posted on June 13, 2001 01:50:20 AM new
Who do you think are ebay's main storefront competitors? Yahoo, Amazon, and AuctionWatch are three that instantly come to mind. But there are so many others, so I would be interested in learning who you think are the better ones.
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Also, are you already having success with storefronts - if so in what sites and what type of merchandise? Any other insights on the various storefronts would be appreciated.
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Thanks in advance!
posted on June 13, 2001 04:52:32 AM new
PayPal could be since they have the payment mechanism in place and millions of users. They currently do offer a list of merchants who use PayPal on their site, but if they offered a service whereby anyone could set up a Storefront with integrated PayPal payment, they could take a piece of every transaction as eBay is trying to do now. If PayPal does this without charging a monthly fee or item listing fee, it'd be an easy way to start monetizing their huge user base and replacing some of the lost revenue they will experience once eBay manages to force BillPoint down all of our throats. PayPal could make a go of it!
posted on June 13, 2001 07:41:52 AM new
Yahoo and Amazon would be competitors if they improved their services. Auctionwatch (and other similar services) actually stand to gain from ebay storefronts. You can launch your ebay storefronts listings from AW, and use the crm service just as you can for regular ebay auction listings. Or, at least you will be able to when AW upgrades the service to support it.
PayPal, OTOH, is struggling to not let ebay force it out of business. Ebay is using Microsoft-like tactics to force PayPal out of business. I don't think that the PayPal shops are a direct competition to ebay storefronts. PayPal shops is just a directory of independent websites that accept PayPal payments. Ebay storefronts is a part of the ebay website, not independent. PayPal could look at the ebay storefronts as an opportunity to expand the level at which its service is accepted. I'm sure that ebay will implement new "rules" to make sure that Billpoint is getting its unfair competitive advantage, though.
