Tesco Marketplace Update: Not Enough Big Name Brands?
The launch of Tesco’s Marketplace has been very quiet, first it was launched very silently in April with just two 3rd parties, Maplins and Crocus and now according to this article Tesco has postponed its launch campaign. So is this the end of Tesco marketplace already?
Tesco Marketplace, the only viable new challenger to Amazon in the UK Marketplace as both a retailer and a Marketplace, noting that eBay is not a retailer as well, well “as yet” at least.
We’ve seen this done to varying degrees of success in the USA with Sears marketplace being the larger one of them and back in April we saw the statement in another article from the BBC that Tesco were looking to increase the volume by two, from 40,000 to 80,000 lines for their own supplied inventory and add more than double that through third parties with an aim of 200,000 by Christmas.
When I looked at the Tesco Marketplace back in April, we could already see signs that it’s launch had not been that well thought through and data was weak in some places and only a handful of merchants had signed up and were listing their inventory on Tesco Direct.
Current 3rd Party Sellers on Amazon
Looking at Tesco marketplace today, the current list of brands are as follows:
- Crocus
- Fred Aldous
- Mamas & Papas
- Maplin
- Normans Musical Instruments
- Purely Gadgets
- The Nutri Centre
- Thompson & Morgan
- Trove (Hughes Electrical)
- Wayfair
If we count the number of products that these new merchants have added to the marketplace, we come in with a total of 45,582 new products.
Hardly a dent in the target 200,000 products expected by Christmas and considering that it’s taken 5 months to get this far and 4 months to go December, then it looks unlikely that Tesco Marketplace will be anywhere near the expected volume of inventory.
Digging into Mamas & Papas
Looking at one retailer, in particular “Mamas & Papas”, they were said to be “a huge online shopping destination” for Tesco Direct, however, I’m wondering how flawed this is.
Checking their fully branded Amazon presence here they hardly scrapping 71 feedback comments, which means they’re only really seeing 700 orders a month from the Amazon marketplace.
It does make you wonder why Mamas & Papas even bothered with Tesco Marketplace in the first place
If we look to eBay where there is no direct presence by Mamas & Papas, there are over 5,500 items listed, showing that the secondhand market is strong (as it is second hand here as no primary presence by the own label brand) and an estimated monthly sales volume of £271,000 according to Terapeak.
It does make you wonder why Mamas & Papas even bothered with Tesco Marketplace in the first place, as an over quarter of a million pounds work of a kit a month in secondhand only goods raises the immediate question, why are we not seeing them on eBay already, after all eBay see’s more visitors each month than Tesco and has the same or greater potential than Amazon does.
What Do You Think of the Tesco Marketplace?
In the original article that I wrote at the beginning of this year called “Part 1: Battle of The Giants – Tesco V’s Amazon – Who Will Win?” it was correctly noted in the comments that Tesco only need to make a small dent in Amazon to have an effect.
What I had not realised is how little this dent is going to be, now with their marketing campaign for the site being postponed, you’ve got to wonder if we’ll be seeing anything like the formation of a new marketplace that I know many of you have longed for.
So one question for you:
Do you think the Tesco Marketplace is ever going take off and are we likely to see the ~180,000 businesses from eBay and the estimated 100,000 from Amazon move over? Would you?
You can let me know your thoughts in the comments box below.
Tesco could have missed its own momentum. First, a very quiet launch although many of us were excited to see a serious challenger to Amazon (and eBay). Then, we never really heard about the marketplace’s development until this post.
However when we note how big Tesco is, nothing is really impossible. They better get ready for Christmas though :)
This is a very interesting one. I think the outcome of this is totally in Tesco’s hands now. I remember thinking back when this was rumored to be happening over a year ago, that if there was one Brand that could make a dent in the Amazon empire then it would be Tesco. This is why it seems a little bit underwhelming at how they have managed and marketed it so far.
The main reason why anyone would want to advertise on a marketplace, especially that of a fellow retailer is purely for the audience they get access to. Without this audience moving to Tesco Marketplace would seem labour and time intensive with not a great ROI.
I think right now for Tesco Marketplace to align itself with the big boys, they need to let customers know what they are doing, and what they can now find on Tesco Direct. This is of course all pointless if they do not have the infrastructure in place to make it as slick an operation as Amazon.
Just my opinion anyway :)