Marketplaces: selling on several marketplaces with no re-keying, with accurate stock and seller accounts under control.
The marketplaces manager sells the brand on platforms that each have their own rules: product page format, shipping deadlines, returns handling, messaging, seller performance indicators. The day is spent between seller account back offices, order exports and stock files. Automation connects these accounts to the PIM, the OMS and the ERP; the manager keeps control of the assortment, the price and the relationship with the platforms.
The role
Between e-commerce, logistics, pricing, finance and the platforms.
The marketplaces manager chooses the platforms and the products sold on them, makes sure their rules are followed and tracks the profitability of each account. They depend on product data from the catalogue team, stock from logistics and prices from pricing, and report to finance on payouts and commissions. In a mid-sized company, they often manage several seller accounts alone, in several countries.
Day to day
A typical day.
- MorningCheck that stock and offer feeds have gone through on each seller account, and deal with rejections.
- MorningCheck overnight orders: integration into the OMS, blocked orders, shipping deadlines to meet.
- MiddayReply to buyer messages within the deadlines set by each platform.
- AfternoonTrack seller performance indicators: late shipments, cancellations, dispute rate.
- AfternoonPrepare new offers: product selection, product page adaptation, prices, participation in platform campaigns.
- Month endReconcile platform payouts with orders, commissions, fees and refunds.
The objectives
What the role is measured on.
- Revenue by marketplace
- Profitability by marketplace, commissions and returns included
- Seller performance indicators
- Offer rejection rate
- Cancellations due to stockouts
- Response time to buyers
Indicators are named, never quantified: levels depend on each company, and the diagnostic measures them.
Day to day
The problems that come up most.
Stock that does not keep up
Stock is sent by file a few times a day; between two sends, the marketplace sells products already gone on the website or in store, and the cancellation damages the seller account.
A product page to redo for each platform
Each marketplace has its own taxonomy, mandatory attributes and title and visual rules; website product pages do not go through as they are.
Orders arriving through several doors
Exports, back offices, e-mails: marketplace orders integrate poorly into the OMS and are sometimes re-keyed by hand.
Payouts that are hard to read
Commissions, logistics fees, refunds, adjustments: the platform statement does not reconcile simply with the orders.
Seller accounts under watch
Late shipments, missing tracking numbers or slow replies lower the indicators and can lead to suspension.
Third parties selling the brand
Unauthorised resellers publish offers at slashed prices or with misused visuals, and nobody sees them in time.
By sector
One role, several realities.
- Fashion and luxury
Selective presence on a few chosen platforms, close control of image and price, action against unauthorised resellers and counterfeits, a limited assortment to protect selective distribution.
- Retail
Seasonal collections in sizes and colours to turn into offers, stock shared with the website and the stores, platform sales and campaigns to follow alongside the brand’s own.
- Cosmetics and beauty
Regulated product pages (INCI list, precautions for use) to adapt to each platform, expiry dates, gift sets and launches, parallel reselling to watch.
- B2B distribution and wholesale
Large volumes of offers from supplier catalogues, prices that change often, sales on many platforms at once and shipments from several warehouses.
What changes
Automate the task, keep the judgement.
What gets automated
- Continuous synchronisation of available-to-sell stock to each seller account, with a buffer specific to each platform.
- Adaptation of product pages to each marketplace’s requirements: attribute and category mapping, titles and descriptions rewritten by an AI agent.
- Integration of orders into the OMS and automatic return of shipping confirmations and tracking numbers.
- Reconciliation of payouts with orders, commissions, fees and refunds.
- Monitoring of seller indicators, buyer messages and third-party offers, with an alert to the right person.
What stays human
- The choice of platforms, countries and products opened for sale.
- Price, participation in platform campaigns and the allocation of stock with other channels.
- The relationship with the platforms, delicate disputes and action against unauthorised resellers.
Use cases
How to automate, case by case.
Each case starts from a question leadership teams ask. The starting point, what gets automated, the tools involved, and what stays in the teams’ hands.
How do you automate stock synchronisation on marketplaces?
- Today
- A stock file is exported from the ERP and uploaded to each seller account a few times a day. Between two sends, the platforms sell items already gone on the website or in store, and each cancellation weighs on the seller account rating.
- What gets automated
- Available-to-sell stock is recalculated at every movement (sale, receipt, return, transfer) and sent by API to each seller account, reduced by a buffer set per platform. Products with few units left are removed first from the most demanding platforms. A daily check compares the stock displayed by the platforms with the stock sent and flags discrepancies.
- What stays human
- The marketplaces manager sets the buffers per platform and allocates scarce stock with e-commerce.
- ERP
- OMS
- Marketplace connector
- WMS
How do you automate the adaptation of product pages to each marketplace’s requirements?
- Today
- Each platform imposes its taxonomy, mandatory attributes, title length and visual rules. The team copies and rewrites website product pages in each back office, and offers stay rejected for lack of an attribute or a category.
- What gets automated
- A mapping table links PIM categories and attributes to those of each platform. An AI agent rewrites titles and descriptions according to each platform’s rules, suggests the closest category and fills in the attributes that can be deduced from existing data. Product pages are checked before sending, and rejections returned by the platforms are fixed or passed back to the catalogue team.
- What stays human
- The team reviews the pages of sensitive products and settles the categories proposed with doubt.
- PIM
- DAM
- Marketplace connector
How do you automate the integration of marketplace orders into the OMS or the ERP?
- Today
- Orders are downloaded from each back office, then imported into the OMS by file, or re-keyed when the format changes. A forgotten order misses the shipping deadline set by the platform.
- What gets automated
- Orders are collected continuously from each seller account and created in the OMS with the customer, address, items, price paid, commission and promised shipping deadline. Platform references are matched to internal references, and an order that fails to integrate lands in an exception queue with its cause.
- What stays human
- The team handles the exception orders the tool could not integrate.
- Marketplace connector
- OMS
- ERP
How do you automate shipping confirmation and sending tracking numbers to marketplaces?
- Today
- Once the parcel has left, someone copies the tracking number into each back office. Omissions and late entries make orders appear as shipped late, when they left on time.
- What gets automated
- As soon as the warehouse or the store confirms shipment in the OMS, the confirmation goes to the platform with the carrier and the tracking number. Orders nearing their shipping deadline without confirmation are flagged to logistics, sorted by due time.
- What stays human
- Logistics prioritises the orders at risk and the team warns the buyer when a delay is certain.
- OMS
- WMS
- Carrier platform
- Marketplace connector
How do you automate the reconciliation of marketplace payouts?
- Today
- Each platform pays a net amount with a statement: sales, commissions, logistics fees, refunds, adjustments. Finance and the marketplaces team reconcile this statement with orders in a spreadsheet, and discrepancies often remain unexplained.
- What gets automated
- Each statement is read line by line and each amount matched to its order, its refund or its type of fee. Commissions are recalculated according to the platform’s rate card and compared with the amounts deducted. Discrepancies are isolated and entries prepared for accounting, with the detail by order.
- What stays human
- Accounting validates and posts the entries; the marketplaces team disputes incorrect commissions or fees with the platform.
- Marketplace connector
- OMS
- Accounting software
- Spreadsheet
How do you automate marketplace returns and refunds?
- Today
- Return requests arrive in each back office with their own rules and deadlines. The team accepts them by hand, waits for the parcel, checks the product’s condition and refunds on the platform, without the OMS or the stock being updated.
- What gets automated
- Return requests are collected into the OMS and accepted automatically when they comply with the platform’s policy and the brand’s. On receipt at the warehouse, the item check triggers the refund on the platform and puts the item back into sellable stock or a separate stock. The return reason is recorded for the catalogue and product teams.
- What stays human
- The team decides on returns outside policy, damaged products and disputes opened by buyers.
- Marketplace connector
- OMS
- WMS
How do you automate replies to buyer messages on marketplaces?
- Today
- Buyer questions arrive in each platform’s messaging, which imposes a response time. The team handles them one by one, looking up the information in the OMS and with the carrier, and late replies weigh on the seller account.
- What gets automated
- Messages from all platforms are gathered in a single tool. An AI agent classifies the request (order tracking, size, return, product), finds the order and drafts a reply with up-to-date information; simple requests go out after rule-based validation, the others reach the team with their deadline.
- What stays human
- The team replies to complaints and disputes, and approves goodwill gestures.
- Marketplace connector
- Customer service tool
- OMS
- Carrier platform
How do you automate monitoring of seller performance indicators?
- Today
- Each platform calculates its own indicators: late shipments, cancellations, valid tracking numbers, response time, disputes. The team checks them in each back office when it remembers, and discovers a deterioration when the warning arrives.
- What gets automated
- Each seller account’s indicators are collected every day and compared with the platform’s thresholds. Deteriorations are explained by the orders that cause them, and an alert goes out as soon as an indicator approaches the threshold, with the list of actions to take.
- What stays human
- The marketplaces manager decides on corrective measures and talks to the platform in the event of a warning.
- Marketplace connector
- OMS
- Reporting tool (BI)
- Messaging
How do you automate the choice of products to offer on a marketplace?
- Today
- The selection of products opened on a platform is made in a spreadsheet, from website sales and the team’s intuition. Products excluded by the distribution policy end up there, and others that would sell well are never offered.
- What gets automated
- For each platform, written rules define the allowed assortment: excluded lines and categories, countries, minimum stock level, margin after commission. Each season, a calculation proposes candidate products, ranked by website sales, margin per platform and product page completeness, and removes those that no longer meet the rules.
- What stays human
- The e-commerce and sales directors validate the open assortment and the exclusions linked to the distribution network.
- PIM
- ERP
- Marketplace connector
- Reporting tool (BI)
How do you automate monitoring of the brand’s products sold by third parties on marketplaces?
- Today
- Unauthorised resellers publish the brand’s products, sometimes at slashed prices, with visuals taken from the website or with doubtful products. The team finds out by chance or through a customer.
- What gets automated
- The platforms are scanned regularly for the brand’s products, by name, reference and EAN. Each offer found is compared with the list of authorised sellers and the recommended price, and an AI agent spots reused visuals and suspicious listings. Cases are ranked by severity with the evidence gathered.
- What stays human
- The team and legal decide on reports to the platforms and on action against resellers.
- Marketplace monitoring tool
- PIM
- Messaging
Questions from the teams
What teams look to improve.
- How do you automate selling on several marketplaces?
- By connecting each seller account to a single source for products (the PIM), stock (available-to-sell stock) and orders (the OMS), directly by API or through a marketplace connector. Product pages, stock and prices start from this source; orders, shipments and payouts come back to it.
- Do you need a marketplace connector?
- Often, as soon as several platforms are open: it translates formats and handles calls to each platform. Automation plugs in around it for what it does not do well: stock calculation by channel, product page adaptation, payout reconciliation, monitoring.
- How do you avoid stockout cancellations on marketplaces?
- By sending available-to-sell stock rather than physical stock, updated at every movement and reduced by a buffer specific to each platform. Products with few units left can be removed from the most demanding platforms first.
- Can AI adapt product pages to marketplaces?
- Yes, for the most part: it rewrites titles and descriptions according to each platform’s rules, suggests the category and fills in attributes from PIM data. The team reviews sensitive product pages and categories proposed with doubt.
- How do you reconcile marketplace payouts in the accounts?
- By reading each statement line by line and matching each amount to its order, its refund or its type of fee. Discrepancies are isolated and entries prepared for accounting, which remains responsible for posting them.
- Can a luxury brand control its presence on marketplaces?
- In part: by limiting the assortment and the countries, by maintaining its own official product pages and by monitoring third-party offers to report to the platforms those that infringe its rights or its distribution network.
- How do you track the profitability of each marketplace?
- By matching for each order the selling price, the commission, logistics fees, the cost of returns and the purchase cost. Profitability by platform, country and product can then be read every month with the same rule.
- Where do you start when automating marketplaces?
- With stock synchronisation and order integration: these are the two flows that cost the most in cancellations and re-keying, and the seller account rating depends on them.
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