OTTO Market for Online Retailers: How to Sell on OTTO
It’s a success story: The OTTO company started off as the first German mail order business in the 1950s. Within 70 years it’s become one of the most successful family-owned e-commerce platforms worldwide. Now OTTO.de is opening up its gates for online retailers. So, if you would like to become part of the success story, you’re in the right place. In this article, we’ll show you how you can easily sell on OTTO.de as an online retailer with quality products. And especially if you are wondering how you can list the products from your online store on OTTO.de without much effort, you should continue reading.
If you want to sell your products on OTTO Market, you are building on a strong traditional brand that offers users a shopping experience optimized for all devices. OTTO.de not only has 2.5 million visits per day and up to 10 sales per second, but as one of the oldest providers in the mail order business, it also enjoys great trust among buyers. This trust is closely linked to the fact that products have to meet high standards to make it into the OTTO Market portfolio. In this way, visitors know that their purchases on OTTO.de will be rewarded with quality.
If your products meet these standards, this represents a great opportunity for you: you can benefit from the trust and reach of the brand when you sell on OTTO. And even though the requirements for retailers and their products are high, the registration process at OTTO Market is designed to be very efficient. At the same time, the fee structure is fair.
You already have your own online store? In addition to the possibility of connecting your store via individual, self-developed interfaces (APIs), we will show you in this article how you can become an OTTO merchant in just a few steps, even without programming knowledge. With the magnalister plugin connecting your webshop with the marketplace is very easy.
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Table of Contents
Selling, Simply with Class: OTTO Market at a Glance
Checklist: Does OTTO Market Suit You as a Retailer?
Fees and Commissions for Retailers on OTTO.market
Beginner Tips: How Retailer Onboarding Works at OTTO – Step by Step
Conclusion and Outlook
Selling, Simply with Class: OTTO Market at a Glance
Quality, partnership and responsibility are taken seriously at OTTO. And that’s not just an empty phrase: When you become an OTTO online retailer, you commit to following the Code of Conduct and the Declaration on Sustainability. These describe the minimum requirements for products, and also call for fair production conditions at suppliers and the sustainable use of resources.
That sounds like a lot of hurdles, and there are a few actually. But if your products and the manufacturing conditions meet the requirements, then the hurdles are manageable – and the effort will be worth it. Because it is precisely through these values and standards that OTTO.de has established itself as a brand and enjoys the trust of over 10 million active customers: And the trend is rising. Along with the high standards, the top priority is: “Selling shouldn’t be complicated, you should be able to focus completely on your business.”
This means, for example, that OTTO handles the entire payment process, including credit checks on customers. Thanks to the excellent search algorithm, your products will be easy to find if you maintain the appropriate content. Specifically, this means that products are assigned to the right categories, and that titles, descriptions and keywords accurately reflect all the products’ features. Finally, the OTTO Market platform offers the possibilities for paid advertising: This allows you to push products up in search as needed, or to place banners with display partners. Here too, of course, you benefit from the trust and awareness of the OTTO brand.
Checklist: Does OTTO Market Suit You as a Retailer?
With the help of this checklist, you can find out whether there is a general match between OTTO.de and you as a seller and your products:
- Do you sell new goods to end customers (B2C)?
- Is your company located in Germany with a German VAT ID?
- Do your products have a VAT rate of 19%?
- Do you have a warehouse in Germany?
- Are you not a small business?
- Is there a German-speaking customer service?
- No sandblasting of textiles, no real fur, no Uzbek wool?
- (For the complete list of prohibited forms of production and services, see Code of conduct).
These aspects are also helpful, but not mandatory:
- Permanent entry into e-commerce planned, not just sporadic?
(This does not have to mean becoming a full-time retailer). - Market and target group potential analyzed?
(For better chances of success on OTTO.de.) - Webshop already available? (Then you can fully automate sales on OTTO.de with magnalister).
Fees and Commissions for Retailers on OTTO.market
The cost structure is simple and fair: There is a monthly basic fee of 39.90 € (as of December 2021), regardless of the quantity of products offered. The commission is between 12% and 15% in most product categories. For electronic goods it is 7% to 8% and for jewelry 18%. In addition, of course, there are costs for optional promotional activities.
Beginner Tips: How Retailer Onboarding Works at OTTO – Step by Step
Here is an overview of the exact steps you need to follow in order to sell your products on OTTO.de:
Step 1: Fill out and submit registration form on OTTO.market
Step 2: Register with OTTO Partner Connect: You will receive access data by e-mail after successful registration.
Step 3: Complete company profile
Step 4: Accept terms of use and contracts
Step 5: Legitimation check
Step 6: Wait for confirmation of your admission
Step 7: Add products manually or connect OTTO (via magnalister plugin or programmed APIs) to your online store
Even if you already meet the high product requirements and have successfully registered for sales, you may be wondering how to connect your own online store with OTTO Market. Normally, programming skills are required here: because interfaces (APIs) have to be developed to link the store with OTTO.market. This means effort and incurs costs, especially if a developer or an agency has to take on the task.
But there is an elegant solution to this problem: the magnalister plugin. With this tool for your webshop, you list your products at OTTO.de (and at other online marketplaces like Amazon, eBay, Kaufland.de, Etsy or METRO, if you wish) with very little effort.
The magnalister plugin at a glance:
- Product upload: Upload articles to marketplaces
- Price matching: transmit prices fully automated or individually (per marketplace)
- Synchronize stock levels: Always up-to-date stock levels between store and marketplaces
- Automatic order import: Import and manage marketplace orders
- Attribute matching: Match product variants and features with marketplace attributes
- Order status matching: transmit order status (e.g. “shipped” or “cancelled”) to marketplaces
- Invoice upload: Generate invoices directly from the webshop or via magnalister and transmit them to the marketplace
- Interface individualization: customize the plugin according to your own wishes using hook points
Conclusion and Outlook
Onboarding to the OTTO marketplace is a multi-step process, but if you take the time, you can benefit from one of Germany’s most popular online marketplaces. OTTO Market’s high standards serve to create a high level of quality in a spirit of partnership and responsibility – and thus continue to ensure that buyers trust the OTTO brand. This also means less competition. Overall, this will be reflected in your sales as a retailer. After all, online retailing at OTTO has been growing continuously for years, by almost 50% in the last 10 years alone – and you can become part of this success story.
It is particularly easy and cost-saving to establish the connection between the OTTO marketplace and your own online store using the magnalister plugin. And all this without any programming knowledge. This way, you continue to manage your products – for OTTO and other marketplaces – centrally in your webshop, while at the same time getting started with OTTO.market.
With the new ROOKIE plan, you can now even try out the magnalister plugin for an unlimited time with a limited number of products on the OTTO marketplace (or other marketplaces). If you have any questions, our competent support will be there to help you.
During the free trial or in the ROOKIE plan, you are also entitled to a free introduction to the magnalister tool as part of an on-screen training session. To do so, simply make an appointment online.
