eBay chief Devin Wenig has hinted that Amazon-style brand stores could be coming to eBay in the not too distant future. If you’re not familiar with them, they’re a shopfront that can be utilised by brands (and maybe their authorised resellers) to best showcase their official goods to both preserve their brands and also reassure consumers that they’re buying the genuine goods online.
At the Citi 2017 Global Technology Conference Wenig said: “Brands want a couple of unique things. They may want a store that says this comes directly from the brand. It’s an authorized reseller, it carries the warranty. Those are things we can provide them, and we’ll talk more about that probably a bit later in the year.”
It makes sense for eBay to continue down this route for brands. To get a sense of the Amazon offering check out this recent piece about how Swarovski are using the service already with dedicated shopfronts. And as we note in that article, alarm bells should be ringing if you’re already selling brand items on eBay.
As the brands can likely offer the best price and availability, it will likely mean that you’ll struggle to compete unless you have a sweetheart deal (or leaner operations) that gives you the edge on price.
Wenig’s interview, as we wrote about last week, is one of the most wide-ranging pieces of commentary that’s come out from the eBay top table this year and it’s well worth tuning in to understand the slew of major changes that are seemingly coming before year end. In it the eBay CEO and President talks widely about eBay’s plans including impending changes to the homepage and search facility. You can find the full webcast here.
And if you want more information of the proposed pans, you can read them here: Devin Wenig: changes coming to eBay search in next 60 days.
7 Responses
Ask yourself this?
When was the last time Amazon copied anything that Ebay did?
Devoid of ideas (of their own at least) Wenig & Co keep trying to ape Amazon, in the hope that some of the glitz will stick to them.
Hopeless.
Why don’t they knock on Amazon’s door, cap in hand, and ask if they want to buy Ebay?
Amazon – innovators
Ebay – immitators
As a one man band trying to sell on ebay and stay optimistic. I can only say, no comment.
I thought they said they couldnt compete with Amazon.. that their strength was in their unique inventory..
From a creative and small business point of view I feel new leadership is required but I’m sure ebay will deliver results financially, the share price will continue its rise and Wenig will be the toast of Wall Street!
Why would they? But then why would Amazon?
Some brands will not allow you to discount items on market places, some will not allow you to sell on those.
How many un authorised sellers of brands are there on both platforms? If Brands can pick & choose who they will allow to sell items on the marketplaces then there is potential to price fix and customers will not be getting competitive deals
The result is a loss of sellers.
The most damaging idea to be taken up by eBay as all they will end up being is a storefront for big business.
Why would any shopper go on eBay to look up a brand for example like Levi when you could just go to Levi direct as the prices will all be controlled and the same
Go on eBay shoot yourself in the foot and wave goodbye to all your small businesses then when they all go elsewhere such as ONBUY.com you will then see all the big companies move away back to their own websites and hopefuly eBay will go down the plug hole with all their silly ideas of following Amazon more and more of our sales are coming from off eBay every day so hopefully when they flounder we will not need them.
We are an official re-seller of branded products, however this is just ebay following the more successful Amazon about. Totally lacking any ideas of their own as normal is it any wonder they are in such terminal decline. They can only fudge the figures for the market for so long.
I am pretty sure that it is illegal. It is an anti competitive practice that is not offering the customer the best price/deal.
I think the CMA may have something to say about this. It is directing the customer to the most expensive price, which means more money for Ebay but a worse off deal for the customer.