Growth strategies for 2026: Sustainable expansion without massive resource consumption

Rising costs and saturated markets call for new strategies. By 2026, growth in online selling will no longer be a question of team size, but of smart networking. At a time when markets are fluctuating faster than ever before, sheer numbers no longer provide the decisive competitive advantage. The goal for modern, successful sellers is to sell faster, easier and smarter while keeping operational resource expenditure to a minimum. 

In this article, we show you how AI-powered internationalisation, automated price optimisation and targeted performance marketing can help you turn your potential into measurable success – efficiently, risk-free and included as part of your existing subscription. Kaufland Global Marketplace is one of the best global expansion solutions for rapid and successful growth. We’ve even received an award in recognition. 

The most important information in 30 seconds

The 4 pillars for more growth with minimal effort

1. Position yourself internationally and tap into a new market with just a few clicks.
2. Use data-driven market insights to optimise your pricing strategy and remain competitive.
3. Become a top performer by using the right marketing tools.
4. Tip for sellers in Germany: Use Kaufland Shipment Solutions

1. Why sell internationally?

It’s time to think outside the box and expand your sales to other markets. In a globalised world, those who fail to seize opportunities for international growth leave the field open to their competitors and miss out on sales opportunities that are within their grasp. Focusing on new markets offers much more than just greater customer potential: Internationalisation is the strategic key to tapping into new revenue streams and generating sustainable growth. 

Kaufland Global Marketplace offers sellers a simple way to get started internationally quickly and easily. This step could be crucial for the resilience of your business. 

1.1 Sell in 6 additional countries in 3 hours – here’s how easy it is:

Imagine being able to launch and sell your products in over six new countries within just three hours – while requiring minimal additional resources for your company. No manual translations, no tedious market analysis and no line-by-line price management. Kaufland Global Marketplace has made this possible for you; all you have to do is make use of it.

The potential in numbers: When you launch on all the Kaufland marketplaces, you not only have immediate access to a possible 139 million online customers in 7 countries, but you can also generate 70% of your Kaufland.de sales.¹

“Limited marketplace presence means daily revenue losses.”

If you continue to limit yourself to just one or two marketplaces, a significant portion of your sales potential will remain untapped and you will not be fully exploiting your growth opportunities.

1.2 Scale with Ease: Your onboarding in 5 steps

Opening up additional Kaufland marketplaces is risk-free for you and can be implemented without significant additional effort, as most of the onboarding steps are already automated – it’s the logical next step for your company to gain market share without the usual hurdles or additional costs.

To get started quickly and easily on a new Kaufland marketplace, just add another sales channel to your Seller Portal and complete the onboarding process in 5 steps – most of the information can be transferred from your existing sales channel with a simple click. This usually takes only a few minutes per marketplace.

Your to-dos:

1. Select the sales channel and add with one click.
2. Complete the onboarding in just a few clicks thanks to AI:
   • Tax information: Add the OSS number or upload country-specific VAT ID. 
   • Legal texts: Have legal texts automatically translated and transferred by the system. 
   • Shipping group: Create a unified shipping group for all sales channels.
     • Note: With Kaufland Shipment Solutions, you can ship cost-effectively to all Kaufland marketplace countries.
   • Return address: Simply use your existing return address again.
   • Offers: Have existing inventory automatically transferred to the new sales channel by the system.

Thanks to automated functions and pre-filled data, you can establish a presence in a new market with just a few clicks. 

Further information and tips for getting started on a new Kaufland marketplace can be found in the Seller University. 

2. What do I need to consider when setting prices?

Once you have activated the new marketplace, price optimisation is crucial. In online selling, many processes run simultaneously, and pricing is a lever for your sales success. 

Automated pricing as a competitive advantage

Smart Pricing:

Let the system do the work: To avoid wasting valuable time on manual competitor research and monitoring, we recommend you use the Smart Pricing feature. This is an integrated repricing tool that adjusts your prices to the competitive situation on the respective marketplace, allowing you to automatically offer the optimal price and monitor prices 24/7. This function can be deactivated at any time. You always retain full control over your previously defined highest and lowest price limits.

With Smart Pricing Plus, you can go one step further and increase your sales by an additional 28%.²

Would you also like to position yourself competitively across the market? Then activate Smart Pricing Plus. This extension analyses the offer prices on the respective marketplace, but also takes into account the current market situation – the cheapest prices available online – and automatically determines the most competitive price for your offer per country. This will enable you to create an optimal foundation for generating direct sales.

Your to-dos:

1. Activate Smart Pricing or Smart Pricing Plus
2. Set a minimum price and upload via Marketplace Seller API, file import or manually in the Seller Portal.
3. Your fixed price will never be undercut. 

3. From middle of the pack to top performer: Is “good enough” really your goal?

With the launch on additional marketplaces and competitive prices, you have laid a solid foundation for further growth. But do you want to settle for a “good result” or do you want to get the most out of your offers? To sell successfully in 2026, it will no longer be enough to have a good product range and simply list products. These must be managed, because visibility determines sales success. 

3.1 Activate Performance Marketing

As a marketplace partner, we support you in targeted sales promotion. Kaufland Global Marketplace offers you a wide range of options to significantly improve your performance. Everything you need is already there – you just need to activate it. 

With high-performance onsite tools, you can place your offers exactly where your customers will see them with just a few clicks. Those who use these tools effectively can transform a solid foundation into measurable increases in revenue. 

Your to-dos:

1. Create Sponsored Product Ads (SPA) with just one click using preset campaigns and increase visibility. Or manually via the new Sponsored Product Ads tool. (Instructions can be found in the Seller University.)
2. Create individual discount vouchers for selected offers to increase sales.
3. Participate in seasonal campaigns by Kaufland Global Marketplace to be promoted to millions of customers.

3.2 Greater visibility with Sponsored Product Ads

To make your offers more visible to customers, we recommend making use of Sponsored Product Ads. Your offers are prominently integrated into the customer’s search results on category, search result and product details pages so that they are not immediately perceived as advertising. This increases customer acceptance and raises awareness of your offers.

Seller experiences show that within three months, sellers using SPA achieved over 170% more traffic and a 30% increase in sales.³

Your benefits with SPA: 

• Free visibility: You only pay for clicks that are actually generated – displaying your products is completely free of charge.
• Individual bids: Set your own maximum price per click and manage your costs with complete flexibility.
• Smart control: Reach your target group precisely with keywords and save valuable time with automated optimisation processes.

Quick Start: For efficiency enthusiasts and SPA beginners, we recommend the new “Preset Campaign Creation” feature. This feature automatically provides you with a selection of potential high-performance products and suggests values for your daily budget and target ACoS, allowing you to immediately capitalise on sales opportunities and convert them into sales. 

Sellers who promote products recommended by Kaufland Global Marketplace in their SPA campaigns generate on average over 600% more conversions per product. ⁴

Do you have the basic fee Plus package? All the better: Every month, you have €30 at your disposal for SPA campaigns – at no extra cost. The amount will be automatically credited to your invoice at the end of the month. Do not let this inclusive budget lapse; utilise it to generate direct sales. 

Learn more about Sponsored Products Ads in the Seller University.

3.3 16% more sales* per item: The potential of vouchers

Would you like to offer your customers incentives to buy and increase your sales at the same time? Or increase your sales in the short term to sell slow-moving or seasonal goods more quickly? Then use price reductions strategically as activatable vouchers. Create your own vouchers for selected offers and increase visibility.

Full control: You can conveniently set the validity period, discount and number of vouchers in the Seller Portal.

Sellers who use vouchers increase their sales per item by an average of 16%. The seller Fliekshop even reports sales increases of up to 126%.⁵

Create your first voucher and increase your sales.

3.4 Seasonal campaigns: Your free push for more sales

Once you have created your vouchers, you can participate directly in Kaufland Global Marketplace’s seasonal campaigns.

As part of these limited-time sales promotions – such as Black Week, Smart Saver Week or New Year’s Deals – you can post exclusive offers and Kaufland Global Marketplace will promote your offers via high-reach channels, from the homepage to social media to millions of newsletter subscribers. This ensures maximum visibility and full attention for your product range.

Note: Vouchers give you a decisive advantage; if the final price of the offer is at least 2% below the 30-day reference price, this offer will automatically be marked with the campaign badge during the campaign. The system then assigns these offers to the campaign you have selected, eliminating the need to upload them via CSV file.

There are no costs for sellers; both participation and the promotion of offers by the marketplace are free of charge.

4. Ship cost-effectively to all Kaufland Marketplace countries

To make things even easier, we also provide our sellers with international shipping labels at attractive rates. With the simplified Kaufland Shipments shipping solution, you can create shipping and returns labels for your orders and quickly ship packages from the German warehouse to all Kaufland marketplace countries. 

• Shipping to all Kaufland marketplace countries at a reduced price 
• Reliable, quick international shipping to end customers in 2-4 days 
• Easy to use, immediate access to shipping and return labels 
• Expert Seller Support to clarify shipping enquiries

Conclusion: Your growth infrastructure is in place – get started now!

The strategy for 2026 clearly shows that growth is not a question of opportunities, but of implementation. Kaufland Global Marketplace has already broken down the barriers to your growth. Whether it’s cross-border sales, AI-controlled pricing or wide-reaching marketing: The complete toolkit for scaling your business is already integrated into your Seller Portal.

The difference between stagnation and achieving sales targets this year lies solely in implementation. No major investments or months of planning are required – the technology and customer reach of 139 million people are already in place. Transform yourself from an observer to a top performer by actively utilising the available features to your advantage. The tools are there, the costs are covered; now it’s up to you to flip the switch and let your business grow sustainably, because, to paraphrase Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, “success has four letters: DO IT.”

Our Seller Support is happy to help!