Living in the technology of online payments and one-day shipping service has escalated customer expectations. Businesses are opting to traverse into a new world called Online Shopping. Definitely, eBay has earned is credibility in the online shopping world, making it one of the best destinations to showcase a business’ products and services. There are even stories that business owners started on the eBay marketing. It’s not a bad idea to start through an online selling platform, but there are also cons that surround it.
Pros
The active users — eBay has more than a hundred million users who actively search for surprising bargains and wonderful bundles, making it one of the most popular online selling platform in the whole world. Just looking at the population numbers already give the business a chance to be discovered.
Community Forums — the online selling platform is not only a marketplace but also a place to learn the tricks of the trade and grow the business with its community features that have discussion boards and question and answer forums. Business owners, especially the new ones, can learn from the veterans who were able to reap the success of eBay.
Start quick and easy — setting up on eBay is different from creating an online e-commerce website. The difference is a website is built from scratch or template, while setting up a store on eBay is just through three steps: first is to sign up for an account, second is to purchase a store subscription, and third is to personalise the store by adding products.
Protection — eBay offers seller protection in the case a buyer backs out of a transaction or the seller files a Money Back Guarantee claim when there is no harm done.
Choose the best option — compared to other selling platforms, eBay offers two selling options: auction and Buy It Now. The Auction option lets sellers set a minimum price and let the buyers increase the bid just like in a real-life auction house, while the Buy It Now options lets sellers choose a fixed price so that buyers can get it without any price increase due to other customer’s bids.
Cons
Seller Fees — there is no escaping it, eBay also has fees that other online selling platforms charge. However, these fees are quite lower than others, but there are still fees waiting to be paid.
No for Slow Shippers — sellers that are able to ship on the same day or one day after get more exposure, than sellers who can’t ship that fast.
Bargain-loving Customers — eBay is actually among bargain-loving customers because of its starting days of being an auction site. Although there are customers who’re willing to pay for pricey goods, the existence of customers looking for bargains will never disappear, especially the platform itself teachers how to buy cheap and also has a separate section for deals.
Control Difference — when posting on online shopping platforms, there is limited control over how products are shown to buyers. On the other hand, websites are often made from scratch, offering more control on every aspect of the store from how it looks to the content uploaded on it.
Uncontrollable Changes — eBay, just like other platforms, are also funding ways on improving the website. That’s why there are uncontrollable changes that sellers should be able to adapt to quickly to avoid confusion.
