Following artificial intelligence and accessibility, this week we are focusing on one of the definitive trend topics in e-commerce: marketplaces and partner business! Today, we also feature an assessment from industry expert Michael Sahlender. For over 15 years, Comsysto Reply has been implementing complex e-commerce solutions for clients across all industries. In parallel, we track and analyze relevant trends in our e-commerce lab to ensure we are ready today for the challenges of tomorrow. We share our insights here—every Tuesday!
Marketplaces are market leaders
The fact is: the highest-revenue B2C online shops in Germany rely on the marketplace concept. The list (statista) is led, unsurprisingly, by Amazon. The industry leader has been generating significantly more revenue from its partner business than from its own retail operations for years (FAZ), and there are no signs of this trend reversing. Following in the rankings are OTTO, Zalando and MediaMarktSaturn.
At Zalando, the partner business is growing at a double-digit rate (Zalando), and in general, all signs point to growth for the marketplace model. Ceconomy, the company behind MediaMarkt and Saturn, entered the space just over 3 years ago and is heading toward €750 million in partner business revenue for the 2025-26 fiscal year—including expansion into further markets such as Poland and Turkey.Ecommerce News)
For sellers, marketplaces are a double-edged sword
Of course, all of this is only possible thanks to a rich supply of merchants who want to sell their products on third-party platforms. Especially when entering the market, small retailers have almost no other way to achieve significant sales without massive marketing investments. Well-positioned and competitively priced products on popular marketplaces are a true win-win situation. Platform operators offer their users an ever-increasing selection and breadth in their portfolio, particularly in the long tail. And merchants reach a very broad buyer base right from the start without significant fixed costs.
However, if a merchant focuses too heavily on this channel, it poses a significant risk. Not only because their own brand—and thus customer loyalty—tends to remain weaker than it would be through their own sales channels. Even more problematic is simply having no control over many essential aspects of the customer experience and one's own profitability. The direct costs of selling on marketplaces can rise, and especially when competing merchants offer similar or identical products, a fierce price war for the top spots in search results quickly erupts—often with no end in sight without massive advertising investments.
Of course, antitrust authorities are keeping a close watch. (Börsenblatt) Nevertheless, it is hardly surprising that marketplace operators will always seek and find ways to pursue their own interests and improve their market position. For example, the Otto Group began consistently consolidating partners on its own platform last year under the leadership of Dr. Boris Ewenstein . (Handelsblatt) As logical as this may be from the marketplace operator's perspective, for countless partners, rising commissions or complete exclusion are undoubtedly painful—and very difficult to predict.
Technical hurdles and how the market is overcoming them
Beyond these strategic considerations, technical aspects also play a major role. Anyone looking to integrate partners into their existing shop for the first time must first import heterogeneous product catalogs, handle varying prices and delivery times for the same item, and orchestrate logistics and payment processes. And that is just the tip of the iceberg. Countless technical difficulties and edge cases lurk behind each of these aspects.
The good news is that all these problems are not only generic and recurring, but also largely solved. Marketplace operators and merchants can now find various established standard solutions on the market that enable fast and seamless integration with interfaces to all relevant shop systems as well as flexible APIs for custom developments. Led by Mirakl , these marketplace enablers are being used more and more frequently, for example at ASOS.com, Conrad Electronic Group, Douglas, home24 SE and even online giant MediaMarktSaturn. For online retailers who aren't at the very top of the market, this is exactly what makes the business case for entering the partner business profitable!
Industry expert Michael Sahlender confirmed this exact point during a recent meeting:
Building a platform strategy is about strategically expanding your own product range to better meet customer needs. This is particularly attractive from a profitability standpoint, as procurement, sales risk, warehousing, logistics, fulfillment, returns, and more are completely eliminated. Technical hurdles to quickly implementing a platform strategy are now a thing of the past. The complexity of partner onboarding—including product data onboarding, the efficient operation of multiple business models (e.g., dropshipping and curated marketplaces), AI-supported process optimization in collaboration with partners, suppliers, and brands, and even retail media business—is perfectly covered by modern solutions. These simply need to be integrated into your existing shop.
Also interesting: Logistics with Amazon and… TikTok?!?
Yes, exactly! A lot is happening in the world of logistics and fulfillment. It will come as no surprise to anyone that Amazon plays a major role here. Soon, merchants in Poland and the Netherlands will be able to use Easy Ship (Amazon) to efficiently deliver their goods directly to customers.
“We continuously look for ways to empower local entrepreneurs on their path to success with Amazon.pl. Our goal is to simplify their day-to-day operations and optimise logistics, which can be a challenge for many of them. That’s why we’re introducing Easy Ship.” says Janina Rampp, Head of Marketplace at Amazon in Poland.
Less obvious are similar services from TikTok, which will likely soon be active in Germany with TikTok Shop. (Ecommerce News) Social commerce is definitely here to stay. And logistics is one of the biggest hurdles, which is increasingly being offered "as a service" in more and more places. It remains exciting…
That’s it for today – and here’s what’s next
Whether in logistics or partner business: more and more services are emerging that allow merchants to focus on the absolute core of their business. Their own market positioning, including branding and marketing, the right product portfolio for it, and, of course, an excellent customer experience. Most other things just need to work. Whether with Mirakl, Amazon, or TikTok.
In a week, we will take a closer look at one of the showcases for integrating AI into e-commerce landscapes that was promised in the newsletter on January 21st. Technically savvy readers can look forward to the next issue…
See you next week!
Christian & the Comsysto Reply e-Commerce Lab