Businesses have two options to explore themselves. They are,

Marketplace, which is also known as the physical store where people directly go there and buy the product/service.
E-commerce Platform, which is the virtual store where the customers can view the images of the product/service and make orders through technology.

While discussing the Ecommerce Platforms Vs Marketplace, the basic question arises is, which one is the best, whether the Ecommerce store or the market store? Let us see in this blog about the differences and various pros and cons of both the categories of shopping.

While talking about the differences between the Ecommerce store and the Marketplace, the parameters to be considered are ,

Generating Traffic
Inventory Management
Marketing Strategies
Setup time
Cost flow
Branding

Differences between Ecommerce store and physical store are,

Ecommerce Platform	Marketplace
Traffic generation is focused on the website. They attract more people by website designs and contents.	Traffic generation is focused on more people visiting the store.
Ecommerce stores have to keep a minimal inventory.	The huge volume of inventory storage is needed.
It takes more time to build a website and start running.	The Marketplace can be set up quickly.
The cost is a little high for hosting and maintenance.	The physical store needs commission charges which are comparatively lower than the Ecommerce platform.
Branding plays a vital role in developing the Ecommerce business.	Business can be developed mostly based on the customer relationship and service.

Pros and cons in both the Ecommerce Platform and Marketplace:

As the coin has its both sides, the Ecommerce store and marketplace also has its pros and cons. Let us discuss the diversified advantages and disadvantages of both businesses.

Ecommerce Platform:

Pros:

The Ecommerce platform can attract more audiences irrespective of the geographical location.
This has less financial risk compared to the marketplace.
The website owner has complete ownership or control over the Ecommerce store.
The Ecommerce store can collect customer data from other sources.
Making Brand awareness is quite easy compared to the direct stores.
The Ecommerce store can get orders at any time, 24/7.

Cons:

The time consumption to set up and maintain the Ecommerce store is huge.
As the cost becomes high, the financial risks.
Though, there is a chance of widening the business all over the world, it requires too much hard work and effort to reach more audiences.

Marketplace:

Pros:

The Marketplace can reach audiences who reside within a small radius of the store located.
Compared to the Ecommerce store, the marketplace can get more customers in a quick time.
No need to maintain a huge inventory.
The setup cost is too low compared to the others.

Cons:

The Marketplace has to face the challenge of competing with the local shops around the store. The locality may be familiarised with the already running shop. It is too difficult to get the customers in the location.
Unlike Ecommerce Platform, the marketplace can run their business and get orders in a limited time. No 24/7 operation here.
The Marketplace need not collect customer data to get notified about the discounts and offers.
No scope for brand awareness.

What to Choose:

Choosing between the Ecommerce store and Marketplace is quite difficult as both of them have their own pros and cons as discussed earlier. From the analysis, this era is for Ecommerce platforms rather than the marketplace. The Ecommerce store gets more points as this solves many problems of today’s lifestyle. Many people don’t have the time to go to the shop directly and purchase. The Ecommerce sites have more products to sell, thus, the customers have the space to compare more products at the same time to buy the best product. Despite the Marketplace having so many benefits such as low setup time, less inventory management, etc, the Ecommerce platform solves many current issues. Especially, the Ecommerce store saves time which lets virtual shopping reach more audiences instantly. Here, the travel time is converted into the purchase time. Consumers can get the required product in a few clicks at their doorstep. This made the shopping less tiring and hassle-free.

Conclusion:

In this blog, we have briefly discussed the various edges of the Ecommerce platform and the marketplace. As the marketplace is the traditional model of shopping, the Ecommerce store is the choice of most of the people in this era. By analyzing most of the parameters such as setup time, inventory management, cost, energy, hassles in transportation etc, the Ecommerce platform wins the race with more benefits that best suit this generation, especially in urban areas. The local market may be more beneficial for some choosy products which should be purchased after witnessing the product for its visibility or quality.

What to Choose between: E-commerce Platform vs Marketplace

Related posts: