Head of Marketplaces
The Head of Marketplaces is responsible for the brand's revenue on external platforms, covering assortment, product listings, pricing, advertising, and work with platforms and the team.
What a Head of Marketplaces does
Head of Marketplaces is a leader who manages a brand's or seller's sales on external marketplaces such as Ozon, Wildberries, Amazon, eBay, Etsy, and local equivalents. In e-commerce and high-risk verticals with intense competition and strict platform rules, this role keeps the channel from depending on a single website and makes its revenue predictable.
The role owns the full cycle: what to sell on each platform, at what price, with what advertising, which stock to hold in warehouses, and how to avoid losing listings when platform rules change. Without this control, marketplaces quickly turn into a set of disconnected seller accounts where margin is eaten by commissions, logistics, and advertising.
The position usually reports to the CEO or commercial director and manages category managers, advertising and listing content managers, an analyst or analytics team, and sometimes logistics and seller support. Working with marketing, finance, and warehouse teams, the Head of Marketplaces is accountable for the overall channel plan.
Responsibilities
- Build the brand's marketplace presence strategy: which platforms and categories to run and what the assortment priorities are.
- Manage the assortment matrix and SKU plan: launches, delistings, seasonality, and stock levels.
- Control pricing and margin with allowance for platform commissions, logistics, promotions, and discounts.
- Own product listing quality: titles, descriptions, photos, attributes, and compliance with platform requirements.
- Plan and control the advertising budget within each platform and the share of ad spend in revenue.
- Manage relationships with the platform: participation in promotions and sales events, special terms, and escalations for blocks and disputes.
- Coordinate warehouse, supply, and inventory so that search ranking is not lost to out-of-stock situations.
- Work with reviews, returns, and seller rating together with support and quality teams.
- Prepare channel reporting for leadership and finance and build the sales forecast.
- Lead the team and contractors: set KPIs, distribute tasks, train, and hire staff.
Skills
- Understanding of marketplace unit economics: commissions, logistics, storage, advertising, returns, taxes, and final margin.
- Managing the assortment and SKU matrix, and making decisions on launching and delisting products.
- Working with data: reading sales, inventory, and advertising reports and building forecasts.
- Pricing and negotiation with platforms and suppliers.
- Understanding of platform search and ranking algorithms and promotion mechanics.
- Managing teams and contractors, setting goals, and tracking their delivery.
- Knowledge of platform rules on content, categories, and prohibited goods to avoid blocks.
- Communicating with finance, warehouse, and marketing teams using the same numbers.
- Ability to respond quickly to changes in platform rules and the competitive environment.
Tools
- Marketplace seller dashboards (platform seller accounts) and their built-in analytics
- Sales and advertising analytics services, including BI dashboards
- Excel and Google Sheets for unit economics models and planning
- Inventory and warehouse systems (WMS or accounting systems)
- Task management systems such as Jira or Trello
- Price and competitor monitoring tools
How performance is measured
- Revenue and gross profit for the marketplace channel
- Margin by SKU and category after all commissions
- Advertising cost share of revenue (DRR) and ROMI
- Product availability in stock and out-of-stock share
- Seller rating, share of positive reviews, and return rate
- Delivery against the plan for new SKU launches and listings
By vertical
E-Commerce
In e-commerce the role is broader: the Head of Marketplaces is responsible not only for platform sales but also for linking with the company's own website, maintaining a unified assortment, and aligning prices across all channels. The key task is to keep marketplaces from competing with the brand's own store and from damaging the brand.
Levels
Head of / Director
At the Head or Director level, the person makes strategic channel decisions: choosing platforms, setting the budget, structuring the team, and reporting to leadership. They are accountable for the channel's overall result, not just operational tasks.
How to get there
People usually move into this role from marketplace manager, category manager, sales analytics, or performance marketing positions with e-commerce experience. It is important to have hands-on experience running your own listings, pricing, and advertising on platforms, and to understand how unit economics works.
To move into leadership, learn to calculate SKU margin after all commissions and logistics, build forecasts, and own a revenue plan. It also helps to negotiate with platforms, manage teams and contractors, and work with several marketplaces at once.
Growth usually goes from managing one platform to managing all channels, then to coordinating with the company's own website and overall sales strategy. The more results you can back up with numbers, the better your chances of getting budget and team authority.
Next steps: Director of E-commerce, Commercial Director, Chief Revenue Officer (CRO), Head of Omnichannel, Chief Operating Officer (COO)
FAQ
How is a Head of Marketplaces different from a marketplace manager?
A marketplace manager runs specific platforms and listings, while the Head owns channel strategy, budget, team, and overall financial results. The Head decides which platforms and categories the business should work in.
Do you need to know programming or advanced analytics?
Programming is not required, but you need to work confidently with spreadsheets, understand SQL queries well enough to read them, and read dashboards. The main skill is seeing SKU-level economics and making decisions based on numbers.
What determines income in this role?
Income depends on the size of the channel, the number of platforms, category complexity, team size, and responsibility for profit. Bonuses are often tied to revenue, margin, or channel plan delivery.
Which platforms usually fall under this role?
Typically these are large Russian and international marketplaces where the brand sells, as well as local platforms and industry aggregators. The exact set depends on the business's geography and product categories.
How does this role differ from the Head of E-commerce?
The Head of E-commerce is responsible for the company's own website and all online sales, including marketing and development. The Head of Marketplaces focuses on external platforms, although in mature companies these roles are closely connected.
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