In the last few years, Covid has forced industries to change their way of working and Retail is the most impacted one. People were locked in their home with next to nothing access to Brick-and-mortar stores, communication channels between vendors and store were hindered, problems in supply chain were experienced etc. All these issues, forced retailers to adopt digital solutions like Marketplace-as-a-service, Digital twin, Digital commerce etc. For now, we are going to focus on Marketplace-as-a-service, what’s the concept, what it offers, benefits and much more.

The marketplace business model is an interconnected integrated ecosystem, owned or operated by a company (Operator) that brings multiple Sellers (vendors/providers) and Buyers (Merchants/Retailers/Customers) together on a shared platform.

Over the years we have seen many B2C implementation of it like Amazon, eBay, Airbnb etc. But lately a trend is seen in B2B implementation also. As many retailers are trying to launch their own B2B marketplace given its low-cost of ownership, since the inventory-led model comes with a high TCO.

Looking at this trend a lot of companies/Technology providers are coming up with new business model in the form of Marketplace. From a technology standpoint, Marketplace as a Service is a Cloud Platform with a network of vendors that is deployed and managed as a service on once behalf with next to nothing cost of ownership and maximized flexibility with 360° control over pricing, checkout, payment, billing, analytics, insights, and reporting

This Marketplace-as-a-Service supports Retailers on two fronts: Platform and third-party sellers.

The first one is a platform/software on cloud. It’s like a SaaS model. a cloud-based software delivery model in which cloud provider develop and maintain cloud application software, provides automatic updates, and make software available to its customers via the internet on a pay-as-you-go basis. The latter, a network of third-part sellers. It involves connecting retailers to various third-party sellers/vendors.

Benefits of Marketplace-as-a-service

1. Platform and analytical support

Retailers get add-on services like billing, financial transactions, dashboards, analytics, reporting etc. 

2. Low Cost

MaaS solution helps distributors to save a lot of cost, by not investing in getting new services from vendors.

3. Additional products / New revenue stream 

Along with the possibility of adding your own or any other vendors service in the platform, MaaS offers thousands of services from provider’s partners and subcontractors etc. 

4. Time to market 

MaaS saves time and simplifies the transaction process. It enables the retailer and customer to remove the redundant tasks and communications and let the execution process work more smoothly.

When a Retailer sign up for a Marketplace-as-a-Service, they not only get a store front where they can put their logo, customize the layout, design their catalog, put their own products or third-party products, put up bundles as per customer requirements etc. They also get back-end support like automated ordering, invoicing, provisioning etc. Also, retailers can integrate their own back-end system like CRM, billing system, payment gateway etc. with the marketplace. For this integration they can take some help from service/technology integrators like Brillio.  In the end they get a fully integrated & functional Marketplace that can be deployed with multi-tier, multi-currency, multi-language support to sell to any customer.

Conclusion

MaaS is a useful tool for a business which is new to the industry. It helps them with a complete management solution. It’s still in the early adoption phase but a lot of companies like Octapia, Zur Rose group, Marketplace.io has implemented the solution and a lot of leaders shown interest by investing in startups which are providing MaaS solution. Like, Shopery a Barcelona based MaaS startup recently raced €1.2 million. And companies like Brillio are helping them to fully integrate the marketplace with their current ecosystem.