J. Crew is one of several retailers offering brands other than their own to keep customers engaged.
Forever 21 is testing a strategy that involves selling the products of other brands on its e-commerce site. The offer will begin in the first quarter of 2022, said Daniel Kulle, CEO of Forever 21.
Express Inc.
Marketplaces allow retailers to expand their product offerings with less risk than a traditional wholesale model where retailers take possession of the inventory. Smaller marketplaces, such as Bulletin have sprung up in recent years with various formats, offering vendors a chance to showcase their products in exchange for a percentage of sales or monthly fee.
Established in 2019, Express Marketplace is intended to be a way for customers to discover and shop brands and labels that are complementary to the Express assortment of modern, versatile, dual gender apparel and accessories.
Express has taken a curated approach to the new categories, which are part of the marketplace, including swimwear from Dippin’ Daisy, activewear by Phat Buddah, Glow Studio beauty items and Saya men’s grooming. They’re products that aren’t among its core categories, but fill the needs of Express consumers.
The retailer’s web site makes discerning other brands explicit giving each label its own section. Some retailers mix outside brands with their own products seamlessly, and make it difficult to identify other labels.
Express partnered with Mirakl to bring its marketplace to life, and align both teams on the goals and opportunities offered each week, which addresses all areas of the marketplace, from technical integration to recruitment.
“Express Marketplace was established as a way to offer our customers a chance to discover new brands that complement our core Express assortment,” said Tim Baxter, CEO of Express. “This approach has allowed us to venture into new categories and broaden our assortment in a way that’s relevant and interesting to our customer.”
The approach extends Express’ assortment, allowing it to focus on its strengths, while testing and leaning into new categories for both men and women. Express Marketplace delivers strong week-to-week comp performance, driven by a number of brands and product categories, Baxter said.
Walmart last year teamed up with Shopify, an all-in-one commerce platform used by more than 1 million businesses, to open the Walmart Marketplace to its sellers. “We’re excited to be able offer customers an expanded assortment while also giving small businesses access to the surging traffic on Walmart.com,” the retailer said at the time. of the launch. “We’re focused on U.S.-based small and medium businesses whose assortment complements ours and have a track record of exceeding customers’ expectations.”
About 90 million items are available on the Marketplace, and Walmart is focused on growing all categories, especially, general merchandise. Sellers must apply to sell on Walmart.com and are vetted “to ensure they share our commitment to trust, transparency and fairness.” Walmart charges a referral fee on each sale, which varies by category. Last year it launched Walmart Fulfillment Services, where sellers send their items to one of Walmart’s fulfillment centers and the retail giant ships the items for them. This is a very popular service as it helps ensure fast shipping for our customers,” the company said.
“Walmart’s marketplace has several key benefits, including offering customers more of what they’re looking for, which builds trust,” the retailer said. “Also, small and medium-sized businesses around the country can quickly and easily benefit from Walmart’s scale and the 120 million shoppers that visit Walmart.com each month. We’re always looking for new items for our stores, which has the potential to expand sellers’ reach to our hundreds of millions monthly in-store shoppers across our 4,700 stores.”
“Building a trusted, safe and robust marketplace is key to Walmart’s strategy,” said Casey Carl, executive vice president, chief omni strategy and e-commerce operations officer. “Having more of what customers want, always at a great price, gives us the ability to earn more of their business while growing ours. As we bring more sellers onto our platform, this accelerates the growth of Walmart Fulfillment Services and Walmart Connect, which are also strategic priorities for Walmart.”
Of course, competing with Amazon is a factor in Walmart’s Marketplace.
While the marketplace model has generated revenue for Amazon, some third-party sellers have complained that the digital behemoth gives preference to its own brands at their expense. Nonetheless, about 60% Amazon’s sales are generated by third-party sellers, according to the company.
It’s not just behemoths such as Walmart and Amazon that are leaning into the marketplace model. “There’s permission to make Forever 21 a lifestyle brand again,” said Nick Woodhouse, president and chief marketing officer of Authentic Brands Group . “We’re not afraid to say we want to build a digital marketplace. We’re prepared to service her with other brands, not just Forever 21. You could see other brands on the e-commerce site within the next 12 months.”
“We focus on and cater to such a wide audience, we’re trying to get market share from everyone,” Kulle said.
J. Crew in 2018 began selling third party products, including accessories, footwear and lingerie through a marketplace with brands, drop shipping items to consumers. It’s web site features items such as Sacha Juan ocean mist, Illesteva sunglasses, Liberty face masks and Olio E Osso balm packs.
Nuuly, a rental concept from Urban Outfitters Inc. is the ultimate smorgasbord of brands, offering clothing from the parent company’s labels, Anthropologie, Free People and Urban, third-party brands and vintage items. The monthly subscription service features a robust selection of URBN brands and non-company items plus one-of-a-kind vintage pieces that can be rented through Nuuly’s digital platform for $88 per month.
The fee brings a six-item box to subscribers’ doorsteps every month so that they can infuse their wardrobes with new styles at a fraction of the $800 price of purchasing the products new. Non-urban brands include Peter Som, Zadig & Voltaire, Cynthia Rowley, Lauren Ralph Lauren, AG Jeans, Anna Sui and Badgley Mischka.
“We're filling our closet— which is also your closet — with an evolving collection of iconic brands you already love, emerging designers we're excited to share with you and selections from our own Anthropologie, Free People and Urban Outfitters private labels,” Nuuly’s web site said.
