Author name: Universe

Marketplace Movers & Shakers in July 2025

Maximilian Gassner has taken on a broader leadership role as Vice President Sales Central at Adidas. Christina Skoeries has moved up the ranks at camel active and now holds the role of Director E-Commerce. Maria Jose Barrera Rojas has made a major move from Inditex to Louis Vuitton, where she now leads as Global VP E-Commerce.

Service Provider Portrait base

We use our service provider portraits to introduce our sponsors in Marketplace Universe. Now, we are telling more about the ERP provider Base

Case Study Marketplace Onboarding

Case Study: Fast Marketplace Onboarding

Case Study: How Retailer Firalia turned Marketplace Onboarding into a Breeze Powered by base When COVID-19 hit, Cologne-based online seller Stefano Firenze and his retail company FiRelia saw demand explode. Having started out in 2013 selling fashion on eBay and Amazon — first clothing, then shoes — his business took an unexpected turn when he pivoted to protective equipment during the pandemic. “We were one of the first to sell face masks on Amazon. At the peak, we had around 20,000 orders per day.” With only three people on his team, he had to scale quickly — ultimately growing to 20 employees. The team learned how to manage high volumes and rapid operations under pressure. But they also knew the boom wouldn’t last. “We saw that this was a temporary phase. That’s when we pivoted to electronics — phone accessories, electric toothbrushes, that kind of thing.” The Limits of His Old System Until 2024, Stefano had spent ten years using the same backend provider, but the setup made it difficult to expand to new marketplaces. “Every time we wanted to integrate a new platform, we had to build the APIs ourselves.” That’s when his team started looking for alternatives — and decided to switch to Base. What convinced them? A large number of pre-built integrations, good value for money, and a fast onboarding process. Base is a Poland-based e-commerce operations platform that connects online sellers with hundreds of marketplaces, shop systems, shipping providers and ERPs. Headquartered in Warsaw, the company supports more than 30,000 merchants worldwide and is especially known for its broad integration landscape, fast implementation, and highly responsive support — key factors for sellers looking to scale quickly without adding complexity. Scaling Up Without Growing the Team The switch to Base in November 2024 ran smoothly and quickly, Stefano recounts. Since then, he has added five new marketplaces — among them Allegro, MediaMarktSaturn  and others. He now sells across 12 platforms in total, including Amazon, eBay, Otto, Kaufland, and more. “Some marketplaces approached us. Others we researched ourselves.”Despite the growth, the team remained lean: today, Stefano runs a 15-person operation, with 10 employees in the warehouse and manages an assortment of 500 to 600 SKUs, mostly fast-moving items. Product testing is ongoing: old products are phased out, new ones added. The assortment is consistent across all marketplaces. Why Base Made the Difference “We receive all orders from all marketplaces through Base. Thousands every day. And the support is excellent — they usually respond within hours, sometimes minutes. That’s something other providers just can’t match.” The switch to Base has made it easier to manage complexity, test new markets, and keep operations centralized. Repricers are used on competitive platforms like Allegro, though Stefano notes the challenges: “It’s hard to win the Buy Box — competition is tough. But that’s how it is. Sometimes you win, sometimes you don’t.” Interestingly, Stefano rarely turns off a marketplace, even if performance is low. He prefers to keep the presence and monitor long-term. Because of his lean software setup, keeping up a channel takes little effort, after all.  For now the retailer is happy with his marketplace setup – and with the knowledge that whenever he wants to expand, he can now do so at the drop of a hat thanks to his software setup. “We’re keeping an eye on a few platforms for Q3 and Q4, maybe one or two more launches this year.” Key Takeaways from FiRalia’s Story

Country Quadrant Italy

Marketplace Country Quadrant Italy 2025

The Marketplace Country Quadrant Italy shows a lack of local players, aside from Unieuro. Amazon is the dominant force, the Chinese players Shein and Temu are slowly catching up.

How to prepare to Cyber Week an MediaMarktSaturn Marketplace

Ready for the electronics hustle? How to successfully prepare for Cyber Week on MediaMarktSaturn Marketplace

Ready for the electronics hustle? How to successfully prepare for Cyber Week on MediaMarktSaturn Marketplace If you want to be well-positioned for Cyber Week, you need to start planning early. That may sound like a no-brainer – yet in the hustle of daily operations, time often slips away, and suddenly planning gets tight again. That’s why it’s smart to begin early: selecting assortments, choosing the right channels, preparing logistics, and more. Especially when it still seems like there’s plenty of time left.  But what does good Cyber Week preparation really look like? We asked Alexander Klinger, Department Manager Marketplace DACH at MediamarktSaturn – a marketplace which relies heavily on the significance of Cyber Week for their business.  Marketplace Universe: Alexander, how important is Black Week for MediaMarktSaturn and your marketplace sellers? And which categories perform especially well? Alexander: Black Week is by far the most important event of the year for MediaMarktSaturn and our marketplace sellers. In Germany and Austria, we nearly doubled our previous records during these seven highest-revenue days of 2024. Notebooks, gaming PCs, and robot vacuums performed exceptionally well, as did our new verticals. Some offers like Lenovo notebooks, e-scooters, or Roborocks truly went through the roof. What requirements must sellers meet in order to participate in your marketplaces during Cyber Week? Alexander: We inform our sellers about the criteria for each campaign at least two weeks in advance. For Cyber Week, we’ll send out these details 4 to 6 weeks ahead of time to allow enough preparation. Requirements include a minimum discount compared to the best price of the past 30 days, sufficient stock levels, and a maximum shipping time of two days. There are also specific category guidelines. Handpicked products for the homepage Which offer formats perform best during Cyber Week – such as daily deals, percentage discounts, or bundles? Alexander: Our main campaign on the homepage performs best and offers the most visible placement. Depending on how strong the deals are, we handpick products for this section – only the very best make it into the highlights. That ensures maximum value for both sellers and customers. In addition, we run themed campaigns that also perform very well. Beyond that, sellers can benefit from increased traffic on our site by being featured in recurring campaigns like our weekly tech highlights or weekend specials. What determines whether an offer gets especially prominent placement during Cyber Week? Alexander: Our account management teams work on the deals together with our sellers. Only sellers with a reliable customer experience qualify – meaning low refund rates, good on-time shipping, and strong seller ratings. Price is also crucial: we focus on the best possible deals compared to the product’s lowest price over the past year. Only top-tier deals are accepted. We also ensure a balanced deal portfolio to cover all categories with great offers. How much does product data quality – like titles and images – influence placement and conversion during campaigns? Alexander: Product data quality is very important to us, as high-quality content always has a positive impact on click and conversion rates. That’s why we have manual checks done by our content team, which provides sellers with feedback if there are issues. This often happens with images: our content guidelines clearly define what’s allowed on the main image and what isn’t. The same applies to technical specs like minimum image size. What role do advertising formats like Sponsored Ads, premium placements, or onsite banners play during Cyber Week – and how early should sellers book them to get maximum visibility? Book ads 4 to 6 weeks before Alexander: Advertising formats in our webshop are, of course, the easiest way to monetize the massive increase in traffic. They also bring great visibility for sellers and their brands. Available formats include Sponsored Product and Sponsored Brand Ads, A+ Content, and Space-as-a-Service and Instore Ads in our stores. For maximum visibility, sellers should book these 4 to 6 weeks before Cyber Week. Our self-service options allow them to manage their budgets independently. How do you evaluate seller performance during the event – in terms of conversion rates, cancellation rates, or customer reviews? And do high-performing sellers gain advantages in future campaigns? Alexander: During the event, we adjust the deals daily if certain products are over- or underperforming. We look at click-through rates, conversion rates, prices, and cancellations, which indicate overall customer appeal. That said, we treat all sellers equally: those who meet quality criteria have a better chance of getting their products featured. avoid typical mistakes What typical mistakes do you see sellers make in preparing – especially newcomers? And what three things should sellers tackle right now to get ready for Cyber Week? Alexander: A common mistake for major events like Cyber Week is that sellers’ fulfillment is not properly set up. Many are also unprepared to handle the spike in customer inquiries and returns. To be well-prepared, sellers should already be optimizing their content and ensuring sufficient stock for the peak season. At the same time, they should work on their quality KPIs, such as reducing incident or late shipment rates. That way, they improve their chances of being selected for Cyber Week placements. Want to know more? Write to mms.partner.de@mediamarktsaturn.com

Marketplace Universe News 07.07. 2025 – TikTok builds US app / Perplexity builds AI browser / AMA with Tarek Müller

Breaking News TikTok prepares standalone US app TikTok wants to circumvent the impending ban in the US by developing an app version specifically for the US with its own algorithm and based exclusively on US data. Malte Karstan sees this as a possible end to TikTok as we know it. Meanwhile, US President Trump wants to continue negotiations with China on a sale to a US-led joint venture. More at Reuters and on LinkedIn (Malte Karstan). More News SMEs sell on Amazon worldwide More than 80% of the approximately 47,000 small and medium-sized businesses that sell on Amazon do so worldwide. Their export sales rose by around €200 million to €5.7 billion in 2024, reaching a new record high.  More at About Amazon (German) Tesco offers logistics services for marketplace sellers The British supermarket chain and online marketplace has opened a new automated distribution center near Southhampton. The site can distribute 600.000 orders per day and is intended to handle marketplace SKUs. So far, the Tesco marketplace has been a classic dropshipment platform, but now the retailer seems to take more stakes into direct marketplace logistics. More on LinkedIn Temu now ventures into the food market As cheap non-food imports from China become more difficult, Temu is looking to become an FMCG player in Europe. The Chinese platform is already approaching local suppliers of food and cosmetics in Germany. Get more at Retaildetail Amazon focuses on fast food delivery In the UK, Amazon is now delivering food nationwide within 60 minutes, and in some cases even within 15 minutes, in collaboration with the fast delivery service Gopuff. See more on ChannelX.  Marketplaces are turning to AIZalando has expanded its AI-powered size guide to include a personalized avatar for virtual try-ons and is also experimenting with AI-based makeup testing. Digitec Galaxus uses AI for product recommendations, pricing, logistics optimization, and fraud prevention. And its competitor Brack.ch uses AI features to optimize its search algorithms, recommendations, and customer service. See more on Stores-Shops (Zalando; German) and on HHandelszeitung (Geman) AI News Perplexity takes on GoogleAI company Perplexity has launched its own AI-powered web browser. “Comet” includes the Perplexity AI search engine as standard and prominently displays AI-generated search summaries in the browser. Perplexity aims to challenge Google’s dominance in the search and browsing space. However, it is currently only available to selected subscribers. Perplexity has also introduced its first ad format, “sponsored follow-up questions.” More at PPC (Comet browser)  and Business Insider (ad format) Don’t want to miss any news? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter!

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