In any fragmented industry characterized by a high number of small businesses offering nearly identical products this is the way things simply go... booking.com, the various marketplaces of the Adevinta group, Amazon MP (their pricing and e.g. FBA conditions are terrible btw), price comparison pages in general. It is either differentiate by product offering, content, service experience etc. or succumb to the dependency.
P.S. I am no way unbiased on this topic as I have worked in the marketplace and platform business for many years. But the suppliers always tend to blame the platform (especially in dire times) instead of thinking strategically in the long term. Kudos to Watchbox getting this early on and to Govberg/1916 snatching them up.
Thanks for the comment Shanin, I’m biased too, but as a seller. I think a key issue that sellers raise is that differentiation is difficult on C24's platform. But as per the letter ,sellers do want to develop a constructive and robust relationship with Chrono24, so it would help if C24 could clarify their role - are they an advertising platform or a sales platform or a retailer?
I appreciate your point of view from a marketplace business perspective - striking a balance between running costs and new platform features necessary for the long term is invisible to us but I can imagine is very difficult to do. I am pro-centralized marketplace and appreciate your work and views in this area. We are lucky to have a Chrono24.
In any fragmented industry characterized by a high number of small businesses offering nearly identical products this is the way things simply go... booking.com, the various marketplaces of the Adevinta group, Amazon MP (their pricing and e.g. FBA conditions are terrible btw), price comparison pages in general. It is either differentiate by product offering, content, service experience etc. or succumb to the dependency.
P.S. I am no way unbiased on this topic as I have worked in the marketplace and platform business for many years. But the suppliers always tend to blame the platform (especially in dire times) instead of thinking strategically in the long term. Kudos to Watchbox getting this early on and to Govberg/1916 snatching them up.
Thanks for the comment Shanin, I’m biased too, but as a seller. I think a key issue that sellers raise is that differentiation is difficult on C24's platform. But as per the letter ,sellers do want to develop a constructive and robust relationship with Chrono24, so it would help if C24 could clarify their role - are they an advertising platform or a sales platform or a retailer?
I appreciate your point of view from a marketplace business perspective - striking a balance between running costs and new platform features necessary for the long term is invisible to us but I can imagine is very difficult to do. I am pro-centralized marketplace and appreciate your work and views in this area. We are lucky to have a Chrono24.