What is the commercial marketplace?

3 minutes

Following a strategic session with your company's executive leadership, you begin to gather insightful details about the commercial marketplace. You discover that the commercial marketplace operates as a cloud-centric, on-demand marketplace, empowering Microsoft partners to showcase their innovative solutions within Microsoft's extensive online product catalog. The commercial marketplace initiative is designed to streamline the process of bringing partner solutions to a global audience, facilitating seamless access and distribution.

Designed for customers

The commercial marketplace stands as a robust platform that enables both existing and prospective customers to discover, evaluate, purchase, and deploy best-in-class cloud solutions. These cloud solutions are pivotal in propelling digital transformation and fostering innovation within the Microsoft cloud ecosystem. For those who are already part of the cloud ecosystem, the commercial marketplace offers customers an added benefit: the ability to integrate their marketplace purchases with existing Microsoft procurement agreements, simplifying billing through a unified invoice directly from Microsoft.

Crafted for partners

Joining the commercial marketplace is entirely free. The commercial marketplace serves as an agile sales and marketing channel for your cloud solutions and services, granting you access to untapped markets, diverse customer segments, and a vast user base within the Microsoft cloud ecosystem. You can utilize the commercial marketplace not only as a platform to showcase your solutions and services to your customers, but also as a resource to discover and build exemplary solutions that can be seamlessly integrated into your organization's own cloud infrastructure.

Multiple access points

Microsoft's commercial marketplace offers two distinct online stores: Microsoft AppSource and Azure Marketplace. The two storefronts cater to varied buyer roles across customer organizations.

Listing your solutions in the commercial marketplace makes them accessible through:

Microsoft AppSource: targeting business users seeking specialized industry solutions.
Azure Marketplace: ideal for IT professionals and cloud engineers looking for cloud infrastructure and building block services.

Additionally, your solutions can also gain visibility through:

Microsoft's Reseller Network: expanding reach via a vast network of resellers.
In-product integrations: seamlessly integrating with Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365, the Power Platform, and Azure, providing customers with direct in-product discovery and deployment options.

This multifaceted approach ensures that your solutions are discoverable by the right audience, at the right time, within the Microsoft cloud ecosystem.

Expansive reach

The commercial marketplace, encompassing the two online stores and in-product experiences, attracts millions of active users monthly. Each user is a unique opportunity, a prospective customer for your offerings. Given the global adoption of Microsoft products and services across organizations, these active users reflect a diverse spectrum of potential clients, ranging from small businesses to large enterprises, spanning all industries. This broad user base underscores the commercial marketplace's potential as a powerful channel to amplify your company's reach and growth.

Diagram that compares the two commercial marketplace storefronts by audience.

Unlock opportunities

The prospect of showcasing your products to a vast global audience aligns perfectly with your executive team's directive. However, to capitalize on this opportunity, a deeper understanding of the online stores is essential. Your company's solutions, tailored for diverse customer groups, must find their appropriate niche within the commercial marketplace.