GAME is launching GAME Marketplace to compete directly with the likes of Amazon and Rakuten in the UK.
Already live with over 40 sellers, naturally there is a focus on gaming products but “Coming Soon” categories suggest that their goals are more than just appealing to gamers. There are interesting and diverse categories such as Health food and drinks and Herbal products, Confectionery, Lego, Musical instruments, Laptops and Footwear all planned for the site.
Payments will be handled by GAME, so no PayPal or alternative payment systems, at least not at launch. There will also be a rating system where sellers will develop a score based on buyer ratings. There doesn’t appear to be a facility for sellers to rate buyers.
We’ve asked GAME for more details but head office is closed for the day, we’ll bring more information as soon as it’s available. In the mean time, if you’d like to sell on GAME Marketplace you can contact them via [email protected]
5 Responses
Anyone know what games fees are? Also any subsription fees?
Unfortunately, I get a 500 Error when I browse to the site on my mobile – hopefully just a teething issue.
If their fees are right, definitely a marketplace I would support 100%, as long as they provide the relevant APIs for 3rd party channel management solutions … A company I’m very familiar as a customer and former shareholder, they certainly have the necessary infrastructure to be a serious competitor to eBay and Amazon.
Crossing fingers, and other appendages, for a well-managed offering…. Enquiry e-mail sent…..
S.
Fees basically mirror Amazon give or take, do not expect it to be a cheaper alternative because it is not, at least not at the moment.
Subscription fees are under review, but were initially very high, hopefully they will be dropping them or making them more competitive.
Site is very new, expect a few teething problems, but no worse than ebay which after many years still does not work properly in certain areas.
Support is excellent and they currently assure me that one of their aims is to keep the level of support as the platform grows, only time will tell on that one.
API’s do exist but your third party software needs to support it, Mirakl is the platform it runs on so your provider needs to support Mirakl.
Without API it is similar to how play.com used to be with uploading products via CSV, but probably slightly better once you get then hang of it, as time goes on i am sure that product uploads will get better etc, it is very early days.
We are putting game ahead of Rakuten but we are a gaming accessory brand so there are clear reasons for doing so.
That said the game domain is higher ranking in the UK than Rakuten, it seems to rank well in google when we search for our products on google, games site comes up near the top and is competing well with Amazon for google rank.
As said we operating a gaming brand so their website does align well with our range.
Worth a look for electronics and gaming sellers i would suggest but i would not ignore it for other categories either, i am unsure about their current policies for taking on new sellers so you would have to ask them.
It will be interesting to see how Game prices its video games against sellers in the market place. As someone who has an interest in this sector I rarely buy games from Game as they tend to be higher than other retailers. My personal thoughts are its a place for people to buy games for others (e.g. Parent for child) rather than for themselves. A counter point to this is that their console bundles tend to be well priced. In fact I’ve bought my last few consoles on Game due to getting a good deal.