Help customers discover your Marketplace solution with Intelligent Discovery and App Advisor
Technology buying is becoming more self-directed, digital, and AI-assisted. Instead of beginning with a specific product or vendor, customers start with the business problem they want to solve. Microsoft Marketplace is evolving with them. With intelligent discovery in Marketplace, customers describe a business challenge in natural language, receive contextual recommendations, compare solutions, and ask questions as they evaluate options. If you want to see how the experience is changing for customers, start with Accelerating AI adoption with intelligent discovery in Microsoft Marketplace. For software companies, there is another side to the story. If Marketplace is getting better at connecting customer needs with relevant solutions, your listing needs to provide useful, relevant information about what you offer. As the blog points out, that makes the quality of your Marketplace listing part of your growth strategy. Want to skip right to a no-cost, fast listing optimization in App Advisor to improve your listing on six categories that customers care about? Customers start with business needs, not product names Imagine a retail leader looking to improve demand forecasting or an operations team trying to automate repetitive workflows. They may not know your company or product name. Increasingly, they don't need to. Intelligent discovery lets customers describe goals, challenges, or desired outcomes in natural language. Marketplace uses that context to surface relevant solutions. According to Microsoft's early preview results, customers using intelligent discovery were 68% more likely to find solutions that met their needs and take the next step toward purchase. That raises an important question: Does your Marketplace listing clearly communicate the solution your customers are searching for? With Intelligent Discovery, customers can now: Use Smart Search to pinpoint their needs, without even browsing, Start an interactive chat on any Marketplace listing page, with answers grounded on the listing detail, Compare products using a toggle on multiple listings that produces a customer-focused grid with specifics like price, ratings, and plans With these tools, customer browsing can be more targeted. It also allows your Marketplace listing to shine if you have these details. Your Marketplace listing needs to address customer questions Your listing still needs to make the business value case for your solution on Marketplace. A strong listing should make it easy to understand who your solution is for, what problem it solves, how it works, and what outcome a customer can expect. Be specific about the business problems and use cases your solution addresses. Explain important Microsoft integrations, requirements, limitations, deployment options, and the path to buy or get started. Use the language your customers use to describe their needs throughout your title, summary, description, captions, and metadata. Give them enough information to evaluate your solution. Representative screenshots or videos can demonstrate the experience. Current security, privacy, compliance, support, customer evidence, and reviews can help establish trust. This becomes even more important as the buying experience becomes conversational. Customers can use interactive chat on Marketplace product pages to ask about capabilities, integrations, industry use cases, and fit. Your listing supplies important context as customers explore and evaluate your solution. App Advisor can show you where to improve If you have a published Marketplace offer, App Advisor can review your listing and provide personalized, AI-powered recommendations for improving it. Rather than manually comparing your listing against pages of guidance, you can see specific opportunities to make it stronger. Maybe your description focuses on features but doesn't clearly explain outcomes. Your value proposition needs to be sharper. An important Microsoft integration is hard to find. Your screenshots don't give customers enough context. The point is not to add more words or even stuff your listing with keywords. It is to make your information clear, comprehensive, and relevant to a customer deciding whether your solution fits their needs. Intelligent discovery & App Advisor: two sides of the Marketplace experience The connection is simple. Customers describe what they need. Intelligent discovery helps them find and evaluate relevant solutions. You describe what your solution does. App Advisor helps you strengthen the Marketplace listing customers use to understand and evaluate it. Together, those experiences reinforce why a listing optimization in App Advisor can no longer be a one-time publishing task. Your product will likely change—you'll launch new capabilities, reach different industries, add Microsoft integrations, learn more about customers, and sharpen your capabilities and positioning. Your Marketplace listing should evolve with it. Publishing is just the start of your Marketplace growth Getting an offer onto Marketplace is only a starting point. You have to optimize your listing to grow your presence. Look at your listing from the perspective of a potential customer starting with a business need rather than your product name. Can they quickly understand the problem you solve? Can they tell whether your solution fits their environment? Do you give them enough information to confidently take the next step? As Marketplace discovery becomes more intelligent, the answers to those questions become more important. Use App Advisor to review your published Marketplace listing, get personalized recommendations, and make it easier for customers to understand why your solution fits what they need. Ready to get started? Optimize your listing with personalized recommendations.Build your SaaS offer with the modernized SaaS Accelerator to sell on Marketplace
Build your SaaS offer for Microsoft Marketplace with coding agent guidance and the modernized SaaS Accelerator. Explore resources that help simplify Marketplace integration and move from development to publishing faster.Connect development and Marketplace publishing
Marketplace Ingestion MCP and Product Ingestion APIs now support every Microsoft Marketplace product, giving publishers more options for incorporating publishing into development and release workflows. Explore agent-assisted publishing, direct API integration, and generally available SaaS and virtual machine APIs. Existing preview integrations continue to work, so teams can adopt the latest versions at their own pace. Read the blog: Agentic Marketplace publishing expands with broader product coverage and generally available APIsHow software companies can expand their SMB reach with Microsoft Marketplace and AI
How can software companies turn a Microsoft Marketplace presence into greater customer reach and growth? Explore how Microsoft Marketplace can help software companies connect with more small and medium business (SMB) customers, support scalable sales, and expand into new markets in the age of AI. The article highlights Ntegral’s evolution from a traditional systems integrator to a software company with more than 300 enterprise solutions and deployments in more than 150 countries. You’ll also get a preview of what Ntegral President and CTO Dexter Hardy will bring to Ultimate Partner LIVE Reston, including practical perspectives on building beyond a Marketplace listing, developing pipeline, reaching SMB customers, and incorporating AI into a broader growth strategy. Read the full article to discover how Marketplace, AI-powered innovation, and an SMB-focused product strategy can work together to create new opportunities for software companies. 👉 Explore now: How software companies can reach more SMB customers through Microsoft Marketplace in the age of AICalculate your projected Grow benefits by selling through Frontier Accelerate for Marketplace
The Marketplace Value Calculator in App Advisor helps software companies estimate the potential business impact of selling through Microsoft Marketplace. By combining projected revenue, transaction costs, and Frontier Accelerate for Marketplace benefits into a personalized three-year model, the calculator helps teams build a data-driven business case for Marketplace growth.How and when do I use Frontier Accelerate for Marketplace benefits?
The latest App Advisor guidance shows how Frontier Accelerate for Marketplace can help at every stage: 🔨 Build & Publish: Create and optimize your Marketplace offer. 📈 Grow: Increase visibility and accelerate transactions. ⭐ Differentiate: Access advanced benefits that support long-term growth. Whether you're just getting started or scaling an established Marketplace business, App Advisor can help you find the right resources for your stage. 📖 Read the blog: Frontier Accelerate for Marketplace: New App Advisor Guidance for Software Companies Which stage best describes your Marketplace journey today: Build & Publish, Grow, or Differentiate?Explore App Advisor for details on how Frontier Accelerate for Marketplace can help you sell more
Explore the latest Frontier Accelerate for Marketplace updates available through App Advisor. Learn how software development companies can discover relevant Microsoft Marketplace resources, benefits, and commercialization opportunities that help accelerate solution development, reach new customers, and scale revenue growth through Marketplace.Scale repeatable channel sales with Marketplace resale enabled offers (REO) and App Advisor
Learn how resale enabled offers (REO) help scale channel-led sales through Microsoft Marketplace. Authorize eligible partners once, enable repeatable reseller motions, and expand into new markets without adding equivalent internal sales overhead.Grow your sales on Marketplace: App Advisor helps you understand improvements to negotiated deals
Want to dive into the details of negotiated deals and how to create them? Head to App Advisor: https://aka.ms/GrowMySales Not all customers buy apps in the same way. Some need negotiated pricing. Others have specific contract or billing requirements. Some want to buy through a trusted channel partner. Microsoft Marketplace already supports these scenarios through negotiated deals. Now, several new capabilities make those motions more flexible, accessible, and scalable. How do I sell more apps and agents? The best way to sell more apps and agents is to expand your sales footprint, not build more. This means making your apps and agents available through private offers, negotiated deals, and selling through channel partners. These types of deals have always given you flexibility, but new releases have improved their functionality. No matter how you’re selling, chances are good that you could grow your sales with at least one type of private offer (each detailed in App Advisor) Sell directly without another party → To-customer private offer. Bring a channel partner into a direct customer deal → Multiparty private offers (MPO). Authorize partners to repeatedly resell your offer → Resale enabled offers (REO). Sell through a customer's Cloud Solution Provider → CSP private offer. What changed for negotiated deals Over the last two months, Microsoft has improved capabilities and availability of several types of negotiated deals: Request private offer: Customers can now initiate a conversation about customized pricing and terms directly from an eligible Marketplace listing. Partners configure this when publishing an offer and a button appears on the listing for customers to reach out, reducing the gap between discovering an offer and beginning a negotiated sale. Custom contract lengths: Software companies can create eligible private offers with nonstandard contract lengths defined in months, including terms such as 18 months, with support extending up to 10 years for eligible SaaS and Professional Services scenarios. This helps align Marketplace transactions more closely with contracts negotiated with customers. Flexible billing: Eligible private offers can use customized billing schedules rather than forcing the transaction into a standard cadence. Current Microsoft documentation supports up to 70 installments and terms up to 120 months/10 years in supported scenarios. Expanded MPO reach: After expanding into 30 European countries earlier in the year, MPO expanded to Australia, Japan, and South Africa last month, creating more opportunities for software companies and channel partners to collaborate on Marketplace transactions. Expanded REO reach: REO expanded to New Zealand, extending the channel-led resale model into another market. What comes next Interested in expanding your sales footprint with minimal overhead? Follow along in this series as we discuss each type of private offer and advantages of each. To get started today, explore your negotiated selling options with App Advisor: https://aka.ms/GrowMySalesMicrosoft Marketplace Partner Digest - July 2026
In this edition of the Microsoft Marketplace Partner Digest, you'll find essential announcements, events, and key updates designed to drive your business forward, accelerate deal closures, and maximize your Marketplace success. Partner Center announcements As we kick off the new fiscal year, we're building upon a quarter that delivered valuable enhancements for both Marketplace partners and customers. We’ve focused on expanding partner-led growth across regions, simplifying SaaS transactions, and helping you improve co-sell outcomes. 🌍 Multiparty private offers expand across EMEA and APAC On May 27, Microsoft Marketplace expanded multiparty private offers to 30 countries in Europe, with availability in Australia, Japan, and South Africa coming July 15. Read the blog to discover how we are enabling new opportunities for channel-led growth through Marketplace. Why it matters Software companies gain more opportunities to reach new customers and drive growth without adding operational complexity. Channel partners differentiate their offerings with vetted software solutions while maintaining customer relationships. Recommended action Microsoft’s Jason Rook breaks down six practical steps to activate your channel strategy through Microsoft Marketplace, helping software companies recruit, enable, and scale partner-led growth. 📗Get the playbook 🌏 Resale enabled offers support expands to New Zealand Microsoft continues expanding channel-led sales opportunities by making resale enabled offers available through Microsoft Marketplace to customers in New Zealand as of May 26. Why it matters Channel partners can create and manage offers directly, without relying on software companies to build bespoke private offers. For software companies, resale enabled offers provide a scalable way to grow through trusted channel partners and expand into new markets. 👉 Learn more 📆 Custom contract lengths As of July 6, custom contract lengths for private offers are generally available. Partners can now create private offers with custom contract lengths of up to 10 years in Microsoft Marketplace. Why it matters Flexibility to better meet customer requirements Ability to configure contract durations from 1 to 120 months Define non-standard contract lengths, like 18 months or 45 months Support for both SaaS and professional services transactions 👉 Read the announcement ⚡ Auto activation for SaaS offers On May 18, Microsoft released the optional auto activation for SaaS offers, streamlining customer's Marketplace purchase and onboarding experience. What’s new Billing and subscription activation can now begin immediately when a customer completes a purchase Partners receive a real-time webhook signal to trigger onboarding Available for both public and private offers Default behavior For existing plans auto activation is off, unless you enable it When creating new plans auto activation is on, by default, unless you disable it Why it matters Reduces friction between purchase and onboarding Improves revenue predictability with immediate billing Enables a faster, more seamless customer experience Recommended action Evaluate your SaaS offers and enable auto activation where it aligns with your onboarding model. Make sure your sales and customer guidance reflect the updated experience. 👉 Learn more 🔔 Improve referral quality to accelerate co-sell deals Microsoft has updated how inbound co-sell referrals are reviewed and processed to improve speed and alignment with Microsoft account teams. What’s changing All referrals are now automatically checked for completeness and quality at submission. To avoid delays, ensure every referral includes: Solution area / play Estimated deal value Estimated close date (valid future date) Clear customer need and business context Customer contact (or consent to share later) Why it matters Submitting complete referrals helps you: Get faster seller engagement Reduce rework and follow-ups Improve acceptance rates Move deals forward more predictably Recommended action Audit your referral submission process and ensure these five fields are consistently included across all deals. 👉 Learn more about managing co-sell opportunities ⚠️ Review: Ensure the right contacts receive important partner communications Now is a great time to take care of digital housekeeping. Microsoft is reminding partners to review assigned Partner Center roles and email configurations to avoid missing critical notifications and account updates. Why it matters Having assigned roles like global admin or billing admin does not guarantee email delivery. If accounts aren’t configured correctly, you and your team may miss time-sensitive notifications. Missing communications can result in missed compliance deadlines or delayed actions that may impact your business. Recommended actions Verify your primary contact email is up to date Ensure role-based accounts can receive emails Add Microsoft system emails as safe senders Review role guidance on Microsoft Learn ✨ Bonus: Sign up for the monthly Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program newsletter to stay informed of updates, incentives, and partner opportunities. It’s an easy way to get partner news delivered directly to your inbox. Events Recent events Marketplace as a FinOps platform Explore how Microsoft Marketplace helps simplify purchasing, centralize billing, and better align software investments to optimize cloud spending. As organizations scale cloud and AI investments, managing spend across tools and vendors becomes more complex. Tune in to learn practical ways to better understand the ROI of your organization’s cloud and AI investments. You will walk away with actionable insights to use Microsoft Marketplace as part of your FinOps strategy 📽️ Watch the recording The Marketplace playbook for channel-led sales Get step-by-step guidance and go-to-market resources to help you recruit and activate partners for channel-led sales through Microsoft Marketplace. Through resale enabled offers and multiparty private offers, software companies can empower partners to sell on their behalf to drive scale, reach new markets, and unlock new co-sell opportunities. In markets where both resale enabled offers and multiparty private offers are available, software companies can also scale through distributors, who can activate their broader channel networks. 📽️ Watch the recording Multicurrency transactions explained As Marketplace adoption continues to grow more partners are navigating sales that involve multiple currencies, local customer invoicing, and evolving seller of record responsibilities. Understanding how currency exchanges impact private offers, partner payments, and customer billing is critical to successfully managing Marketplace transactions across global geographies. 📽️ Watch the recording Upcoming events Channel growth in Australia ⌚Wednesday, July 15 at 9:30 AEST Microsoft Marketplace provides several ways for partners to collaborate and grow through the channel. With multiparty private offers launching in Australia on July 16, alongside resale enabled offers, this expansion helps partners strengthen customer relationships, fuel more partner-to-partner opportunities, simplify transactions, and find new growth opportunities. Leave with practical guidance on how these capabilities work together and how to put them into action. 📆 Save to your calendar MCAPS Start for Partners 📆 Wednesday, July 22 from 7:00 – 11:00 am PDT MCAPS Start for Partners gives software companies an early look at Microsoft’s FY27 priorities, investments, and growth opportunities. Learn how AI innovation and agentic applications are creating new customer demand, discover marketplace and co-sell opportunities to expand reach, and explore strategies to modernize, differentiate, and grow your business in the year ahead. 👉 Learn more and register today 🚀 Closing thoughts The last quarter delivered meaningful platform enhancements to make Microsoft Marketplace easier to scale, faster for customers to discover solutions and transact, and more effective for partners to manage business. 👍 Take the next step Explore new regions for multiparty private offers and resale enabled offers Review your strategy for activation of customer SaaS subscriptions Improve your co-sell submission quality Small changes in these areas can have a big impact on your pipeline, conversion, and overall Marketplace success.
