Amazon vs eBay: Which marketplace for your E-commerce Activity?

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If you’re already selling on Amazon, you’re probably wondering what it’s like to sell on eBay. And if you’re an eBay seller, you may have wondered the same thing about selling on Amazon.
Or maybe you are not selling on one or the other and you want to know which marketplace is best suited to your online activity.

No matter where you are in your sales journey, this article will help you understand if Amazon and eBay are suitable distribution channels for your online sales strategy.

 

Table of Content

Amazon vs eBay – Who has the most sales?

When you compare the total sales made by the two marketplaces, eBay is actually only a small percentage of what Amazon makes.

  • In 2018, eBay’s annual net income was $ 10.7 billion, while that of Amazon was $ 232.9 billion.
  • From 2013 to 2018, Amazon’s annual revenue increased by 212%. eBay, on the other hand, only increased its turnover by around 30% over the same period.
  • Amazon has become a very attractive marketplace and is growing faster than that of eBay.

 

Amazon vs eBay: competition between sellers

It is not easy to find data on sellers on Amazon and eBay. The two market places are very selective about the information they reveal.

In 2019, Amazon released some information, however, and indicated that there were around 200,000 sellers on its platform who had more than $ 50,000 in revenue, and about 50,000 sellers who made more than $ 500,000 a year.

In addition, third-party sellers account for more than half of the sales on Amazon. The other sales are actually Amazon’s own products. The marketplace mentions “millions” of small and medium-sized businesses that sell on the marketplace, without indicating their income.

In contrast, eBay said it has 10 million sellers on its platform. However, most are low volume sellers.

What does this mean for sellers? This means that you will most likely have less competition on eBay than on Amazon. Of course, it depends on the products you sell.

What are the rates for Amazon and eBay?

Another important consideration when choosing the right marketplace is how much it will cost to sell your items.

Fees on eBay

For most products, eBay charges an 8% commission up to a limit of € 200 for a single item. Please note, some options on eBay involve additional costs (adding subtitles to highlight the ad in search results for example).

Registration on eBay is free for your first 150 items (quota allocated per month). Then, you will have to pay € 0.35 for each product insertion on the marketplace. If you have an eBay store, you will get 250 free ads (instead of 150). Then you will have to pay € 0.15 for each product insertion.

Amazon Fees

Most Amazon sellers pay a referral commission, which is a percentage of the sale price. This percentage is determined by the type of product you sell. These commissions range from 8% to 20% (for jewelry).

Amazon charges 0.99 € per item referenced for individual sellers (less than 40 items sold per month). Or a fixed monthly commission of € 39 for businesses and sellers with higher volume (Amazon Pro account).

 

Important Links:

  1. How to Create Amazon Seller Account in 2020
  2. Most Common Amazon Seller Mistakes and How to Avoid It
  3. 5 Ways to Adapt Your Amazon Sales Strategy

eBay vs Amazon: Your Branding and Advertising Options

At this level, marketplaces are totally different.

Publicity

eBay and Amazon offer their sellers certain advertising options. The most common option is to pay for your ads to appear at the top of the search results.

These sponsored ads are used much more by sellers on Amazon than on eBay. Advertising on eBay is simply very little used.

Brand image

On Amazon, you won’t have access to most of the information about your customers. You can’t even send emails to your customers because Amazon doesn’t disclose their email addresses.

Although eBay does not allow you to direct customers to your own e-commerce site, you have much more flexibility in building your brand image.

eBay rewards its sellers. The marketplace allows you to consult pages on which it presents its sellers. This with photos and a large number of details.

Some last-minute elements…

In order to choose the most suitable marketplace for your activity, it is important to take into account all the differences and similarities set out above.

Amazon is a much bigger audience crossroads. This means that you will have more visibility with very large traffic. But it also means there is less competition on eBay.

The fees you pay really depend on what you sell and the number of your monthly sales.

Many e-commerce sellers resolve this dilemma by selling in both marketplaces. And you, what will be your choice?

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