Who sells goods online? Expert opinion of Natalia Kopasovskaya

It is common knowledge that offline stores can vary greatly: from sprawling hypermarkets to small neighbourhood shops, from chic boutiques to tiny kiosks. Natalia Kopasovskaya, an associate professor at the UNN Commerce Department, examines the different aspects of online trading and its various options.                                                                                

Not all online stores are the same. In its broadest sense, an online store is any website that allows for the remote sale of goods. To sell products, an online store must first procure them. This means finding and selecting suppliers, negotiating delivery terms, making payments, and so on. However, for some online platforms, such as marketplaces, these steps are not required.                              

What do a marketplace and a shopping mall have in common?

A special type of online store is represented by well-known and popular marketplaces. However, upon closer inspection, a marketplace is more akin to a market or a shopping mall.

"A marketplace offers sellers a space on its web page to list their products, or more precisely, product cards. It assists sellers in transporting and storing goods, delivering them to consumers, and handling monetary transactions. Major marketplaces boast significant technical capabilities in the field of IT.  They can provide options like virtual try-ons for clothing or cosmetics, or utilise neural networks to optimise warehouse storage or plan advertising campaigns. Nevertheless, the goods displayed on marketplaces, even those stored in their warehouses, belong to the sellers and are not the property of the marketplaces. This is what makes a marketplace comparable to a shopping  mall," Natalia Kopasovskaya notes.

Can a marketplace be more than just a trading platform?

The boundary between marketplaces and other online stores is not always so clear. Sometimes marketplaces act as sellers themselves. You can find this out by carefully examining the product card. Marketplaces can also create their own brands, which they then sell on their platforms.

"Alongside huge universal marketplaces, there are also so-called niche or specialised marketplaces on the market. Their product range is much narrower and usually consists of several interrelated product groups: clothing + shoes + accessories, cosmetics + perfumes + accessories, children's clothing + stationery + baby food, etc.  Many of these websites started out as online stores, not marketplaces, and only later, as they expanded, did they decide to add other sellers to their service. Consumers may not be aware of these changes and may still think that the seller of the product and the owner of the platform are the same person," explains Natalia Kopasovskaya.

You can find out more about the differences between online stores and marketplaces and how to navigate the world of online commerce in the new article on Yandex Dzen.