A new book offers practical advice on how to advertise consumer products on an e-commerce website

“You can’t just open a website and expect people to flood in. If you really want to succeed, you have to create traffic.”Being the most democratic channel with no gatekeeping, most consumer brands will invariably be present on marketplaces. But presence doesn’t equal winning. Marketplaces don’t reward presence. They reward those who understand their mechanics deeply – the invisible algorithms, the buyer psychology, and the very different ways these platforms operate, not just from each other, but from D2C and traditional retail.In the journey of scaling Atomberg into a Rs 300 crore-plus business on Amazon and Flipkart, everything I learnt about marketplaces was on the job, and I never found a playbook I could refer to. I’ve tried to distil most of these learnings and fundamentals in this chapter.E-commerce marketplaces are broadly of two types: horizontal and vertical.Horizontal marketplaces are those that host products across a wide range of categories, virtually anything legal and feasible. Amazon and Flipkart are the biggest examples in India.Vertical marketplaces are confined to certain categories. Nykaa for beauty, Myntra for fashion, Croma for electronics, Firstcry for baby care, etc. are some examples. As some niches gain market size, more such vertical marketplaces will emerge. The leading ones catering to sustainable...Read more