eBay vs Amazon (The full comparison)

whether you are a new seller wanting to expand your business on online networks or just a customer who decided to buy an item from the internet, you may ask yourself, “who will win the eBay vs Amazon rivalry?”

In this complete article, I will review the whole comparison of eBay vs amazon, including selling on eBay vs Amazon, eBay vs amazon fees, and also answering the final question, “is it better to sell on Amazon or eBay?”.

What is Amazon?

Before anything, let’s start with the basic information of two online market giants;

• Date of foundation: July 5, 1994, in Bellevue, Washington, U.S.
• Founder: Jeff Bezos
• Number of employees: 1,608,000
• Total assets: $420.549 billion
• Operating income: $24.879 billion
• Headquarters: Seattle, Washington, U.S.
• Website: amazon.com

Amazon was founded by Jeff Bezos from his garage in Bellevue, Washington, and it went off the public in 1997. In 1998, the music and video subsidiaries of Amazon started to function, and with 75 fulfillment centers and 25 sortation centers, nowadays you can find almost anything in this environment.

Pros & Cons of Selling on Amazon

A question: is selling on amazon worth it? There are some advantages and disadvantages to selling items on Amazon, which can change your mind in eBay vs Amazon dilemma. The first advantage is more sales; because millions of people visit the Amazon website each month to look for their favorites. Therefore, shoppers can come across products their interested in and, in doing so, discover your shop. The next advantage has the potential to expand your business globally. Amazon is a vast market, so that any merchant can send their products directly to more than 20 countries. You also need to pay less marketing costs; as the Amazon website works as its own search engine and attracts millions of customers daily, you need less effort to gain more audience for your online store.

Not everything about Amazon brings you happiness; because of millions of merchants, there is massive competition on Amazon, and you need to swim in order not to sink intensely. More after, Amazon charges retailers’ a hefty commission for every product sold through them. So you need to have a clear strategy about what you exactly want to sell on the platform.

What is eBay?

Let’s switch to eBay and see what we can learn about this platform;

• Date of foundation: September 3, 1995
• Founder: Pierre Omidyar
• Number of employees: 13,500
• Total assets: $18.174 billion
• Operating income: $2.321 billion
• Headquarters: San Jose, California, U.S.
• Website: ebay.com

eBay is the second e-Commerce network in the U.S. behind Amazon, but the biggest auction-style selling platform in the world. This is a multibillion-dollar business with operations in about 32 countries as of 2019. Formerly called AuctionWeb, French-born Iranian-American computer programmer Pierre Omidyar founded eBay. eBay was actually a bigger version of Pierre’s personal website.

Pros & Cons of Selling on eBay

Similar to Amazon, you will encounter a vast marketplace when trying to open an account on eBay. As the statistics of 2017, eBay reached more than 180 million active users so that any businessperson can boost its profit quickly. The next good point about eBay website is that you can sell “anything” on your eBay store; No matter what your niche, there’s an audience on eBay waiting for you.

On the other side of selling eBay, there are some enforced rules and restrictions so that the seller doesn’t have nearly as much control over certain aspects of business, such as return policy. The following bad news is selling fees. In general, if you have a low-profit margin, you may not get any benefit from eBay.

eBay vs Amazon

It is time to gather data about eBay vs. Amazon’s competition. Well, the date foundation of two 90s-born giants is near each other, but there is a significant gap in the number of employees. This is happening because the framework of the two online markets is totally different; Amazon contains a vast selling chain management with lots of sorting centers and warehouses, compared to the action-style managing strategy of eBay, which requires fewer employees.

If you have a bookstore or storage of books and magazines, selling books on eBay vs Amazon is an important issue for you. In general, Amazon has a more extensive marketplace for selling books and published content; therefore, you will attract more “reader” customers on Amazon compared to eBay.

Amazon vs eBay: Market Size and Selling Potential

Do you want to sell on Amazon or eBay? To answer this question, many aspects of selling on eBay vs. Amazon should be considered; in eBay vs Amazon comparison, Amazon has a bigger market size, though we can see a different customer character in each platform. As mentioned earlier, eBay has more than 180 million active users, and nearly one-third of these customers are outside of the United States. On the other hand, according to demographic data, Amazon buyers tend to be wealthier. Researches reveal that the average Amazon shopper is between 45 and 54 years old, married, and has a college education.

One of the crucial factors about selling on eBay vs Amazon is being trustworthy from the customer’s view. Unfortunately, eBay order built a reputation for hosting scammers a few years back in some respects, and this can be a big advantage for the rival in eBay vs Amazon competition. Although the subject of trustfulness has improved significantly on eBay, we can conclude Amazon has earned the trophy here.

Pros And Cons Of Selling On Amazon vs eBay

The first item about selling on Amazon vs eBay is selling fees. In the field of eBay vs Amazon fees, by visiting the official website, you can understand that Amazon offers two plans for their users; an “Individual” plan, which charges $0.99 per item sold, and a “Professional” plan which charges $39.99 per month. Referral fees on Amazon are different per category, which is averagely %2. On the other hand, you have to pay 12.9% on the total amount of the sale up to $7,500 calculated per item. This percentage will be 2.35% on the portion of the deal over $7,500. A charge of $0.30 per order will be added to the final fee. As you can see, you need to pay more on eBay compared to Amazon.

Is it easier to sell on eBay or Amazon? Although eBay is quicker and less complicated when it comes to listing your products, you need to handle more restriction rules on eBay vs Amazon. On eBay, sellers can list used, unique, or unusual items alongside cheaper versions of products. However, Amazon has the added advantage of their FBA service, taking all the hassle of storage, packing, and posting out of your hands, saving you a considerable amount of time and effort.

Summary

Thank you for reading this article. We have provided full advice on selling on eBay vs Amazon. Is it better to sell on Amazon or eBay? Amazon is a better place for those guys who are new to this field (though it is hard to remain alive in Amazon’s high competition). Suppose you are asking yourself to sell on eBay or Amazon. In that case, the true answer is that each platform has its own positive points, and it is better to gather as much information as with the help of this eBay vs Amazon competition to make a better decision. Is selling on Amazon worth it? Maybe. But always keep this in your mind that “you” are the person who is going to make a huge change in your business trend, rather than the online market platform itself