Best Online Marketplaces For E-commerce Merchants to Sell

Gross merchandise volume (GMV) hit $3.2B across the top 100 global marketplace sites in 2022. Although GMV was down slightly across the U.S.-based marketplaces, these marketplaces still drove nearly $870M in value last year.

Maintaining a presence on marketplace sites has the potential to drive significant volume for e-commerce merchants. But how do you decide where to set up shop? And how do you coordinate your operations across multiple marketplaces?

Let’s take a look at the best online marketplaces for e-commerce sellers, as well as how to get up and running with a multichannel approach.

Walmart

Walmart’s online marketplace may have gotten a slower start than Amazon or eBay, but the platform has grown substantially in size since its 2009 launch—and it definitely deserves your attention today.

Currently, the Walmart.com marketplace reaches more than 100 million visitors each month. But who exactly those customers are might surprise you. According to Walmart data:

• More than one-third of online Walmart shoppers are between 28-38 years old.
• More than half are homeowners with medium to high incomes.

Because Walmart tends to be more selective than other marketplaces, there are fewer sellers on Walmart.com, leading to reduced competition. Some estimates also place Walmart.com’s average order value (AOV) at $19-$30, meaning merchants who sell items within that price range are equipped to excel. However, sellers of all product categories are welcome and should consider adding Walmart Marketplace to their list of online selling channels.

How to Get Started

Sellers don’t pay monthly fees or set-up fees to sell on Walmart.com That said, to get started, you’ll need to meet a number of requirements, including having a business tax ID or license number, offering products with GTIN/UPC GS1 Company Prefix Numbers, and arranging fulfillment through a qualifying warehouse with returns capabilities, among others.

To manage order fulfillment, Shippo users can connect their Walmart stores to their Shippo account. They can actually connect more than one Walmart store to a single Shippo account. This connection enables your Walmart orders to automatically import into Shippo, allows you to seamlessly manage and print shipping labels for Walmart.com orders within your Shippo account, as well as communicate tracking information back to Walmart. 

Amazon

If you want to reach the largest pool of buyers possible, you need to be on Amazon. Despite the e-commerce giant’s size, there’s still plenty of opportunity for smaller sellers—the company estimates that 60% of its sales come from independent operators, including small-to-medium-sized businesses.

Like Walmart, Amazon tends to reach well-off consumers. The average income of an Amazon shopper is $84,449, compared to Walmart’s $76,313. In addition, the retailer’s Prime membership drives captive spending on the platform, with Prime members spending twice what non-Prime shoppers spend, on average.

How to Get Started

Amazon offers different tiers and programs for sellers—to begin, you’ll need to select the option that makes the most sense for your company and products. You’ll also need to decide whether to fulfill your own orders or make use of the Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) program to get sold goods to your customers.

If you decide to self-fulfill and your Amazon account is set up, you’ll also want to connect your Amazon Store to Shippo. This integration makes it easy to import your Amazon orders, compare shipping rates between providers, and print your shipping labels from a variety of the nation’s leading carriers.

eBay

Though eBay’s origins center on the reselling of used goods, today, roughly 79% of the products sold on the site are new. That makes eBay an online marketplace e-commerce merchants can’t afford to ignore.

Generally speaking, eBay’s users skew male at 60.78% of users, compared to 39.22% female users. Just under 44% of the site's users fall between ages 25-44, making the marketplace an especially good fit for retailers targeting young men. However, the marketplace is not limited to just that audience and sellers of all types should still consider eBay as an option for an additional online sales channel.

How to Get Started

Registering to sell on eBay is easy, as long as you’re based in one of the marketplace’s approved countries. You’ll need to provide basic information, such as your business name, type, address, and the names of any beneficial owners, officers, directors or account managers within your company. You’ll also want to familiarize yourself with eBay’s fee structure for business sellers, as it is different from the fees charged to personal sellers.

As with Walmart and Amazon, you’ll want to connect your eBay Store to your Shippo account. Once this is done, you’ll be able to access and compare shipping rates among the nation’s leading carriers, as well as streamline the shipment process for any goods sold on eBay.

How to Ship Orders From Multiple Online Marketplaces

Every e-commerce marketplace has its own pros and cons; by choosing the right one for your business, or by integrating with multiple stores, you can reach the largest possible number of shoppers and maximize your online sales.

To streamline your multichannel operations, use Shippo to manage your shipments. Not only does Shippo integrate with major online marketplaces like Walmart, Amazon, and eBay, but signing up for a free account gives you access to discounted shipping rates from the nation’s largest parcel carriers, other shipping tools, and trusted support.

‍Get started now, or reach out to our sales team for more information.