How marketplaces are evolving

Walmart is blending its digital offerings into the physical realm.

Looking to boost seller exposure, Walmart announced new in-store initiatives and AI-powered tools for its marketplace. Its new Supercenter in Cypress, Texas, features in-store QR codes that let customers access extended online assortments.

The retailer is “bringing the extended Marketplace aisle into stores” with a few items on display that allow shoppers to then purchase through the Walmart app. Walmart also announced expanded next-day delivery coverage via Walmart Fulfillment Services in top cities including Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Houston and Atlanta.

Walmart debuted an AI-powered listing tool intended to help sellers reduce time to market and improve conversion rates. Additionally, the company is reducing its seller referral fee to 0% for qualifying toys ahead of the peak season. 

“Walmart has become one of the fastest-growing eCommerce platforms by focusing on what matters most: integrity, seller success and delivering exceptional experiences for customers,” Manish Joneja, senior vice president of Walmart U.S. Marketplace and Walmart Fulfillment Services, said in a statement. “Everything we’re building — from smarter tools to expanded fulfillment and global reach — is designed to accelerate seller growth and empower sellers to serve customers while driving their businesses forward.”

In addition to the fee cut on select toy listings during peak season, Walmart is also reducing the referral fee by 50% on qualifying pet supplies and up to 100% on some top-selling items across categories.

The announcement follows the retailer’s Q2 earnings last week, which showed revenue jumped 4.8% year over year to $177.4 billion. Walmart raised its full-year net sales outlook, despite seeing tariff-related costs increasing weekly.

“Marketplace sales grew nearly 20% with more sellers utilizing our fulfillment services,” Walmart CFO John David Rainey told analysts on a call. “Approximately 44% of marketplace volumes flow through WFS, an increase of 250 basis points versus last year.”

Walmart’s AI advancements for marketplace sellers also align with its larger strategy to unify its company framework around the technology. However, its big bet on AI hasn’t impacted top-line sales numbers yet as it is still in the early days of implementation. 

The retailer’s store opening in Cypress, Texas, earlier this year marked Walmart's first new Supercenter in four years. The location is the first of its kind in the U.S. under the “Store of the Future” model, featuring digital shelf labels. The company plans to open four more Supercenters across the country this year.

Ulta Beauty has officially launched its marketplace offerings online, where customers can shop from more than 100 new brands.

Dubbed the UB Marketplace and created with Mirakl, the platform launched a couple of weeks ago, according to an email to customers from Ulta.

In a press release from the beauty retailer, Ulta said it plans to quickly scale its UB Marketplace assortment over the next 12 to 18 months.

“UB Marketplace allows us to deliver more newness, faster entry into emerging subcategories and trends, and deeper category authority – while keeping the guest experience unmistakably Ulta Beauty,” Lauren Brindley, chief merchandising and digital officer at Ulta Beauty, said in a statement. “This thoughtfully curated model scales discovery and brand building for our partners, and ensures guests enjoy the same benefits they love – Ulta Beauty Rewards, easy returns and a unified, trusted shopping experience.”

The seller listings are integrated into Ulta’s other online offerings with unified search results, shopping carts, returns and checkout processes. While shoppers can earn Ulta Beauty Rewards points on marketplace purchases, they cannot redeem those points on marketplace listed items, per the email.

On an unofficial Reddit forum about Ulta, some customers have complained in recent weeks about the rollout of the marketplace offerings, wishing for the ability to filter out such listings. Meanwhile, other posts on the subreddit have called out an important distinction about how marketplace sellers are selected. 

Notably different than some other online retail marketplaces, like on Best Buy and Walmart, the platform is not available for third-party sellers and is only open by invitation directly to brands.

When asked if it had plans to offer a filter to remove UB Marketplace listings, Ulta Beauty told Retail Dive it did not have such a function, noting instead that product pages have a clear UB Marketplace label on them.

“Every item is fulfilled by authentic brands we’ve vetted for quality, authenticity and compliance to ensure they meet the same standards as our core assortment,” Ulta Beauty told Retail Dive in a statement. “The only difference is fulfillment occurs directly from the invited brand, with the same Ulta Beauty benefits (rewards on eligible purchases and easy in-store returns). We’re actively gathering guest feedback and will continue to test, learn and optimize the experience.”

New brands available through UB Marketplace span the beauty, lifestyle and wellness categories, including Manucurist, Apotheke and Nuxe.

Ulta first teased its plans to launch UB Marketplace in March, after revealing that it had lost share for the first time in the beauty industry last year. 

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By Mirakl

For at least a decade, retailers have been fretting about Amazon and Walmart's growing market share. And with good reason: Amazon is dominating online specialty categories like home and garden, beauty and personal care and consumer electronics, with Walmart not far behind.

But despite the power of the retail giants’ market share, there are chinks in the armor that retailers are already exploiting.

While retailers are not always trying to compete directly with Amazon’s "everything store" approach, they are stealing a page from the digital giant's playbook and adopting marketplace models to expand product selection without the cost (and risk) of storing their own inventory. This way, they're able to offer customers more choice at more price points, while maintaining control of their brand.

This article explores how innovative retailers are using marketplaces to close the gap with Amazon and Walmart.

Where Amazon and Walmart win against retailers

While size helps, Amazon and Walmart’s market lead is amplified by their ability to offer superior customer experiences via massive inventory assortments and personalized recommendations.

For traditional retailers, this isn't just a challenge; it's a daily battle against the constraints of legacy systems.

Their supply chains, often rigid and built for a different era of commerce, struggle to maintain agility. This results in the all-too-common "out-of-stock" notification — a message that doesn't just delay a purchase, but effectively sends loyal customers straight to a competitor's website.

Beyond sheer availability, the issue extends to discovery and trust. While customers now expect an "endless aisle" for every need, they are too often met with limited selections and, more critically, the results of disorganized product data.

For example, a shopper searching for a “women’s black leather crossbody bag,” might get results instead for laptop bags, wallets or tote bags in various colors and materials, none of which match the shopper’s intent.

This isn't just a messy backend problem; it directly degrades the customer experience. It manifests as poor-quality product images, inaccurate or incomplete descriptions and irrelevant search results, creating a cycle of shopper frustration that erodes trust and inevitably drives higher return rates.

Each deficiency can snowball into significant market share loss for retailers, especially when customers can switch to Amazon or Walmart with a single click.

Competing on customer experience via marketplaces

Competitive pricing and fast delivery aren’t enough for retailers to compete with giants like Amazon and Walmart. To compete and win, they need to differentiate on customer experience — making sure shoppers always find what they need, trust what they’re buying and enjoy a smooth process from browsing to delivery.

This is the experience customers have come to expect. In fact, according to a recent BCG survey of more than 1,500 consumers, the marketplace model outperforms traditional eCommerce sites in six of the nine aspects that they value the most when shopping online.

These models — implemented by retailers such as Macy’s, Urban Outfitters, J. Crew and Bloomingdale’s — allow retailers to harness a broader collection of products and sellers, giving them their own expanded assortment pool.

Marketplace models address retailer weaknesses (that Amazon and Walmart continue to exploit) in three crucial ways.

First, marketplaces solve out-of-stock problems by pulling from a wide network of sellers, which keeps digital shelves full and prevents customers from defecting to competitors.

Second, they allow retailers to offer more variety without the associated financial risk, making it possible to expand both essentials and niche catalog products, without carrying the inventory themselves.

Finally, marketplaces enforce high-quality product data. Poor product data — missing specs, blurry images or error-prone descriptions — confuse shoppers and erode brand trust.

The keys to marketplace success

Marketplaces that succeed share three common traits:

1. Curate with purpose and pace. A marketplace shouldn’t be a dumping ground for random products. The best ones expand assortments thoughtfully and quickly, adding items that fit the brand’s identity and strengthen customer trust. Ulta, for example, launched its marketplace with 100 new brands and products on day one.  
2. Elevate the customer experience. Successful marketplaces keep digital shelves stocked and maintain high standards for product descriptions, images and delivery. When shoppers trust what they see and receive what they expect, they're much more likely to return.
3. Get the whole company on board. Running a marketplace isn’t just an eCommerce strategy. It requires coordination across merchandising, marketing, legal and logistics to deliver a seamless customer experience.

These traits are not “nice to haves”; they are prerequisites for managing a marketplace that gives customers a reason to choose a retail brand over Amazon, Walmart and other competitors.

The marketplace moment is now

Amazon and Walmart may dominate today, but they’re no longer the only ones shaping eCommerce. With the rise of agentic commerce, new players like OpenAI, Anthropic and Google are having a bigger influence on the future of eCommerce than ever before.

More retailers are borrowing from the digital giants’ blueprints and launching their own marketplaces to compete on a more level playing field. Leaders are going a step further to ensure their expanded inventory strategy helps them compete in an era that will be defined by AI agents and disintermediated shopping experiences.

Further yet, these aren’t projects that are being slow-rolled — they’re moving fast and proving that quality curation, future proofing and speed can coexist.

The longer retailers wait, the more competition there will be, and the further they’ll fall behind.

Marketplaces aren’t experiments anymore; they’re the key to staying relevant in an agentic commerce future where adaptability, speed and brand trust separate the leaders from everyone else.

Best Buy is eyeing growth beyond its traditional electronics offerings. 

More than doubling Best Buy’s product lineup, the electronics retailer launched a third-party digital marketplace, per a company press release.

The online marketplace introduces hundreds of brands, like Martha Stewart and Beach Camera, and launches new categories, marking the largest expansion ever of Best Buy's assortment. Shoppers can return marketplace purchases at Best Buy stores or ship products back to the seller.

New and expanded categories include small appliances, seasonal decor, indoor and outdoor furniture, musical instruments and more. Best Buy will soon add sports merchandise with licensed items from Fanatics.

“Our customers have always looked to us to bring excitement and inspiration in ways only technology can,” Frank Bedo, chief marketplace and e-commerce officer at Best Buy, said in a statement. “With marketplace, we’re able to give them not only more of the latest technology, but a massive new collection of products outside of the tech space so we can truly offer the full experience they need.”

The new marketplace was first teased by Best Buy in January. The platform is the retailer’s second foray into digital marketplaces, though. Best Buy previously shuttered an earlier version of a marketplace after five years.

However, Best Buy Canada (a wholly-owned subsidiary of Minnesota-based Best Buy) has found success in marketplace sales.

The Canadian company launched a marketplace in 2016, Jefferies analysts said in a note shared with Retail Dive, who currently estimate one-third of orders from Best Buy Canada’s website are third party. 

“While we anticipated a broader assortment from new vendors & categories, we didn't envision the SKU assortment doubling,” the analysts said of Best Buy’s new U.S. marketplace launch. “We believe Best Buy's marketplace launch in Canada in 2016 is a great case study of how digital sales (and profits) were catalyzed, and expect the same result in the U.S.”

Marketplace sellers’ products are fully integrated into the existing Best Buy website, and the retailer’s employees are able to help build out a shopping cart with customers, per the release. 

The launch comes after Best Buy in May lowered its full-year guidance due to evolving tariff policies. The company’s first quarter revenue declined 0.9% year over year to $8.8 billion, while net earnings decreased nearly 18% to $202 million. 

Amazon is slowing its roll and drastically lowering its prices on some items.

The e-commerce giant in 2024 unveiled “Amazon Haul,” a shopping section of its app and site that features a selection of goods priced under $20, “with most under $10” and some as low as $1.

Discounts accrue as orders grow, too, “with 5% off orders $50 and over, and 10% off orders $75 or more,” and delivery is free on orders over $25, according to a company blog post. The option is currently in beta and available to U.S. customers once they refresh their Amazon app.

While the assortment of these low-priced items spans categories, including fashion, home, lifestyle, electronics and more, for these orders Amazon has departed from its usually swift fulfillment, saying that typical delivery times for “products with ultra-low prices” will be one to two weeks.

The experiment is an answer to Temu and other fast-growing Chinese marketplaces, which have prospered amid a consumer focus on affordability, according to GlobalData Managing Director Neil Saunders. The super-deep discounting could cannibalize Amazon’s other sales, but that could be preferable to losing share to these players, he said in emailed comments.

Recent research shows that U.S. consumers say they trust Amazon over Temu, but that they are nevertheless increasingly shopping at Temu. Some 17.5% of global respondents to a survey from marketing software company Omnisend said they think the Chinese site could overtake Amazon as the leading e-commerce platform.

“The value retail segment has been a major growth area over the past few years and while the regular Amazon site has a good value-for-money reputation, its wide offer means that it is not primarily seen as an everyday low-price destination,” Saunders said.

Expanding Walmart’s collectible offerings, Stadium Goods sneakers are now available on the mass retailer’s marketplace.

Stadium Goods — a street wear retailer focused on premium sneaker resale — brings footwear to Walmart’s third-party marketplace from brands such as Nike, Jordan, On, Ugg and more. Exclusive styles from Stadium Goods are available through Walmart Marketplace ahead of the holiday season, Manish Joneja, senior vice president of Walmart Marketplace and Walmart Fulfillment Services, said in a blog post.

“From iconic Air Jordans to legendary Air Force 1s and more, our customers now have more direct access to some of the most coveted sneakers out there — backed by Stadium Goods’ reputation for authenticity and selection,” Joneja said in the post. 

The move builds on Walmart’s push to become a destination for collectible goods, spanning from footwear to gaming cards and comic books.

The mass retailer in September launched a live shopping series focused on sports cards and other collectibles. The company also added the dedicated comic book retailer Shortboxed to its marketplace offerings and had a dedicated booth at New York City Comic Con.

Walmart previously grew its marketplace offerings on the apparel and footwear front through a deal with StockX in 2024. The StockX deal is focused on sneakers, though it also sells other collectibles from street wear brands and even Labubus. 

Stadium Goods’ deal with Walmart comes about seven years after it was acquired by luxury fashion company Farfetch for $250 million. Stadium Goods was founded in 2015 and has recently shifted its focus back to online channels, closing its New York City store earlier this year after nearly a decade, per reporting from Footwear News. 

TikTok Shop has added new collectible categories, the social commerce company said in an email to Retail Dive.

The e-commerce hub is offering 10 new collectible comic and manga categories, including traditional comic books, manga, fan zines and art books. The shop will also feature more items in its sports memorabilia and entertainment categories, such as signed jerseys and other autographed items.

To list collectibles for sale, TikTok Shop requires merchants to provide details on the condition of the item and its authenticity. The platform is also implementing “strict standards on acceptable authenticators” to prevent the sale of fake goods, per the emailed statement.

More than a year after its launch in the U.S., TikTok Shop continues to grow its American customer base. As the company expands its collectible offerings, TikTok Shop now requires authentication for select products and high-value items to “ensure a safe and trusted shopping experience,” the company said. 

TikTok Shop is entering a crowded field of competition for collectors. Walmart Marketplace over the summer debuted its Collector shop where merchants can issue pre-orders for collectible releases. Similarly, eBay has been catering to collectible buyers and sellers by introducing a sports trading card event series and a storage vault for high-value collectible items.

TikTok Shop said its sales surpassed $100 million on Black Friday last year.

Peloton launched a selection of over 140 items — including men's and women's apparel and accessories — on Target.com’s third-party marketplace. 

The availability of Peloton merchandise on Target Plus offers customers another avenue of discovery and provides “a different purchase touchpoint” for current customers, the company said.

Peloton launched a similar deal with Nordstrom. The company said the collaborations are expanding the availability of its apparel, which was previously offered primarily in Peloton stores and on its website.

Peloton’s collaboration with Target comes as the fitness company works to maintain turnaround momentum by tapping into the power of third-party retail marketplace collaborations.

Peloton cited data from eMarketer that 42% of clothing and fashion shoppers use online third-party marketplaces for inspiration, 37% turn to marketplaces for search and 24% for purchases.

Peloton announced a partnership with Costco to sell the Peloton Bike+ bundle in stores last year for a limited time. Peloton said the offer was its first seasonal retail collaboration in the U.S.

Additionally, because about two-thirds of current Peloton members are women, part of the company’s growth and turnaround strategy includes a push to reach more men and millennial guys in particular. In pursuit of that goal, Peloton launched a TV, digital and social marketing campaign featuring football player brothers T.J. Watt and J.J. Watt.

With the debut of its apparel on Nordstrom.com, Peloton said customers are responding positively. Preliminary data indicates men’s apparel is resonating with online customers. 

“As we build on these initial collaborations, we will use our key learnings to fine-tune our thinking and approach to third-party retail partnerships. We are excited about the opportunity to make Peloton apparel and accessories more accessible for current and prospective members,” the company said in its announcement.

Peloton substantially narrowed its year-over-year net loss from nearly $160 million to $900,000. As of Jan. 1, Peloton is also under new leadership. The company chose Ford executive Peter Stern as its next CEO.

Although Stern lacks experience as CEO of a public company, he checks many of the right boxes for the company, Bank of America analyst Curtis Nagle said in a November note. They include experience with subscription services, as well as in the consumer software, hardware and fitness sectors. 

The company is seeing higher free cash flow generation and extended its debt maturities to 2029. Nagle said that indicates “Peloton is in a far stronger capital position than only six months ago.”

Saks Fifth Avenue has launched a multi-brand luxury storefront on Amazon Fashion. 

The new shopping section is called Luxury Stores at Amazon. It features a selection of merchandise curated by Saks Fifth Avenue, including women’s and men’s ready-to-wear, beauty, shoes, handbags and accessories.

Merchandise is available through Amazon’s app and website. The launch is accompanied by specially designed digital displays inspired by the windows of the Saks Fifth Avenue New York flagship. Free shipping is available to U.S. customers.

Amazon has been trying to break into luxury fashion since at least 2020, but for the most part, the e-commerce giant has struggled to connect with clothes-conscious consumers. Even Amazon Haul, the company’s fast fashion offering, has so far failed to bring in the same level of customer excitement as competitors such as Shein and Temu.

With this new venture, Amazon may have found a partner with enough name recognition to finally capture elite online shoppers.

Jenny Freshwater, vice president of Amazon Fashion, Fitness and Creators, said in the release that Amazon customers want to shop more high-end brands.

“This collaboration with Saks furthers Amazon’s commitment to supporting the luxury industry and increasing our assortment for customers, while maintaining an elevated shopping experience that meets the varying tastes of our diverse customer base,” said Freshwater, who took over Amazon’s Fashion and Fitness division in 2023.

Initial brands in the storefront include Dolce&Gabbana, Balmain, Etro, Stella McCartney, Giambattista Valli, Erdem, Fear of God, Jason Wu Collection, Rosetta Getty, Johanna Ortiz, Chantecaille and La Prairie, per the release. More labels will be added following the launch, although the release did not specify additional brand names.

“This collaboration underscores Saks Fifth Avenue’s reputation as a leader in luxury curation, as well as our commitment to reinventing luxury shopping so that each customer’s experience is unmistakably their own,” Emily Essner, president and chief commercial officer at Saks Global, said in the release. “We are delighted to collaborate with an incredible group of forward-thinking brand partners for launch, and we look forward to expanding selection with additional brands as we evolve the experience.”

An editorial campaign accompanying the launch was directed by Max Siedentopf, and the online storefront is also being promoted via a window installation at the Saks Fifth Avenue New York flagship store.

Saks Global, parent company of Saks Fifth Avenue and Saks Off Fifth, completed its acquisition of the Neiman Marcus Group, which includes Bergdorf Goodman.

Following the close of the deal, Saks Global announced multiple rounds of layoffs, including job eliminations resulting from the closure of a fulfillment center.