Canadian Retailer - Fall 2015 - 31

CHLOE Raincock began Heel Boy 17 years ago

marketplaces come in varying shapes and sizes-big giants like eBay and Amazon, smaller
nationally-focused sites like Shop.ca and boutique markets which are focused on product
and/or service categories. In all cases marketplaces offer customers assortment. And they offer retailers an abundance of selling, marketing,
and engagement opportunities.
"They are like internet landlords," says
Poologasingham. "They provide location, infrastructure and services to enable and encourage
retailer/customer transactions."
EBay, one of the more dominant players in
the e-marketplace space, boasts a platform
that consists of more than 800 million items
and brings different benefits to retailers of different sizes. It offers entrepreneurs and small
retailers the opportunity to tap into a huge
marketplace with minimal risk and low cost.
eBay provides the technology platform, SEO/
SEM marketing, search results and
purchase carts, allowing Canadians
to sell. Canadians sell more than 1
million items per month on eBay.
That's 33,000 items per day, equat- ANDREA STAIRS, eBay Canada
ing to $1 billion dollars spent annu RCC's E-commerce Benchmark Survey, con- ally on the site by Canadian consumers.
ducted in partnership with Forrester Research, "We leave the retailer free to focus on price
points to the rise of Canadian e-commerce, and the and inventory and we do the rest," says eBay
opportunities that online marketplaces present to Canada managing director Andrea Stairs.
retailers. And thousands like Heel Boy are using
them to market and sell their products and services Greater penetration
to consumers, retailers and manufacturers around Mid-size retailers often use eBay as a channel
the world. For some, marketplaces may be an ad- to complement their existing bricks-and-mortar
junct to their existing e-commerce and bricks-and- and online stores, drive excess traffic, immedimortar business, but for many small and medium- ately increase the reach and exposure of their
sized retailers it's the best way to vastly expand brands and hopefully enable them to negotiate
their reach.
better deals with their suppliers.
"They have similar attributes of physical market- eBay offers large retailers and brands like
places in that they bring together an assortment of Dyson, Lowes and Toys"R"Us the opportunity
sellers into one location but with the added embel- to get greater reach for their products and to sell
lishments offered by modern technology such as inventory that they may not want to put on their
customer reviews, guarantees, loyalty programs, own channels such as open box returns, last
search engine marketing, customer analytics and, season, used or refurbished merchandise.
of course, enormous brand and product exposure," "There's a great general mix of inventory for
says Suthamie Poologasingham, director U.S. sale from new-in-season to goods being sold by
marketing and research omni-channel commerce individual sellers-a 'spectrum of value' from a
and digital media with J.C. Williams Group.
new iPhone 5 to a refurbished iPhone 4 and a
used iPhone 3," says Stairs. "In all cases retailTaking many forms
ers and sellers of all sizes can immediately start
Like the retailers they represent, internet to expand their business with little incremental
in Kingston, as a local boutique store selling affordable designer shoes and boots. She slowly
built a strong, loyal customer base, expanded to
two other stores in Toronto and one in Kitchener
and created a small internet presence with a website. Over time, however, she began to realize she
needed a much more aggressive online presence
to keep her business up to date and move it to the
next level.
"To be honest I knew that I had to improve my
online presence to stay relevant, but for us that
was a very daunting task that just wasn't in my
heart to do," says Raincock. "One day a friend told
me about Canadian internet marketplace Shop.
ca and I signed up with them. Since then I have
expanded into socks, underwear, handbags, knapsacks and accessories and attracted a number of
new brands. It has really helped to revitalize my
entire business."

"We leave the retailer to focus on price
and inventory and we do the rest."

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FALL 2015 | CANADIAN RETAILER

| 31

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Canadian Retailer - Fall 2015