What is Ratio Analysis ?
Ratio analysis is one of the oldest methods of financial statements analysis. It was developed by banks and other lenders to help them chose amongst competing companies asking for their credit. Two sets of financial statements can be difficult to compare. The effect of time, of being in different industries and having different styles of […]
The Financial System and Basel Accords
In the previous articles, we have already read about how banks are the main pillars of the financial system. It is obvious that since banks are so important to the economy as a whole, the government must create a system to protect these banks from collapsing in case a negative economic event occurs. Governments all […]
Disadvantages of Omnichannel Retailing
In the previous article, we have explained the concept of omnichannel retailing. We have also seen how it is different from multichannel retailing and what are some of the benefits of using omnichannel retailing. However, there are many critics who believe that omnichannel retailing is only good in theory. When it comes to real life, […]
Introduction to Finance in Sports Management
The business of sports is one of the largest businesses in the world today. Across the world, there is a wide variety of leagues across different sports that generate a lot of wealth as well as media attention. The turnover of big leagues in different sports runs into billions of dollars annually. Prominent examples of […]
Sale of Assets during Bankruptcy
When a company is facing bankruptcy, it tries to free up as much capital as possible. This freed up capital is used to finance the operations of the firm. One way to free up the capital is to sell fixed assets of the firm. During the bankruptcy process, it is possible for a company to […]
In the previous articles, we have already studied the aggregator as well as the marketplace business models. These two types of business models have taken the start-up community by storm in recent years. Many start-ups which have become successful and have gone on to become unicorns are using some variants of this model in different industries.
From a student’s point of view, it is very important to understand the difference between these two models as well. They may appear to be quite similar to the average person. However, there are some subtle differences that make these models markedly distinct from each other. These important distinctions have been explained in the article below:
An online marketplace can be considered to be a representation of a real-life marketplace. Hence, just like a real-life marketplace, there are lots of brands that sell their products on the website. Even if the marketplace is a vertical marketplace i.e. it deals with only one category of goods, the marketplace will generally provide multiple brand options to the customer. It has been observed that aggregator websites generally specialize in a single industry whereas on the other hand marketplaces sell goods and services which cut across several industries.
By definition, the marketplace provides different types of sellers to sell products on the site. Hence, the quality levels maintained by each of these sellers can be quite different. Customers are aware of the fact that the product quality can vary drastically if they choose to buy different products from the same website.
For instance, if a customer books a cab from Uber, they expect the terms and conditions to be seen regardless of which individual cab driver provides the service to them.
On the other hand, if the customer deals with a marketplace, they know that different types of sellers are selling products on the marketplace. Hence, the terms and conditions can be very different.
For example, the terms and conditions for sale may be different when the customer purchases a laptop from Amazon than when the same customer purchases a book from Amazon. In some cases, the terms can conditions can vary even if the customer chooses different brands.
The aggregator is the one that sets the price in an aggregator model. The prices set are binding upon the service providers in case they want to provide the service.
On the other hand, marketplaces allow the service providers to select their prices within a certain price range. For instance, if a person wants to buy a laptop from Amazon, they could get multiple price quotes from different sellers for the same product. They can then choose a service provider depending upon other factors.
However, in the case of an online marketplace, the marketplace may charge a listing fee to the seller. Once the seller posts the product on the website, the marketplace may charge a commission. This commission is generally a fixed percentage of the selling price. The service provider has complete freedom to choose their selling price. However, they have to pay a commission based on that selling price.
The bottom line is that even though both online marketplaces and aggregators appear to be quite similar, the business models are very different. The key factors which make an online aggregator successful are very different from the ones which make an online marketplace more successful.
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