Helpful Suggestion for eBay...Why not a new eBay "Prime Like" program to help compete with Amazon?

[crownsfieldcellular]

I have no other way to voice this suggestion to eBay (I dont think), So I figured I'd put it here and see if it might get to the right people if they felt it was warranted...

I had an idea today that I thought was worth sharing for eBay, that would ultimately help all of us struggling sellers on here, and eBay as a whole of course too..

The reality is that eBay is Losing to Amazon big time...That reality is the 9000lb gorilla in the room, and the Gorilla who's also sitting on the heads of us who sell on eBay..And it's weight is so great, that I can see it everyday that eBay is scrambling to try keep pace with, and combat it's loss of ground to that Gorilla (Amazon)..In everyway possible.  

This 9000lb gorilla, like any Gorilla?  Has to be dealt with and addressed.  Its a matter of survival at this point...

When you think about it though, Amazon really just has ONE HUGE Advantage in the market right now over eBay, and thats the PRIME shipping program...All of the other benefits of Prime are nice (I know because I'm a member), but they PALE incomparison to the FREE PRIME 2 day shipping, with the guaranteed delivery...

And this is the only aspect of Prime that is really killing eBay..It's the only area the two companies really compete...Consumer product sales and order fulfillment....

The Prime Shipping aspect ALONE is what is driving all of these buyers to Amazon, and crushing ebay and all of us eBay sellers (at least those of us who sell stuff you can get on Amazon)...

So it would stand to reason to me, that if eBay could devise a competing program of the same like to PRIME, with shipping similar shipping benefits?  Then it would immediately GAIN back a lot of ground, and people would start migrating back (IMO) to eBay..

It's a very simple concept, especially now that eBay has proven that they can implement a "guaranteed delivery" program without a lot of pain to the seller, or I think themselves financially..I think that program has been a success, however I am not behind the scenes at eBay, so only they would know...

But essentially what they did was take on the same finanicial liability that Amazon does (in a way) if a package is late.  In my opinion?  Smart, Bigger picture move...Short term loss possibly for what could be a substancial long term gain...

So I say:  Why not take this a step further? 

When we consider that Amazon DOES NOT in anyway offer its customers (me included) PRIME for "Free"...

No, it's a Buyers Club...And not a cheap one at that...

Presently I think a PRIME membership is $129 a year(?)...So it's not a give away by any means...But in the end? 

Depsite all the Free 2 Day shipping they contract with UPS?  I'm 99.9% sure they come out on top of that, and WAYYYYY On top ..

.100 million buyers paying $129 a year?  Is $12.9 BILLION A YEAR...That covers A LOT more than all the free two day shipping folks..

To that effect?  I give you my vision for the "eBay PRIORITY BUYER Program"  (the name is just my own off hand creation, it could be better)...

How about this:

eBay already has serious contracts with the post office, as we all know... And I can tell you this - USPS Priority is WAYYYY cheaper than UPS 2 Day, on ANYHTING...You're probably talking like $10-$15 cheaper or more on any size package, any weight, anything...

Priority mail BLOWS away UPS in price, and I would say in my experience?  It's just as fast, if not FASTER sometimes...Priority Mail ROCKS..

So given this fact, and the existing relationships that eBay has with USPS already?  Why not implement a whole new program like that would work like this:

Buyers on eBay are made an offer to join the new "eBay Priority Buyer Program". 

The program is simple, and OUTSTANDING if you shop on eBay a lot (or are going to once you join the program for sure). 

For a Yearly Membership fee of half of what Prime costs, call it $65 a year billed upfront(?) -  You now get priority FREE PRIORITY MAIL SHIPPING on ANYTHING you buy on eBay (from select sellers). 

This only applies however when you purchase from TOP RATED PRIORITY SELLERS, in the USA.   Who also are a part of the already in place Guaranteed Shipping Program (Sellers who have a track record of fast shipping and who meet the guidelines for TRS obviously).  T

hese sellers now automatically are offered the new TRS PRIORITY SELLER Badge for their listings, and only they can implement the program for buyers.

When the buyers buy from these sellers as members of the new Program, eBay takes their memebership fees, and eBay then pay for the Priority Mail shipping on those orders; and provides the sellers who are participating Free Priority Mail Shipping labels for those purchases. 

As great sellers already we do our part and keep our end of the bargain, and provide One day Shipping (which we do anyway as TRS's with the badge), and in return, we also get a MASSIVE increase in Sales because of our participation in the program..

Buyers now get exactly the same thing they get on Amazon as far as Fast Free Shipping that they pay a yearly premium for, as eBay uses the membership fees to foot the bills, while luring back customers AND giving Amazon a nice well deserved punch back in their face, HARD...

On the back end, eBay can make a very SWEET deal with USPS (just like I know Amazon did with UPS for the Prime Program), and on that note EVERYONE would win...

USPS, eBay, Us as reputable sellers who are good enough to make the cut of the program criteria, and the Buyers ESPECIALLY WOULD LOVE THIS, and LOVE ebay for it...It's a Classic, WIN WIN WIN WIN with almost no downside to anyone..

In my opinion, eBay by doing this would attract even more professional sellers and companies who have gone over to Amazon now;

And all the little guys/newbies would be striving again to make TRS, because now it would really mean something again...Namely HUGE SALES...

BUT they would have to conform to the program criteria, which would be EXTREMELY tight (and rightfully so)...

But it honestly wouldn't be too much tighter than what were dealing with now as TRS's, except now we'd have HUGE sales benefits that come with all the circus hoops again..

With all the buyers eBay has already?  This would be a no brainer...I would sign up for this in a HEARTBEAT at $65 or $70 bucks a year (or a little more), and you know what?  From my perspective as buyer on both eBay and Amazon?  If they rolled this kind of program out and I joined?  I would definitely stop favoring Amazon all the time to get my "Prime Shipping"...

If there was an eBay alternative to that?  I would definitely buy on here more than I do (sad to say I dont as much as on Amazon anymore)...

It's got a lot of moving parts, and needs some refinement of course, but I say to eBay;  Why Not????  Why not try something like this to regain some relevance out there again, and go for Amazons throat?   Theyre going for yours, and you know it...

eBay has been trying to mimic Amazon in so many ways....Guys?  If you're gonna do it anyway?  You might as well go ALL IN and do it right....And from where I'm standing eBay would have absolutely nothing to lose by doing this...

It's not like they'd be offering free Priority shipping to whole site..Just to members...Then as the program grows and gets bigger and bigger (like Prime did)?  It can evolve and more and more can be offered and it can be perfected...

I really, really hope that someone from eBay gets this to right people to consiser this as an idea for a future program...Because this might not be the thing that absolutely saves eBay from totally sinking out there...But it would sure get rid of A LOT of Onboard water ebay is taking on right now...

Any thoughts are welcome, but I think at least something LIKE this has to be done by eBay, and this plan is just to feasible to ignore...

[annadryl]

A company that huge can afford to ship fast and cheap, albiet with much waste and damage. Little sellers? How can we do that without adding express shipping to each item and asking the customers to pay for it? How can relatively BIG sellers even pull that off?

Also, Prime customers have to pay $120 a year for this perk. Shipping is NEVER free, but buyers today assume it is BECAUSE of giants like that (and other giants trying to compete with them.

Ebay is a ton of little sellers, Amz is pretty much the biggest seller anywhere.

[alcoforever]

I think it could work if ebay used some or all of that Priority Buyer Program money to compensate sellers for the fast shipping.   To put the burden completely on the sellers, on top of all the other carp, would not work.

[trueartworx]

ebay Plus already being tested in some locations internationally 

A successful business does not need to compete with any similars if making clear profits. Making the most out of the least, is just greed and every platform has it's drawbacks.

My opinion, the bad items, bad feedback system and bad sellers  have taken a toll on ebay shoppers and sellers here. 
They should freshen up thier site, add something to bring more attention. ebay buck lotteries lol

[mr_lincoln]

@crownsfieldcellular  Wow, nice post but I only got as far as the first 9000 gorilla and realized that at the end of the day eBay needs to STOP trying to compete head to head with Amazon and figure out some angles that sets them apart (like the collectibles, antiques, etc. they got started with) and build the new products sales off of that ... even if it means they create a new site for that.

Maybe have like eBay and NewBay ... they can't use OldBay and NewBay because of the Old Bay seasoning, might be a law suit in the making there ...

[missjen831]

Are you aware that ebay has a Prime program in both Germany and Australia and that it could be coming soon to the US?

[bonnie-lass]

A friend of mine sells on 4 platforms; ebay, amazon, his own website and a brick and mortar store.

He does not understand why amazon sales are steady but his ebay sales are down despite amazon requiring him to ship and sell at almost twice the cost of his ebay store.  

I suspect it's marketing.

[castlemagicmemories]

Ebay already has a Prime program in Australia and I think, Germany.

As far as TRS sellers, many buyers believe TRS means nothing due to bad experiences and some have posted that they actively avoid TRS sellers due to bad experiences.

Others have posted this, and this is my own experiences as well.

[luckythewinner]

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@crownsfieldcellular wrote:

The reality is that eBay is Losing to Amazon big time...That reality is the 9000lb gorilla in the room, and the Gorilla who's also sitting on the heads of us who sell on eBay..And it's weight is so great, that I can see it everyday that eBay is scrambling to try keep pace with, and combat it's loss of ground to that Gorilla (Amazon)..In everyway possible.  

This 9000lb gorilla, like any Gorilla?  Has to be dealt with and addressed.  Its a matter of survival at this point...

---

eBay's dollar volume of merchandise sold has shown year-over-year growth every quarter for two years at least.  The site helped move almost $90 billion in merchandise last year. 

I do not think eBay's survival depends upon it competing with a company that also sells directly to buyers, is a huge provider of cloud computing resources, and provides music and video streaming services, video hardware, and has recently moved in to the grocery store business.

IMHO there is plenty of room for a site dedicated to resale alongside Amazon. 

[ag47silver-us]

Why not have two identical websites with different names. That consistently use misnomers for everything. That way everyone can pay for free shipping so you can get a partial free return and get some no contrast positive feedback. All for some electronic techno equivalent of a fidget spinner.

[mam98031]

You should look a little closer at what Amazon Prime offers to it's subscribers.  Ebay does not have many of those options even available to anyone so they can't compete with the program.  I'm not sure how you expect Ebay to compete with it.  

Things Ebay does not have or can't offer.

Ebay does not sell any of it's own products.

Ebay does not carry any product inventory.

Alexa type products.

No grocery store.

Video streaming

Music streaming

And all kinds of other stuff.

[twnpopcards]

Just how much of that Prime charge do you think that Ebay will share with its sellers??  If that were to happen all it would be is more money into Ebays pockets with sellers having to eat the extra cost of the priority shipping to get the item to the person.  Sellers would all be forced to raise their prices to cover that cost and then Ebay would complain that our prices are to high and we need to lower them or nobody will buy from Ebay.

Also Amazon has a lot of other things that come with the Prime Account and Ebay has nothing to offer at all other than maybe unlimited Stub Hub purchases..LOL  As greedy as Ebay is that will never happen but that is about the only product that EBay owns and could possibly give to a customer for a Prime Annual Fee. The biggest difference is that Amazon actually does own some inventory but also stores it  and packages it from multiple facilities which again, Ebay does not have. 

Most sellers would just move more merchandise to other sites so they could manage to sell it since the buyers would be looking for everything free just as they do with Amazon.  

[sassykzt]

You do realize that Amazon leases 40 planes and has 1.5 billion dollar cargo hub in Northern KY in order to deliver its prime packages?    Beyond planes, the company has bought thousands of its own truck trailers and is also starting to act as an ocean freight shipping operator to move goods between China and the U.S.   Can you imagaine eBay doing any of this?  All the shipping falls upon the sellers at eBay w/ really no help other than a discount in shipping costs w/ USPS, UPS, Fed Ex. 

[dazzlecity]

No one can compete with Amazon - once that is accepted the struggle might be over. Ebay would have to make a ridiculously huge investment back into the company which they are not going to do. Amazon has distribution centers all over the country now - of course they can get it to you in 2 days. They also have a HUGE contract with the PO much better than the ebay agreement. Ebay needs to focus on what made it good from the start. It's uniqueness. Amazon doesn't have everything. Sort out what they don't have. AND sellers are raising their prices over there. Example: I recently priced an Anita Baker CD on amazon - $18ish plus shipping because I'm not prime. Curious I searched ebay and bought the same item - new - for $10ish. She's coming to Vegas soon and my friend asked me to buy it for him. Anyway - I thought that was pretty interesting that I found it here at a better price - a much better price.  Was happy to give the money to an ebay seller. As for Prime - well I can't be the only person on the planet that feels that I don't need to pay someone for the priviledge of spending more money. I don't go to trade shows or other selling venues that charge to get in so why would I pay Amazon? wake up America 

[lewisburggold]

Now that is a impresive post my friend.  Best regards