Microsoft estimates, based on IDC data, that the total addressable market (TAM) for small and medium enterprises will reach $777 billion by FY26—and is on track to surpass $1 trillion by 2030. This represents more than 400 million organizations worldwide with fewer than 3,000 employees. As organizations look to become AI-first, Microsoft partners play a critical role as trusted advisors in navigating this transformation.
Microsoft Marketplace is the platform that scales AI-first transformation, connecting your solutions and offerings to millions of commercial customers. Building on the momentum from Microsoft Ignite and the recent announcement of the reimagined Microsoft Marketplace, we’re excited to introduce the general availability of resale enabled offers.
This milestone creates new global1 channel-led opportunities, empowering software companies to lean on their channel partners to deliver cloud and AI solutions through a repeatable, scalable model—while channel partners strengthen vendor relationships to differentiate and accelerate growth.
Resale enabled offers through Marketplace—built for partnership
Resale enabled offers make channel-led sales simple. For software companies, this means expanding into new markets without adding operational overhead. You set the guardrails by granting resale rights for specific offers, then channel partners lead the sales cycle—so you can break into new markets and reduce sales and integration effort while maintaining visibility through Partner Center insights.
"We used to spend weeks coordinating listings and deal setup with partners. With resale enabled offers from Microsoft Marketplace, we skip all that. We set the resale rights and let our channel move fast. It’s built for scale, and it works without the usual friction."
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Yolanda Davis
Senior Director, New Product Introduction | ServiceNow
For channel partners, resale enabled offers modernize how you sell. You continue to own the customer relationship while transacting faster through Marketplace. Depending on geography, you can use private offers or multiparty private offers to meet customer needs.
Eligible solutions also count toward customers’ Azure cloud consumption commitments, unlocking opportunities to grow deal sizes using pre-committed cloud budgets. Microsoft continues to offer a 100% match when customers purchase eligible solutions. You also gain advantages like securing contracts for up to five years and using features like flexible billing to tailor deals to customer needs while reducing sales overhead.
The channel-led opportunity with Marketplace
Microsoft Marketplace continues to evolve to align with how you want to sell and how customers want to buy. The general availability of resale enabled offers expands our portfolio of channel-led opportunities, which also includes multiparty private offers, Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) private offers, and distributed marketplaces.
Multiparty private offers2 empower you to transact on your customer’s behalf while streamlining sales through Marketplace. With access to pre-committed cloud budgets and simplified contracting, these deals are often significantly larger than those without a partner.
Because transactions occur through Marketplace, Microsoft facilitates payouts to both the software company and the channel partner, reducing the operational burden of managing cash flow. For channel partners authorized to sell solutions with resale enabled offers, they can sell either one tier (private offers direct to customer) or two tier (multiparty private offers).
With CSP private offers, CSP authorized partners can bundle solutions with their own offerings to differentiate. A common example is packaging Teams apps alongside Microsoft 365 licenses to deliver a more comprehensive collaboration solution. The software company extends their solution to the CSP partner with a margin, and the CSP partner combines it with their own services and Microsoft license sales—creating differentiated, value-added bundles for customers.
As customers seek AI apps and agents to drive their business transformation, you can further differentiate by distributing the Microsoft Marketplace catalog through your own marketplace. With the largest catalog of AI apps and agents in the industry, partners can integrate more than 4,000 AI apps and agents into their own storefronts to create unique offerings for customers.
How to get started
As we move further into an AI-first world, Microsoft Marketplace is democratizing partner opportunities across every business model and stage. You can get started by engaging through the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program.
If you’re building cloud and AI solutions to sell to Microsoft commercial customers, you should:
- List your solution on Microsoft Marketplace.
- Engage with channel partners to activate the sales motion that fits your business.
- Differentiate further by becoming co-sell eligible and earning a certified software designation.
If you’re managing cloud services for Microsoft commercial customers, you should:
- Enroll in Partner Center to be eligible to sell.
- Find the channel-led sales motion that aligns with your business.
- Engage with software companies to meet your customers’ needs.
The future of channel-led growth is here
Analysts estimate that more than half of cloud marketplace sales will be channel-led by 2027.3 Resale enabled offers play a pivotal role in transforming Microsoft Marketplace into a true engine for channel-led growth. By simplifying how partners collaborate, transact, and scale, we’re unlocking new paths to profitability and stronger customer outcomes—especially in an AI-driven economy.
Whether you're a software company looking to expand your reach or a channel partner ready to lead with confidence, now is the time to activate your Marketplace strategy. The tools are ready. The opportunity is real. Let’s build what’s next—together.
Learn more:
1Resale enabled offers are available to most of the 141 geographies where Microsoft Marketplace is available, except in Belarus, Brazil, China, India, Mexico, New Zealand, Russia, Singapore, and South Korea.
2Multiparty private offers are available when selling to customers in Canada, the United Kingdom, or the United States.
3Canalys, Now and Next for Hyperscaler Marketplaces, August 2024.