If you’re involved in the world of online sales, there’s one term you’ll likely have encountered time and time again: aggregator. But what does this mean, and how does it apply to your business? Here, we’ll explore the world of aggregators and their essential role in e-commerce.
Essentially, an aggregator is a site that gathers together products or services from multiple providers. In other words, it’s a business that doesn’t manage any production itself, focusing instead on marketing and promotion on behalf of the sellers who use the service.
If you’ve ever bought insurance from comparison sites (such as confused.com, GoCompare, Compare the Market, Money Supermarket), for example, you’ll likely have used an aggregator to compare prices and decide on the service that’s right for you. And in e-commerce, things work in a similar way. Perhaps the most famous example of this is Amazon, a marketplace that collates millions of products together in one place. But every month, more and more aggregators are launching, giving both sellers and customers a wide range of options when it comes to shopping online.
So what are the benefits of using an aggregator for your business? Well, for starters, it will provide an instant boost to your brand visibility and, as a result, your sales. Typically, aggregators are run by tech experts who can leverage expert SEO and marketing skills to get your products seen by the right people.
If you’re just getting started in the e-commerce industry, or you’re not getting the sales that you’d hoped for with your established business, signing up with a marketplace / aggregator is a great way to get things moving. It’s also a quick and easy way to get your products out there on the market – much more so than building and promoting your own dedicated online store. On top of that, using an aggregator will also open up potential markets overseas that you may have struggled to tap into without their support.
Of course, all that doesn’t come for free, and aggregators typically charge a commission or a flat subscription or fee for their services. So, it’s important to weigh this cost up against the benefits that you’re likely to receive. But all in all, aggregators and marketplaces can be a great way to take your ecommerce business to the next level.
