Industries · E-commerce
E-commerce, marketplaces, and quick commerce
How online retailers and marketplaces make money, why GMV is not revenue, how to calculate the contribution of one order including last-mile delivery and returns, and how quick commerce works in India, the Gulf, Europe, and the US.
Key takeaways
- An online retailer either buys goods and sells them itself (first party), or lets other sellers use its website and takes a fee (a marketplace).
- In e-commerce the unit is the order.
- E-commerce winners are the players with enough density and repeat orders to make each delivery cheap.
- Explain first-party selling, marketplaces, and take rate, and tell GMV apart from revenue
- Calculate contribution per order and the break-even orders for a dark store
- Explain how returns and last-mile delivery change e-commerce profit
- Describe the main e-commerce and quick commerce players by region and the trends of 2024 to 2026
Lessons
How e-commerce and marketplaces make money
First-party selling versus marketplaces, take rate, GMV versus revenue, the revenue streams, and an approximate cost breakdown.
Order economics: last mile, dark stores, and returns
Calculate the contribution of one quick commerce order, the break-even volume of a dark store, and the cost of returns in online fashion.
E-commerce players, trends, and how to crack the cases
Who the main players are in the US, Europe, India, the Gulf, and Latin America, what changed from 2024 to 2026, regulation basics, and typical case prompts.
Worked cases in this module
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Key terms