• Fulfillment by Amazon:
Since the beginning, Amazon invested heavily on automated fulfillment and distribution centers. This is one of the main reasons eBay has been able to expand faster (geographically) than Amazon. eBay is a 100% online business while Amazon has to invest time and resources to build its fulfillment centers. Anyway, coming back to the point of view of an online vendor this is a very important difference between the two platforms: Amazon offers the possibility to outsource the fulfillment (storing, picking, packing and shipping) while eBay doesn’t. Amazon calls this service “Fulfillment by Amazon FBA”
• Return policy / Guarantee:
This is one of the most important differences between the two platforms: Amazon has a full guarantee designed to protect the buyer while eBay does not. This might not seem too important but it is on the long run, because it’s a way to autoselect the kind of buyers and sellers you want to have in your marketplace. Amazon’s guarantee is the “A-to-Z Guarantee protection”.
The guarantee obliges any seller to refund or resend the item to the buyer in the event of a claim. This is designed to offer confidence to buyers so they know that they anything they buy on Amazon or from an Amazon third party seller will be as described. Sellers that don’t comply with Amazon’s minimum ratios of client service, by failing consistently to refund/resend items to buyers eventually will not be allowed to sell on Amazon. This means that only good quality service sellers will be allowed to remain selling on Amazon. What Amazon is doing with this is very clear: It’s eliminating one of the most important reasons that kept buyers from buying online, which is fraud/forgery. eBay does not function like this at all, eBay is not responsible of what the seller does or sells. This is why there have been so many claims of false luxury goods of the most prestigious brands being sold on eBay but the problem continues. The way buyers can penalize bad sellers in eBay is through reputation (giving a bad feedback) or through eBay’s Resolution Center which depending on the case and the allegations, can take some time.
All this explanation of the way each platform tries to protect its buyers from forgery/fraud is just to show you how it directly affects the sellers. Sellers of fake items or items with a very low quality won’t go to Amazon because they know that they will have to pay the buyers in case of claims or they will be kicked out of the marketplace. The outcome of the guarantee, besides obviously protecting buyers, is that Amazon is self-selecting good quality sellers for its platform.
SELLERS Perspective
Amazon
eBay
Fees
MORE EXPENSIVE
- Listing Fee: Low for volume
- Commisions: High 15%
Better for high volume // High rotation items
CHEAPER
- Listing Fee: Low for individual listings
- Commisions: Low 8%
Better for High price // Low rotation items
Format
Fixed Price Format
Fixed price + Auction
Auction: Better for Antiques and Collectibles. Ebay moving into Fixed Price direction
Average sale Price
BETTER
Buyers pay more on average for the same items
WORSE
More price competition
Payment Methods
LESS OPTIONS BUT EASIER TO MANAGE
If Amazon can’t collect the payment, the seller doesn’t have a sale, and the item remains listed.
MORE OPTIONS BUT MORE COSTLY
eBay sellers can accept PayPal, money orders, cashier’s checks or cash. However, they’re responsible for managing collections, which means investing more time and labor into each transaction.
Return Policy
WORSE
Tight claim and quality control. If many clients solicit returns, they can be kicked out of Amazon
BETTER
Not obliged to return. The only penalty could be a bad feedback
Shipping / Fulfillment
BETTER
Amazon fixes the shipping credit, per category, regardless of what actually the shipping cost ends up being
WORSE
Seller fixes shipping price, but supervised by eBay
(to avoid overcharging)
Client Follow Up / Marketing Info
WORSE
Sellers are not allowed use the contact information for follow up marketing actions. This is a big setback for any seller because in each transaction, the seller is selling an item, but the customer is acquired by Amazon, not by the seller.
MUCH BETTER
Billing information is managed by the seller itself. The seller can decide what to do in terms of follow up marketing actions. The long term relationship will be between the seller and the client, not between the platform and the client.
Conclusions and final thoughts
• Although in general Amazon seems to have better quality of service and a more options for sellers, It’s more expensive and doesn’t allow follow up marketing actions; two things that are not trivial for sellers. In other words, It might be better… but at a cost.
• The other very important point is that the clients of both platforms tend to be loyal to their marketplace, which means that if you’re a seller on eBay and decide to start selling on Amazon, you’ll reach millions of NEW customers. Sell on both platforms, you have nothing to lose, only millions of new customers to reach.
• As a final conclusion, I could argue that both platforms should be used only to generate incremental sales, and not become the only source of income. To be so dependent on only one sales channel, has always proved to too risky….
Watch the video related to buy on ebay
BUY THIS DVD @ stores.ebay.com JUST LIKE BEYONCE & RETURN OF BEYONCE SHE IS BACK IN THIS BLOCK BUSTER HIT BEYONCE & RIHANA STARING JIM IYKE, OMOTOLA JALADE EKEHINDE, NADIA BUARI, UCHE JUMBO, MARI REMI . BLOOD SISTER
Help answer the question aboutbuy on ebay
What are good brands to buy on ebay?I am a male. I like Polo and Lacoste and things like that but I am afraid to buy these two brands on ebay because there are so many fakes. What is a brand that doesnt really get faked too much?
March 21st, 2010 on 3:56 am
Hi, how can you earn up to $3000 a month when you say you only list 10 items over 7 days?. Also if you buy an item and later sell it for more, surely the prospective bidders can see on your feedback that you have recently bought the item and that your only trying to profit from it. Would it make sense to have 2 ebay accounts, one for buying and one for selling?
March 21st, 2010 on 4:12 am
Pay Pal is very secure…..just make sure you only purchase items from trusted people on Ebay…..that can be determined by their sales record next to their names.
March 21st, 2010 on 4:51 am
Jack up the price if you want to make money on eBay, LOL………..get a grip! Almost 10% fees, plus Paypal now holds 10% of your payment for 60 days. Prices are generally higher on big ticket items, and auctions are mostly gone replaced by Buy-it-now, plus Paypal charge back scams……….hey, I got a oil field for sale in Sudan, wanta buy???
March 21st, 2010 on 4:57 am
You can use a reloadable visa card on ebay as long as you register the card with your home address.
March 21st, 2010 on 6:01 am
On eBay, theoretically yes. If the seller offers Local Pickup, and is willing to accept payment in person, then you could pay them directly in cash.
If you want to buy something online, and don't have a credit card, check out Craigslist.
March 21st, 2010 on 11:46 am
no offense, but a lot of this is common sense
March 21st, 2010 on 12:50 pm
nope
March 21st, 2010 on 1:16 pm
No. It is considered a Smart phone. In order to have that phone you have to have the internet and such. You can buy the phone and not have to sine a two year contract with Verizon but you will still have to upgrade your account to include the data package. This will not extend your contract but your bill will go up.
March 21st, 2010 on 5:11 pm
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_ebay-gift-certificate
You can buy eBay Gift Certificates online using PayPal. They can be sent directly to your recipient via email or you can deliver them yourself.
March 21st, 2010 on 10:17 pm
hey man i gotta question … what kind of info should i b looking for on ebay an order to make a good buy ? im asking bcus i just got an ebay acount like an hour ago and im not trying to get scamed u kno .. can u help ?
March 22nd, 2010 on 2:34 am
you made 3000 dollars in one month when u calculate all the time and work that it takes u to upload all those listings no doubt more than 10 + hours a week after costs for items, costs for paypal, cost for ebay fees… at the end of the month ur left with around 600 dollars pure profit for the month.. great so u just worked all month for that check ur profits for a month uill be shocked GO GET A JOB AND MAKE DOUBLE THAT FROM JUST SITTING AT A DESK HAHAH
March 22nd, 2010 on 11:52 pm
You can use any money that is in your PayPal account for anything you want to buy. Many merchants accept PayPal.
For what you sell on eBay the money goes right into your PayPal account. If there isn't enough to cover a purchase then they will take it out of your bank or checking account.
March 23rd, 2010 on 12:10 pm
March 23rd, 2010 on 3:13 pm
hey RC ,sorry for my insinuation earlier, I know that you didn’t mean to sell ‘junk’ in the sense of fooling people,but in the sense of selling stuff that you don’t need anymore,etc
BTW great videos, everything you say is 100 per cent accurate
March 23rd, 2010 on 11:58 pm
March 24th, 2010 on 12:15 am
biglaguilar ,yes I can help: buy a good guide about ebay.
March 24th, 2010 on 12:33 am
dude tell us where to get items for a price that will generate a profit after ebay and paypal fees and ill listen untill then ebay is a dead end doesnt make sense by the time you have paid all the fees theres around 2 dollars profit yeah great ebay doesnt really work just alotta people working for nuthing
March 24th, 2010 on 9:17 am
best market research can be done looking for completed listings because it will tell you for how much item actually got sold whereas when you look at active auctions you just see current price or Buy it now price and it doesn’t tell much because there might be just 1 out 100 items which gets sold at that price or maybe it sells but then you have to look at sales cycle…how often…if it is just one item per week and you plan to sell 10 of them…won’t add up.