Fulfillment by eBay becoming a reality
Fulfillment by eBay ? Yes you’ve read it right!
eBay US sellers have already been asked direct questions about fulfillment services in a recent eBay survey, thus leaving us to speculate that eBay is slowly setting things in motion for a fulfillment service similar to the service that Amazon offers (FBA).
eBay has seen drops in its popularity recently and apparently is trying to keep up with its competitors in terms of the services it can offer. Fulfillment by eBay would be the e-commerce giant’s next big step to get more sales going through their platform.
As seen on the screenshot posted by rockstarflipper on Instagram, the survey states the following:
“eBay is considering offering a new fulfillment service for its buyers and sellers. The goal is to create a delivery experience that makes your life easier and is faster, more affordable, and more consistent for your customers.
The way it would work is that you send us your inventory and we will warehouse it. Once an order for your warehoused inventory is received, we will pick it, pack it, and deliver it within the timeframe that the customer selects for the order.
The service will be competitively priced and guarantee 1 to 3-day shipping, which will promote increased listing visibility and sales velocity. Not only will the service remove hidden costs of storage and inventory management, it will reduce shipping complexity and free up valuable time for you to focus on growing your business.” –eBay survey
How likely would it be for you to try this fulfillment solution?
You can see how straightforward the solution provided by Amazon is – this is what makes it very attractive to newcomers and entrepreneurs who are looking to make some profit with minimal involvement, saving time and resources.
It would be hard to compare the new service with the FBA system. The thing that makes Amazon’s FBA so special is that they have a very sophisticated fulfillment system on which they’ve spent billions of pounds and many years of work. Their system knows where every single item is in their fulfillment centers around the world at any given time. With over 100+ fulfillment centers around the world, Amazon has an incredible scale and power that would be extremely difficult for eBay, or any other company, to match.
Given the size of eBay, it might take some time until they build up their own network of warehouses and set up their logistics. There is also a possibility of handing this task over to a third party that already has a larger logistics network developed and use their services – which would make the fulfillment service a bit more expensive than other similar fulfillment services.
Nobody knows what the future holds, this snippet only allows us to speculate – will eBay’s fulfillment service be on par with Amazon’s? Will they copy the Amazon system or will they come up with something new? Who knows, only time will tell. Until then we will have to keep hoping that eBay will finally bring something helpful to the table for its sellers and make fulfillment by eBay the next best thing.
