Let’s talk about these two powerhouses, which rank among the most popular online shopping sites in the world. eBay and Amazon are the oldest online marketplaces on the internet, and both platforms have millions of members, helping sellers generate massive sales. But which is better – selling on Amazon or eBay?
If we rewind 10 years or so, eBay probably would have been the winner. But in the last decade, Amazon has undergone phenomenal growth, with a laser-focused approach to perfecting customer experience.
On Amazon, there are different selling structures, as well as marketing and advertising tools to help sellers maximise visibility and grow their sales. Compared to eBay, there seems to be
But when it comes to reaching those business goals, who comes up on top in the marketplace battle? Here’s a look at eBay vs. Amazon for sellers in terms of sales, fees, marketing tools, and more.
Before we get into the nitty-gritty of it all, it’s important to understand the key differences between these two selling platforms. While they are both online marketplaces that allow individuals and businesses to sell their goods, they operate very differently.
Selling on Amazon or eBay can be two contrasting experiences, and some businesses may choose to sell on both to maximise their reach. While Amazon sells its own products alongside vendors, brands and third-party sellers, eBay facilitates third-party sellers only. Any products you want to sell on eBay (whether by auction or fixed-price format) won’t be competing against eBay themselves.
When you sell your goods on Amazon, you will likely be competing with Amazon’s own product listings too. However, the reality is that you will encounter competition on both sites and it’s not something you can avoid.
Because Amazon also sells its own products, there’s a huge amount of traffic on the site. In fact, over half of all product searches take place on Amazon first, not Google! This means you can take advantage of Amazon’s huge audience, which is a great potential for higher order volume.
When it comes to eBay vs. Amazon for sellers, the fees can be a complicated matter. This is because it all depends on what services you use on Amazon, and whether those services will save you money.
Despite the reputation that eBay has developed over the years for charging extortionate fees (with some people even branding the site “Feebay”), Amazon actually charges sellers much more.
For business sellers, eBay has a FVF (Final Value Fee) of around 10% (depending on the product category), plus a fixed charge of 30p per order. This is a single fee, so you now don’t need to worry about third-party payment processing fees.
There are no closing fees to pay, but there is an additional percentage points fee on top of the FVF for any sellers whose performance level is ‘Below Standard’. This could see your FVF increase up to 15.9% + 30p per order. ‘Above Standard’ and eBay Top-rated Sellers will not be impacted by this additional fee.
There are also additional fees to pay if you open an eBay Shop. The monthly cost ranges from £27 for a Basic Shop, £77 for a Featured Shop, and £437 for an Anchor Shop.
Amazon charges a referral fee for each item sold, with most fees ranging from 8% and 15% (depending on the category). Some products will also incur a closing fee. For instance, books and software have a closing fee of £0.50 per item sold.
The Professional selling plan is also £25 a month, and there may be additional selling fees to watch out for too. For instance, there could be inventory fees or high-volume listing fees (this only applies if you exceed 2 million SKUs in a month).
If you choose to use FBA (Fulfilment by Amazon), you’ll need to pay for any fulfilment services and storage space used. The good news is that there are no subscription fees for FBA and you only pay for what you use, making it a great way to save money compared to your own warehousing and storage facility.
Globally, the fee charged by Amazon tends to be higher than that of eBay. This means that technically, a seller could make more profit per item sold on eBay than Amazon.
However, the potential to sell at much higher volumes to a much bigger audience makes Amazon a better option for a lot of businesses. Not only that, but Amazon offers FBA, which actually saves you money on an operational front. So while FBA charges apply, those charges are still less than what you would pay if you were to store, pack and fulfil orders yourself.
If you’re trying to decide between selling on Amazon or eBay, you shouldn’t judge on fees alone.
When it comes to categories, the two sites differ too. While eBay allows sellers to sell products across every category freely, there are restrictions on Amazon for specific products. These are known as gated categories, and the products include fine art, jewellery and watches, personal safety and household products, automotive and powersports products, and streaming media players.
The reason these categories are restricted is to protect customers. While it can feel like jumping through hurdles with Amazon, verifying sellers and listed items is the best way to reduce risk of fraudulent products going out in circulation.
Consumers are already very aware of the risks of buying certain items on eBay, while many have a lot of trust when they search for products on Amazon. In fact, according to research, 64% of people consider Amazon to be the most trusted marketplace, compared to just 42% for eBay.
The battle of eBay vs. Amazon for sellers definitely sees Amazon being the best option if you care about customer experience. Amazon is the leader when it comes to making sure the customer comes first. Completely unrivalled, the marketplace has set a new standard in e-commerce in terms of product selection, competitive pricing, usability and ease of returns.
Compare the customer service and returns process side by side, and Amazon wins hands-down. Amazon’s A-Z Guarantee ensures that customers receive a full refund if they are dissatisfied with the quality of their purchase, or its delivery time.
Plus, many products come with a prepaid, printed return label (also accessible through the online returns portal online). Returns can be arranged with a click of a button, with multiple options of where to drop the parcel off and some parcel drop locations not even requiring that customers repackage the parcel themselves. This provides an utterly seamless experience for shoppers who don’t have time to package, print and go to a post office themselves.
In contrast, eBay’s policy is much more complicated. Sellers even have the option to choose ‘No Returns’ when they upload a listing, leaving buyers with no recourse if something isn’t as described. While being able to choose ‘No Returns’ may seem like a good idea, it can actually be detrimental to your business.
Looking at the bigger picture, Amazon is giving customers security when they shop on the platform, and this is how the marketplace has skyrocketed to become the most customer-focused platform online.
If you’re deciding between selling on Amazon or eBay, customer experience should be one of the main deciding factors, because it can help to create a better shopping community, one where sellers can thrive through the platform’s success.
In addition to customer service and overall customer experience on the platform, we also want to look at the product experience. After all, it doesn’t matter whether you’re selling on Amazon or eBay, the most important thing is that customers can find what they need. So which platform performs better in terms of product searchability?
Looking at algorithms, Amazon wins again here thanks to its search-engine-like ability to bring back results by brand, average customer review, price, availability, and product category.
Furthermore, Amazon also excels in product education and helping customers feel informed when they make a decision. This is done by the review system, which makes it easy for customers to see exactly how products are performing.
This feature isn’t currently available on eBay, and reviews can only be seen per seller, without a direct link to each product. This means it’s impossible to check how a specific product is being received.
Both eBay and Amazon offer additional services to help professional sellers grow their business. eBay offers a monthly subscription to eBay Shops, which gives you a stylish shopfront for customers to browse your products. Similarly, Amazon offers Amazon Storefront – this is free of charge, but only accessible by brands with an active trademark.
With eBay, you may also be able to access the eBay Concierge service (available to Anchor Shop owners only), and you can upgrade listings for a small fee, or pay for classified ads. But when it comes down to it, and the battle of eBay vs. Amazon for sellers, there are unrivalled levels of tools and features on Amazon.
eBay ads and listing upgrades are all very basic, and while they definitely help you ramp up business, they don’t match up to the marketing and advertising options on Amazon. Sellers on Amazon can run promotions and deals, run ad campaigns, optimise listings with keywords, create Amazon Stores, optimise A+ Content, and more.
It’s clear that there are more hurdles to jump with Amazon though. For instance, if you don’t have an active trademark, you won’t be able to enrol on the Brand Registry, which means you can’t open an Amazon Storefront. So for a lot of sellers, eBay can often be the easier platform to start with.
It’s hard to say whether selling on Amazon or eBay is best for your business, as no two sellers are the same. They are both trusted marketplaces, both with their pros and cons. However, if we are to look at the benefits overall, Amazon is the one we would always recommend. This is particularly the case for growing businesses or brands that are looking to establish a strong online presence.
While some of the pros of eBay include less competition, fewer category restrictions, and easier listing open to all sellers, the platform has a smaller audience compared to Amazon and less buyer trust. It also doesn’t offer a fulfilment service and doesn’t quite hit the mark when it comes to customer experience.
On the flip side, Amazon may have a more complicated structure, more restrictions, and potentially more fees to pay, but there’s a huge audience you can tap into – plus excellent buyer trust. There are also more branding opportunities, as well as intelligent tools and insights to help you take advantage of trends and traffic.
However, we understand that starting out on Amazon can be daunting. It’s certainly more labour-intensive than eBay. For smaller businesses, the returns process offered by Amazon can be costly too. In some cases, it can cost sellers up to 66% of the item’s original price, even if there’s nothing wrong with the product. Due to this, some experienced users of the two platforms would suggest selling on Amazon once they’ve reached a certain threshold, where they can benefit from Amazon in terms of sales volume.
If you’re still unsure what’s best – eBay vs. Amazon for sellers – it could be beneficial to your business to use both. Many companies already do this to maximise their reach. But as Amazon marketing experts who have helped brands grow through the marketplace, we believe that Amazon is the gold standard when it comes seller platforms.
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