Selling on more marketplaces doesn’t automatically mean earning more profit. The same product can produce very different results across Amazon, eBay, Walmart, TikTok Shop, and Temu.
A product may generate regular sales on Amazon, receive little demand on Walmart, or sell on TikTok Shop mainly during promotions. Even when revenue is high, marketplace fees, discounts, and product costs can leave little net profit.
This makes assortment decisions more complex. Sellers need to understand which products to keep available, add, test, improve, or remove from each sales channel. However, the information needed to make these decisions is often spread across separate marketplace reports.
M2E Analytics brings marketplace sales, product, cost, profit, and customer data together in one dashboard. Sellers get a continuously updated view of their results, helping them adjust the assortment as demand, costs, and profitability change.
What Is Marketplace Assortment Planning?
Let’s make it simple – marketplace assortment planning helps you build the right product mix for each channel. It’s based on sales results and product tests.
Assortment decisions usually come from two sources.
For marketplaces where you already have sales, let your data guide you. Look at past sales and profit to identify your strongest products.
For a new marketplace:
- Launch with a small catalog of your best-selling products.
- Track performance during a trial period.
- Use the info to decide which products to add, optimize, or remove.
All the collected data helps you decide:
- what to list on each marketplace;
- what to test for longer;
- what needs new pricing or promotion;
- what listings need changes;
- what to remove from the channel.
The goal is to improve the product mix as demand, costs, and profit change.
📌 It’s also important to separate assortment planning from inventory management. Assortment planning answers what should be sold and where. Inventory management answers how much stock should be available and when it should be replenished.
Why It’s Important to Look Beyond Total Sales
Strong revenue doesn’t always mean a strong assortment.
A closer look may show that:
- a bestseller has a weak margin;
- a lower-volume product generates more profit;
- most channel revenue comes from a few SKUs;
- growth was caused by a discount campaign;
- many orders were canceled, refunded, or returned.
That is why assortment performance should also be reviewed by:
- marketplace and region;
- category, brand, and product type.
Sales analysis helps you identify products that generate reliable profit, channels that rely on a few bestsellers, and items that tie up inventory without generating enough value.
How to Centralize Your Sales Data with M2E Analytics
M2E Analytics provides a consolidated view of performance across your connected marketplace accounts. M2E supports Amazon, eBay, Walmart, TikTok Shop, Temu, OTTO, Kaufland, SHEIN, OnBuy, and Mirakl.
From one dashboard, you can compare channels, select any reporting period, and review results by product, brand, category, location, day, or sales time. You can also track marketplace fees, promotion costs, margins, profit, and canceled orders.
Instead of collecting reports from each channel, you get one source of data for assortment, stock, and marketplace planning.
ℹ️ Every M2E Cloud user gets free access to M2E Sales Analytics.
The dashboard includes several tools that help you explore different parts of your marketplace performance. Start with Product Analytics to see which products drive demand across your channels.
#1. Turn product analytics into assortment decisions
With M2E Analytics, you can see how demand is distributed across individual products, brands, product types, and marketplaces.
Product Analytics helps you identify:
- products with regular demand;
- products with high sales volume;
- products with no sales;
- products with frequent cancellations or refunds;
- products with high revenue but low profit.
You can then act on these results. Keep popular products in stock, add related items, or test a product type on another sales channel. For products with no sales, review the listing, price, or marketplace fit. For products with frequent cancellations, check stock accuracy, delivery settings, and product information.
#2. Check whether sales generate profit
Sales alone don’t show the full result. Once product cost data is added, M2E Profit Analytics can calculate gross profit, gross margin, and net profit by product and marketplace.
It also helps you compare:
- revenue;
- product costs;
- marketplace fees;
- promotion costs;
- gross profit and margin;
- net profit.
For example, Product A wins on revenue with $40,000. Product B wins on net profit with $28,000. For assortment planning, the second result may matter more when you allocate stock, budget, and promotional support.
#3. Compare products in the right context
A product may look successful or unsuccessful simply because you reviewed the wrong period.
A useful approach is to:
- analyze frequent sellers over 28-30 days;
- review slower sellers over 60-90 days;
- separate campaign results from regular sales;
- confirm that stock was available;
- account for price changes and active promotions.
Without this context, a stockout may look like low demand, while a discount campaign may make demand look stronger than it is.
💡With M2E Analytics, you can select any date range within the past 12 months and apply the same period for every marketplace. This helps you compare channels on equal terms and make more reliable assortment decisions.
Turn Analytics Into Marketplace Assortment Actions
Once the data is clear, group products by the action they require.
#1. Maintain and expand
Products with regular demand and healthy profit should remain available. Keep enough stock to meet demand and consider adding related products, variations, or complementary items.
#2. Review and improve
Some products need changes before you make a final decision.
| Data pattern | What to review |
| High revenue but low margin | Pricing, fees, product costs, fulfillment, and promotions |
| No sales | Listing quality, price, availability, visibility, and channel demand |
| Frequent cancellations | Stock accuracy, delivery settings, order processing, and product data |
| Promotion-only demand | Regular sales compared with campaign sales |
#3. Plan ahead
When seasonal demand repeats, use past results to plan inventory and promotions for the same period. Prepare stock early, review the listing, and schedule campaigns before demand begins.
#4. Continue testing
Don’t remove a product when there is too little data. Extend the test period, try another marketplace, or adjust the price and listing before making a final decision.
#5. Reduce or remove
If demand and profit remain low despite several changes, reduce the stock allocation or remove the listing from that marketplace. The product may perform better on another channel, in another region, or during a different season.
As a result, you turn marketplace analytics into an active assortment plan. Each product receives a clear next step based on demand, profit, order quality, and sales context.
Use Past Results to Guide New Marketplace Tests
When entering a new marketplace, use data from your current channels to choose the first products to test. Start with a limited range of items that already show regular demand and healthy profit.
Once the products are live, evaluate them based on the new channel’s own results. Compare sales, cancellations, marketplace fees, promotion costs, and net profit.
The next step depends on what the test shows. Expand the range when demand and profit are consistent, adjust the listing or pricing when results are mixed, or stop the test when the products do not generate enough value.
Historical data helps you decide what to test. Data from the new marketplace shows what to do next.
Continuously Improve Your Product Assortment
Marketplace performance never stays fixed. Demand moves between channels, promotion costs change, margins rise or fall, and new unsold products appear.
M2E Analytics helps you follow these changes in one place. Instead of waiting for a quarterly review, you can regularly compare sales, cancellations, fees, profit, brands, and product types across channels.
This creates a continuous working cycle:
- Review the latest data.
- Find changes in demand, costs, cancellations, or profit.
- Update the product mix, stock, pricing, or promotion plan.
- Measure the result and repeat.
You may increase stock for products with growing demand, reduce support for items with falling profit, improve listings with no sales, or shift a product type to another marketplace.
With one consolidated view, assortment management becomes a process of constant improvement rather than a series of isolated decisions.
Apply Marketplace Assortment Decisions With M2E Cloud
M2E Multichannel Connect is a cloud-based app that connects online stores and POS systems with marketplaces such as Amazon, eBay, Walmart, TikTok Shop, Temu, SHEIN, and others. It brings product listings, inventory, and marketplace orders into one workflow.
Once M2E Analytics shows which products to expand, improve, or reduce, M2E Multichannel Connect helps you take action.
You can publish selected store products on a new marketplace or link to existing listings. M2E checks the required listing fields and helps you adapt product content, attributes, prices, and available quantities to each channel’s rules.
For example, you can:
- test a successful product type on another marketplace;
- set different prices or stock rules by channel;
- update listings that receive no sales;
- stop selling selected products on one marketplace while keeping them active elsewhere;
- keep quantities and chosen product details synchronized;
- import marketplace orders into your store.
M2E also sends order status changes between your store and marketplaces. This includes shipped, canceled, and refunded orders. Detailed activity logs help your team track both automated and manual updates and identify the causes of listing or synchronization issues.
This creates one connected process: M2E Analytics identifies the next assortment action → M2E Multichannel Connect applies and manages it across listings, inventory, and orders.
💡Find out more about M2E Multichannel Connect features.
Instead of the Conclusion
Assortment planning doesn’t end after one review.
M2E Analytics keeps sales, demand, costs, and profit visible across Amazon, eBay, Walmart, TikTok Shop, Temu, OTTO, Kaufland, SHEIN, OnBuy, and Mirakl-based marketplaces.
As results change, you can change your product mix with them. Increase support for products that sell and earn profit. Review items that depend on discounts. Remove listings that do not deliver enough value.
Use M2E Analytics to review performance. Use M2E Multichannel Connect to update listings, prices, stock, and channel coverage.
All M2E Cloud users get free access to M2E Sales Analytics.
Check M2E Analytics today if you already use M2E Multichannel Connect, or book a demo with the M2E team to find out more about the solutions we offer.
