By now, the numbers are nearly too large to ignore. Marketplace platforms—Amazon, Alibaba, Walmart, Etsy, Trendyol, and even Tesco—account for a staggering 67% of global ecommerce transactions. That’s not a trend. That’s a structural shift. A revolution. And it’s one retailers can’t afford to misunderstand.
The traditional ecommerce model, where a retailer buys, stores, and sells inventory through their own site, is not dead. But the truth is, it’s looking increasingly expensive and inflexible. In its place, a new retail architecture has emerged: platforms that connect buyers and sellers with minimal inventory risk, faster time to market, and scale that only platforms can deliver.
This is the marketplace model. This is the marketplace revolution. And it’s winning.
From retailer to ecosystem
Marketplace share has surged from 40% to 67% of global ecommerce in just ten years, according to BCG. And the Middle East is catching up fast, with marketplaces in the region seeing compound annual growth rates of over 200%—more than double the rest of retail. Why? Because marketplaces don’t just sell products, they’re building ecosystems.
As Peter Filcek, Marketplace Director at Tesco, explained at the 2025 RLC Global Forum, Tesco’s marketplace wasn’t born from a desire to compete with Amazon. It was a deliberate strategic move to become “easily the most convenient” destination for its customers. With a capital-light marketplace, Tesco expanded its assortment, boosted website traffic, and monetized eyeballs through retail media, all while keeping stores focused on core grocery operations.
Convenience, value, and the consumer mindset
Dr. JJ Van Oosten, who led Kingfisher’s DIY marketplace launch, framed it well during a discussion exploring key trends shaping marketplaces and ecommerce in 2025: “Consumers want convenience and value.” In a marketplace, customers find both. One shopping cart. One delivery. A dizzying array of choices. Traditional retailers, with their limited SKU counts and siloed operations, simply can’t compete on that front.
But the real shift runs deeper. In the marketplace model, merchants are not suppliers. They are customers. That’s a mindset shift with profound operational consequences. It means sellers expect autonomy, transparency, and specific tools. It’s a business model rooted in enablement, not control. Marketplaces that fail to offer these are simply irrelevant. The most successful platforms understand that empowering sellers directly improves the consumer experience: better listings, faster responses, and more competitive pricing all stem from a network that feels invested and supported.
This dynamic is what turns marketplaces into growth engines, not just sales channels. When sellers are treated like partners, they innovate faster, scale smarter, and contribute more fully to the marketplace’s ecosystem. That’s the new frontier of ecommerce in 2025.
A case study in marketplace momentum
Take Trendyol, for example. The Turkish-born platform now operates in 15 countries, serves 40 million customers, and empowers 25,000+ merchants. Its Gulf expansion was only a matter of time. As Mohammad ElAnsari, CEO of Trendyol Gulf, put it, Trendyol’s goal is “not one-way commerce, but rather two-way commerce.” That means enabling local sellers to reach global markets, not just flooding the region with imports.
This strategy turns the usual model on its head. Instead of just importing products into the region, Trendyol is helping local sellers grow and sell internationally. It’s not just running a marketplace; it’s building a whole ecosystem. In places like the UAE and Saudi Arabia, where there’s a big push to support entrepreneurs and grow the digital economy, this approach fits perfectly. You see, these countries want to buy from the world, but they want to sell to it, too.
What powers this flywheel? Three things: traffic, tech, and trust. Trendyol invests tens of millions in user acquisition, partners with banks and telecommunication companies, and integrates seamlessly with sellers through intuitive platforms and smart catalog tools. Most importantly, it shares the spotlight, offering promotional partnerships with 15,000 influencers and coaching sellers on visibility strategies.
Not every retailer should be a marketplace, but every brand needs one
The hard truth is that not every retailer can become a marketplace. It takes complete operational rewire. First and foremost, you must step outside of traditional retail norms, especially around pricing, delivery, and assortment. Marketplace success requires new tech stacks, new metrics, and a new mindset. For many, the smarter move is to become a seller on someone else’s platform, meeting customers where they already are.
Marketplaces offer what traditional channels can’t: instant access to massive audiences, easy onboarding, and powerful demand engines. They also reduce go-to-market friction, especially for emerging brands that don’t have the resources to build and scale their own ecommerce operations from scratch. Whether you are a global brand or a regional startup, marketplaces level the playing field, giving you visibility, data, and reach without the heavy lifting of building your own infrastructure.
In a fragmented digital landscape, marketplaces are a growth engine. And missing out on them could mean missing out on a meaningful opportunity.
What’s next: Tech, scale, and cultural speed
So, what keeps this giant engine running? It comes down to constant investment in technology, the network effect of more sellers attracting more buyers, and a culture that prioritizes speed over perfection. In a world racing toward AI-driven personalization and automated shopping experiences, marketplaces that can flex, adapt, and personalize at scale will win—big time.
But perhaps most importantly, the marketplace revolution is democratizing ecommerce. It lowers barriers to entry, giving small merchants access to global audiences, and shifting power away from ownership and toward agility.
Indeed, the future belongs to those who move quickly, adapt constantly, and make room for others to do the same.
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