eBay’s ‘within the hour’ delivery service, eBay Now, which has been successfully trialed in the US is coming to London early in the New Year. Devin Wenig, President of eBay marketplaces made the announcement in London this morning and it’s expected to be the first roll-out in Europe.
It’s a neat service that has performed well in metropolitan areas in the states including San Francisco where shoppers can use a special smartphone app (or PC) to order from selected retailers and have the items delivered to a chosen destination within the hour (or thereabouts). London is a no-brainer extension of the service.
Combined with news that Argos and eBay have agreed a trial Click & Collect partnership shows that the company is really focusing on fulfillment and putting customer convenience and choice at the centre of developments.
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Within a hour, across London….Ha!!
“company is really focusing on fulfillment and putting customer convenience and choice at the centre of developments.”
as a seller they are not giving me very much choice or convenience these days ,other than if you dont like it lump it
I also picked up on the same sentence as Northumbrian and feel that sellers are being pushed back to the end of the queue, yet again!!! Between eBay and Royal Mail I feel like I’m between a rock and a hard place…..
eBay’s new partner already have this service https://www.argosshutl.co.uk/faqs.
Has anyone got a trademark on “Now” as a courier service yet?
£5.45 for 15 minutes delivery work will appeal to more sellers than some may think. That’s over £20 an hour. Better than delivering pizza. And for buyers of higher ticket items it is not a lot is it?
Of course, this eBay Now thing isn’t part of the marketplace. It’s for a selected cohort of retailers.
selected ?
By “selected” I am guessing that sellers of “one off” secondhand goods won’t be on the shortlist. It is for buyers and sellers of new only. It appears that every initiative is aimed at volume sellers of new mass market gear these days.
A challenge. Can anybody come up with any recent ebay initiative specifically for, and of benefit to, sellers of secondhand goods?
I can’t think of any. Everything is aimed at pushing new.
were not frightened we sell nothing else but pre owned and antique ,
nowhere else online but ebay, the only restriction we have is logistic, each item is individual and time consuming to list. otherwise business is booming
ebay initiatives do not benefit all sellers of New items. The vast majority of the Books that I sell, probably 99%, are New(in that they have not been previously sold and have not been read). Some are Remainders but most New New(including titles listed by me on Publication date or within a day or two of publication date). But the initiatives that I have seen over the years have done nothing for me.
Talking about Books. I punch in the ISBN of a book and I am supposed to get the technicals of the Book and the photo of the front cover. Is it my imagination that the number of photos of front covers is decreasing?
We are supposed to have photos illustrating our goods. Yet it appears that where there used to be photos of front covers several or should I say many have disappeared. New titles the technicals are appearing but often no photos of front covers. What is happening. I would have thought that ALL New titles when they put on the technicals they would have put the photo on at the same time and backlist items where the technicals have been on, sometimes for years, they would be catching up with putting on the photos. But No. I cannot be the only Bookseller who has noticed this unwelcome trend.
Jimbo, that … ‘eBay calls the shots (on eBay)’ … is not disputed! I will use what is available to me on eBay, as a seller, to the best effect that I can. There may come a time when that cannot be made economic/profitable.
In relation to the best interests of buyers of my stuff (on eBay) ‘my perception’ is fact.