- eBay charges up front a "listing fee", Amazon is free to list
- eBay charges a selling fee, Amazon only charges a selling fee
- eBay customers are looking for a bargain, Amazon customers have higher incomes and are looking for something they can't find elsewhere.
- eBay you can sell almost anything, Amazon limits the seller to certain categories and items
Amazon also sells high end jewelry and fine furnishings like a tv lift cabinet. I doubt very much if I could even trust a seller that has a diamond ring for sale on eBay. Amazon also protects it's buyers better than eBay so there is where most of the good customers are. If you are selling online and have not checked out Amazon.com then by all means do so.
2 comments:
A couple of things I could add in favor and against both platforms:
Against Amazon
THE SELLERS PERSPECTIVE: This is a big setback for serious websites with serious marketing strategies: only Amazon can send follow-up marketing e-mails to customers who make purchases at Amazon.com, even if it’s a third-party retailer fulfilling the order. In other words, this means that every time an online store sells one product through Amazon, it scores an additional sale, but Amazon is the one acquiring the customer.
In favor of Amazon (Against eBay)
The "A-Z Guarantee": Whenever someone buys something on Amazon, even if it's from a 3rd party seller, you know the product is guaranteed. If the product is defective or materially different from the originall specs, Amazon will tend to rule in favor of the buyer. This is very different from what an eBay buyer can do. The most an eBay buyer can do if unsatisfied is give a bad feedback or go to the resolution center (Good luck !)
There are more reasons and a deeper analysis in my blog article about “Amazon vs ebay” post at http://mbainternetmarketingmanager.blogspot.com/2008/10/online-retailing-amazon-vs-ebay-selling.html
Some of what Pedro mentioned in his comment is not longer true. It is now over a year later since I wrote that post and Pedro commented and lots has happened to both eBay and Amazon. Since I have sold items on Amazon I can truely say that Pedro mentioned the fact about sellers not gaining customers is not true at all. You have your customer's contact info and you can contact them. You can put your contact info in the shipment too. Most people that seriously sell on Amazon also pay for the Amazon store so they are not likely to need to contact the customer since Amazon does such a great job of doing that. Amazon also advertises better than eBay does.
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