With Boohoo set to launch its first marketplace at the end of this month with over 150 brands, Retail Gazette rounds up the retailers that are killing it in the marketplace space.
Tesco
Tesco revealed last week it has more than doubled the size of its online marketplace less than two months after it launched.
The UK’s biggest grocer is now listing more than 20,000 products from third-party sellers across garden, DIY, homeware, toys, sports, baby, beauty and petcare – up from the 9,000 SKUs initatially.
The supermarket giant launched the marketplace in June, claiming it would become “one-stop shop for everything customers need” once it reaches full scale.
It’s not the first time that the retailer has dabbled in marketplaces, having launched Tesco Direct in 2012.
However, the grocer shut down the venture six years later, when it described it as a “small, loss-making part of the business” which had “no route to profitability”.
B&Q
B&Q revealed earlier this year that it was targeting two million products available on its marketplace by the end of next year as it continues to expand its online offer.
The retailer’s head of marketplace Tristan Commecy told Retail Gazette the platform is ““still very much in the high growth phase” almost two years after launching with 300,000 products from 400 sellers.
Now entering its third year, the marketplace has over 1.2m products available from more than 1,000 sellers and represents 41% of the B&Q’s total online sales – up from 13% in 2022.
Ann Summers
Ann Summers became the latest retailer to launch its own marketplace last month when it unveiled Knickerbox.com.
The lingerie retailer described the platfrom as the “ultimate house of underwear”, with customers able to shop from 15 brands such as Calvin Klein Underwear, Lemonade Dolls, Curvy Kate, and Nudea.
Ann Summers said the marketplace, which will not sell sex toys or accessories, was a solution to its online business being challenged by Safe Search restrictions, which “reduces the visibility of the Ann Summers website and results in a large number of our customers unable to find it”, due to its range of adult toys.
Debenhams
Debenhams become the UK’s largest marketplace across fashion, beauty, sport and homeware in 2021 when it launched its platform.
The retailer, which was snapped up by Boohoo Group out of administration earlier that year, launched with an offer of 70,000 products.
Earlier this year, Boohoo Group reported “strong growth” in the Debenhams marketplace, and heralded its “capital-light, stockless model” for driving high margin growth.
It said that to improve profitability in its non-core labels, it has been transitioning them to the Debenhams marketplace, which it said was starting to bear fruit.
The platform now sells from over 3,500 brands – more than double the 1,600 it sold from the year before and around a third of its target to offer over 10,000 brands by the end of this year.
It’s unsurprising that Boohoo Group is looking to emulate the success of the online department store’s marketplace for its own flagship brand, which is set to launch at the end of this month.
Superdrug
Superdrug’s online health and beauty marketplace launched in 2022 and now lists over 22,000 products.
The platform is integrated onto Superdrug.com where third-party marketplace items sit alongside products it has always stocked.
Superdrug ecommerce, customer, and marketing director Matt Walburn told Retail Gazette the percentage of sales that go through marketplace “is increasing all the time”.
He said the platform recorded its biggest ever week outside of Christmas in June and is “on track to hit our targets for this year which is great”.
Walburn says that the marketplace allows Superdrug to quickly move into new trend areas and categories that it can’t launch in its physical stores, like fashion and Halloween costumes.
“Halloween is a big event for Superdrug…but we’ve never been able to add outfits alongside [make-up]. This is just an example of where the marketplace comes into its own.”
The Range
The Range launched its online marketplace in the Autumn of 2020 after discovering that 30% of the products it sold online over the summer had come from third-party suppliers.
A year later, the platform featured around 3,000 products, spanning general merchandise categories including furniture, electronics, lighting and DIY.
Almost four years later and the discount platform’s marketplace has grown more than tenfold to over 340,000 products, covering clothing and fragrances from Gucci, Dior and Maison Francis Kurkdjian too.
Mountain Warehouse
Mountain Warehouse launched its own online marketplace back in 2022 as it sought to provide a one-stop-shop with access to a wider range of outdoor clothing and equipment.
While sellers are expected to handle customer returns, tracking, pricing and second-line customer care, Mountain Warehouse offers access to its customer base and support with onboarding, data and customer insights, marketing, first-line customer care and the processing of orders.
The outdoor retailer revealed last week it now stocks more than 320 brands via its marketplace and sales through its third-party labels have skrocketed over 150% year on year.
Online sales for the business grew 2.2% over in the year to February 25, accounting for almost a third of revenue compared to just under a quarter it represented prior to the pandemic.
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