By Mark Seavy

As Best Buy rejoins the marketplace business, it enters the ranks of retailers that have launched similar models in a bid to stay relevant in an Amazon-dominated world. 

Retail marketplaces are eCommerce platforms that connect consumers with multiple sellers, essentially serving as a digital shopping center. For licensees, these marketplaces are another place to sell their goods, though it’s an option that carries challenges of its own.  

For example, licensees already paying royalties and minimum guarantees to IP owners are also faced with platform fees. Amazon charges fees for transactions (15% of the sale), fulfillment and storage (20-25%), and advertising and promotions (15%), according to TechRepublic. Taken together, those fees can top 50% of sales—although the total can vary depending on the category, product price, size, weight, and the seller’s business model.  

At the same time, however, these marketplaces allow independent sellers to list their products on a website with a trusted brand reputation and a vast customer base. Which is why, despite the additional costs, many licensees we polled said they have little choice but to embrace marketplaces. The platforms provide access to a wider inventory assortment, increased customer traffic, advertising revenue, and more data for targeted ads. 

“For sellers, it’s another channel with actual reach, built-in trust, and a better shopper profile,” a licensing executive said. “But don’t expect miracles. Expect optionality.”  

The attractiveness of these marketplaces isn’t lost on retailers. 

Best Buy, for example, operated one from 2011 to 2016, before shutting it down due to sluggish sales. Walmart introduced its first marketplace in 2009 and accelerated the business with the purchase of a series of eCommerce companies, including Jet.com for $3.3 billion in 2016. Since then, Walmart’s marketplace and its eCommerce efforts have grown to account for 45% of annual revenue, a percentage that is expected to grow as the retailer adds features like artificial intelligence (AI).  

In Q1, Walmart’s eCommerce and marketplace business posted a 22% gain in revenue, growth that came rapidly despite the retailer only having opened the marketplace to international sellers in 2021. About 60% of sellers joining in 2025 are from China, pushing that country’s representation to 34% of all active sellers. 

Walmart’s growth in eCommerce comes as it seeks to blend online and store-based retail.  More than 420 million products are available through Walmart.com, 95% of which comes from third-party sellers who use the retailer’s 4,600 stores to fill orders. 

On the Amazon side, the service added 900,000 sellers in 2024 across 22 marketplaces and has attracted more than four million sellers during the past five years, a third of which were from the U.S. And with that expansion came new charges and requirements, including that shipments be broken up to accommodate regional warehouses. 

With so much growth, however, comes additional scrutiny for these marketplaces. A federal court judge recently allowed a lawsuit that alleged Amazon bars marketplace sellers from promoting products at lower prices on other platforms, a practice known as the platform most-favored nation clause (PMFN). U.S. District Court judge John Chun found the lawsuit, filed in 2021 by purchasers who bought more than five items after 2017, demonstrated the existence of the policy. Amazon denied any wrongdoing, however, and has appealed the class certification order.  

“There are many factors that must be weighed in deciding to launch on a marketplace, but with so many brick-and-mortar retailers having closed in the past five years, licensees need to explore every opportunity, even if it does add cost,” a licensee executive said.