eBay are testing same day within-the-hour deliveries under a new beta program called eBay Now. Currently it’ll only be available for Apple IOS devices (although the sign up form has an option to select Android), and only those resident in San Francisco are eligible to take part.
The app will enable San Francisco residents to order products for $25 or more from local merchants and have the delivered to their door the same day, often within the hour, shipping will cost $5. This sounds very much like an app created on the back of MiLo technology to it’ll be interesting to see just how many merchants have signed up.
The beta is offering a massive $15 dollar off the customer’s first eBay Now order and waiving the $5 shipping charge for the first three orders.
This is an interesting development, whilst I have no doubt that during the beta period and almost certainly at launch it will be the large US retailers supplying the products. For the future though there are two exciting thoughts of how this could develop. Firstly why can’t all eBay sellers participate in the local area to their warehouse or shops? If it was open to you would you want or even be capable of same day shipping. One or two orders would probably severely disrupt your day, but get enough orders flowing in, or have a local same day courier contract set up by eBay to collect and delivery and it starts to get interesting.
The second possibility is to extend eBay locally for products that the eBay marketplace site simply doesn’t cater for. I see no reason why eBay Now couldn’t include services such as flower or even pizza delivery services. There are likely to be time constraints for delivery of standard products and it shouldn’t take too much to tweak the timings to enable a multitude of local products and services to be ordered through eBay Now.
One Response
Hi Chris,
Thanks for this great post, as you say it has some very interesting business ideas. When I saw this, and like you once you think outside the box it can be applied to a lot of service industries as well.
How about taxi service? eBay just gets better by the day, and as a seller and eBay consultant it gives us so many different ways to earn money.
Thanks
Andrew