LC Waikiki Is Building Its Own Marketplace
As e-commerce volumes surged during the pandemic, brands saw not only higher online revenue but also rising commission payments to marketplace platforms such as Trendyol, n11, Hepsiburada, and GittiGidiyor.
That is why, following moves by Teknosa, Turkcell, and Vodafone, apparel giant LC Waikiki announced it will build its own marketplace.
On this marketplace LC Waikiki will sell its own products and host other sellers. Vahap Küçük, head of the group with annual revenue of around 36 billion TRY, said: “To stay ahead in the competition we removed the middleman. We are building our own marketplace.”
Which Groups Are Next?
Because a large share of revenue during the pandemic came from e-commerce, leading Turkish companies began making major strategic decisions one after another. With much of that revenue flowing through marketplaces—and roughly 10% of it paid out as commissions—“commission expense” lines in year-end 2020 reports caught executives’ attention.
A quick back-of-the-envelope calculation often looks like this: instead of paying the same amount to marketplaces again next year, what if part of that budget went to our own software and part to ads—we would still hit roughly this much revenue. In later years software and ad costs could be lower. Many large companies are reaching for that math and deciding to launch their own marketplace e-commerce sites.
Competition in the marketplace e-commerce segment is expected to intensify further as new players enter the market.
So who is next? Rumours suggest many other major Turkish brands are close to deciding whether to launch a marketplace. If more large domestic companies take that step, we will cover it in follow-ups to this article.
If you want a place in the growing marketplace e-commerce space, you can review Softomi marketplace software and speak with our consultants to choose the right path.