Meet the marketplace: Joom

We’re always on the look out for marketplaces onto which readers can expand their businesses so today we’re excited to reveal more about Joom, a marketplace launched in Latvia and as a true global marketplace has buyers in just about every country around the world. With a heavy social aspect, selling on Joom enables you to target consumers in completely new ways and for brands who really want to attract new customers there are influencer programmes to jump start your sales.

We spoke to Irina Pushkevich, Head of Business Development Europe at Joom, to find out more:

Who are Joom?

Launched in 2016 in Latvia, Joom is a global mobile marketplace, one of the fastest growing international ecommerce platforms in the world. Apart from HQ in Latvia, the company also has offices in Luxembourg, Russia, Hong Kong, China and the USA.

Our aim is to build a platform where anyone at any time anywhere in the world can buy whatever he/she needs and wants in any other part of the world. For the sellers, this means that with Joom they can easily get access to a large audience and sell outside their home country – thus, becoming a part of the global market.

What makes you unique?

Mobile & Social based influencers

Joom is a mobile first platform – 95% of transactions are made through mobile app so that sellers can target and reach a completely new mobile audience. We also believe the future of ecommerce is social. Therefore, from the very beginning we have been developing Joom as a shopping app with a built-in social network, personalized offers and recommendations and a platform for brands and influencers.

Our program called “Influencers Exchange” is particularly interesting to brands. Sellers and brands on the platform could choose goods they would like to promote and influencers that they would like to do it for them. So the seller selects one particular influencer and sends him a product for review. The influencer receives it, tests it and writes his honest opinion. As the program is available only for the most successful influencers, its influence can hardly be overestimated. The very first review from an influencer increases conversion by 187%, while a regular review from a user increases it by only 28%. The second blogger’s review will result in a 124% increase against 23% brought by ordinary users.

What’s more, our users can buy any product directly from the review so that they are not forced to leave the platform at any moment. Everything is at one place. They read the post, they click a button – and the product is in their cart. We already have all necessary data, so the purchase flow is much shorter than anywhere else. This is a unique option that none of other European marketplaces has.

Live streams coming soon

We are working to take advantage of innovative technologies and try to use various social tools and game mechanics to bring more fun to the platform and, among other things, have just launched live streams. We are still testing this format, but see great potential in it for us as a platform and for brands who can promote their goods and sell them live.

How do buyers find you

First of all, thanks to strong partnerships and our expertise in ML-based solutions, we managed to find optimal advertising solutions helping us gain new customers and reach our app users and encouraging them to come back to the app regularly to purchase.

Then, we deploy a 360° marketing strategy to get to the minds and the mobiles of our potential customers. Whether through media, influencers marketing or direct customer communication, we are always looking for exciting ideas, new formats and catchy storytelling to promote our brands and the platform itself. In particular, we pay much attention to TV campaigns that stay one of the most powerful communication tools in terms of brand awareness.

What is the opportunity for merchants on Joom?

Joom became the most downloaded shopping app in Europe in 2018 and managed to achieve more than 300 million installations worldwide within less than 4 years of its existence. This number is constantly growing exponentially. So, choosing Joom will get you access to a huge audience of potential customers.

As of early 2020, Joom was constantly represented in more than 150 countries offering several dozens of millions of products, ranging from smartphones to sneakers to cables and has 25 million active users per month. Last month, we delivered products to 196 countries.

How do you onboard new sellers?

Well, our priority is a pleasant shopping experience for our customers so, first of all, we are interested in having on the platform the widest possible range of products at best prices. Thus, we are always looking for new brands.

When new sellers apply, they go through a checking process. We examine sellers themselves and their activity on other marketplaces at the stage of connection. When sellers are already on board, our merchant support team is there to assist and propose a step-by-step guide to familiarize them with the platform.

Besides, Joom also helps new sellers with promotion. In addition to the integrated into the product’s information page bloggers’ reviews discussed earlier, we offer sellers standard advertising tools and regular promos. The platform also sets up a recommendation system that helps customers find new brands and get acquainted with their products. Then, Joom’s social network allows sellers to share write-ups and thematic selections (including branded products), so that users could buy products directly from the social network posts.

It’s also important to note that Joom liberates sellers from the problems often associated with cross border ecommerce. We take charge of all translation and support that we offer in 14 languages (more to come). And it’s free. Instead, sellers can use this time and effort to work on sales growth, to plan promotions, to improve the product range.

We have no prerequisites in terms of the seller’s country. Sellers from the most European countries are already on the platform and could sell products to customers throughout Europe. This option will soon be available for brands in Germany, Portugal, the Netherlands and Luxembourg as well. They are now connected to the platform and are actively loading their products to the catalogue.

What type of products sell well on Joom?

Joom offers over 20 million products in lots of different categories. The most popular ones are Fashion / Clothes / Footwear / Beauty; Home / Decor / Kitchen; Electronics / Gadgets / Equipment. Therewith, we have promising niche brands that we are also actively supporting like products for K-pop fans.

Now, our UK sellers can send items with their shipping providers by simply filling tracking information in our system. We do not limit the seller in choosing their partners. It can be both local and international logistics companies. We are integrated with all of them and customers can always track the delivery status within the application. They also receive push notifications when their parcel arrives.

Products of any value can be shipped/sold on our platform.

Joom logistics

In 2018, we opened the headquarters of Joom Logistics in Hong Kong, and the year after another Joom Logistics office in Turkey. This summer, we tested Joom Logistics in France and intend to further enlarge our network in Europe.

On the one hand, Joom Logistics is a guarantee of reliable delivery for our customers as we can now control how and when their orders are delivered. On the other hand, it is a set of quite simple rules for our sellers regulating the modalities of transferring the goods to fulfillment.

In fact, we liberate sellers from the problems associated with international delivery. Instead, they can use this time to work on sales growth, to plan promotions, to improve the product range and not be distracted by trivia.

Tell us about shipping requirements

Joom does not accept drop shipping. The marketplace cooperates with most of European delivery providers, so our sellers can choose any of them. Orders should be shipped within 48 hours. Delayed orders will be automatically canceled and refunded to the customer.

Thanks to partnerships with connectors, local mail services and payment providers, integrating new sellers became simpler and faster. We are currently working with Lengow and Shopping Feed and Comandia (Spain) and envisage to develop more integrations like, for instance, ChannelAdvisor in the UK.

What does it cost to sell on Joom?

There is no paid subscription or listing fee and you will not have to pay any additional fee to join the platform. The commission is from 5% to 15% depending on the category of goods.

How do I get started?

To sign up to the platform, you should simply fill in the form at merchant.joom.com and Joom will contact you within 24 hours.

We have also created a dedicated portal, a sort of help centre where sellers can find more details, answers on frequently asked questions, or start a live chat with our team who can advise them on any issue.