Becoming “customer obsessed” and adhering to three key value-points is essential to succeed in marketplaces, an Amazon executive told the New Retail 19 conference.

With the growth of e-commerce, retailers are under increasing pressure to provide customers with an unparalleled customer experience, Fabio Bertola, head of seller services at Amazon Web Services told the audience on Monday.

Marketplaces give retailers an opportunity to provide this seamless service at various touchpoints while creating a new revenue stream and growing retailers’ customer base.

Retailers can access customers at multiple times during their shopping journey through marketplaces, Mr Bertola said, without the need for costly upfront investment in web infrastructure or fulfilment.

For a successful marketplace strategy, it is essential that retailers become “customer obsessed” and connect with customers at every part of their journey.

This means “always trying to invent something on behalf of the customer,” he said.

Three pillars to success

Amazon measures its success according to three key pillars of success and it is these three pillars that retailers should use to steer their success in marketplaces, according to Mr Bertola.

Having a broad selection of items with competitive value and which can be conveniently delivered is essential to succeed in marketplaces, he said.

  1. Selection

The first key determinant of success, selection, is two-pronged, Mr Bertola argued.

Firstly, retailers must ensure they have a broad selection of products, he said.

“There is a direct correlation between the number of products you sell and how successful you are,” he said.

Secondly, retailers need to ensure that this selection of products is high quality. But this also means ensuring that the product data that is on the marketplace is also good quality.

  1. Value

Customers are hungry for high-value products, and ensuring value is essential to success on marketplaces.

This means ensuring that value is consistent across all channels that you are selling products on, he said.

“Consistency in value is the most important thing you can do in making sure you maintain customer trust.”

  1. Convenience

Maintaining high standards of convenience is the third pillar to success in marketplaces, Mr Bertola said.

Everyday, customers want a faster fulfilment experience, and retailers need to be keeping up with this expectation, he said.

This means ensuring fast delivery, and full oversight of the delivery process, he said.

Retailers who focus on these three key pillars in their marketplace strategy are those who succeed, according to Mr Bertola.