The Internet opens up a huge range of opportunities for creating a business. Correctly selected niche and target audience, as well as effective planning, allow you to create a stable source of income using already existing platforms for sales in Ukraine. Selling through marketplaces is exactly the kind of business idea that can be developed from scratch without spending resources on developing and promoting your own site.
What is a marketplace
Marketplace is a virtual shopping center that allows various entrepreneurs to sell their products. Sellers do not have to have their own online store, as you can find customers on the marketplace.
Whether you have a large staffed business or a small BPO, a marketplace is a great way to increase sales and reduce the cost of running a business. Advantages of marketplaces:
You don't need to have your own website. This means that you will not have to invest money in the development of an online store, buy a domain and hosting , integrate payment methods, engage in SEO promotion of the site - all this is already there.
You save on advertising. It is the marketplace that is responsible for its promotion, and the better it does it, the more visibility your products will have among the target audience.
You reach a lot of people. Yes, there is a lot of competition in the marketplace. However, there are a lot of users out there who are interested in your products. What's more, marketplaces can offer you additional services, for example, sending goods.
Do not confuse marketplaces with online stores. The first are online marketplaces that provide “trading space” to sellers and charge a fee for it. The second are the own web resources of companies that they independently create and sell there only their goods (as manufacturers or as dealers cooperating with specific suppliers).
An important advantage from the point of view of customer trust is the ability to rate products and stores on the marketplace and leave reviews that the seller cannot delete. This helps in creating transparent competition and ensures a long-term reputation of the seller, thanks to which it becomes easier to find customers every year. But of course, in order to acquire such a reputation, you will have to work hard.
Another advantage of such services is that many have mobile applications. Imagine how much money an entrepreneur would have to invest in creating his own application - and here it is already available. Given that users increasingly prefer to make orders from their mobile phones, such an option for sellers is an undeniable bonus.
The most popular marketplaces in Ukraine are Epicenter, Prom, Rozetka, Allo, F.ua. We will talk about them today.
Most of them started working as online stores, and the transformation into marketplaces became the next stage of business scaling. Rozetka was created as an online electronics supermarket, and over time expanded its range and allowed other sellers to trade on its virtual spaces. And now you can filter the products offered by Rosetka from the items sold by other entrepreneurs. Epicenter was a supermarket of construction materials and equipment, ALLO sold mobile phones, and F.ua - photographic equipment and household appliances. And only Prom was created as a marketplace from the very beginning.
The last fact is the reason why the Prom architecture is somewhat different from other venues and has its own specifics. For example, you can add an external domain to your store, there are no reviews for individual products, but there are reviews for sellers, etc.
Now let's figure out how to start selling on each of these platforms.
Overview of the most popular Ukrainian marketplaces
In this part of our article, we will look at the statistics of each marketplace, tell you how to register and get verified, as well as what information each entrepreneur needs to provide to start working as a seller.
Rozetka
Rosetka is the largest marketplace in Ukraine, which sells almost everything that can be sold on the Internet. Some statistics about the Rosette:
More than 4 million products are available on Rozetka;
More than 80% of people who purchased the product return again;
Rozetka has approximately 2.5 million visitors per day;
More than 500,000 products are sold monthly.
To become a seller on Rosetka, you need to fill out an application with the following information:
The company name
Site address
The number of products you plan to sell
Your contact details
After that, you need to prepare a price list of goods (XML catalog) and sign the contract using EDS.
Read also: How to switch to electronic document management in Ukraine
If you want to cooperate with Rozetka as a supplier, you need to provide a lot of information, for example, brand characteristics, quarterly turnover for previous periods, estimated turnover, list of competing brands and competing products. You can find a more detailed list of information at this link .
Prom
Prom is no less popular marketplace in Ukraine than Rozetka. Some statistics about him:
More than 60,000 companies are placed on Prom;
More than 100,000,000 products are sold;
More than 700,000,000 people attended Prom in 2021;
More than 4.5 million people visit Prom and merchant sites every day;
Users make more than 2 million orders every month.
To become a seller at Prom, you need to register :
Enter the phone number;
Invent a password;
Enter the name of the company.
After that, you need to pay for the placement and prepare the goods (upload a photo, make a description, set up payment and delivery methods).
The cost of placement in catalogs is calculated based on the number of products in the store, plus you need to pay for the promotion of products on the site:
5,900 hryvnias per year for a thousand goods;
7,700 hryvnias per year for 6,000 products;
11,500 hryvnias per year for 10,000 products.
The use of the account and registration are free, but the products will not be placed in the catalogs of the platform until you pay.
After filling out the form, a manager will contact you to clarify the details, and you can start working.
Epicenter
Epicenter is a marketplace that also offers a fairly wide range of products: materials for construction, goods for sports and tourism, tools for the home, garden and garden, household appliances, clothing, stationery, etc. The company's website started working as a marketplace relatively recently, in 2020, but it is already popular among entrepreneurs. And although everyone is used to consider it a hardware store, in fact, you can sell anything here.
To become a seller on the Epicenter marketplace, you need to fill out an application with the following information:
The company name
Name
Contact phone number
Email
Link to the company's website
What products do you sell?
Your comments or questions
After that, the managers will call you for a consultation on the requirements for sellers and sales. They then check whether your products are in the already open categories and assess compliance.
If everything is fine, you need to sign the contract and make an initial payment of UAH 1,001 to your account (the amount is current as of the date of publication of this material).
HELLO
ALLO is a chain of stores specializing in the sale of electronic equipment, and at the same time a marketplace where you can sell goods of various categories, including clothes, shoes, children's goods. And again some statistics:
More than 2,000 partners who will place goods on the marketplace;
More than 10 million visitors to the allo.ua site every month;
More than a million users have downloaded the ALLO mobile application.
To become a seller on the ALLO marketplace, you need to fill out an application with the following information:
Full name
Email
Password
The name of the store on the ALLO website
Company website
Phone number
Activity
Information about yourself and the company
Catalog information
After filling out the application, the ALLO manager will conduct a consultation and send the License Agreement via EDO. You will need to fill out a form in the Personal Account and make an advance payment of UAH 2,500 (the amount is current as of the date of publication of this material). After that, you can add your goods to the ALLO marketplace.
The monthly subscription fee for ALLO platform services is UAH 100.
Read also: Price aggregators - how to increase sales at the expense of others
F.ua
F.ua is a marketplace with which any business entity can cooperate. This marketplace is less popular than the ones we've already covered. In addition, more than 1,000,000 people bought goods on F.ua (formerly Fotos.ua).
To become a seller on the F.ua marketplace, you need to fill out an application with the following information:
The company name
What product groups do you want to sell?
Product warranty
Which online stores do you work with?
Price list format
Link to the price list
% commission
Commission payment forms
Full name
Phone
E-mail address
Also under the application are all the requirements for the sellers of this marketplace, which you can familiarize yourself with before starting work.
Is it possible to trade on several marketplaces at once?
Not only is it possible, but in some cases it is necessary. This is called multi-channel sales. Marketplaces in Ukraine do not prohibit sellers from placing their goods on other sites.
Such a strategy allows you to reach a wider audience and increase sales. You can simultaneously sell your products on all the mentioned platforms, as well as on your own website or in a physical store.
But there are a few things to consider when selling your products on multiple marketplaces. You will have to create separate product lists for each site, which can take a lot of time. You will also need to track sales and shipments for each marketplace, which can be very inefficient if not properly organized.
If your business has enough resources and needs new ways to find customers, then expanding opportunities through various platforms will be a good solution. As an option, you can alternately start work on each marketplace with a frequency of several months, so as not to overload the staff with a sharp increase in the number of tasks.
Like the article? Tell your friends about it: 
