What Type of Platform is eBay? eBay vs Amazon

According to a recent survey, the global eCommerce market is forecasted to clock $55.6 Trillion by 2027 from $13 Trillion in 2021, at a CAGR of 27.4% during 2022-2027.

eBay is one of the biggest and long-standing key players in the industry. Its business model has evolved dramatically tremendously since its inception to keep pace with changing consumer needs.

Through this post, we’ll deep dive into eBay to help you understand what type of platform eBay is, eBay business & revenue model and much more.

What is eBay?

Founded in 1995 by American entrepreneur Pierre Omidyar, eBay is amongst the oldest eCommerce platforms that strive to connect millions of buyers and sellers worldwide to buy and sell new and used items.

eBay provides a platform to buy anything you want from private sellers or businesses. Therefore, it enables both B2C (business to consumer) and C2C (consumer to consumer) through its website and application.

At present, eBay has a strong presence across 180 countries as an all-in-one shopping destination with a wide array of products.

In fact, it was the second most popular e-commerce and online shopping platform based on visit shares as of May 2022.

A Quick Glimpse at eBay Stats and Facts

Let’s now take a peek at some of the most important stats related to eBay:

As of Q1 2021, eBay has 187 million users from all corners of the world
There are a total of 1.6 billion listings on eBay
The top selling product category on eBay is “Electronics and Accessories”
As of Q2 of 2021, the revenue of eBay amounted to over 2.67 billion U.S. dollars, representing a 14% surge year-over-year
The amount of gross merchandise volume (GMV) on its platform hit $19.4 billion

The eBay Business Model: How It Works?

As mentioned above, eBay operates on the B2C (business to consumer) and C2C (consumer to consumer) models.

There are many eCommerce marketplaces out there such as Amazon, Etsy and Walmart but eBay is pretty different from all. It is an auction house as well as an eCommerce marketplace.

To put it in simple words, it enables sellers to list their items for bidding in addition to selling products at a fixed rate.

For buyers, it offers:

Access to Wide product inventory
Multiple delivery options
Fast delivery and free shipping
Money-back guarantee
Order tracking system

For sellers, it offers:

Access to a wide customer base
Bidding (Auction-style product listing) and Buy It Now feature (fixed-price product listing) to sell products
Powerful marketing and distribution channel
eBay’s Top Rated Seller Program

Read: eBay Business & Revenue Model Explained

The eBay Revenue Model: How It Works?

eBay, the world’s one of the largest eCommerce marketplaces, has many revenue streams to make money and it includes:

Listing fee model
Commission-based model
Advertising-based model

Besides these models, eBay brings considerable revenue to the table via its acquisitions of several companies and international trade.

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What Makes eBay Different from Other Marketplaces Like Amazon?

The e-commerce marketplace industry has many strong players besides eBay such as Amazon, Etsy, and Walmart – to name a few.

But eBay is more than just an online marketplace that connects millions of buyers and sellers in one place. It is also an auction house unlike other e-commerce marketplaces out there.

To put it into simple words, eBay is the only platform that provides an auction of items in addition to enabling selling and buying products at a fixed price.

Thus, eBay attracts a pretty large audience from all over the world. People in possession of rare collectible items and those interested in such items find product auction listing on eBay an appealing feature.

In addition to that, eBay has several programs for both sellers and buyers such as a money-back guarantee, Top Rated Seller program, and Verified Rights Owner Program – to name a few.

eBay’s commitment to fostering a safe place to sell and buy online has helped it build and maintain a loyal customer base worldwide.

To know more read: eBay Business & Revenue Model Explained

Conclusion

That was our take on what type of platform is eBay.

This online eCommerce marketplace faces stiff competition from other strong players in the eCommerce sector but its auction feature along with buying items at a fixed price is what makes eBay successful even today.