Another interesting development on eBay.com today, the launch of Guest Buying. New buyers who wish to purchase buy it now (BIN and SIF) listings will no longer be forced to register before they can do so. Instead, they can simply buy with PayPal from eligible listings, and the item once paid for is theirs. Guest buyers will not be able to leave feedback unless they register, though of course they will be strongly encouraged to do so.
In order to be eligible for Guest Buyer orders, sellers will have to:
- have a premier/business PayPal account in order to accept credit card payments.
- specify shipping costs.
- qualify for the top tier of buyer protection of $2,000; the item must cost less than $2000.
- use eBay’s checkout system. Third-party checkout will not be supported at this time.
Those who use the PayPal US feature to block unconfirmed addresses will be able to do so with guest buyers too.
Guest Buying will initially be available in just few categories: Music, Books, DVDs & Movies, and Consumer Electronics will launch “in the next few days”, but more categories will be added “shortly”.
This is a wonderful development that should bring a lot more new buyers to eBay.com, by putting a spontenaity into eBay buying that’s never been there before. I’m repeatedly told – often by my own repeat eBay buyers – that people really can’t be bothered with “all that feedback stuff, and bidding and waiting to see if they’ve won”: they want the choice that eBay offers, but simply to be able to buy, pay and get their item. The Guest Buyer program should offer exactly that: what a shame they wasted all that time, effort and money with eBay Express when a simple development like this would have achieved the same goal.
12 Responses
I’m assuming this is .com only for the moment? I wonder if we will ever get it…
It is only .com for the moment, Lynne. I think I need a little logo or something for “stuff we don’t have on .co.uk but we ought to have” 🙁
Sounds like an excellent idea to me and on the plus side, Sue, they seem to be rolling out new ideas to international sites a lot quicker than they used to.
I was getting all excited as I went through the list… oh, yes, got that, yes, that’s ok, oh… $2000….. check back to beginning…. oh drat. 🙁 .com…..
eBay’s put up a Q&A with screenshots here
https://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=1000592798&tstart=0&mod=1194388081115
The challenge with this feature is that it can not be supported by sellers using a third-party checkout, which of course includes most larger Powersellers on eBay.
Following the eBay Gift Card challenge (not supported in PayPal Express Checkout) there are a good number of mines that both sellers and buyers can run into this holiday season.
“Most”, Max? I’d like to see Channel Advisor produce figures to support this.
Guest Buying should be about the easiest, quickest eBay experience possible, and third party checkouts as currently implemented rarely offer this. Frankly, I think the challenge is for CA and your competitors to produce a system that works for your sellers, but doesn’t force buyers through another checkout system.
I am a big fan of the new guest buying — anything that drives more consumers to eBay and makes the experience easier will yield more sales for sellers and third-party developers. In fact, most of the accelerating changes we have seen (incl. Finding 2.0) are in MY opinion great steps forward and I hope (am pretty sure) that eBay will continue to overhaul the site with the buyer in mind. And, yes, that includes an easy checkout (a la eBay Express and PayPal Express Checkout).
I am the last to argue that a third-party checkout is the best buyer experience but the option to offer it to buyers (and its benefits) is a choice that large eBay sellers are making to take advantage of it. That choice is largely driven by functionality not available via the eBay checkout (for CA in particular that is our shipping logic), upsells (owned and managed by the seller) and a few others.
eBay is rolling out its multi-merchant cart on the core site as we speak and may decide in the future to make this mandatory for all transactions. My gripe is simply that changes such as Guest Buying must be made with sellers in mind, in particular sellers that have built significant automated businesses around this — interrupting these processes (especially during the all-important Q4) is a challenge that creates friction, and friction negatively impacts the buying (and selling experience).
Crikey Max
if third party developers are as complicated as your post
give me ebays check out every time
Seemed pretty straightforward to me ….. ??
must be me then
big words confuse me
;D