Marketplace
Short definition
A marketplace is a shared shopping site where more than one seller lists and sells products through the same platform.
Platforms such as Amazon or Trendyol supply their own traffic and infrastructure; the seller lists products and the platform takes a commission. A business can sell through this channel without having its own website at all, which gives a newly formed business a fast way to start selling.
Search ranking on a marketplace follows different rules from SEO on a business's own site; product title, image quality, delivery time and customer rating all shape ranking directly. A listing built without knowing these rules can stay invisible. Because customer reviews also feed into ranking, after-sales support shows up directly in visibility.
A marketplace offers less brand control than a business's own shop; price, page design and customer data are largely governed by the platform's rules.
Why it matters
A marketplace gives access to a ready-made pool of buyers without a business having to build its own traffic; commission and limited brand control are the price of that access. How much to invest in each channel is decided against that trade-off.
Illustrative example
A workwear manufacturer reached corporate buyers through its own site and individual customers through a marketplace, using the two channels for different purposes. Both channels were linked to the same stock system.
