marketplaces that specialize in that offering.

Thus the question: how convenient would it be for your customers to have a go-to online platform for everything they need? The possibility to shop in one place for other product lines closely related to what they are looking for brings customers the huge advantage of not having to hop on and off a multitude of different sellers’ shops to gather what they need.

“We offer you everything you need on a silver platform” – that’s what you’d want to tell your customers asap. Introducing third-party complementary products and services to your portfolio should be your next step to successful development: more customer satisfaction, enhanced product assortment, and low risk and investment.

Challenges Without External Complementary Products & Servicves

The limited product and service offering is not able to satisfy all customer’s needs. Customers have to buy from more than one source
Expansion is subject to an increased inventory risk
Requiring professional services for product setup and usage creates additional hurdles for customers and increases the number of steps they need to take
Less product and service variety means fewer customers and leads to a stagnation of customer insights
Not having complementary products and services hinders personalized offers for customers
Losing the customer relationship to another product or service provider down the chain
Having only a part of the customer data

What Does it Mean to Offer External Complementary Products & Services?

Marketplaces are online platforms where sellers and buyers converge to offer and purchase a number of products and services. Marketplace extension refers to the expansion of the existing offering with external products or services offered by other merchants. It’s a model that may be considered as a 1P (company offering) plus 3P (merchant offering) solution to offer a one-stop solution. The Marketplace setup gives the Operator ultimate control, while each Merchant operates independently. The merchants could be all kinds of companies, such as partners, competitors, resellers, installers, etc.

Imagine you are operating a marketplace for furniture and home decor. Your marketplace offers customers the possibility to buy indoor and outdoor furniture, rugs, and bedding – a wide variety of different brands. But what if you included third-party suppliers that sell home improvement products like thermostats and door knobs? Or appliances like vacuum cleaners? Or specific solutions for pet owners, such as aquariums and indoor pet gates? You could also offer a matching service to your products through third-party providers, such as the assembly or installation of your products or a painter to paint the walls to match the new furniture.

Onboarding third-party suppliers with complementary product lines and services increases convenience for your customers who have the chance to order a wide variety of products from one single source. Ultimately, it is convenient for your business, as inventory management, logistics, and delivery are up to the merchants, and you will end up with a richer portfolio but limited inventory risk.

Business Outcomes of External Complementary Products

Adding complementary products and services to your marketplace will grow and diversify your overall assortment, while fostering more customer satisfaction due to complete and covenient solutions. Find out all the benefits and business outcomes.

All the One-Stop-Shop Perks

Expansion of existing offerings with external products and services offered by third-party party merchants
Diversification and portfolio enrichment with limited inventory risk, as merchants take care of investing in and stocking the inventory
Merchants take care of logistics and last-mile delivery behind the scenes
Merchants also take care of after-sales services: returns, warranty, questions,...
New service and product assortment lead to a quickly growing customer base
Onboarding third-party providers is easy and fast since each organization keeps their existing fulfillment and supply chain processes, with minimal additional costs for the operator

Increase share of wallet and revenue for operator

Cross- and up-sell opportunities by diversification of offering
Customer insights allow to identify cross- and up-selling potential
New revenue streams through merchant sales commissions
Increased traffic through listing of merchants

Increased Revenue

Cross-selling opportunities, as external products can enhance and complement an initial purchase
Up-selling opportunities

Leverage Customer Insights

You can use more data from third-party providers that can directly impact your bottom line
Increased chances to offer personalized deals and recommendations

Spryker Capabilities

Marketplace storefront
Merchant Portal
Company User Roles & Restrictions
Operator Back Office
Product & Offer Management
Merchant Customer-specific Products
Merchant Product on Shopping List
Merchant Profile
Split Order, Quick Order & Approval Process
Workflow & Company Account
Merchant Customer-specific Prices

Enabling Services

Calibration Session
Customer Journey Analysis
Digitization Mapping
Operating Model Coaching
Process Design Workshop
Business Plan Review
Online Resources: Get Ready to Launch, Merchant Recruitment, Marketing Plan, KPIs to follow, ...

Grimme

Delivering a full online experience to their customers and their distribution network by digitizing their distribution channel for machine spare parts

Supported by Spryker's Marketplace Capabilities, Grimme offers an account for customers to log their machines in an online garage, which allows them to search spare part lists for their machines, as well as different ways of ordering. This 360 online experience means more convenience and satisfaction for both their customers and their international distribution network.

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About Spryker

Spryker is the leading global composable commerce platform for enterprises with sophisticated business models to enable growth, innovation, and differentiation. Designed specifically for sophisticated transactional businesses, Spryker’s easy-to-use, headless, API-first model offers a best-of-breed approach that provides businesses the flexibility to adapt, scale, and quickly go to market while facilitating faster time-to-value throughout their digital transformation journey. As a global platform leader for B2B and B2C Enterprise Marketplaces, IoT Commerce, and Unified Commerce, Spryker has empowered 150+ global enterprise customers worldwide and is trusted by brands such as ALDI, Siemens, ZF Friedrichshafen, and Ricoh. Spryker is a privately held technology company headquartered in Berlin and New York backed by world class investors such as TCV, One Peak, Project A, Cherry Ventures, and Maverick Capital. Learn more at spryker.com.

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