Online Marketplaces Provide Access to Customers and a Coveted Universal Shopping Cart

LOS ANGELES, May 31, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Online marketplaces— websites where you can buy from multiple retailers through one shopping cart and one checkout process—are continuing to grow beyond the first mainstays, eBay and Amazon.  A recent study from Bizrate Insights and Forrester Research's Sucharita Mulpuru uncovers the valuable services marketplaces provide to retailers, consumers, and marketplace hosts – showing that online marketplaces are most likely here to stay. 

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"Marketplaces have been around for over a decade, but are now on the edge of more widespread adoption," comments Hayley Silver, Vice President, Bizrate Insights.  "For retailers, especially smaller retailers, participating in an online marketplace not only connects them with customers, but may also establish them as trusted retailers. The inclusion of retailer ratings and reviews bolsters this trust and assists in conversion.   For customers, shopping at an online marketplace helps them find products they may not have otherwise encountered and allows them to buy from multiple retailers all in one transaction.  A well-rounded online marketplace is a true testament to the potential for a boundless online shopping experience."

Retailers considering a marketplace marketing strategy should look to it as a place to enhance brand equity (if the marketplace host is reliable and well-established), grow reach, and gain direct customers.  Sponsors considering hosting a marketplace may want to consider retailer participants as a way to enhance the breadth of merchandise they can offer to their customers without the inventory overhead. Bizrate Insights' data shows that product selection has a mid-to-high correlation with overall satisfaction with the shopping experience, a key driver of customer loyalty. 

For the reports that focus on the benefits of online marketplaces to consumers and retailers, please see the Bizrate Insights/Forrester Research Marketplaces Study on Bizrateinsights.com.

About the Study
The 2012 Bizrate Insights/Forrester Research Marketplaces Study was conducted in partnership with Sucharita Mulpuru at Forrester Research.  Data was collected via the Bizrate Insights survey platform and offered to online buyers immediately after purchasing from the Bizrate Insights Network of over 5,000 ecommerce retailers in the US and Canada.  Data from this study was collected from 11,736 online buyers from March 7– March 18, 2012.

For over 12 years, Bizrate Insights has helped retailers listen to their customers in a way that is fast and measurable, resulting in insights, action, conversation, and customer loyalty.  The Bizrate Insights customer feedback and ratings platform allows retailers to collect seller ratings directly from verified customers.  Standard ratings are published across the leading comparison shopping site, Bizrate.com, and syndicated across the web's largest search engines to help drive conversion and traffic.  Collecting over 16 million surveys annually, Bizrate Insights is one of the largest sources of consumer-generated review content in the world, delivering actionable insights and valuable shopper data to key decision makers in e-commerce. Visit http://bizrateinsights.com to learn more about our FREE and paid buyer and non-buyer survey and reporting products.

For more information, please contact:
Hayley Silver
Vice President, Bizrate Insights
12200 W. Olympic Boulevard Suite 300
Los Angeles, California 90049
[email protected]

SOURCE Bizrate Insights