Amazon vs Ebay for Sellers

Amazon or Ebay – Which is Better?

Amazon vs eBay – The winner used to be less cut and dry, but we can say from direct experience, one of these marketplaces can make you a whole lot more than the other and more importantly, be less work in the day-to-day operation of your business.

Quick Look at why One Marketplace is Best

1. Amazon Takes the Headache and Worry out by Taking Care of the Day-to-Day Order Fulfillment

Amazon introduced Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) a number of years ago. I started using it in the early days of 2008, and let me tell you, it makes a huge difference in sales.

FBA lets you ship your products all at once to Amazon, and then Amazon ships the individual orders as they come in, offering free, two-day shipping to its Amazon Prime members which rank in the millions.

This means you have more free time to do what you want.

Amazon takes care of the customer service (for just about everything) including returns.

It also means more sales, especially at Christmas. You also don’t have to worry about shipping holiday orders because Amazon will do it for you.

Ebay has tried similar things where you ship your product to a different seller and they fulfill the order, but it’s not the same. Not even close to the benefits of FBA.

Summed up: Selling on Amazon frees up your time much more than selling on eBay because with Amazon you don’t have to ship the individual orders. Amazon will do it for you.

2. More Trust with Amazon Means Less Hassle for You

When was the last time you looked at the seller history when buying something on Amazon? How about eBay?

With eBay, you can’t be sure with what you’ll get.

Because their is more trust, buyers are more ready to buy from you. They’re even less likely to email you questions about the item because Amazon makes it easy for the community to answer those questions with reviews and customer answers. The reviews also help to manage customer expectations.

Summed up: You’ll have less trouble with buyers because Amazon buyers have more trust in what they’re getting.

3. Amazon Makes Buying Easy for the Customer

Amazon’s buying process is simple, you press the ad to cart button, and check out and your done.

With eBay, the customer has to be rerouted to PayPal right in the middle of the buying process. Talk about a pain.

Not only do they have to log in to eBay, but they’ve got to log into PayPal just to buy and pay you for the item.

This means buyers can drop out of the sales process, and they do. Ebay ads an extra step and an extra password to remember and it slows down or even stops the sales process.

**Update, Ebay is in the process of improving this.

Summed up: Easier buying on Amazon means better sales for your business.

4. Amazon Makes Us 10 Times More Money Plain and Simple

Amazon’s customer base, ease of shopping and offering products through their warehouse fulfillment centers makes us more money by leaps and bounds above eBay.

Summed up: Take the results to the bank, and the bank results show Amazon is much more lucrative.

Should you Forget about Selling on eBay?

No way.

But be careful not to get caught up in trying to do too much all at once and not really mastering anything. I’ve seen this time and again.

Really focus on Amazon, and put your efforts where it can pay off big time, then expand to eBay and other marketplaces.

There are some instances where eBay can outpace Amazon and that’s in oddball items, collectibles, and one-off items you’re trying to sell. If you’re business model is based on those things, you could do better with eBay. However, Amazon’s listing process makes it so easy that even the one-off or used items can be easy to sell.

But if you’re trying to build a sustainable business with repeatable sales that works for you instead of the other way around, put to good use the secrets that Amazon offers its sellers.

Summed up: Amazon vs Ebay is fairly cut and dry. Billions have been made on Amazon, and Amazon makes it so easy for it’s sellers to gain success. After getting a hold on Amazon, eBay and other marketplaces can add some nice additional income.