Some traditional retailers — including Walmart, Target, and Best Buy — are adopting third-party marketplaces, which connect customers with external sellers and thereby offer customers a much broader selection. Many other traditional retailers are considering whether to follow suit. Making the choice isn’t clear-cut. It involves weighing a host of benefits and challenges. The benefits include: expanding the product range, boosting customer engagement, monetizing existing assets, and collecting valuable data. The challenges include: operational issues, offering customers a good experience, and shifting from an internal focus towards managing an external network of sellers.
