Hudson's Bay to Launch Online Marketplace
North America’s oldest company is entering the third-party marketplace arena. Hudson’s Bay Co. has announced that it will be launching a digital third-party marketplace later this year. The company, which will host the third-party marketplace on a revamped thebay.com, is currently accepting applications for vendors via an online form and will be selling goods that fall within its current categories of apparel, home, beauty, and accessories, as well as potential new categories. Hudson's Bay’s third-party marketplace is slated to launch later this year. With the new business model, Hudson's Bay is competing with retail giants such as Amazon.com and Walmart, both of which host third-party marketplaces.
Total Retail's Take: Third-party marketplaces have grown in popularity with both sellers and buyers in recent years. For consumers, they offer a convenient way to shop a broad assortment of merchandise in one location online, akin to the physical department store model upon which Hudson's Bay was built, while for sellers they provide access to significant traffic volume that would be otherwise difficult to attract to their individual websites. For Hudson's Bay, diversifying the business is a priority right now as its physical stores have been negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. For now, Hudson's Bay's marketplace will be limited to Canadian customers (like its e-commerce site), but that could change in the future.
