Online marketplaces like eBay are always looking for growth opportunities – and one of the most successful has been to charge sellers advertising fees to promote their listings. But at certain points in eBay’s history, it also experimented with introducing logistics services – storing and fulfilling orders on behalf of sellers.
eBay had floated the concept of an Amazon Prime-like service as early as 2009, and in July of 2019, eBay announced it would launch “Managed Delivery” in 2020:
“eBay is introducing Managed Delivery, a cost-effective fulfillment service to launch next year, beginning in the U.S., that will provide shoppers faster and more reliable delivery on millions of popular products. The initiative will enable sellers with high-volume inventory to meet rising consumer expectations while reducing cost and complexity.
“Managed Delivery will provide sellers the ability to store, pack and ship their products through expert logistics partners managed by eBay. The new service allows sellers to store inventory closer to buyers in strategically located warehouses across the country, resulting in faster delivery time and lower shipping costs.”
At the time, AdWeek quoted then-CEO Devin Wenig in a July 2019 article: “We don’t want to win a fast shipping game; that’s not the point.” But Wenig departed in September, and by the end of the year, eBay shuttered the program entirely.
eBay tried a different logistics program in 2013, launching a same-day delivery service called eBay Now. It sounds impossible for eBay to deliver items on its platform the same day – and that’s not what the service was trying to do. Instead, eBay partnered with large retailers to deliver their in-store items locally – although that doesn’t sound like it would make much more sense. But that was before activist investors forced eBay to sell eBay Enterprise (GSI Commerce and Magento) that gave it relationships with large retail chains and brands.
In explaining eBay Now in 2013, we reported:
“The eBay Now mobile app lets users in select cities order items from brick-and-mortar chain stores such as ToysRUs and Macy’s and receive them from an eBay courier to a specified location. eBay Now charges $5 per delivery (per store) with a $25 minimum order.
“An eBay spokesperson told EcommerceBytes, “With six fewer shopping days this year, every minute of the holiday rush matters and eBay Now offers a convenient way for consumers to get whatever they need and love this holiday season delivered to them anywhere in about an hour. eBay Now is available in the San Francisco Bay Area, San Jose, New York and Chicago, with a launch in Dallas coming soon.”
The eBay Now website now displays the following message:
“We have retired the eBay Now same-day and scheduled delivery service in the U.S., including the eBay Brooklyn pilot program.
“Thank you to everyone who participated in buying and selling as part of these programs. eBay continues to explore innovative pick-up/drop-off and delivery programs in the U.S. and around the world. In-store pickup items from a variety of sellers can still be found in our main search experience using filters in the left navigation on the web or using the “Nearby” filter on the mobile app.
“All open eBay Now orders have been delivered. Orders are no longer eligible for return.”
Logistics is extremely difficult, even for a marketplace like Amazon that’s been doing it for decades. On a recent Reddit thread, holiday shoppers were railing against Amazon for advertising a certain delivery date and then continually changing the date until it was too late to order elsewhere in order to arrive before Christmas.
Despite the challenges, logistics may be impossible to ignore for companies seeking revenue growth, and at the same time trying to make their sites attractive to shoppers looking for fast, reliable delivery.
The flip side to Amazon FBA fulfillment services for sellers is Amazon Prime for buyers – a free-shipping membership program. Online marketplace Etsy doesn’t offer seller logistics services, but it does have a membership loyalty program that offers free-shipping benefits.
Should eBay stick to its knitting, or is there an opportunity for it to provide logistics or shipping programs?
A small eBay seller had published his reaction to news of eBay Managed Delivery on the following YouTube video in July 2019, also serving a reminder that Walmart had yet to launch its fulfillment service, which it did in early 2020:
