We’ve always highlighted the importance of shipping options when selling online—and the major marketplaces like Amazon and eBay continue to innovate in this area. eBay’s latest announcements definitely help its sellers in many ways….
Multiple Delivery Options
Not all buyers have the same priorities or the same urgency so it’s always worth offering them options in terms of how quickly you can ship an item. However, with most, speed of delivery is a big competitive advantage and now sellers can avail of eBay’s Fast & Free badge if they’re choosing to deliver with three days with free postage.
Postage Costs
With margins very small for many online sellers, postage costs become ever more important to a seller’s bottom line, so eBay have made it even easier to buy competitive postage through their postage label service, which allows sellers to select, pay and print labels direct from Royal Mail, Parcelforce Worldwide and Collect+. Discounts are available on certain services and sellers will undoubtedly save both time and money by being able to manage their postage directly within ‘My eBay’.
Selling Internationally
More and more sellers are exploiting sales internationally to grow their business. For many, the barriers to doing this successfully have always included international fulfilment, the costs of which can be difficult to anticipate and manage. eBay has recently announced a new partnership with TNT Post which will provide a fast, secure and affordable tracked postage service where sellers can drop their international parcels at local Collect+ outlets.
These recent announcements will certainly strengthen eBay’s capabilities in terms of shipping options which is a must if it’s to entice larger sellers to its platform, particularly international sellers. Of course, Amazon’s fulfilment is legendary in this regard (with FBA sellers enjoying a high level delivery service) but a direct comparison with eBay’s options is perhaps akin to comparing Apple computers to PCs or Ronaldo to Messi—it’s near impossible to make a like for like comparison.
Sellers will always prefer one over the other, or increasingly sell across both marketplaces to gain maximum exposure. The introduction of an eBay catalogue to list from will help many sellers price their inventory competitively against their competitors which is much easier to do and more reliable on Amazon and Rakuten’s Play.com right now but its recent innovations with eBay postage and delivery options certainly sees a marketplace maturing and adapting to Amazon’s changes.
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