Shopify, Etsy, Amazon, Alibaba, Etsy, eBay - familiar online marketplaces for modern shoppers. Each platform means thousands of users and an opportunity for dropshippers. You can expand your customer base and diversify your business by opening up your direct-to-consumer online store to shoppers on these platforms.

Focus on strategies that improve service. Large platforms often suffer from a lack of personalised service. Amazon, eBay and Alibaba no longer make money just by selling products. Selling advertising on their own platforms has become a major source of profit. This needs to be considered and acted upon.

E-commerce platforms
It is more profitable for the big players in the online market to put those products at the top of their platforms that bring them more advertising revenue or commissions for selling the product. This is the reality. HLTS Co. Ltd advises its partners not to lose customers who come to them from large marketplaces, but to turn them into regular customers of your online shop. How to do this?

Study the terms and conditions for placing your shop's products on popular e-commerce platforms. Choose the one that suits you financially. Each platform has its own internal rates. For example, if your dropshipping direct store specialises in eco-friendly products, you could sell a few eco-friendly products on Etsy to attract an interested audience to your website.

Incentives
By analysing product positions on marketplaces and reading customer reviews, you can understand which positions and brands are more popular. Offer the customer a similar product, but from a lesser-known brand. Give them an incentive to visit your store. This could be a discount voucher, an exclusive product preview or access to a loyalty programme. Buyer's logic: if a product doesn't have any reviews, it means no one is buying it. Encourage customers to leave reviews of your products on your marketplace by offering small discounts or bonuses for doing so. When responding to questions and reviews, link to your website or leave contact information.

Cost of goods
You need to have confidence in your suppliers and the quality of the goods you sell. Encouraging customers to come to your site, making them loyal and repeat customers is a task that requires a strategic approach, investment in marketing and improving the customer experience.

When calculating the selling price, do not forget to take into account: cost of goods at the supplier, shipping, storage, taxes, contingencies, marketplace commission, participation in the promotion. Also, if a competitor offers a similar or the same product at a lower price, you should look for ways to optimise and reduce the price.

How to attract customers
Whether you're launching your own shop or trying to scale an existing one, with the right approach, you can turn customers of major marketplaces into loyal customers of your direct-supplier shop. But first, make sure your steps and actions don't violate the platform's rules or conflict with your agreements with suppliers.

• Put QR codes on product packaging. Include a card or postcard with each order thanking the customer for their purchase, providing contact information (website, email) and a coupon for a discount on their next purchase.
• Offer exclusive discounts and promo codes that can only be used on your site. Include information about these on the product page in the marketplace and on the packaging.
• Organise sales and promotions on your site.
• Include links to your social media accounts on the marketplace product pages. Publish regular content related to your products and run promotions to attract users to your site.
• Collect customer email addresses through marketplaces by offering subscriptions to exclusive offers.
• Send regular newsletters with information about new products, special offers and promotions available only on your site.
• Create a loyalty programme: for every purchase made on a marketplace, offer customers the chance to register on your site and earn bonus points.