According to a report from The New York Times, Amazon traffic numbers beat eBay in December 2007. Amazon recently opened its doors to individual sellers who can sell their items in an eBay-like platform - minus the auction feature.
The report states that 59,624,000 Americans visited Amazon in December, where 59,374,000 visited eBay. Amazon is slightly behind eBay in number of page views.
So which is better for sellers? Based on my own personal (informal) research, 
sellers who sell on both eBay and Amazon cite eBay's fees as one factor driving them to sell on Amazon - although Amazon sellers report high fees as well. Amazon sets the shipping fees for products - unlike eBay who allows the seller free reign to set a shipping fee. Some Amazon sellers are losing money because of set shipping fees.
Another drawback to Amazon is the lack of auctions. eBay's auction platform allows selling prices to escalate above what they may use as a set price on Amazon. Users also report that Amazon's system is not as user-friendly for sellers. eBay also offers many more unique, collectible, or vintage items than Amazon.
As a seller, how do you rate the differences between eBay and Amazon? Are you holding out for eBay to improve, or jumping ship to Amazon in 2008?
Amazon fees are astronomical in comparison.
Posted by: sir jorge | January 18, 2008 12:24 PM | Permalink to Comment