The competition with eBay has been rising with the release of Google Base and now another service called Shopify is going to be stepping into the ring. Shopify is currently in the beta stage but should be officially released for public use in May. They will allow users to create stores and add as many items as they want to those stores at no additional cost. They do, however, earn 3.75% commission on every sale that you complete.
They will have their own integrated payment system which will create a simple ordering process. Of course, eBay has the free software called Turbo Lister which allows users to create listings on their computer and upload them later, and Shopify has a similar type of software called Vision. Vision allows users to setup a theme for their stores without ever having to create a database.
I guess Google really need to get moving on their payment system and eBay needs to cut down on their fees because their are other companies who are trying to take over their markets. Maybe this is some healthy competition that is needed to stop eBay from further raising fees, after all, they also get a large chunk of money from PayPal payments.
Shopify Homepage
News Source: TechCrunch
are you serious about the title of this post? You have to be kidding.
There are many Power Sellers on eBay that are looking for alternatives because eBay is constantly [cbsnews.com] They will continue to raise their fees until they get some solid competition and are forced to be competitive.
While I am sure that it will be hard for a site to provide this competition, I am hoping that it will come. [craigslist.org] is currently the only ones that have given eBay some nudges and I hope another site will do the same. We’ll just have to wait and see.
100 million geeks selling their old shoes in their geek shops will surely kill ebay. soon we all will see
power sellers on ebay get a bazillion of page impressions every day. thats what they pay for. what do they get on shopify besides a spiffy look?
Maybe we’ll see better integration with shopping tools like Pricegrabber and Froogle.
-Ryan
[express.ebay.com]
will ebay replace shopify?
Shopify can only compete if a few things come about:
1. they centrailize their sellers websites data into a single shopping site.
2. they create a time-based demand. I mean that ebay is auction driven for the most part. This in combination with bidding keeps things hyperactive, so yes, bidding would have to be available on Shopify. Then again, eBay already has ebay stores, so all they need to do is allow more flexible design control and lower their rates a little to bust up shopify.
3. they get a few billion dollars in investment money to compete on that scale.
4. Customizable design, and free carts are not that unique in the [veracart.com] business.
p.s. I didn’t see a way to get my own domain with Shopify. But maye I didnt finsih setting up my store. Can anyone confirm?
First of all, you’re right, eBay is mainly an auction site, while Shopify is a site to set up a sort of amateur e-commerce site. Think of it this way. Amateur bloggers who still blog a lot and consider it a major hobby for themselves use Blogger or Freewebs. Real bloggers buy their own domains and use WordPress. Shopify is for amateur e-merchants who still sell things as a major hobby and make money from it. VeraCart is for real e-merchants who have their own domains and sell stuff on their e-commerce sites for a living.
In this business model, Shopify can become very successful, because the Power Sellers will have both Shopify stores for professionalism and (for the time being) eBay stores for extra customers. Then, they will try to get their regular customers to use their Shopify site, and, after Shopify becomes well known, abandon their eBay store. Then eBay stores will become the MySpaces of e-commerce, with only the real amateurs using it, but since they will still have a strong auction business, they wont really feel any damage.
Also, to get your domain working, you have to click the Sign-Up button and fill out the form.
I’m all for competition that can help keep fees from going through the roof on any selling site.
I think this is the oldest active post that I have.
The one thing that makes me happy to see eBay competitors is that it might make eBay drop their fees a little. For awhile Ashley and I were running a business for a guy that sold stuff on eBay. We sold $30,000-$50,000 in merchandise a month with the eBay/PayPal fees totaling around $8,000. That is a little ridiculous in my opinion.
I have had bad experiences trying to sell on eBay. Items never sold and then eBay messed up (they claim they couldn’t collect the funds (though they never notified me) even though they did collect the money) when I paid my sellers fees. They suspended my account (again never notified me, only found out when I went to bid on an item) and had to pay additional fees.
I recently sold a computer on ebay to a guy in Ohio, he then changed his mind and sent a wothless computer back. No help was given from eBay or PayPal. Police said tough luck! I will not open my store or sell anything on eBay again and will not offer PayPal when I do.