NOTICIAS

Marketplace. E-commerce. Is it all the same? Or are there differences between them? These terms used in commercial activity are often confused as if they were synonyms, whereas in reality, they are not. In truth, they are terms that express a part of how the commercial activity is developed, which is why it is necessary to clarify each one of them, even when they are intertwined.

The marketplace is, as the word suggests, a digital market. In other words, an online space to which multiple commercial proposals are uploaded, either because there are several suppliers offering their products, or because different stores are displayed on that platform. To bring it to everyday reality, it can be represented as a mall where a tenant rents the space so that several brands or stores can set up their business in exchange of a recurrent fee. In the marketplace, the “occupation” of that space is governed by other types of conditions which define if a seller meets the requirements to be a part of it. In general, this is a regular commission for sales. Its core advantage lies on the scope expansion, gaining more access to the general public, including the international one, with an additional degree of trust and, in many cases, savings in operational costs.

And what about e-commerce? It is the virtual store, directly speaking. It is possible to develop it through multiple alternatives: by hiring a developer who takes care of it, through a platform in which it is possible to design a virtual store using predefined templates, or within a marketplace that offers the possibility of creating an online store. Apart from the latter alternative, the previous ones assume that the income obtained goes directly to the owner of the store. In the case of the marketplace, as mentioned above, being part of it generally depends on the payment of a revenue.

Both concepts are complementary. But, given its scope, the marketplace provides much more enhanced levels of information than those obtained through a virtual store. Consolidating this data is essential to carry out new types of analysis that allow the development of various business strategies aimed at the different segments which are part of the business, whether it is customers or even suppliers.

This is where special attention should be paid. The 85% of the companies in the world have reconciliation problems, that is, verifying the veracity of the data that is generated in the

transactions of the entire value chain, whether in relation to customers or suppliers. If any of the data that is loaded into the BI systems is wrong, the whole diagnosis will also be incorrect, which translates into a poor design of business scenarios, forecasts, and strategy.

There is no doubt that the volumes of data generated by the Marketplaces must be managed somehow. Big data comes to the aid of that problem. But for Business Intelligence to be applied properly, it will be necessary to have adequate data management, which allows us to determine the veracity of them.

Data management solutions such as Conciliac EDM, working both at individual areas and organizational levels, are projected as the most reliable alternatives to solve reconciliation problems and prevent them. Allowing banks, payment methods, databases, ERPs and different sources of data, Conciliac can integrate to those sources and consolidate, clean up, reconciled data in an automated way, regardless its volume and complexity. This will become a key factor which will allow every business, from every industry, to grow in a scalable and healthy way.