The ecommerce world is growing faster than it ever has before. New shops are appearing every single day across many different platforms, and more and more customers are doing most of their purchasing online. This massive expansion has caused a new business model to appear: ecommerce aggregators. Here’s all that you need to know about them.
What are ecommerce aggregators?
While it might sound like a complicated term, ecommerce aggregators are actually relatively simple. They are just businesses that partner with smaller online stores within certain niches. They will provide all kinds of resources to these businesses in exchange for some kind of repayment.
Are ecommerce aggregators new?
Ecommerce aggregators might be relatively new in the Internet age, but it’s not an entirely novel concept. Before there was online shopping, business “roll-ups” existed. Large businesses would acquire smaller businesses in the hopes of controlling a market and gaining an increased revenue. This is exactly what is happening with ecommerce aggregators.
What do ecommerce aggregators gain?
The idea of a larger business partnering with smaller (even struggling) businesses might seem counterintuitive, but there are lots of benefits for them. They will gain a foothold in the market sector that the smaller business is a part of, and if done multiple times, they will have a really strong level of control. Ecommerce aggregators gain more customers, increased revenue, and economy of scale.
Should smaller businesses partner with ecommerce aggregators?
At the end of the day, small business owners need to decide for themselves whether it is worthwhile to partner with ecommerce aggregators or not. With that said, though, most experts in the field consider it to be a great opportunity for small ecommerce businesses. The kinds of resources they provide (such as increased warehouse sizes, faster shipping times, and lower overhead) are more or less impossible for small businesses to stumble into on their own.
Partnering versus buying out
Some ecommerce aggregators prefer to partner with small businesses. Others, though, prefer to buy them out. In this case, the shop owner really needs to decide whether they think they can make it while still being independent or if the buyout offer from the aggregator is the best option they have. This varies on a case-by-case basis, but many small store owners have chosen to sell their businesses to aggregators simply because it is an efficient and clean way of exiting the industry while making a lot of money.
