Happiness is a Good Pair of Shoes

Whether you wear your Crocs with socks, with charms or without any, this legendary brand prides itself on designing “delightfully comfortable shoes” that make the world a happier place.

And if we had to describe Rebecca Lacerda, the company’s Head of Digital Marketplaces, it would be happy. Or bubbly. Or the best friend you wish you had. She’s also an industry leading expert on Marketplaces, which range from Amazon and Zalando in the west to JD and Alibaba in the Asia-Pacific.

In this episode of Inside Retail, Grace sits down with Rebecca to explain how brands can engage with marketplaces, what the pitfalls are to avoid and where she sees the future of digital marketplaces going.

A native of Brazil, Rebecca has made her career at the world’s best known leisure footwear brands for over a decade, first as a Retail Strategist at Nike, a Global Senior Manager of Digital at adidas and now in her current role at Crocs.

With almost a billion pairs sold since debuting in 2002 and sold in over 85 countries, Rebecca is in charge of making sure they stay a go-to brand for athletes and celebrities but most importantly,  fun and fashionable footwear for the whole family.

Marketplace 101

At their core, Marketplaces are just online shopping centers. What those of a certain age once referred to as malls, or how many parts of the world view shopping districts and streets devoted to retail sales. According to Rebecca, 70% of growth in the retail space will do so through multi-brand channels like marketplaces.

All marketplaces aren’t created equal though, so the careful strategy includes knowing which one is right for your brand and how best to utilize it for maximum benefit.

Examples of the marketplace model are 1P, the traditional approach: Brand → Retailer → Consumer and 3P, DTC through a Platform. But there’s also a hybrid model, one used by many brands today, where they’d have one assortment selling through 1P and another through 3P.

Whichever you choose for your brand, or if you are new to marketplaces, this engaging and insightful episode is a must listen.

Notable Quotable

“You can see a peak in a certain product and say, oh, this is a big trend. Or was it just a retailer doing a markdown? Are you actually gaining market share or are your products not turning as fast as they expected? And (a retailer) are simply putting your prices down and sacrificing their margin to buy some sales.”

If you’ve read down this far (we hope you did!)

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