Ahead of next week’s Amazon Prime Day, eBay are already gearing up to offer thousands of exclusive deals on the 17th of July to US consumers. eBay appear to have had enough of letting Amazon have it all their own way as the defacto go to place for mundane fast moving consumer goods and are starting to fight back.
eBay to highlight no membership fees on Prime day
There are several prongs to eBay’s attack plan with the biggest incentive being to tell consumers not to bother to sign up to Amazon Prime. “Skip monthly fees and access hot deals on new, in-demand items with free shipping and no membership required, ever” is their message as they prepare to put a dampener on Amazon’s unrelentless march to world domination.
No membership is a powerful message, especially as Amazon raised the cost of Prime Membership in May this year from $99 to $119. You don’t have to pay a premium on eBay to access their best deals which will all come with free delivery.
For anyone that doesn’t have a Prime Membership, eBay could win when consumer baulk at the thought of stumping up $119 just to buy one or two items at a discounted price with free carriage.
eBay likely to target hot deals rather than blanket sales
eBay won’t be able to compete on the sheer volume of deals however, Amazon are boasting that they will launch a million deals across their sites around the world whilst eBay are promising “thousands of brand new, in-demand items”. However the reality is that many of Amazon’s deals aren’t that attractive and eBay will focus in on key categories like electronics, home, fashion, and sporting goods and citing deals up to 80% off their regular retail price. eBay say that there will be “exclusive deals and discounts on the biggest brands like Apple, Samsung, Adidas, Dyson, KitchenAid, and hundreds more”.
“Summer is a time to enjoy the things you love – as the temperatures heat up, so do our deals. eBay has everything you need this season, and no one else can match eBay’s variety and value, which fuel our shoppers’ passions with deep discounts on the latest must-have items.”
– Scott Cutler, Senior Vice President Americas, eBay
eBay to guarantee best price on deals with money back promise
The final prong in eBay’s attack plan is their recently launched eBay Best Price Guarantee offering 110% of the difference back if a consumer finds a better deal elsewhere. eBay have already stated there there will be no blackouts on price matching throughout the summer and that we can take to specifically refer to Prime Day.
How can eBay offer these deals?
eBay don’t carry any stock and aren’t a retailer so there are only two ways that they can offer deals and surprisingly it’s pretty much the same for Amazon although they are a retailer and a white label manufacturer. It’s expected that over half the deals on Amazon Prime Day will be sold by third party retailers and if they can discount for Amazon then there’s also no reason that they can’t discount for eBay.
eBay are also likely to dig into their own pockets and self fund some discounts and certainly will fund the Best Price guarantee – eBay take around 10% in final value fees so to buy market share can always discount and fund a deal by 10% if they choose to.
Why merchants will support eBay
However, most of the discounts are likely to be offered by the merchants themselves who will recognise that by selling significant volumes in a sport space of time, at break even or even selling at a loss they will propel themselves to the top of eBay Best Match search results and are virtually guaranteeing future sales and profitability once the deal ends and they revert to their normal selling prices. The long term benefits of offering deals extend way into the future and sales on the day shouldn’t be considered in isolation by sellers who offer deals.
One Response
“at break even or even selling at a loss they will propel themselves to the top of eBay Best Match search results and are virtually guaranteeing future sales and profitability once the deal ends and they revert to their normal selling prices” ,
YES all very well as ebay are offering LOWEST price options above listings anyway. So best match is redundant as are promoted listing.
Plus shopping is just one of the reasons people have an Amazon PRIME account. We hardly buy anything on Amazon these days it is actually expensive compared to going direct much of the time. I would pay it for the TV alone works out the same as NETFLIX for a year.
90% of the so called DEALS are fake anyway, and the consumer is becoming wise but there is still enough who believe in fake sales days.
Just had a look at the eBAY DEALS YAWN normal Argos PC World bored already.