This morning some of the greatest names in ecommerce met up at the inaugural GS1 UK Marketplace Industry Breakfast powered by ChannelX! We figure that the marketplace landscape is evolving fast and with 80% of GS1 UK’s members already trading on marketplaces that bringing the industry together to discuss how we can help them succeed is important!
This was an open non-competitive discussion between fellow marketplace leaders to tackle some of the biggest questions – What’s keeping the industry up and night?, What challenges to sellers face and how can we help solve them?, and How can GS1 UK support a thriving marketplace ecosystem?
Stepping back, personally I had so many conversations with sellers around the implementation of GPSR in the EU and Northern Ireland and many retailers didn’t really have the answers they needed. Now with the Next Generation of Barcodes on the horizon (actually already in use!) and Digital Product Passports soon to arrive in the wild, we wanted to discuss everything from catalogue management to sustainability and the various requirements of all marketplaces and social/discovery commerce.
The aim is operational efficiency – yes, all marketplaces have their unique category schema and product attribute requirements, but can the industry come together to assist retailers, who we many of whom sell across multiple platforms, and put some non-competitive infrastructure in place to enable them to do what they do best – source and sell amazing products to consumers hungry to purchase them.
In the room with GS1 UK and ChannelX were some of the biggest marketplaces operating in the UK, multichannel management providers, and marketplace agencies, all of whom work with brands and retailers to get their products in front of consumers to get them sold.
The aim of the inaugural GS1 UK Marketplace Industry Breakfast wasn’t to solve every issue in one morning. It was to start a cross industry conversation which will continue in future online and in-person events. If you want to be involved, drop me a line and we’ll make certain you get an invite.
