Do Marketplaces Drive Consumer Loyalty? - MerchantSpring

How loyal are marketplace shoppers in Australia and New Zealand?

Two external indicators are the percentage of direct visit (i.e. not via Google, email, affiliates, etc) and the time consumers spend on their site (dwell time).

Putting these metrics together for Australian marketplaces (and including TradeMe) reveals the following:

➤ In Australia, eBay consumers are the most engaged, in fact, our research at MerchantSpring suggests most eBay shoppers are least likely to shop elsewhere.

➤ TradeMe in New Zealand has built an even stronger position, no doubt helped by the lack of consumer alternatives.

➤ Catch is reaping the rewards for being the first of many to launch its marketplace in Australia. It has managed to build a more engaged audience than those competitors of similar size.

Given its curated marketplaces offers far fewer listings than Amazon and eBay there is an obvious question here:

What number of product listings drives the optimal consumer outcome?

It this a classic range vs breadth tradeoff?

➤ Amazon will be worth watching. It lags the above competitors in direct traffic and dwell-time and will no doubt accelerate the north-east trajectory as it opens up more categories, launches more functionality and invests in building brand awareness in Australia.