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Marketplace

A "marketplace" (also e-marketplace for electronic marketplace) is a virtual exchange platform bringing together the offers and demands of clients and professional sellers for a particular sector of activity (aviation industry, automotive industry, pharmacy and health, etc.) or a specific market segment (office furniture, etc.).

It is therefore a technical platoform created by a third party, the Marketplace Master, offering secure transaction mechanisms which allow companies to find suppliers at particularly interesting pricing conditions thanks to auction or tender systems.

Marketplaces therefore tend to accentuate the competitiveness of enterprises. In particular, they allow buyers to take advantage of reduced prices, familiarize themselves with a variety of offers thanks to online catalogs made available by suppliers, but also offer sellers a prospecting and distribution channel at an attractive price.

The creator of the marketplace receives a percentage of each transaction. In return, he must provide a performing platform that is accessible 24/7.

Types of marketplaces

• Vertical marketplaces, covering exchanges between enterprises for a particular sector of activity.
• Horizontal marketplaces, covering enterprises in all mixed sectors of activities for a given market segment. Most of the time, they cover products pertaining to the functioning of the enterprise, independently from its production system, such as office furniture, computer material, etc.