5 important online marketplaces in Germany
One way to get started selling your products in Germany is by offering them at existing online marketplaces. These are online shops where not one but many different sellers offer their products to customers. The transactions like payment or communication with the customers are done via the website owners system. The product will be send directly by the seller. The website owner gets a small portion of the sales price in a return.
The two most famous and biggest marketplaces are Amazon and eBay. But depending on your product you will find that it might be worth to have a look at the other ones as well. The following article should give you an idea what other opportunities you can find to successfully start selling your product in Germany:
- Amazon
If you are looking into selling your product online there’s (almost) no way you get around this famous (and sometimes infamous) platform. The vast majority of people who use the internet to buy products has used Amazon at least once, but more likely hundreds of times before.
And that’s not different in Germany. The security-loving German customer trusts the giant and will prefer buying there to buying directly at the sellers website. Unless you can offer a much lower price on your own website you will find Amazon sales exceeding your personal sales. The issue of price parity has been solved in 2013 when the Federal Cartel office ruled that Amazon can not dictate their sellers prices anymore – at least in theory.
The fees for selling on this platform are a bit of a mess though. Depending on the category, whether you sell directly or via Amazons FBA (Fulfilled by Amazon) the fees can vary between 6% and 45% of the sales price.
2. eBay
The second biggest player in the field is eBay which started as an auction house for private and commercial sellers. But by introducing the „Buy now“ option it became more of a traditional marketplace than a place where auctions dictate the price.
The commission that eBay takes for their services is between 9% and 10% with a maximum amount of 99 Euros.
3. kaufland.de (former real.de)
Another big online marketplace is kaufland.de which works in the same way: you offer your product on the website, Kaufland takes care of the payment and you will ship the item. The provider takes a commission of 5.9% to 12.5% and a monthly fee of 19.95€ for their services.
4. Zalando
If you sell clothes, shoes or other accessories you should consider selling them on Zalando. But you should be aware that you need to offer free shipping and free returns in order to be accepted on that platform. The fees are between 5% and 20% and based on the amount and range of products you are offering.
5. Otto
Quite a localized marketplace which is hardly in any other country present (they only started reaching out to other countries like Czech Republic in recent years) is Otto.de. With 7.5 active customers this is a marketplace which can hardly be ignored. A big part of the corporate culture in this company is sustainability and a fair treatment of employees.
I am aware that there’s a range of other marketplaces available which can be, depending on your product or service very important. This article should give an idea that online marketplaces are more than the big players in the field and that there are marketplaces available which are specific to Germany.