The marketplace model: how to scale up

In a competitive market, many marketplaces are struggling to rapidly recruit and activate high-performance sellers. Octopia addresses this critical need with a unique solution: “Merchants as a Service”. By connecting qualified sellers who are immediately operational, Octopia enables rapid growth, without increasing management and operational complexity for internal resources. The result: accelerated, sustainable performance from day one.

 

A proven, turnkey model for scaling up: the “Merchants as a Service” solution

 

Making the commercial power of a proven model truly accessible, Octopia’s “Merchants as a Service” solution gives marketplaces access to a pool of rigorously selected sellers, who are ready to perform immediately. Everything is taken care of: seller selection, onboarding, sales promotion and catalogue management. A dedicated customer success manager (CSM) monitors performance, identifies the best opportunities and ensures quality of service. A single point of contact is enough to activate several hundred salespeople, with a rapid impact on sales.

 

With over 400 employees in Bordeaux, an active network of 14,000 sellers and more than 40 connected marketplaces – including leaders such as Onbuy, Worten and CDON – Octopia has established itself as a key player in the sector.

 

Rigorous selection; solid performance

 

The Octopia approach is based on strict selectivity: only 1 per cent of sales candidates join the network. This filter ensures high standards of compliance, competitiveness, logistical reliability and customer service quality.

The result is sellers who are capable of adapting to the requirements of each marketplace and generating value rapidly, without internal overload.

 

Optimised integration and active sellers in just a few days

 

At Octopia, a retailer is onboarded only once. This unique integration, based on a centralised catalogue, then gives that retailer access to all partner marketplaces in just one click. As a result, time to market is cut from months to just a few days. This model reduces friction and enables rapid deployment, even in complex cases (logistics, taxation, enriched content), while guaranteeing a high level of quality for operators.

 

Tailor-made seller management

 

Octopia doesn’t just integrate sellers: it supports them on a daily basis to improve their results. Drawing on 10 years of marketplace expertise, its CSMs maximise sales highlights, optimise logistics flows, adjust catalogues and negotiate the best deals.

 

For marketplaces, this means more value with less effort. During Black Friday 2024, for example, Octopia activated over 4,000 deals in just a few days for one of its customers, generating an increase of 25 per cent in gross merchant value with no operational overhead.

 

Visible results right from the start... and over the long term

 

The impact is immediate. For one general European retailer, Octopia activated several hundred sellers within the first few weeks of the partnership. Beyond this “boost” effect, Octopia is committed to the long term: for certain Octopia customers, its contribution can represent up to 20 per cent of the marketplace’s business volume.

 

European expansion

 

With over 70 per cent of its sales generated outside France, Octopia has established itself as a benchmark partner in Europe. Its development is accelerating, particularly in Germany and Eastern Europe, underpinned by ongoing technological investment to upgrade its tools and meet its customers’ ambitions.

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