"ebay poised to dominate its niche" ?
https://seekingalpha.com/article/4772101-ebay-poised-to-dominate-its-ecommerce-niche
An interesting article....might be behind a paywall, but if you can get to it, it is an interesting read.
11 comments
https://seekingalpha.com/article/4772101-ebay-poised-to-dominate-its-ecommerce-niche
An interesting article....might be behind a paywall, but if you can get to it, it is an interesting read.
tobaccocardyahoo
·1 year agoNot very many new insights in this article.
The suggestion that Ebay acquire Etsy sounds like the author did not understand that that would be a suicide pact due to Etsy's significant problems.
Perhaps the stock market prizes growth more than it should. Ebay's business is virtually immune to competition from the larger e-commerce sites. Where they have competed with Ebay's core businesses they have retreated because they complicate those site's efforts to combat issues with authenticity, counterfeits, and stolen goods.
I am back on Ebay because selling collectible items on Amazon is too difficult because of the bots dealing with these trust and safety issues.
Like it or not, there it is unlikely a new competitor will affect Ebay's share of its core business segments. The risks are that changing demographics will cause a decline in those businesses.
There are, of course, many sellers who should not be offering their goods on Ebay and remain solely because Ebay has less red tape, and does not suppress listings which are priced above market prices. Amazon acts to hide overpriced items, most name brand, brand new items on Ebay are overpriced. Many B goods are offered on Ebay as NEW,
I do not see Ebay as a good fit for my investment in their stock, but I see it as the only viable internet marketplace for me to sell on.
I do not see any wisdom in its focus on used items, it is what was left after it was left in the dust by more trusted marketplaces. There is some wisdom in not wasting money on what does not sell well.
bennotbill
·1 year agoThe article lost me at the point where it was comparing sales with Walmart and Amazon.
ebay itself has no sales, apart from webspace. And that's only a part loan.
I've always thought that ebays dominant niche was used items. Many rare which you can find no where else. It's a pity they no longer seem to make the most of that.
my-cottage-books-and-antiques
OP1 year ago@bennotbill If you read the entire article, you will see that he is saying very clearly that ebay and Amazon no longer really compete for the same buyer base, and that ebay is wisely focused on its own niche of used and so forth.
bennotbill
·1 year agoI'm not sure where the author of that article got that but it clearly dates way back to the find it on ebay ads. Not so much on any of the recent ads. ebays focus must be drifting or just plain adrift.
All the current UK ebay ads are about "free" to sell. With the ad basically showing get rid of your unwanted household gifts.
luckythewinner
·1 year ago"Seeking Alpha is a crowd-sourced content service that publishes news on financial markets.
{snip}
Independent contributors, mostly from the buy side, write almost all of the articles published by the service and are paid based on how many subscribers access their articles."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seeking_Alpha
m60driver
·1 year agoFirst, Seeking alpha is not news, more just investing opinion with lots of somewhat more sophisticated "pump and dump" schemes compared to the penny stock folks but it does have a few decent contributors.
Second, the title says it all "dominate its niche" as it is a matter of how you want to define that niche.
fbusoni
·1 year agoThanks, that was worth reading.
Not sure I'd buy eBay stock, however.
And then there was this:
"Also, eBay's seller protection policy ensures that sellers are cared for and valued."
Clearly Mr. Arroyo is not an eBay seller. 😉
valueaddedresource
·1 year ago@my-cottage-books-and-antiques there were definitely some interesting points there but my first thought was anyone who is using information from eBay's 2002 Investor Day presentation, while apparently doing very little analysis on how the strategies presented back then have actually worked out (or not) or whether eBay has delivered on some of those promises in the last 3 years (or not), is probably missing some things. 😉
fbusoni
·1 year ago@valueaddedresource
OMG, thanks... I thought for a moment that I was either in a time warp or was imagining things! ðŸ˜
So much for taking advice from online financial sources. 🤣
valueaddedresource
·1 year ago@fbusoni I wouldn't say that analysis should be completely discarded - like I said there were some good and interesting points there.
But for example, it does not show the full picture if you talk about the focus vertical/enthusiast buyer strategy as laid out at Investor Day 2022, then quote total active buyer and GMV stats from Q4 2024 without any mention of the fact that while eBay has managed to eke out a small increase in total buyers, the number of enthusiast buyers has stayed stagnant at ~16 Million since Q4 2022.
That would tend to suggest the focus vertical/enthusiast buyer strategy hasn't been as successful as eBay hoped and in my opinion, I wouldn't trust a "buy" rating from anyone who is either unaware of that or uninclined to include that information in their analysis for whatever reason.
tarotfindsandmore
·1 year agoThis is an extremely important point. I do think eBay may actually fare even better than expected as a result of the tariffs being imposed on China, however, which will likely make it more difficult for the monsters that are Amazon and Wal-Mart to continue to dominate the markets the way they have been. Both of those companies will not be protected by the de minimus rules that independent sellers on eBay have working in their favor (for now).