Home/Global practice/E-commerce and D2C launch

Service

Marketplace first, own site second, and almost never the other way round

The instinct for a premium brand is to launch its own site and keep the margin. In a market with no existing awareness that means paying to acquire every single visitor.

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Typical duration
10 to 14 weeks
Order
Marketplace, then D2C, then retail
Measured on
Contribution after platform costs
Biggest cost
Content, not media

What overseas brands get wrong online

Consistent across categories and markets.

  1. D2C first. The most common and most expensive sequencing error. Marketplaces provide discovery and credibility you cannot buy quickly, and your own site converts an audience you do not yet have.
  2. The listing is treated as an afterthought. In most categories the listing is the shelf. Images, content, specifications and early reviews do the work a retail display would.
  3. Nobody modelled contribution after platform costs. Commission, fulfilment, advertising to be visible, returns and promotional participation. Gross revenue is not the number that tells you whether this works.
  4. Visibility was assumed to be free. It is largely bought. Brands that budget for inventory and listing but not for platform advertising conclude the market rejected them.
  5. Returns were not planned for. High returns on a specific product is early warning of a sizing, expectation or content problem, and most brands see it two quarters late.

What gets built

Sequenced so each channel does the job it is good at.

01

Channel sequence and rationale

Which platform first for your category and price point, and what each one requires in inventory and content.

02

Listing content system

Images, A-plus content, specifications, comparison and FAQ, built once and adapted per platform rather than written five times.

03

Contribution model

Per channel, after commission, fulfilment, advertising, returns and promotion, so the pricing decision is made on the real number.

04

Review and rating strategy

The single strongest predictor of sustained sales for an unknown imported brand, and it needs designing rather than hoping for.

05

Platform advertising plan

Narrow, high intent, and measured against contribution rather than impressions.

06

D2C site when the base exists

Built to convert an audience the marketplace phase created. Website design and build.

07

Compliance and labelling coordination

Market-specific requirements handled by specialists, sequenced against the listing calendar.

Why this is usually run from outside the market

Marketplace operations are systematised work that does not require presence, which makes it the most straightforwardly outsourceable part of a launch.

What does require judgement is the sequence, the pricing model and the content standard, and that is what a senior individual provides more reliably than a platform agency selling a monthly package.

The execution volume, once the standard is set, runs through Quiamo or through a local partner under a defined brief.

Relative cost of the same seniorityRELATIVE, NOT ABSOLUTE. SENIORITY HELD CONSTANT.Agency in Tokyo, Seoul or TaipeiAgency in Singapore or Hong KongEuropean agencySenior consultant, India basedTHE GAP IS THE ARGUMENT. THE WORK HAS TO MATCH.
The cost difference is real and it is not the reason to do this. It becomes the reason only once the work is genuinely at the level you would have bought at home.

Questions overseas teams ask

Which marketplace should we start on?

Depends on category and price point rather than on size. Premium beauty behaves differently from appliances, which behave differently from components. That decision is week one and it is worth arguing about.

Do we need a local entity to sell online?

It varies by market and platform and should be confirmed with the platform and your corporate advisers. Most brands enter through an importer or authorised seller arrangement first and evaluate an entity once volume justifies it.

How much content do we need per product?

More than expected, and it is where consumer budgets overrun rather than on media. Buyers in most markets research heavily before purchase and thin listings lose to thorough ones regardless of product quality.

Can you manage the day to day?

Set-up, standard and strategy from me. Daily operations run through Quiamo or a local partner under a brief I write, because daily marketplace operations are a volume job rather than a judgement one.

Related

Tell me the category and the price point

Those two facts decide the channel sequence, which decides most of the budget. One short call is usually enough to get the order right.

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Kunal Waghmare · Padmavati Hills, Mokai Vasti, Bavdhan, Pune, Maharashtra 411021, India
office@quiamo.com · +91 90216 02686 · English