You want to make the leap from selling on Amazon to selling on eBay. What do you have to know before you make the leap? Despite often being taken together in, these marketplaces are very different and these differences affect your bottom line. Do some products sell better on eBay than Amazon? Is the user base of each marketplace that different? Knowing your audience is the only way to target sales, so read on to find out what makes Amazon different from eBay and how you can improve your chances of selling Amazon products on eBay!
- Demographics: Who are your buyers?
One thing we know that makes these two platforms similar is the higher rate of browsing females than the internet average and there are also a higher number of users browsing from high schools and colleges. What’s perhaps more important when it comes to selling your Amazon products on eBay is that eBay buyers are on average, slightly older than eBay sellers. The two platforms measure age metrics differently, but Amazon can tell us that 5% of users are actually younger than 20, while eBay can only say that 14% of users are between the ages of 18-24. More than half of Amazon’s users are below 39 and the largest chunk is the 30-39 demographic at roughly a quarter. 32% of eBay’s users are between 35-49, representing their largest demographic.
How does this change your approach to selling Amazon products on eBay? You may not want to cross-platform sell on eBay products directed towards a very young demographic, for example, cosmetics geared towards adolescent girls. Also, you may want to check the variation in keywords or language generally - maybe using shorthand common to products for some categories in Amazon doesn’t translate in eBay.
2. Product Types: Something old, something new?
What products sell better on eBay than on Amazon? Basically, what’s worth your time to start selling cross-channel and what isn’t. At a basic level, more people sell used products on eBay than they do on Amazon. While there aren’t hard and fast numbers to prove this, there appears to be a consensus amongst thought-leaders. This may make a small difference for your products.
How does this affect my sales on eBay? If eBay sellers are more likely to be selling used items than in Amazon, buyers may be more conscious of product quality, require more details about usage history and may expect to see more and more high-resolution photos of products. They want to know what they’re getting. eBay buyers spend more time on product pages than do Amazon sellers because they require more information. This also means that your history and ratings as a seller are more important - they need to trust you, not just the product. Importing your existing reviews and ratings from Amazon to eBay using eRated is the easiest, most cost-effective way of bolstering buyer trust in you in eBay.
- Geography: Where are your buyers buying from?
If you’re selling on eBay you have access to 25 different country markets with localised eBay platforms, while with Amazon this is the case for only ten countries. That doesn’t mean you can’t sell products to people in Botswana when you move to eBay(?), but it does mean that shoppers from Botswana are not going to get the same unique experience that they had on Amazon, which is important for shipping and currency considerations, as a shopper might in France or Canada.
How does this change your approach to selling on eBay? Even though eBay has fewer overall users than Amazon, having specific localised platforms like in India gives you more direct access to buyers in certain countries, allowing you to tailor your shop, photos, descriptions, language and any number of other elements which might make a buyer more likely to buy from you. If you have an item that might be a big sell in one country but not in another, maybe eBay’s wider range of country marketplaces is an opportunity for you?
4. Buyers Habits: How much time do you have?
It might have something to do with Amazon having a younger demographic, but it appears eBay shoppers have a bit more time than your average Amazon customer. We know that eBay buyers spend an average of 12:60 shopping, whereas Amazon sellers spend 10:32. You have two fewer minutes to get your products moving on average in Amazon. eBay shoppers also view more pages, visiting 13.60 pages to Amazon’s 11.24 - meaning Amazon buyers are going to view fewer products on the whole. Amazon buyers appear to have a shorter attention span too, bouncing 3% more often than eBay visitors.
What does this tell you about your pivot to selling Amazon products on eBay? Generalizing is always dangerous, but the stats don’t lie. If eBay buyers are spending more time shopping than in Amazon, you might consider adding more detail to your product description or taking the time to add more than one or two product photos. With a lower bounce rate, you may want to risk adding an additional step to get buyers to subscribe to your newsletter or ask them to share your products on social media. The risk to losing customers appears to be marginally less likely in eBay.
Selling Amazon products on eBay is a no-brainer. eBay may be smaller, but it’s a universe of new buyers which may offer more fertile ground for your products. Take advantage of the demographic differences between the two and take a minute to align your strategy to target two different sets of buyers.