Hype Cycle reports are the second most widely referenced Gartner research behind Magic Quadrants and are designed to help application leaders assess a wide range of commerce technologies that will support their commerce-related investments. Enterprise Marketplaces are highlighted as “adolescent” in maturity and demonstrate a high growth future with mainstream adoption expected in the next two to five years.

According to the report, enterprise marketplaces are defined as “digital channels operated by B2B or B2C sellers that invite third-party sellers to sell directly to end customers. Marketplace operation applications provide the technology to enable enterprise marketplaces by allowing operators to manage seller onboarding, product catalogues, order routing and management, and seller compliance with marketplace policies.”

“Marketplacer is pleased to, once again, be included in the Gartner Hype Cycle for Digital Commerce as a sample vendor for enterprise marketplaces. This year we can clearly see the industry tipping point that’s about to push the marketplace model into mainstream adoption by Australian and international retailers and brands as they seek to drive growth and revenue, improve efficiency and optimise the digital experience for their customers,” said Marketplacer co-founder and executive chair Jason Wyatt.

The report states, “enterprise marketplaces offer such benefits as increased assortment, improved customer experience (CX) and stickier shopping destinations. They also enable companies to shift their business models from linear digital commerce (where they sell directly to end customers) to a platform business (where they facilitate transactions between sellers and buyers). As marketplaces grow, marketplace operators can transition to digital business by owning the digital ecosystem and creating digital revenue.”

In 2020, enterprise marketplaces were cited as “increasing interest during Covid-19 as many organisations hastened to launch or expand digital commerce presence as sales from physical channels dried out.”

The 2022 report highlights additional factors and potential benefits that have emerged, driving companies to invest in enterprise marketplaces. This includes:

• Marketplace operators benefit from enriched product offerings, expanded assortments and the ability to test new products via third-party sellers before offering products as a first-party seller. Organisations using dropshippers can move nonstrategic items to the marketplace to improve the performance of the core business.
• Collecting commissions or fees from the sale of third-party products helps operators transition to a digital business model, which helps them mitigate risk from future disruptions or from reduced demand for their first-party products.
• Business buyers benefit from reduced procurement costs from obtaining multiple different products, in multiple different categories, from a single marketplace. This creates more loyal buyers, who are less likely to shop around for competitive products.

Learn more about the Gartner Hype Cycle for Digital Commerce 2022 and read the full report here.

About Marketplacer
Marketplacer is a global technology Software as a Service (SaaS) platform equipped with all the tools and functionality needed to build successful and scalable online marketplaces, at speed. To date, Marketplacer has helped build and deploy over 100 Marketplaces connecting over 13,000 businesses worldwide. The Marketplacer platform exists to make growth simple, from implementing marketplace strategies such as shipment from drop-ship sellers, adding new categories or third-party range extension, through to consolidating markets and rolling out modern revenue models such as recurring memberships that allow businesses to grow faster and beyond the constraints of capital inventory.

Born and bred from the award-winning BikeExchange, the biggest online marketplace for anything and everything bike, founders Jason Wyatt and Sam Salter saw the opportunity to license the online software platform and apply it to new marketplaces. Marketplacer is responsible for the creation of online eCommerce solutions and business transformations of companies around the world.