Marketplace
SVW operates brand catalogues on Amazon, Walmart and TikTok Shop across 34 countries. The work covers listing architecture, content, advertising, inventory planning and pricing, managed as a single system rather than as separate functions.
SVW operates brand catalogues on Amazon across its 21 marketplaces, and on Walmart and TikTok Shop, for the group's brands and for a limited number of external mandates.
Marketplace is an operating discipline rather than a sales channel. Cost structures move continuously: fee schedules change, competitors enter, search behaviour shifts by season and by country, and fulfilment economics move with dimensional weight and return rates. Catalogues without active management lose position to those with it.
Each channel is operated to its own rules. Amazon, Walmart and TikTok Shop reward different behaviour, and catalogues built for one and transferred to another underperform.
Three channels, four dimensions. The differences are why an exported catalogue underperforms.
| Demand | Competition | Content | Decides the outcome | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon | Captured Search led | High | Structured, keyword led | Inventory cover |
| Walmart | Captured Search and browse | Moderate | Attribute led, strict spec | Item setup quality |
| TikTok Shop | Created Content led | Emerging | Video, volume led | Creative throughput |
Channel suitability is determined by margin structure, unit economics after fulfilment, category competition and content requirements. Entry into an unsuitable channel carries higher cost than no entry.
Channels are launched sequentially, with the operating rhythm established before the next begins.
Catalogue architecture, content, fulfilment configuration and advertising structure are built per channel, against the search and discovery behaviour specific to it.
Weekly restock and bid cycles, monthly unit-level margin review, continuous case and compliance handling. Reporting is on contribution after channel fees.
Inventory cover. Availability precedes every other variable. The cost of a stockout is the organic position that must be rebought, not the sales foregone.
Pricing coherence. Prices that differ across channels suppress buy box eligibility, trigger retailer parity enforcement and reduce direct channel margin. Coherence requires design across all channels simultaneously.
Allocation. Inventory and media budget are finite. Allocation between channels is revisited weekly.
Margin at unit level. Channel fees, storage, returns and dimensional reclassifications move margin between reviews. Portfolio-level tracking identifies the change after the period in which it occurred.
Simultaneous channel launches. Operating attention is divided across channels during the period in which each requires the most.
Transferred catalogues. Content built for one channel's index underperforms against another's. Requirements differ, and so does the purchase context.
Optimisation against platform metrics. ACOS, ROAS and TACOS measure advertising efficiency. None measures profitability.
Launch treated as completion. Listings degrade without maintenance. Content ages against changing search behaviour, competitors bid on established terms, and organic position declines.
SVW manages a limited number of external marketplace mandates alongside its own brands each year.