Which platform is the better choice for 2023? Is it eBay or Amazon? Before we decide, we need to look at what each company has to offer. We need to know how much they charge and what makes them good. Along with this, we need to know what each company does poorly so we can choose the best one.
In short, how you should decide depends on what kind of business you want to run. Even though both platforms are great, some sellers are happy with Amazon even though they can’t customize their own store, and some sellers are happy with eBay because it has an auction system.
Here is what we will talk about:
- Fees paid by the seller
- Number of customers
- Expectations for product quality
- shipping speed
- the ability to sell around the world
Let’s look at the strengths, fees, and rules of each platform. By the end of this article, we should be able to decide which one to choose in a fair way.
Fees paid by the seller
As a seller, this is probably the most important thing that can affect your choice. Before you sell online on a platform run by another company, it makes sense to know how much you will be charged. Is there a fee every month, or do you only pay when something sells? How much is it?
There are a lot of fees on both Amazon and eBay. But there are only two or three fees that sellers tend to pay most of the time.
After you sell an item on eBay, you will have to pay two main types of fees. These things:
- Final Value Fee, or FVF, is 10% of the selling price of the item.
- PayPal Fee: Getting paid costs 2.9% plus $0.30.
Amazon, on the other hand, has three kinds of fees:
- Referral Fees: 6%–45% of the price of the product
- Listing Fee: $0.99 for each item that sells
- Fee for closing: 1.80%
Based on these numbers, it’s easy to say that if you sell on eBay, you’re likely to make more money. The problem is that both companies charge different fees based on what you are selling.
For example, eBay adds 10% to the price of everyday items. That 10% won’t be more than $750. The FVF for books and DVDs is 12%, but it can’t be more than $750. But if you sell big things like tractors, the FVF is only 2% and won’t be more than $300.
On the other hand, Amazon takes between 6% and 45% of the price of the item you just sold. The percentage of the referral fee varies by product category, just like eBay. Amazon charges 15% for books but only 6% for computers.
The thing is, Amazon charges a fixed fee of $0.99 per item you sell, on top of the referral fee. And if you sell a media item like a book or DVD, you have to pay an extra $1.80 closing fee, which you don’t have to do on eBay.
If you don’t want to pay $0.99, you must sign up as a Professional Seller on Amazon. You won’t have to pay that fee, but you will have to pay a monthly subscription fee of $39.99. On eBay, you also have to think about fees, such as insertion fees, which you have to pay if you sell more than 50 items per month.
Number of customers
How many people do these companies reach? We can all agree that the more people who visit your website, the better chance you have of making a sale.
Statista says that as of the last quarter of 2021, there were 183 million active buyers on eBay. In 2010, there were only 89 million. eBay has been safe ever since it first opened.
On the other hand, more than 197 million people use Amazon each month.
At this rate, Amazon has 49% of the market, while eBay has only 6.6%. This shows that Amazon is by far the bigger company, and that more people visit the Amazon site than the eBay site.
Selling on Amazon is clearly better than selling on eBay. In 2017, Amazon sent more than 5 billion items all over the world. Amazon has grown to be that big.
Amazon didn’t get to the top by accident. It leads the market because it comes up with new ways to use technology. Fulfillment by Amazon is a service that Amazon has that eBay does not. With this service, the seller sends all of his items to an Amazon warehouse, and Amazon handles packaging and shipping.
In response, Amazon offered delivery the same day. This made it the market leader in terms of how many people it could reach. Now, Amazon is trying out drones to deliver packages, which could speed up deliveries because the drones would fly locally.
eBay does not do this. eBay only helps with shipping if you sell your items outside of the country. In the eBay Global Shipping Program, you send your items to eBay’s facility in Kentucky, and they send them out.
Alexa was also made by Amazon, and the Echo changed the way people manage their smart devices. People have grown to like Amazon more than eBay because it is different.
Quality of the Product Expectations
People often say that eBay is a place to buy used things. Or is it?
Well, eBay used to be like that, but now a lot of sellers put up brand-new items for sale on the site. eBay said that more than 81% of the products listed on the site are brand new and that more than 3 million new products are added to the site every day.
The problem is that eBay has a system for auctions. And if something is put up for auction, it means it is not new. Artifacts and old paintings are always sold at auction because their value depends on who buys them.
But almost everything on Amazon is brand new. There are some used items on Amazon, but they are not very common.
eBay doesn’t really have a problem with product quality because it has strict rules against selling to people outside of the United States. Dropshipping is not even possible on eBay, but it is on Amazon. If the seller says it’s brand new on eBay, you know it really is brand new.
The item may be listed as brand new on Amazon, but the way it was made isn’t very good. This is because a lot of the things that Amazon sells now come from China.
This doesn’t mean that things made in China are bad. But China is also a source of fakes and things that aren’t very good. When you go to Amazon now, you can often find things that ship from other countries.
People trust eBay more when it comes to quality, but they go to Amazon because they can get brand-new items for a very low price. On the other hand, eBay’s brand-new items are high-quality, so they sell for more.
Speed of Shipping
We’ve talked about this before. The problem with eBay is that it only has the Global Shipping Program as a fulfillment service.
Shipping is done at lightning speed on Amazon. Even international shipments can only take 15 days, while regular couriers can take up to 60 days.
eBay failed because of how it shipped things. It didn’t come up with any way to help its sellers. Because of this, most of the sellers, who run their businesses out of their homes, shipped the items late. Even worse, their packaging isn’t as professional and attractive as Amazon’s.
Customers were not happy about this. And if a customer isn’t happy, they will leave and never come back.
The way online sales work has changed since Amazon FBA. Sellers must send their barcoded items to Amazon’s warehouse. Amazon will then take care of managing the inventory and shipping the items. And everyone knows that Amazon did a great job in this area.
All packages look the same, which is another reason why Amazon is the best platform for shipping. Know what this is for?
As customers, we all want the same thing every time. We want our McDonald’s hamburger today to be the same as it was yesterday. It’s all about being consistent with what you know.
eBay was not able to do this, but Amazon was. All Amazon packages have their own logo, and they are all packed in a certain way.
Customers know that the packages they get from Amazon have bubble wrap and were handled well because of this. You never know what you’re going to get on eBay.
But this comes with a cost. Even though more people trust Amazon than eBay, you have to pay more. You have to pay the shipping cost, the referral fee, the closing fee, and a lot of other fees.
Your choice should be based on how much money you make and what kinds of things you sell. If your product is rare and you can make a lot of money from it, you should definitely use Amazon FBA. But if your profit margin is low, you must sell on eBay and ship the items yourself.
Ability to sell around the world
On both, you can sell to people all over the world. But eBay has more people who use it. More than 100 countries can use eBay, and it has 23 sites in other countries. What’s the meaning?
eBay has many websites with different things on them. They are also available in different languages, which helps customers understand what is for sale on the platform. As a seller, you can list your items on eBay in your own country, the US, or other countries.
On the other hand, Amazon can be found in more than 180 countries. Amazon, on the other hand, only has 13 websites with different languages.
If you look at the numbers, only 33% of Amazon’s products are sold in international markets, while 62% of eBay’s sales come from those markets. This clearly shows that eBay is more well-known around the world than Amazon.
Because Amazon has a fulfillment service, it’s a lot harder to sell to people outside of the United States. When you buy something from another country, shipping is often more expensive than the item itself.
Shipping costs are low on eBay because most of the items listed on the different sites are from local sellers. They use shipping services in their own area.
Should you choose eBay or Amazon?
Amazon is definitely the way to go. It is the biggest place to sell things online in the United States, and only Alibaba is bigger around the world.
Don’t be fooled, though. China has more than a billion people, which is the only reason why Alibaba does better. Also, Alibaba is where a lot of the things that are sold on Amazon come from.
If you want people to see your products, you have to sell them on Amazon. It has a large number of customers and is the best place to sell things online. Your profit margin will be smaller, but a profit is still a profit.
To do well on Amazon, you need to sell a lot of things. There are businesses in this area that have more than 100,000 items in stock. This means that they can sell a lot of goods.
Summary
Amazon is the best place to sell things online, but only if you want to sell to people in the United States. If you want to sell something close to home, eBay is a better choice.
Medium-sized and large businesses that can pay the rent or storage fee are best suited to use Amazon FBA. These are also companies that have a lot of money but not a lot of sales. They can wait it out and hope that their sales will pick up in the future.
If you are just getting started with your online business, eBay is the best choice because you are in charge. Also, there are not a lot of fees to pay.
But you can build a dropshipping store on Amazon if you want to. Dropshipping is not allowed on eBay. You’ll be reported and kicked off the site.
