Online marketplace trends 2022 will be really be split into two worlds. One world which makes the larger marketplaces like Amazon, eBay or Etsy continue to expand their business and growth as more customers look to buy online. At the same time, we will see an explosion of smaller brands pop up who find new ways to be found using social selling and their own websites to grow a following. These smaller brands will latch onto the larger marketplaces to dip into the traffic they get there but focus on their own to direct brands. The third trend I will explore is that more smaller niche marketplaces will pop out which will focus on specific product lines and niche topics.
First, the online marketplace trends 2022 will see is the same story we have seen over the last ten years which is simply the larger marketplaces will continue to stand out from the crowd and separate themselves. As more shoppers will look to buy online they are going direct to their favorite online marketplace like Amazon or eBay to make their purchase. We will continue to see the search volume move from someone going to Google or a similar search engine to look up a product they want to buy to going directly to their marketplace of choice to make the research on that location. This is where we will see the main staples like Amazon, eBay and etsy stand out and grow. The next tier down like Walmart will continue to develop with any and every retailer looking to become a marketplace as well such as Target or Best Buy but they will pick at the customer pool but not dominate.
The second online marketplace trends 2022 will push is the smaller brands focusing on their own name, their own website and social presence to remove a dependency on the major marketplaces for all of their revenue. As many marketplaces are becoming very competitive for third party sellers and the marketplaces themselves moving into manufacturing or white labelling of products to sell directly, many brands are making the smart choice of focusing on their sales outside of the marketplaces to protect the long term stability of their revenue. This will create a number of smaller brands that become destinations for buyers to buy outside of the major marketplaces but for very specific and niche product lines.
The last major online marketplace trends 2022 will show is that smaller marketplaces will continue to pop up to steal the smaller sales from the major players. The examples of this would be in the collectibles space where you see board game marketplaces, video game marketplaces, and other very specific and topic specific marketplaces pop up that allow anyone to buy and sell and become fan favorites for the specific niche. While these smaller marketplaces steal the diehard buyers, the mainstream will not likely find them and they will continue to purchase from the major marketplaces.
Overall the online marketplace trends 2022 will show is that ecommerce is in growth mode and splitting out to grow the larger marketplaces, breaking into smaller brands establishing themselves as well as smaller niche marketplaces making room on focused topics. The good news is that there is room for all three trends to be successful given the current size of the addressable market and only growing future.
