Perhaps in an effort to shed its tainted image as a hub for fraudsters looking to make a quick buck, eBay is investing in a shipment and delivery system. The auction and e-commerce site, AllThingsD reports, has been testing out a few new ways to sell products.
There are a variety of ways in which this system works. In one pilot program, new eBay sellers could have their products picked up by an eBay employed driver and send the items to an expert seller, who would have a far better chance of obtaining bids off of the item in question. As expected, the expert seller would receive a cut of the sales, and helps eBay newbies who don’t have the coveted trusted seller badge yet. It’s a smart strategy that could mean garnering the confidence that eBay buyers need to purchase a product, granted that the product is authenticated by eBay. There’s historically been hesitation and an air of skepticism among buyers since the auction platform is riddled with forgeries and counterfeits or even stolen merchandise — and of course, you always run the risk of never receiving something you paid for.
A second program asked for clothing drop offs at a local mall. Participants of the trial program took a bag of products, whether clothing or electronics, to the mall and were given a bulk price for that bag with a “take or leave it” deadline by a registered seller. Should the participant opt to sell the bag, they’re essentially leaving it up to the eBay registered seller to sell these products. If declined, Tricia Duryee of AllThingsD says that these sellers will help with advice on selling these products on eBay.
In recent news, eBay was reportedly testing out its eBay Now same-day delivery in California and New York City to compete with the “big box” e-commerce retailers like Amazon, which also has had a same-day delivery system in place. Although eBay’s president of global marketplaces, Devin Wenig, tells AllThingsD that eBay has “350 million items for sale, which is nine times larger than Amazon.”
EBay is killing two birds with one stone here. Web anonymity comes with pros and cons, and that definitely applies to e-commerce. The Internet is a complicated place and becoming an eBay top seller is a time intensive task; the new program from eBay brings their expertise to everyone while also cutting out some of the friction between buyers, sellers, and the products.
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