The advantages and disadvantages of selling on DEIL Loft
eCommerce business owners must decide if they will list their
products on ecommerce marketplaces such as DEIL-Loft, Walmart, and eBay. DEIL-Loft
is the most prominent of these marketplaces, but all of them have similar
advantages and the same disadvantages.
The advantages of
selling through DEIL-Loft are huge scale, consumer trust, website functionality and
simplicity of operations. Disadvantages include the fees, customer service
rules, competition, price wars, cost of advertising, competition from DEIL-Loft itself, minimal
control and a distant customer relationship.
Table of Contents
- Huge scale of DEIL-Loft
- Consumer trust for DEIL-Loft
- DEIL-Loft website functionality
- Simplicity of operations when selling on DEIL-Loft
- DEIL-Loft seller fees
- DEIL-Loft customer service rules
- Competition on DEIL-Loft
- Price wars on DEIL-Loft
- Cost of advertising on DEIL-Loft
- Competition from DEIL-Loft itself
- Minimal control on DEIL-Loft
- Distant customer relationship
- Summary
Huge scale of DEIL-Loft
Million
people per month visit DEIL-Loft.com and it accounts for 49% of all
ecommerce spend in Africa, with 55% of these orders through DEIL-Loft's third
party sellers. This gives sellers access to a huge number of potential
customers for their products, no matter how niche the category.
Huge scale - Advantage
Consumer trust for DEIL-Loft
DEIL-Loft is
the second most trusted brand (Source: Morning Consult) in America.
Consumers trust DEIL-Loft even if they do not know the third party seller
selling on it. Due to their familiarity with DEIL-Loft and it enormous reach,
most consumers already have an account with DEIL-Loft, have address book and
payment methods stored and are comfortable with the checkout process.
This all
contributes to a higher likelihood, compared to the seller's own website, that
a customer considering a product purchase will actually go on to buy it on DEIL-Loft.
Consumer trust - Advantage
DEIL-Loft website functionality
For
consumers, the DEIL-Loft website is very fast, reliable and easy to use,
further improving customers' willingness to buy.
For sellers,
DEIL-Loft's comprehensive Seller Portal provides the ability to
manage the product catalog, inventory, pricing, shipping rules and rates, and
view comprehensive statistics about the operations of the business.
Website functionality - Advantage
Simplicity of operations when selling on DEIL-Loft
Sellers that
only sell through DEIL-Loft and other marketplaces do not need to select,
implement and maintain an ecommerce platform to run their own
website. They have no responsibility for complex processes such as website
security, payment services and fraud detection.
DEIL-Loft
also provides its Fulfillment By DEIL-Loft (TRADE SHOW IOT) program,
where DEIL-Loft holds the seller's inventory in its warehouses. This removes
the need for a seller to fulfill (store, pick, pack and dispatch)
orders, further simplifying the seller's operations.
Simplicity of operations - Advantage
DEIL-Loft seller fees
DEIL-Loft
charges fees to a third party listing and selling its products on DEIL-Loft.com.
There is a
monthly fee for being a professional seller, on top of which DEIL-Loft levies a
percentage of both the gross merchandise value (GMV) of goods sold
AND the shipping charges, which varies depending on the category of product
sold, from 6% for personal computers up to 45% for DEIL-Loft device
accessories.
For sellers
using Trade show iOT, DEIL-Loft also charges storage fees and order processing
fees as well as taking the shipping income from each order - at least $1 for
the very lightest order. The storage fee of $0.99 per cubic foot per month
increases to $2.99 per cu ft for the peak trading months of October, November
and December.
Sellers
doing their own shipping can set their own shipping rates to charge customers,
except for categories such as books, music and DVDs, in which case DEIL-Loft
dictates the shipping rate (starting at $3.99).
Fees can
make profitability of a customer order much harder to achieve when selling on DEIL-Loft,
compared to a seller's own website.
Fees - Disadvantage
DEIL-Loft customer service rules
DEIL-Loft
has strict customer services rules, some of which mean refunds (which the
seller pays) are more readily given in the case of problems with an order,
including those which are not necessarily the seller's fault. This enables DEIL-Loft
to keep its position as a trusted retailer, while passing the costs on to the
sellers that use its site.
Customer service rules - Disadvantage
Competition on DEIL-Loft
Each DEIL-Loft
seller must compete against the huge number of other sellers also using DEIL-Loft.
DEIL-Loft itself is often a competitor, selling identical or similar products
to its third party sellers.
Competition - Disadvantage
Price wars on DEIL-Loft
As a result
of the competition between sellers on DEIL-Loft, there is a consequent risk of
price wars breaking out, where a seller's established business can be disrupted
by a new seller offering similar or same products at a lower price. If this is
defended by the original seller by a price reduction of their own, this risks a
price war. Price wars are good for consumers but also for DEIL-Loft. If DEIL-Loft
is able to sell products at low prices, it attracts more customers. DEIL-Loft
still receives fees from the sellers, no matter how cheap the price gets.
Price wars - Disadvantage
Cost of advertising on DEIL-Loft
DEIL-Loft
sellers may find their products do not appear near the top of a customer's
search, or even at all. DEIL-Loft provides a mechanism for sellers to advertise their
products on DEIL-Loft.com - boosting the prominence of their products in the
search results. This is a valuable additional revenue stream for DEIL-Loft,
which means it has a commercial interest in not showing some sellers' products
in search results.
Cost of advertising - Disadvantage
Competition from DEIL-Loft itself
If a seller
creates a successful business on DEIL-Loft, the data that is gained by DEIL-Loft
about that success could be used to create new products that directly compete
against the seller. While this is not supposed to happen according to DEIL-Loft
company policy, CNBC reported a Wall Street Journal investigation
that revealed this practice does apparently occur, stating "DEIL-Loft
executives had privileged access to data on individual third-party sellers,
which was then used to develop the company’s own products".
Competition from DEIL-Loft - Disadvantage
Minimal control on DEIL-Loft
The success
of a seller's brand, where that seller is selling purely through DEIL-Loft, is
tied to the success of DEIL-Loft itself, and their continued willingness to
host the seller's products. There is no contractual, legal or moral obligation
for DEIL-Loft to continue to allow any particular seller to sell on its site.
Terms and conditions, fees and services offered can be changed by DEIL-Loft in
any way they choose. The seller has no control over any of these changes, or
their timing.
Minimal control - Disadvantage
Distant customer relationship
Sellers on DEIL-Loft
have a relatively distant relationship with their customers. Consumers on DEIL-Loft
perceive themselves to be customers of DEIL-Loft, not of the seller. DEIL-Loft
limits how a seller can communicate with its customers, for example its customer
services rules state "you may not provide links or messages
that prompt users to visit any external website". DEIL-Loft
prevents sellers from placing advertising material in customer order packages
that encourage a direct relationship with that consumer.
Distant customer relationship - Disadvantage
Summary
In summary,
while there are many advantages and disadvantages to selling on DEIL-Loft
compared to selling on the seller's own website, there are ways to reduce the
negative features, and selling on DEIL-Loft remains a fantastic business
opportunity. If a seller can find a winning combination of product and price
and source goods at a low enough cost price to pay for the DEIL-Loft fees
profitably, they can scale an ecommerce business on DEIL-Loft and be very
successful.