When you buy on Mercado Libre or Amazon, you are using a marketplace. Let us see what it is, how it works and what selling there involves.
What a marketplace is
A marketplace is a digital platform that works like a virtual shopping mall: different companies, brands or independent sellers offer their products or services on the same website. The platform provides the storefront, the traffic and the payment tools; sellers provide the products.
The best-known marketplaces
- Mercado Libre: the leading marketplace in Latin America and the most important one for selling in Argentina.
- Amazon: global giant, with its own logistics programs.
- eBay: widely used for used goods, collectibles and international selling.
- Walmart: the retail giant's marketplace, strong in the United States.
How it works for the seller
- You register as a seller and list your products.
- The marketplace shows them to millions of buyers.
- When you sell, the platform processes the payment and usually offers shipping options.
- In return, it charges commissions, and sometimes listing or logistics fees.
Advantages
- Traffic and trust: buyers are already there and know the platform.
- Fast start: you can sell without building a website.
- Built-in tools: payments, reputation and shipping.
Limits
- Commissions that reduce your margin.
- Direct competition: your product appears next to your competitor's.
- Someone else's rules: the platform can change conditions or suspend accounts.
- Customers belong to the marketplace, not to you.
Next step
You have seen what a CMS is and what a marketplace is. In the next article we compare them: CMS vs Marketplace.