Anyone remember eBay Local Services? eBay shut them down and told everyone to use Gumtree instead but they’re coming back! This time however they’re to be called eBay Hire.
eBay Hire is actually a pilot being run by a few eBay employees in the UK as a side project. It aims to be a service that puts you in touch with hard to find service providers in your area or by telephone/email. Currently on the site they have a handful of Service Pros covering everything from Antiques Valuation, Delivery services, Movers, Plumbers and Photographers.
The site is still very much in early beta testing so you’re not going to find too many Service Pros listed. Currently you have to email in to ask to be listed, but coming soon will be pages where you can submit your own profile and once you have a profile be able to update it yourself.
With only ten Service Pros on the site they’re all currently featured on the home page, we’re guessing that some location and category based search or filter functionality will be introduced as the project grows.
There is no fee schedule published on the site – we’re guessing no one is paying a fee currently. It will be interesting to see the future fee model and whether a listing fee is introduced, whether like Gumtree a basic ad is normally free but optional listing enhancements are charged, or if a success fee for referrals is how the monetise the site.
If you run a service business than it can’t do any harm at all to get listed on eBay Hire. Especially while it’s early days you could well be the only Service Pro in your sector which means you’ll get all the leads. However we don’t know how many businesses eBay Hire want to add during the beta phase so please don’t blame us if they’re inundated with potential listings and ask you to wait until the site is ready for formal launch.
Final thought… I wonder what the Gumtree guys across the street from eBay HQ in Richmond think about their new competitor.
3 Responses
Seems an interesting idea. Sadly it appears to be only London based at the moment so we won’t be able to add anything at this point. Unless you count a 800 mile round trip as a local service!
yellow pages got there first years ago