Ebay wants to be amazon. But does amazon want to be the real ebay at all?

[99centhousefund]

For some reason ebay wants to be amazon. However there is no chance in the world ebay could ever be amazon. No warehouses, no inventory, no workers to fill orders, etc.

Also is almost anybody going on ebay for Toilet paper & that type stuff?

HOWEVER 

Does anyone really go on amazon for stuff like antiques, collectibles, etc etc etc.

Amazon & ebay may each sell that type of item but do people really go to those sites for them?

Maybe instead of jumping through hoops to be amazon, ebay should more focus on being EBAY!

ebay wants amazons revenues & stock value without any of amazons expenditures!

ebay should go backwards a little to go forward.

Not saying ebay should not take the toilet paper type sales.

HOWEVER

FOCUS on the stuff that took you to the dance!

There is more than enough of a pie for that!

Target, amazon, walmart etc are NOT actively trying to sell that vintage ALF Doll or that Vintage Silver Spoon you need for your set to be complete.

Remember ebay SELLERS are your customers! SELLERS pay the bills. SELLERS provide the inventory. Why do you keep trying to be amazon? You can never & will never be!

BE YOURSELF BE EBAY!

[veronicabooksandart]

Amazon 1.72T
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eBay 41.9B; Mercari 7.8B.... only a matter of time.

[eleanor*rigby]

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@99centhousefund wrote:

For some reason ebay wants to be amazon.

Maybe instead of jumping through hoops to be amazon . . .

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Not disagreeing, but curious what eBay's doing that makes you conclude they want to be Amazon? 

[vintagecraze50]

No they are not amazon but after last Christmas shipping disaster it would be wise for them to consider the warehouse option and their own fleet of delivery trucks. You just do not know what is going to happen with USPS which is EBay’s main shipping service for sellers here and they have not been doing that great folks.

[lowcostsales2014]

How could they do that? Unless you mean ebay buys & houses its own inventory. I dont see many sellers shipping items to a ebay warehouse. That would be telling sellers to Pay to ship items to ebay & then Ebay charging the shipping to the buyer.

the USPS would approve however on the double shipping LOL

[chapeau-noir]

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@eleanor*rigby wrote:

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@99centhousefund wrote:

For some reason ebay wants to be amazon.

Maybe instead of jumping through hoops to be amazon . . .

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Not disagreeing, but curious what eBay's doing that makes you conclude they want to be Amazon? 

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The C-Suite here has been following Amazon around like a pestering little brother for years now, even stating that they're going to take the fight into Amazon's territory (either Donohoe or Wenig), buying up a lot of properties and big commerce which they ended up having to divest, trying to grow fast and big, the catalog system, pushing commodities.  Even that one unfortunate commercial they had a couple of years ago during Prime, with the snotty little girl with the marbles in her mouth called "Alexa" was really all about Amazon, not eBay. The small minority of us here who still sell collectibles, used items, etc. (the stuff people actually go to eBay to find) are only about 17% now and seem to annoy the Suits, like we're the parking lot rabble with rickety card tables and piles tube socks.  I'm not sure how much direction eBay has really had in the last many years - seems like they keep ping-ponging from one concept to another.  Now it's all about vertical markets.  I understand the struggle to stay relevant, though.

[chapeau-noir]

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@lowcostsales2014 wrote:

How could they do that? Unless you mean ebay buys & houses its own inventory. I dont see many sellers shipping items to a ebay warehouse. That would be telling sellers to Pay to ship items to ebay & then Ebay charging the shipping to the buyer.

the USPS would approve however on the double shipping LOL

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They were talking about a 'Fulfilled by eBay' program similar to FBA (fulfilled by amazon) where eBay stores commodities (it wouldn't work really with anything else) in warehouses and uses their own logistics.  Thing is, that's really a tough thing to implement, similar to trying to implement the catalog.  Like the catalog and the ASIN number system, fulfillment and logistics grew up organically with Amazon, whereas eBay has always been a marketplace, so it's a challenge to back-engineer that.

I'm perfectly happy with shipping my own stuff out with USPS, though, particularly I doubt eBay is going to fulfill anyone with my OOAK items lol.

[calntom]

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@vintagecraze50 wrote:

No they are not amazon but after last Christmas shipping disaster it would be wise for them to consider the warehouse option and their own fleet of delivery trucks. You just do not know what is going to happen with USPS which is EBay’s main shipping service for sellers here and they have not been doing that great folks.

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USPS is also the main shipper for Amazon's 3rd Part Sellers which makes up ~50% of Amazon's business.

Amazon 3rd Party Sellers and eBay Sellers choose the carrier or perspective carriers, not Amazon or eBay.

I realize that certain business models with low margins must use USPS to make a profit. That makes it tough. I had to change my business model on Amazon.

The point is that USPS is not the only choice. 

[vintagecraze50]

Personally I would not be using that kind of service becuase I ship stuff just about as fast as Amazon using now Fed Express .  It was one of the best decisions I ever made on here. 

[vintagecraze50]

Good point. If you want fast shipping you have to make the right choice with the right carrier.

[dbfolks166mt]

Now this I would love to see. It would put eBay into an actual seller position as opposed to being simply a facilitator. Maybe after a few months of dealing with INAD's, INR's, scam's, buyer complaints and financial losses  they would begin to feel some of the pain sellers have been feeling for years and eBay has shrugged off and/or cast aside. 

[dbfolks166mt]

Interesting given eBay started as an ecommerce site selling about everything while Amazon started as an online book store. Both companies started about the same time the biggest difference was Amazon had vision and leadership something eBay has always been short on. 

     What is also interesting to look at is the value and stock prices of eBay and PayPal after the 2015 split. Once it was out from under the constraints of eBay PayPal flourished. EBay has held its own but nothing compared to PayPal's rise. 

eBay Stock

July 2015 - $26.03

April 2020 - $61.58

Increase - $35.55/share or about 136%

PayPal Stock

July 2015 - $34.69

April 2020 - $271.72

Increase - $237.03 or about 682%

[patd3283]

EBay & Amazon have 2 things in common:

- They are both corporations

- They are both ecommerce marketplaces

Here they part ways due to dynamic leadership.

- Amazon expanded, created more ways to make money, ie. their cloud storage is huge, they may take over part of USPS, there physical footprint is huge, many employees, etc.

- EBay spent years trying to keep their head above water, depend on others to create $$ for them.  Have spent years trying to keep 180M sellers in line and copying some Amazons systems.  They have become a has run.  Again, dynamic leadership, forward thinking could change the course.

[sales_sales_sales_sales]

Even more so trying to take 180 million individual sellers & conform them into 1 streamlined seller acting the same way as if each of the 180 million were amazon itself.

That was always destined to fail.

[sales_sales_sales_sales]

Even more so trying to take 180 million individual sellers & conform them into 1 streamlined seller acting the same way as if each of the 180 million were amazon itself.

That was always destined to fail.

ebay forgets even if the lose only 1 million due to any reason ( MP! ). Thats 1 MILLION SELLERS ITEMS no longer available on ebay.

Yes a lot of them are replaced by other sellers selling the same items.

HOWEVER

Please do not tell me "ebay dont need them they can always get new sellers"

ebay Cannot replace sellers selling Unique & Rare items.

If I have 1000 sports cards that are either 1 of 1's or numbered to as low as 10 you are NOT replacing those items.

You may get items like it but you are not getting those unique items on ebay anymore.

That is counter to what ebay should want & NEEDS to counter amazon.

amazon will always win on stuff like the new Stephen King book.

ebay CAN win on the unique items you cant find elsewhere.

Instead ebay wants to drive those sellers away.