Is eBay poised to pass Amazon in Internet Sales???

[mr_lincoln]

From a C/Net article:

"Amazon on Monday confirmed that it's significantly delaying US deliveries of nonessential items, as part of its effort to get more medical supplies and household staples to its customers during the coronavirus pandemic. According to product listings on its website, some of these shipments will be delayed by as much as a month."

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One advantage eBay has is that it's Sellers are individual accounts, NOT warehouse based.  With Amazon "delaying" shipments on non-essential items as much as a month perhaps Buyers will be less likely to purchase from them not wanting to wait that long?!?  If eBay Sellers can still ship their items they stand a good chance of having their sales increase IMHO.

[calntom]

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@luckythewinner wrote:

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@chapeau-noir wrote:
I do think there will be a shift of "non-essential" commodities onto eBay from Amazon sellers who can't sell them right now through the site (with their 50,000 free listings and all).

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The only sales affected by Amazon''s shipping delay are items fulfilled by Amazon. 

There are still plenty of sellers on Amazon who have their own inventory and ship their own items.

IMHO many sales will simply go to another Amazon seller, not necessarily to an eBay seller. 

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I "think" 3rd party sellers shipping from there own locations outsell the Amazon warehouses though I don't have the exact data to back that up.

What I am seeing across all platforms is an extremely low volume of customers with "business accounts" making purchases. 

I am down ~80% on ebay and 90% on The River, as expected.  

I think eBay played a trump card with the free listings. Should definitely increase purchasing from the site and garner a tad bit of AZ's chunk.

It is about time eBay did something that looks like a lock, to be a winner.

[scstool]

Until Ebay leases a fleet of cargo aircraft, buys thousands of cargo trailers and a fleet of delivery vans, opens mega distribution systems with robots whizzing around, and acquires a maritime license I doubt they will be catching up to Amazon. FWIW my sales have picked up on Ebay, still slow on Amazon.

[chapeau-noir]

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@scstool wrote:

Until Ebay leases a fleet of cargo aircraft, buys thousands of cargo trailers and a fleet of delivery vans, opens mega distribution systems with robots whizzing around, and acquires a maritime license I doubt they will be catching up to Amazon. FWIW my sales have picked up on Ebay, still slow on Amazon.

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That's why I always scratched my head at this obsession with eBay being Amazon Lite - year after year, the CEOs chased this.  What didn't they understand about logistics?  Sometimes I think it was just all ego.  Geez - run eBay as eBay, fix and refine the site - Amazon sells what everyone sells, there's nothing else like eBay (though I'm afraid that's slipping away - they could have done more to capture and dominate the huge and growing pre-owned and reseller market that has fragmented, but that's just my own theory and I have as many of those as opinions and we all know about opinions 🙄).

[prettywoman-2012]

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@earlyant-77 wrote:

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PA just announced 3 more counties today under a stay at home order. I think I might start listing more than the few I'm able to get to every now and then, although mine isn't one of them.

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Yes, PA friends of us told us they used to get people coming down from New York by the busload, and bought everything in their local stores, so they are kind of glad to hear that the Prez just announced, he is mulling a quarantine order for New York, CT, NJ  - at least partially. Not only did those people increase the likelihood of PA residents getting the virus, but they - especially in the North-Eastern part of PA - were left with no supplies. We shall see tomorrow, what happens. 

Take care

PW🐿

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

chapeau-noir, I think ebay's current VP, Jordan Sweetnam, pretty much agrees with you. Unfortunately, I imagine some of the changes he was hoping to make might be put on hold due to the Virus problem, but he has made pretty clear that ebay should be ebay, not Amazon Lite. It also remains to be seen whether the "activist investors" agree with him or not. But there's at least some reason for optimism on that front.

[vintagecraze50]

I posted a few days ago wondering if my sales would go down the toilet for non essential stuff, and so far, I am moving along quite well this week. People who have funds, and will continue to have funds will continue to buy what they want and they will be more inclined to buy it online than going out to a store.  Also, people who love to shop will find shopping online a great stress relief. Remember , shopping is therapy for a lot of people, especially women.  

[vintagecraze50]

Then again, Ebay may have the best of both world’s— The same stuff AMZ style, and the smaller sellers who have been faithful and plugging along for years giving their customer’s great stuff at great prices, unique, preowned, cant find anywhere else.  Let’s hope that as with all of us this pandemic helps us rethink what’s the most important in our lives and shakes up things in a very positive way.

[chapeau-noir]

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@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:
chapeau-noir, I think ebay's current VP, Jordan Sweetnam, pretty much agrees with you. Unfortunately, I imagine some of the changes he was hoping to make might be put on hold due to the Virus problem, but he has made pretty clear that ebay should be ebay, not Amazon Lite. It also remains to be seen whether the "activist investors" agree with him or not. But there's at least some reason for optimism on that front.

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I was feeling that way, too.  His remark that a lot of things 'don't make much sense' on this site made me laugh out loud - ya think?!  It feels like we're kind on a holding pattern on top of a holding pattern - no permanent CEO and if they're actually looking for one they're keeping it a secret (which may be legit) so we have an interim sort of placeholder minding the shop, laid atop this is a further holding pattern (or shall we call it a stall?) with the virus.

My clothing is not selling much at all and in fact I've dropped significantly below eBay market comparison which has never, ever happened since those stats started to be published - usually I exceed it, often by a good margin. The DH speculates that what I sell isn't really stuff people are going to wear around at home and since we're watching our pennies, are not investing in right now.  He has a good point.  He suggested pajamas LMAO - that's not a bad idea!

[mr_lincoln]

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@prettywoman-2012 wrote:

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@earlyant-77 wrote:

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PA just announced 3 more counties today under a stay at home order. I think I might start listing more than the few I'm able to get to every now and then, although mine isn't one of them.

---

Yes, PA friends of us told us they used to get people coming down from New York by the busload, and bought everything in their local stores, so they are kind of glad to hear that the Prez just announced, he is mulling a quarantine order for New York, CT, NJ  - at least partially. Not only did those people increase the likelihood of PA residents getting the virus, but they - especially in the North-Eastern part of PA - were left with no supplies. We shall see tomorrow, what happens. 

Take care

PW🐿

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Yes, here in PA we're watching the virus spread across the state moving primarily east to west.  While I think the first 2 weeks of quarantine and social distancing measures  have helped I still believe the virus was here long before the Government became aware of it and deaths or illnesses were simply chalked up to pneumonia or the annual flu ...

We were talking about the regular annual flu today and earlier this week the President mentioned in one of the new conferences on Covid-19 that this season we may lose upwards of 50,000 Americans to it (the regular annual flu) but then talk turned to Covid-19.  We're losing 25K to 50K annually from the flu ... and nobody freaks out when I think they should because for the most part it all comes from the same place.  I really hope after Covid-19 the world bans together and confronts the guilty country to let them know that unless they clean up their act the rest of the world is going to shut them off each year from November to April ... trust me, it would only take one year of that and they would fix their problem(s).  Not doing something like that like saying its okay for thousands and thousands of people to die each year because one small part of the world is allowed to eat wild animals carrying viruses ...

[bar-29368]

To be fair, we eat 'wild animals' here as well, but yes, big difference between eating venison and rabbit (I refuse to ever eat a squirrel or a possum) and their penchant for rodents and bats etc.

[the*dog*ate*my*tablecloth]

My old neighbors were from Tennessee and used to eat squirrels. That was about 20 years ago.

This virus is not going to slow down until the non responsive States lose a bunch of people and start shutdowns. I’m really annoyed that I’ve been in my house for over two weeks and there are people living like nothing is happening and going to restaurants and on vacation. Of course now you’re starting to see some public virus hoaxers getting sick and a few have died. It seems to be a case of self deployed Darwin theory.

[mr_lincoln]

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@bar-29368 wrote:
To be fair, we eat 'wild animals' here as well, but yes, big difference between eating venison and rabbit (I refuse to ever eat a squirrel or a possum) and their penchant for rodents and bats etc.

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And to be equally fair, the US eating its wild game is a lot different from the "wet markets" (I believe that is the term) in China that have been identified by the rest of the world as a breeding ground for influenza. 

[dk0]

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@mr_lincoln wrote:

We were talking about the regular annual flu today and earlier this week the President mentioned in one of the new conferences on Covid-19 that this season we may lose upwards of 50,000 Americans to it (the regular annual flu) but then talk turned to Covid-19.  We're losing 25K to 50K annually from the flu ... and nobody freaks out when I think they should because for the most part it all comes from the same place.  I really hope after Covid-19 the world bans together and confronts the guilty country to let them know that unless they clean up their act the rest of the world is going to shut them off each year from November to April ... trust me, it would only take one year of that and they would fix their problem(s).  Not doing something like that like saying its okay for thousands and thousands of people to die each year because one small part of the world is allowed to eat wild animals carrying viruses ...

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First of all, humans don't contract a virus from eating wild animals, they contract it from handling/touching things contaminated with viruses.  It's not so much what people eat, it's the fact that in many markets, live animals of many different species are sold in very tight quarters, allowing viruses from different species to mix and mutate.  While many influenza viruses do appear to originate in Asia, that is hardly a "small part of the world", and constitutes billions of people.

Keeping animals of different species apart to reduce opportunities for them to mutate would be ideal, but would not be a total solution.  Animals of different species are kept in close quarters on farms worldwide, and also come into contact with one another in the wild.

But, viruses can originate anywhere, and the most likely origination of the deadly so-called "Spanish flu" from a century ago was either Europe or the US.  (The first known case was diagnosed in the US.)  More recently, the H1N1 swine flu outbreak from 2009 is believed to have it's origin in Mexico or the US.  Pigs and birds unfortunately are good at exchanging viruses, and I am pretty sure you will find them on the same farms all over the world.

The "seasonal" flu viruses are already circulating in the human population, and there is no way to prevent them from continuing to do so short of quarantining all of humanity until they are eradicated.  These viruses mutate over time just enough to evade the immune responses of the human body which allows them to persist.  These mutations often come from Asia, but it has nothing to do with what people eat, it's a function of population density, climate, etc.

Lastly, the seasonal flu has a much lower mortality rate than COVID-19.  Additionally, we are able to determine which flu varieties are prevalent in a given year and create flu vaccines accordingly.  (It's not an exact science as there is significant lead time between the observations and the vaccines being ready for large numbers of people.)  I don't know what percentage of people in the US get the flu vaccine each season, but if everyone received a vaccine, that would certainly reduce the number of infections, slow the spread and reduce deaths.

[lindyslucky]

I just read a book about the 1918 influenza.

Yes, it was a "bird flu" too.

Started with ducks kept for soldiers food. 

Pigs  were kept with ducks, so it went from one species to another.

Not that many bird flus have been identified.

It appears (duh) that if we are going to have enormous trade with China, and the possibility of influenza is there, then there is going to have to be some kind of agreement to regulate those live bird markets. 

After we get through this flu. 

If we ever get leaders who pay attention to such things.

All that hype about tariffs,  & a bird flu is taking us down.

Of course Americans eat squirrel & rabbit.

Usually not coon or possum. (But, I did once have a man tell me that his grandfather used to catch possums & cage them, feeding them only milk for a month, and it was the best meat you could ever have. Haven't tried it) 

People didn't hunt deer for a long time because there weren't many. They were nearly extinct in the 1920s. 

Americans also hunt & eat birds. Wild turkey, doves, quail, geese, duck. 

The issue is keeping animals live in a market with other animals & people.

A lot of people fish too. And eat blackberries.(& other berries)

Not a wild food issue. 

Storage and food chain issue.

[lindyslucky]

Ok you said it much better than I.

I was posting just before yours showed up, or I wouldn't have bothered.

I was referring to the "bird flu" when I was discussing storage.