The number of online shoppers is growing year by year. Thanks to technological advances, we live and work in an increasingly digital world. According to Statista, the number of digital consumers stays at approximately 2 billion. It means that both consumers and merchants have moved online.
E-commerce platforms offer new opportunities and sales standards. Thanks to marketplaces, anyone can sell and buy almost everything without leaving their home.
In this article, we have gathered 5 top online marketplaces in Australia. We analyzed them based on such factors as a monetization strategy, markets, and features.
What is an online marketplace?
Before we go into details, let’s find out what an online marketplace is.
It is an e-commerce platform that connects merchants with buyers offering goods and services online.
These websites are highly scalable. They provide a rich variety of products and services, comprehensive search engines, and filters. Also, they offer helpful communication tools, multiple payment options, and shipping methods.
With marketplaces, you can access different items on one platform, thus saving your time and effort.
Benefits to sellers:
Relatively low investment. You can create your e-commerce store and maintain and optimize it with minimal expenses.
Reach a larger audience. Online platforms enable you to attract more people from your country and across the world. Thus, you can increase sales and profit.
Additional features. Online marketplaces are an alternative way to promote your products or services.
Benefits to buyers:
Great choice. You can find and buy the desired item in minutes, regardless of your geographical location.
Convenience in use. E-commerce platforms have user-friendly interfaces. They provide a wide range of supplying goods, ratings, and comments. Also, they help to make decisions faster, buy products, and communicate with sellers more comfortably.
Smart comparison. Online marketplaces offer all-around research and comparison before purchasing.
In this article, we will highlight popular online marketplaces in Australia.
We have chosen the five best marketplaces. They have made their brand recognizable and attracted thousands of Australians. Moreover, they gained success in international markets and increased sales.
You can see the overview of each marketplace. Here, you will learn more about their business model and success factors and define which model fits your idea perfectly.
So, what makes them so special?
1. eBay
Pierre Omidyar incorporated eBay in 1995 as a B2C and B2B platform. The online shop was founded as a part of a personal website. Today, eBay is one of the most powerful marketplaces, selling lots of products and services.
This e-commerce platform is based in San Jose, California. It has more than 24 international websites across the world. These websites include the USA, Canada, the UK, Northern Ireland, China, New Zealand, Australia, etc.
Metrics:
- 138+ million active customers;
- 3+ billion monthly visits;
- 20 product categories;
- 350+ million sale items.
Monetization strategy:
- Subscription fee;
- Listing fee;
- Commission fee.
eBay is primarily an auction that promotes sales between third-party and sellers. A customer needs to pay 3-10% of each item, depending on the category, without any extra fees. Furthermore, the platform charges sellers a listing fee. The price per listing vary depending on the products’ categories (starts from 5 cents). The site also proposes sellers a subscription option.
Goods supplied:
This is the horizontal marketplace, so it offers a wide range of products. The most commonly bought items on eBay are home decor and garden accessories, tech, fashion, and shoes. These are also jewelry and watches, collectibles, and books.
Source: Webretailer
Business model:
eBay's business model includes auction sales based on a horizontal platform. It is a B2C and C2C site for buying and selling goods.
Why users like eBay:
- The advanced search engine enables users to look for items by categories, keywords, location, currency, and more.
- eBay is designed with its customers in mind, so you can easily add the desired product to your wish list or favorites.
- This online shop proposes multiple payment systems for sellers, such as Escrow.com and PayPal.
- eBay offers new, pre-owned, and unique goods for auction or at a fixed price.
Read also: How Much Does It Cost to Create a Bidding Website Like eBay
2. Amazon
Amazon is one of the largest global marketplaces. It was founded in Seattle, Washington, in 1994 by Jeff Bezos. This site primarily aimed to sell books. But now, it has an endless variety of items, from electronic devices to food, jewelry, clothes, and almost anything you can imagine.
Today, Amazon has separate sites for 16 countries. Among them, you can see the USA, Canada, Japan, the UK, New Zealand, Australia, etc.
Why is Amazon so popular? Their explanation is simple: a strong brand and excellent reputation.
A brand for a company is like a reputation for a person. You earn reputation by trying to do hard things well. - Jeff Bezos, Amazon CEO
Thanks to its reputation and years of experience, Amazon is constantly increasing its users' database. Today, the number of new sellers is about 2 thousand per day.
Metrics:
- 300+ million active customers;
- 2+ billion monthly visits;
- 20 product categories;
- 350+ million sale items.
Monetization strategy:
- Subscription fee;
- Commission fee.
Amazon is a well-known brand with its own line of services and products. However, you can become a member of this online community as a third-party seller. It costs 39.99$ per month when using a professional account. If you sell as an individual, you only pay 0.99$ per item sold.
Goods supplied:
The most popular products are electricals, clothing, video games, toys, books, jewelry, etc. Below you can see the most popular categories on Amazon worldwide.
Source: Statista.com
Business model:
Amazon follows B2C and B2B business models. Amazon is based on a horizontal pattern, delivering its customers both goods and services.
Why users like Amazon:
- Amazon offers the widest number of selling items compared to other platforms.
- This site has an easy-to-navigate interface both for novices and professionals.
- Amazon offers products that users can be interested in based on their online shopping and browsing history.
- Amazon offers flexible shipping settings and printing labels from the site.
- With Amazon, you can sort reviews and ratings of goods and services from positive to negative, taking your decision faster. Over 90% of customers don’t buy a product with less than three stars.
You may also like: How Much Does It Cost to Build a Website Like Amazon?
3. Kogan
Kogan is another one of the most popular online marketplaces in Australia. This one of the biggest daily deals solutions offers a wide selection of things across all categories. The Kogan marketplace is a house to thousands of brands. For sellers, it provides many marketing tools, including email campaigns and seasonal deals like Black Friday, etc.
Kogan has an award-winning site that matches the right issues with purchasers who’re most likely to shop for them. The Kogan team prides themselves on establishing win-win and long-lasting relationships with users. Moreover, Kogan is considered a secure and reliable Australian marketplace.
With about 3 million active consumers and over 5 million things traded during 2021, Kogan is not an Australian marketplace to ignore.
Metrics:
- 3+ million active customers;
- 1.9+ million monthly visits;
- 15 product categories;
- 10 million sale items.
Monetization strategy:
- Listing fee;
- Commission fee.
This platform works on a commission basis. The commission price will be set out in the registration form when the vendor signs up. Also, this platform charges fee per listings.
Business model:
Kogan is based on a horizontal platform. This site includes C2C and B2C business models.
Goods supplied:
Kogan is specialized in different kinds of products. It offers a huge range of them, from clothing, homewares, and toys to electronic items.
Some more facts:
- 9.7 million products were shipped in the past 12 months in 2022.
- Currently, Kogan sells over 1 million dollars worth of products every day.
- Kogan's journey began in Melbourne garage in 2006 from a young entrepreneur's idea, Ruslan Kogan, to renovate the chain of custody. He aimed to make the latest customer products more available.
Why users like Kogan:
- Kogan provides users with better-value products.
- Kogan provides a great online shopping experience. It offers simple purchasing, efficient delivery, and robust support after sales.
- The revenue model of Kogan enables users to save on the cost of bricks and mortar stores. So, this online site can pass the savings on to our consumers.
4. MyDeal
A firm favorite among Australians, MyDeal, is a rapidly-growing online marketplace. Mainly, MyDeal is focused on selling bulkier products such as tables, sofas, mattresses, etc. Although it also sells other products, such as pet products and fitness equipment.
Interestingly, the marketplace provides small business loans to suppliers needing financial assistance. They may need this money for business expansion or to access rapid funding.
The sellers on the MyDeal site are responsible for the order fulfillment process and all needed logistics.
Metrics:
- 894,000+ active customers;
- 5+ million monthly visits;
- 12 product categories;
- 5+ million sale items.
Monetization strategy:
- Subscription fee;
- Listing fee;
- Commission fee.
The MyDeal web solution offers flexible fees. They charge sellers per every sold item and per listings. The price of the commission and listing fee depends on the product category. The marketplace also offers different subscription plans for sellers.
Goods supplied:
In 2021, the top category of things sold at MyDeal was furniture (27%). This category was followed by garden and home (26%). The site focuses mainly on furniture for bedrooms and baths, pet beds, chairs, and so on. But it also provides books, toys, and beauty things.
Business model:
MyDeal is a B2C online marketplace. It is based on a horizontal platform.
Why users like MyDeal:
- MyDeal is a highly secure and trusted online market.
- MyDeal offers both a mobile-friendly solution and an application.
- This one of the top online marketplaces in Australia provides support through contact forms, social media, and phones.
- MyDeal assists sellers in creating their unique brand and effortlessly promoting it.
- Customers can easily find reviews on products on the search page.
- The site has a clear and easy-to-navigate interface, convenient both for buyers and sellers.
5. Catch
Catch is one of the most popular online marketplaces in Australia, launched in 2007. It offers over 2 million products across furniture, food, clothing, groceries, sporting goods, and more.
The main focus of this market is to make online shopping available for regular Australians. For now, Catch can boast over 3 million active consumers.
This one of the largest daily deals solutions stands out with its commitment to assisting new vendors. As a merchant, you’ll get dedicated support. So, the sellers on Catch are able to optimize their goods listings and promote their brands. In turn, the customers also receive a great shopping experience.
By the way, this one of the top online marketplaces in Australia is one of the simplest to use on mobile devices. Notably, over 70% of the orders on Catch are currently via smartphones.
Metrics:
- 3+ million active customers;
- 8-9 million monthly website views;
- 12 product categories;
- 2+ million items for sale.
Monetization strategy:
- Subscription fee;
- Listing fee;
- Commission fee.
Catch charges merchants 49.99 AUD (Australian dollars) per month for the subscription. Also, it charges listing fee and between 10-25% of the commission fee regarding the product category.
Business model:
This digital market is based on a horizontal platform. It is a B2C marketplace for buying and selling goods.
Goods supplied:
Catch has a huge range of goods for sale, comprising liquor, clothing, groceries, and many more.
Why users like Catch:
- This solution is highly secure and trusted by users in Australia.
- Reviews on goods in this Australian marketplace are clear and quick to find.
- Catch provides dedicated support for both sellers and customers.
- This marketplace is mobile and user-friendly.
Read also: How to Build an Online Marketplace: 17 Tips for Aspiring Entrepreneurs
Comparison of 5 top online marketplaces
There exist a lot various marketplaces, each designed with a specific target audience in mind. For your convenience, we have prepared a short summary comparing Amazon, eBay, Kogan, MyDeal, and Catch.
To decide which revenue model suits you best, you need to examine the pros and cons of each marketplace. Consider their fee structure, pay attention to the traffic and learn their rules and regulations. Afterward, pick those models which will help you build a selling and competitive digital solution.
| Main features of top online platforms | |||||
| Monthly membership fee | Listing fee | Commission | Goods | Number of users | |
| eBay | None | Free first 50 listings and then the price starts from 5 cents | From 3% to 10% per item | Home decor and garden accessories, tech, fashion and shoes, jewelry and watches, collectibles and books | 138+ million |
| Amazon | 39.99$ per month, for a professional account | None | 0.99% per item sold | Video games, toys, books, clothing, shoes and jewelry, cameras and electronics | 300+ million |
| Kogan | Users should contact the platform directly to know the price | 20 cents plus a 1.39% charge per item placed | The commission fee depends on products’ categories | Appliances, consumer electronics, homewares, hardware, toys, and more | 3+ million |
| MyDeal | Users should contact the platform directly to know the price | This fee depends on the product’s category | The commission fee depends on products’ categories | Furniture, fitness equipment, goods for home and garden | 894,000 |
| Catch | 49.99 AUD (Australian dollar) per month | This fee depends on the product’s category | The commission is charged at the rate of 10-25% per item | Electronics, kids and baby goods, clothing, cars and motorcycles, food and drinks | 3+ million |
Further reading: How Much Does it Cost to Build an Online Marketplace in 2023
Codica builds marketplaces that are loved in Australia
If you are looking for an experienced web development company, here we are. Codica’s team has accumulated vast experience creating websites for businesses in many countries. We know the Australian market very well, as we have worked on projects for Australian businesses. Recently, we built two marketplaces for marine and caravan businesses from this country.
TradeRVs is an online platform for campers on the Australian continent. People use this caravan selling website to sell or buy motorhomes, caravans, and other recreational vehicles. Below we added a video about how it works.
Another project is Trade A Boat. It is a boat sale website for marine lovers in the largest country in Oceania. It enables sellers and customers to trade and purchase different boats and marine equipment.
You can read more about this marketplace here: How We Delivered Boat Selling Website for Tradeaboat (Case Study)
The Codica team worked to redesign the existing Australian platforms. In general, we made them more attractive, modern, and user-friendly. Also, we optimized platforms for mobile devices to increase the user retention rate.
Eventually, our client has two lucrative solutions. With the online presence of these sites, our client has significantly increased conversion rate and sales.
Below you can see a customer review video about TradeRVs and Tradeaboat success projects.
Celso is the Digital General Manager at the Adventures Group. Adventures Group is a part of the EmpriseGroup, which owns and operates most of the beloved Australian brands. Here, Celso talks about his experience creating these two online marketplaces with our team.
Final words
Thanks to technological innovations, online marketplaces have gained huge popularity among purchasers. They are convenient and provide a significant number of goods and services. They also offer efficient search tools, different payment options, etc.
Since a lot of shopping has moved online, and this tendency is not going to slow down, marketplaces have become a widely-used business model.
If you have an idea of a web solution in mind and need help from an expert team, don’t hesitate to contact us. The Codica team has excellent experience in building marketplaces. We will be happy to help you create an online marketplace that users will love.
Let’s get in touch!