eBay Implements Amazon Style Buy Box

by: comments

Ebays preference for doubling down on failed ideas seems to be like second nature to the company. It is only natural they continue to try and copy amazon because it was one of their greatest failures.  

by: FeelingFroggy

Gesh now if only there were some buyers. A Buy box without Buyers. What a novel idea.

by: Rexford

Ina writes "How did eBay decide which seller/listing to give the Buy Box to?"

Let me guess, big box retailer?  Large enterprise seller?  Chinese?

Just another means of giving one of the above more visibility while the small seller is pushed further to the back of the bus.

eBay still want to be Amazon.  It will never happen, especially with eBay's current "leadership".

by: The End

Auctions still exist.
Let the fun continue  :o)

by: toolguy

Were either item a "promoted" listing?

eBay is hell bent on destroying itself.

My guess is Amazon has plants in eBay management and they are doing a good job. . .

by: b86fiero

Good grief!  There's more than enough to contend with just getting an item seen in the regular search format let alone the new pay to play promotions and promoted item options.

With the millions of listings on the site what are the odds of any small seller getting that prime acreage?  And at what cost?

by: toolguy

WOW!

This more of a mess then I 1st thought when I read this here.

eBay has lost it's mind. . .

It's just more of a reason for me to spend more time in my garden and get my canncreme.com site up and running!

I'll be the guy who's making CBD lotions and cremes for those with arthritis aces & pains. If your body hurts I got the cure!

by: eXtinctBay

This is not a new feature- eBay has been doing this for a while.

And just like Amazon, their version of the Buy Box does not place the best deal in front of the buyer, just the one which makes the most money for the site.

Case in point: I once had a pre-owned item that had the lowest price at $59.95 with free shipping. I am a TRS with 100% feedback. With these credentials, I would assume my item would be featured first in Best Match, the Buy Box, or any other page.

The ''Best Pick'' was from Germany for $79.95 PLUS INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING from a poor feedback seller (probably a drop shipper). And was far from market price or value. Luckily, a smart buyer adjusted her search options and saw right through this baloney.

The question here is, how many smart buyers are there? Or are people just lazy, and will accept the first thing crammed down their throat??

by: pace306

Was this implemented by Nutri Bullet or by eBay?

That's the real question.

They ran this test last year in DSLR cameras for about a month and I had the same question then (since there was a Canon DSLR DEAL) ..... who "got the box"

by: Volvo351

Oh, BTW, nice to know I can purchase a "pre-owned" NutriBullet, complete with someone else's cooties! Very reassuring that someone fell for this gadget and decided to foist it on another sucker rather than have it clutter up HIS kitchen!

by: Volvo351

Can't I buy one of these off the 800 number given in a late-night infomercial? If I'm one of the first one million callers, I get free shipping!

by: leathermermaid8

There have to be other ways of staying competitive, copying another business' model will only get your so far.  Consider also that with so many eBay sellers using Amazon as their dropshipper, it seems a little silly to bother.  Not even making it as Amazon Lite, more like Amazon Lead.

Buyers who want the Amazon experience will continue to go there, period.  Why can't they set themselves apart as the biggest recycling site instead?  Nothing would be more politically correct than touting eBay keeps landfills emptier saves fossil fuels, blah blah blah or something?  Geeze.  just how hard is it to get an original idea anyway?  they could separate their "new" goods into an amazon like section if they just HAVE to.    Yes, its been said before.

Besides that, they would actually have to buy and OWN whatever they sold there if they want to be Amazon.  Being somebody else's dropshipper has plenty of risks.  

Most who shop online now know to research labels and products before paying big bucks for junk, they know how to check for better prices or new merchandise without committing themselves (mostly).  Ebay would be better served regaining trust and enthusiasm.

As I am only a buyer on the site, I can tell you don't spend nearly as much as I used to or waste time wading through crap I can get locally.

by: Ming the Merciless

Can anyone remember the last time we saw an ORIGINAL idea with merit conceived and implemented by ebafia management?

Want some original ideas, Devil? We have several but it will cost you to even hear them.

You will ignore what your sellers tell you and continue to issue embarrassing quarterly reports #failing.

by: Chicago48

explain please.  The Buy Box is ONLY for fixed price correct?  Not for auctions and Best offers?

by: Truk

eBay ain't Amazon quite following and blaze your own trail again

by: HardWorkingSeller

I saw this previewed at the eBay Open event and based upon this decided that I would ramp down my eBay business selling refurbished electronics and probably move over to Amazon selling new items.

If I am going to be required to compete for a buy box sale then that will kill what few sales now take place through eBay.  My items are expensive relative to the average (as I invest time and skills in testing and refurbishing them) and eBay doesn't give me the tools to communicate that added value when they force me to compete on price with the guys selling junk out items fresh from the dumpster.

Very reluctantly I reached the conclusion that the new eBay business model (selling fashion to affluent millennial females on price, it seems) no longer fits what I do for a living.  The web store I have does OK as I'm not competing on the screen against people with no product knowledge and my real competition is sellers of new product, but that probably isn't going to scale to fill the gap left by eBay.

I think the writing was on the wall when Cassini took away the literal text match in search that worked so well in the industrial categories where buyers know exactly what they want and the only questions you need to answer are ''can you prove that it works'' and ''when can I get it''.

May be another platform will realize that's where the margin is as eBay clearly doesn't get it.

by: VV

I sell on Amazon as well and still get sales without the "Buy Box". Not saying this is a good thing for ebay, but, it's not end of the world. Throttling and hidden listings are more of a concern.

Interesting to see that even Toolguy isn't on board with this.

by: TomH

eBay keeps on showing they do not realize what they should be doing. If I am looking for any commodity type item I go to Amazon first. They almost always have the item and three minutes (max five minutes) later, it is ordered, paid for, and I'm done. I don't even consider eBay for this type of item -- does not matter how they present their clunky version clone of Amazon.

On the other hand if I am looking for a really old Army Field or Tech Manual (which I do for various projects and work for others), vintage maps, and other vintage this or that, then I'm at eBay.  Unfortunately, eBay in its dumb ass wisdom has run hundreds, if not thousands, of the legitimate sellers of authentic items off the site. Plus their non-search, search engine takes minutes and minutes if not hours to actually find anything resembling the search terms entered.  For example, if I am looking for WWII US Army Tactical Maps of the 1944 Bastogne area I am not looking for three pages of search results of modern European road maps.
In the beginning and up until about 2008 searches similar to the above were usually successful.  Hardly ever now.

by: Volvo351

@Froggy

Whadd'ya mean there are no buyers? I just made a $24.99 sale this week; first one in a fortnight. I'm swimmin' in dough!

by: pace306

NutriBullet Is known to be very anti 3p seller - hence my question on why this item was chosen.

Did they ask eBay to do it?

Is this another eBay pay to play ?

OR is it just a random item?