fbpx

5 European Online Marketplaces you need to know about

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes

Amazon is the king of e-commerce, however, there are many other online marketplaces that have a massive customer base waiting for you! It’s important to have a strong multi-channel e-commerce presence and that means being active on more than one platform. Amazon will always be a key part of a successful e-commerce strategy, however, it’s important to make sure you don’t put all your eggs in one basket.

There are plenty of online marketplaces that can help to AMPlify your sales strategy. By encouraging you to reach new audiences, creating new income channels and offering stronger cross-channel promotions, these marketplaces can help you grow your business. A great place to start when creating a multi-channel e-commerce strategy is to expand to other European markets. These are our 5 top picks for European online marketplaces you should know about!

Onbuy

OnBuy claims to be the largest UK-based marketplace and is one of the fastest-growing e-commerce platforms to date. It offers a transparent selling service that puts small and large businesses on a fair playing field. Having launched in 2016 as a dedicated UK site, it is looking to expand to other countries in the future, to offer a ‘fairer alternative to marketplace giants’.

“We aim to be fair and transparent, we don’t compete with our sellers by selling anything ourselves and we never will. We’re here to connect buyers like you with thousands of professional business sellers (and vice versa) to bring you a simple, secure shopping experience.”

Credit: onbuy.com

OnBuy has tried to make it as easy as possible for sellers by providing two types of packages – Standard costing £19 a month, and Partner at £39 a month – and a commission rate of 5-9% depending on the product category. It has also created easy listing templates and API integrations with applications such as Shopify to streamline the upload process for sellers. This is definitely a platform to look out for – join now while it continues to grow!

Bol.com

This Dutch webstore reached 11 million active customers in the Netherlands and Belgium in 2020 and is the go-to for locals. BOL.com has been around since 1999 but has only opened its doors to independent sellers since 2011 to become the successful e-commerce platform it is today. 

Amazon has been available in the Netherlands since 2014 but only as a vendor for e-books, with Belgium customers having to use either the German or French Amazon sites. With over 23 million items and more than 30,000 retailers, this makes BOL.com the obvious choice for Dutch and Flemish customers. Amazon is looking to expand its Netherlands store to finally offer the full Amazon experience, but will this be enough to tempt Dutch speakers away from such a trusted marketplace?

Setting up as a BOL.com seller couldn’t be easier. Simply contact its customer service team and within three days a sales account will be created, free of charge. Once up and running, you only pay when items are sold with a commission fee of 5-17%, depending on the product.

Allegro

Having been around since 1999, Allegro is the most popular online marketplace in Poland and one of the largest in Europe. It was ranked the 10th most visited e-commerce store worldwide with 20 million customers each month and 117,000 merchants.

“We offer products in all key categories including Automotive, Fashion, Home and Garden, Electronics, Books and Collectibles, Kids, and Health and Beauty. Each month, 20 million customers visit our platform, which is equivalent to 80% of all internet users in Poland. They can choose from over 164 million offers at the most attractive prices with maximum convenience, including fast and free Allegro Smart! deliveries and full security. Poles are more likely to start their search for products with us than any other popular search engine (according to 2020 IRCenter research).”

Credit: Allegro.pl


Allegro is a great way to expand to Polish customers. It has a massive delivery network of 25,000 pickup points and lockers as well as the promise to expand active merchants’ sales by 119%. 15,000 sellers signed up to Allegro in the first half of 2020 and this only looks set to expand. Allegro has recently changed its fees for becoming a merchant by scraping their sign up fee and will now only charge a commission for sold items. The amount will depend on the category, delivery fee and offer price and can become confusing. To help with this, Allegro has created a handy commission calculator to allow for full transparency in costs.

OTTO

Germany is home to some of the largest e-commerce sites in Europe, with OTTO being one of them. OTTO operates in over 20 countries, with the majority of these being in Europe, and includes over 1.8 million products from over 7,000 brands. It hosts a range of products from clothing and toys to electronics and homeware that contribute to up to 10 orders per second!

OTTO has been an online marketplace since 1995 and recently reported revenue of €14.3 billion. To become a seller on this massive marketplace, brands have to pay a one-off signup fee of €10,000. Once signed up, there is no monthly fee, however, the commission can range from 15 to 50%.

This does make OTTO one of the more expensive e-commerce sites on our list, however, the exposure to the German market is unprecedented. To make sure it is the first choice for the German market, OTTO requires sellers to have a German-speaking customer service representative as well as a valid German corporate form and VAT number before signing up. It is certainly a must-know European marketplace!

Cdiscount

Cdiscount is the e-commerce boss in France, beating Amazon with around 22 million unique visitors to the site every month, 10 million of which are active customers and 2 million are frequent subscribers. It covers a wide range of categories including travel, cars, electronics, health, beauty, grocery and so many more! 

By signing up to Cdiscount, your business would have no trouble reaching all areas of France, using its 500,000 square metres of warehouse space, a fulfilment service, and over 18,500 pick up points around the country. Currently, it is offering new merchants free subscriptions and preferential commissions on all product categories until 30th April 2021, so this is the time to join!

This e-commerce giant is one you need to know about and will help you reach the French market and gain their trust.

If you’d like more information on expanding your business to other European online marketplaces, contact us today! We can help you to create your accounts, optimise your listings across platforms and advertise effectively. Find out more about marketplace amp here.

Subscribe to our mailing list
  • Hidden
  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.