Captivate Podcasts

How does a DTC brand build a scalable marketplace business? In this episode, Ingrid speaks with Adrien Gosteli and Sebastian Thalheim from KoRo, as well as Lucas Bassa from Channable, about the food brand’s journey from a DTC startup to a marketplace player. Today, KoRo sells on Amazon, eBay, Kaufland and Galaxus, and is preparing launches on Decathlon and TikTok Shop – but building this business turned out to be far more operational than many brands expect. The guests offer a rare look into the “engine room” behind marketplace growth: from flatfiles, variant logic and listing rejections to the specific challenges of the food category, such as FBA requirements and expiration dates. They discuss how KoRo uses marketplaces to test new markets, why product data and content cannot simply be copied from platform to platform, and why data quality, reliable order synchronization and automation become critical as assortments grow and new marketplaces are added. The conversation also explores what it takes to build a scalable setup: automated data rules, order synchronization, repricing logic, and how tools like Channable can help reduce operational complexity. A practical look at why marketplace expansion is often less about marketing – and more about infrastructure. Note from the sponsor Pixelmoda: Founded in Milan in 2021, Pixelmoda specializes in AI-assisted image and video production. The key feature is that the AI does not generate the images, but supports the team and models in taking the best possible shots quickly by optimizing camera position, lightning, model poses, and so on. This significantly shortens production time and reduces costs up to 70 % for photo production and up to 90 % for video production. Pixelmoda produces over 14 million images and videos per year. Its customers include over 100 brands from more than 20 countries, including three of the top five global online marketplaces and lots of luxury brands. If you want to know more, listen once again our episode 126 with Gianni Serazzi from Pixelmoda. https://marketplace-universe.com/captivate-podcast/image-ai-for-fashion-what-it-can-and-cant-do-ltm126/

“Peak Amazon” is back. The recurring narrative suggests that Amazon has passed its zenith – saturated markets, slowing growth, eroding dominance. Yet with USD 717 billion in revenue in 2025, surpassing Walmart for the first time, the data paints a more complex picture. In this family & friends news episode, Ingrid is joined by Andrea Engelmann (OnMacon) to question whether we are really seeing structural limits – or simply strategic prioritisation. The Netherlands serves as a case in point: Amazon is investing €1.4 billion in logistics, infrastructure and visibility, and has already overtaken bol in search visibility. The idea of “romantic local heroes” standing firm against global giants sounds appealing – but when Amazon decides a market matters, power dynamics shift quickly. Beyond the Peak debate, they discuss TikTok Shop’s $100 billion GMV milestone, the rise of Roblox as a Gen Z commerce environment, Reddit exploring community-driven commerce, regulatory pressure on the Buy Box, and the open question of how AI agents will reshape platform control. A focused conversation about shifting ecosystems – and why “peak” may be the wrong lens to assess what’s happening. Note from the sponsor Channable: Different feeds, different platform requirements, manual workarounds – and a lack of transparency. Does this everyday chaos in marketplace operations sound familiar? Then the next podcast episode is exactly what you need. We talk to the drugstore brand KoRo about precisely this chaos, and how to bring it to an end. KoRo is known for its natural food products and now sells across multiple channels: brick-and-mortar retail, its own online shop, and marketplaces such as Amazon and Kaufland. Adrien Gosteli from KoRo will explain how the team structured its marketplace activities and brought operational complexity back under control. The case is supported by Lucas Bassa, Product Lead Marketplaces at Channable. If you are responsible for marketplaces, want to scale your company, or are already operating at an expert level, make sure to tune in next week – this case will be well worth it.

Connected Commerce – just another buzzword? In this episode, it quickly becomes clear that it is about much more than a trend. Ingrid speaks with Janine Hummel and Daniel Zemitzsch from Front Row about why many brands still think in channels while customers have long moved on to journeys. Budgets and KPIs are typically channel-driven, whereas the customer journey jumps between TikTok, Amazon, D2C shops and AI agents. As long as the last touchpoint receives all the credit, teams will inevitably optimise against each other – not out of bad intent, but because the system is designed that way. The central question of the episode is therefore: Who actually takes responsibility for the overall interplay, rather than just a single channel? And how do you make budget and prioritisation decisions when data is never complete? An episode about Connected Commerce not as a tool debate, but as an organisational and leadership challenge. If you want to know more, download the Front Row white paper “Connected Commerce” here: connected-commerce.com Note from the sponsor bol: If you’re planning to expand into the Netherlands, here’s the reality: Next Day Delivery isn’t a competitive edge – it’s the entry ticket. In a market dominated by bol, “order today, deliver tomorrow” is the baseline expectation. But speed alone won’t secure long-term success. What truly matters is reliability. Delivery performance is measured precisely, and platforms translate those metrics directly into visibility and ranking requirements. What this means in practice for international sellers, why Next Day Delivery alone isn’t enough, and which common mistakes still cost brands performance in the Dutch market is outlined in our latest blog post Logistics as Market Access: What Sellers Really Need to Deliver in the Dutch Market.

JD.com is acquiring Ceconomy – and from a European perspective, the deal raises far more questions than the headlines suggest. In this episode, Ingrid takes a deep dive with China expert Ed Sander. They discuss why JD is not treating Europe as a growth adventure, but as a strategic detour. They unpack why JD’s own platform experiments such as Joybuy and Ochama failed in Europe, why trust and localisation are decisive here – and why Ceconomy is less a retail asset for JD than a distribution shortcut. The episode also focuses on the growing negotiating power of Chinese players that bundle Western and Chinese brand volumes – with tangible consequences for prices, margins, and market structures. An episode about structural shifts in European commerce – and why this deal should be understood as a signal rather than a one-off.

The marketplace landscape is changing rapidly – not through isolated innovations, but through a fundamental redistribution of control. TikTok is building its own logistics infrastructure in Europe, Google is opening up agent-based commerce via the Universal Commerce Protocol, Amazon and eBay are closing their catalogs to AI agents, OpenAI is introducing a new fee tier with Instant Checkout, and Temu continues to grow through radical control over prices and processes. In this news episode, Ingrid joins Marcus Höhne, entrepreneur in a family business and long-time marketplace practitioner, to examine what these developments mean from a retailer’s perspective. Together, they discuss where operational complexity is really increasing—and where it is merely being shifted, when additional fees are still manageable and when margins are structurally eroding, how logistics or price control are creating new dependencies, and which platforms still offer optional access instead of implicit lock-in. Note from the sponsor base: Repricing on marketplaces is often seen as a margin killer. But that assumption is misleading. Base, a solution provider for marketplace integration and repricing, knows from his practical experience: It’s not repricing that’s the problem – it’s the lack of strategy behind it. On marketplaces, visibility isn’t determined by the lowest product price, but by the total offer price – including shipping, fees and overall cost logic. Without clear guardrails, automation can quickly lead to margin erosion. What’s needed are solid fundamentals: a clear definition of relevant competitors, category-specific repricing rules, minimum prices, margin thresholds – and a realistic understanding of how Buy Box mechanics actually work. That’s exactly what we break down in detail in our new blog article. Click here to learn more about repricing! Note from the sponsor eDesk: Marketplace customer support often feels chaotic. In reality, it is surprisingly predictable. Most tickets revolve around the same recurring questions: Where is my order? Has it shipped yet? Can I still cancel? When teams answer these requests manually, they are not doing customer support – they are doing administrative work. At significant cost. eDesk addresses exactly this problem. As a helpdesk solution built specifically for marketplace and multichannel sellers, eDesk connects the inbox directly to more than 300 marketplaces – from Amazon and eBay to Mirakl and Kaufland. Instead of simply centralizing messages, it adds context: order status, tracking data, and relevant marketplace information are immediately available and can be answered automatically. Less tab switching, less copy-pasting, and more reliable SLAs. Which ten support questions account for the majority of all tickets – and how they can be automated – is detailed in our new Deep Dive “Marketplace Support Reality”.

Why is cross-border expansion so hard for marketplaces – even when the technology is ready? In this episode, Ingrid flips the usual seller-centric perspective and looks at internationalisation from the operator’s side. She is joined by Valentin Lennartz from OnBuy and Paul Cotsas from Octopia to unpack the classic chicken-and-egg problem of supply, sellers, and demand. They discuss why “start with supply, then marketing” is more than a mantra, how seller quality and loyalty become strategic assets in new markets, and why aggregation doesn’t have to lead to interchangeable marketplaces. The conversation also touches on Germany as a particularly competitive market, the growing selectivity of sellers, and why speed only works when the foundation is right. A practical, operator-level discussion for anyone building or scaling marketplaces across borders. Note from the sponsor Pixelmoda: Marketplaces love video. But for many brands, video production still feels like a problem: expensive, slow, and almost impossible to scale. Which is why, on marketplaces, video often ends up being reserved for hero products only. And that’s exactly where things are changing. Tools like Pixelmoda use AI to turn a small set of existing product images into photorealistic video sequences. No cutting. No long production cycles. The result is video that finally scales across the assortment. And more sales without higher costs. If you want to know more about how this works, check out our blog post on the topic or listen to the podcast with Gianni Serazzi from Pixelmoda.

Spain is often seen as a price-driven market. In reality, it’s a speed-driven one. In this episode of Let’s Talk Marketplace, Ingrid talks to Romain Aymeric (The Agent) about why fashion brands struggle in Spain not because they’re too expensive, but because they’re too slow. They discuss very honestly why trend speed matters more than discounts, how Spanish consumers react extremely fast to new styles, and why players like Shein win through timing rather than price alone. The episode also looks at why local grounding is essential, how Zalando had to recalibrate its approach, and why El Corte Inglés remains a strategic gatekeeper – making Spain a market that consistently rewards speed, relevance, and local strategy. Note from the sponsor Kaufland Global Marketplace: Maybe one of your good resolutions for 2026 is to finally expand internationally. With Kaufland Marketplace, you can sell quickly and easily in seven countries and scale your business. Kaufland removes multiple hurdles at once – with an integrated EPR service, professional translation tools, and the Kaufland Shipment Solution. And your software? Whether it’s PlentyONE, JTL, or Billbee – all major providers are already integrated. The workflows are in place. All of this – and much more – is available starting at a base fee of €39.95 per month. And the best part? If you use the promo code MP-UNI2026 when registering, new sellers can sell for three months without paying the base fee- but only until March 31. So register right now here on Kaufland Global Marketplace! Note from the sponsor Octopia: Marketplace growth is anything but easy: How can marketplaces quickly find suitable merchants? Who can assist with onboarding and logistics? This is where Octopia can assist, a fully integrated marketplace services suite. With 20+ years of know-how, over €2 billion GMV, 450 specialists and 10,000 vetted sellers, Octopia focuses on what matters most: acquiring sellers, onboarding them fast, and driving their performance so marketplaces can scale without complexity. Want to know why platforms like Rakuten, Allegro, CDON or FNAC Darty rely on Octopia? Listen to our podcast in two weeks, where OnBuy shares how it uses Octopia to support its European expansion – or check out our company portrait!

Agentic Commerce is fundamentally reshaping power dynamics in digital commerce. When AI agents take over purchase intent, product selection, and decision-making, platforms risk losing influence exactly where value is created today. In this episode Ingrid talks with Amazon expert Malte Karstan about whether Amazon is losing relevance in the agentic era – or deliberately choosing a defensive strategy to buy time. At the core of the discussion is a five-step commerce model that explains why agents primarily attack discovery, ranking, and retail media, not logistics or fulfillment. The episode puts Amazon’s blocking of bots and crawling into strategic context, draws parallels to Apple’s ecosystem logic, and explores APIs as a potential new gatekeeper model. At the center remains one key question: Is defense still a strategy in the age of Agentic Commerce – or already a risk to the future of platforms?

2025 was a defining year for both the marketplace industry and for Marketplace Universe itself. In this final episode of the year – and Valerie’s last before her maternity leave – Ingrid and Valerie take a clear, honest look at what shaped the past twelve months. They discuss the major industry shifts: the continued rise (and regulation) of Temu, Shein, and AliExpress; the accelerating AI shift from SEO to AI-readable content; the uneven rollout of TikTok Shop across Europe; and the renewed push for marketplace internationalisation. At the same time, they provide insight into their first full year as a small bootstrap startup: the successes and the challenges that Valerie’s maternity leave brings with it. They share what worked, what they underestimated, and why transparency, early handovers, and a strong team made all the difference. A reflective, practical year-end episode about an industry in motion – and a business learning to scale sustainably. A big thank you to all our loyal listeners! We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Black Week 2025 was not what many expected – and the data behind it is unmistakable. Ingrid speaks with Benjamin Weyrich from the e-commerce agency Front Row about hard facts: why brands see almost no growth without deals, why profitability continues to decline, and why the first deal day has now become more important than Black Friday itself. Benjamin explains how brands can use Amazon Marketing Cloud to identify, for the first time, which products turn customers into fans – and which ones lose them for good. It also becomes clear that pushing clearance stock into deal events is the wrong strategy. The episode also shows which categories performed surprisingly well, where declines were noticeable, and how deal events can influence Customer Lifetime Value over the long term. And that brand-building is becoming increasingly crucial in the marketplace business. In the end, one thing becomes clear: anyone aiming to make Black Week 2026 more successful needs a solid data foundation – and a deal strategy that no longer relies on gut feeling. Note from the Sponsor eBay: eBay is pushing Live Shopping in Germany: with eBay Live, sellers can present their products in real-time, engage with their community, and sell directly – all in the exciting auction format that has made eBay legendary. During live shows, sellers can offer both immediate purchases and auctions, making the selling experience even more flexible. And all of this is supported by eBay’s buyer protection and transparent policies. eBay is opening up new opportunities for sellers to authentically and emotionally present their brand. Interactive live moments build trust, boost customer loyalty, and help you reach new audiences like Gen Z and Millennials. Curious on how to take part? You can find more information in our blogpost: https://marketplace-universe.com/how-ebay-live-works-a-practical-guide-for-marketplace-sellers/ Note from the sponsor bol: January may seem like a quiet month in many markets – but not in the Netherlands and Belgium. There, the sale and clearance weeks kick off the new year with a real boost of momentum for brands and sellers. As the market leader in the Netherlands and Belgium, bol plays a central role in this. If you want to know: – why this period represents such an extraordinary growth window for international sellers, – how bol’s campaign structure massively increases visibility, and – why stable logistics after the Christmas peak give sellers a real competitive advantage, then check out our blog post on Marketplace Universe. There you will also find five steps to help you make the most of the January sales: from localization and assortment strategy to scheduling your campaigns and positioning your brand for NL & BE. Click here for in-depth knowledge: https://marketplace-universe.com/january-sale-on-bol/