Does anyone think if eBay made stores in local areas, people would flock to them and they could actually run 24 hours a day? What would the pros / cons of this be in your opinion? What do you think of buying items such as clothes and shoes from eBay? My Mum used to buy clothes for my younger Brother on eBay, but after a while she stopped because sometimes the colour wouldn't be as represented in the picture, or the size would not be as labelled, or they would actually be very smelly! I did however have some luck with buying good quality coats and bags. My Mum has been saying that if eBay was more of an offline auction, items such as clothing and shoes would sell better and if eBay shops were set up as local stores people would benefit and perhaps they would also enjoy the social aspect of meeting like minded buyers in their area.
I already thought they've branched out when i saw this site kuponan.ph To be safe buying things from ebay, always check the sellers reputation whether s/he is a powerseller or not or with bad reviews.
The things on Ebay are offered by individual sellers, not Ebay itself. I'm not sure how a brick and mortar Ebay store would work. Do you mean like a consignment shop? Those are stores where people bring their goods to be displayed for a while. If they sell, the shop gives a percentage of the money to the product owner. If not, the owner usually has to take the item back after a certain time. These already exist all over the place, if you know how to look for them. The idea is much like thrift shops as well.
I don't think that would be really viable, as sellers on ebay are from everywhere in a country or city, and not concentrated in any one suburb to enable them to stock or display their items at localized outlets.Secondly, the idea of selling online for these buyers is to save on rentals and other overheads. Many of these ebay sellers are small-time entrepreneurs for whom online selling is the main source of income, So, the last thing they might want is to do is to limit their earnings by renting out space.
That would be complicated, their are million of sellers from different places. But also would be a great idea, just too complicated to work.
I really don't see how this would work. But even if it could work, I wouldn't buy from them. I like Amazon over eBay any day of the week.
It would be complicated...besides, there would be plenty of places for people to simply buy what they usually do nearby anyhow. Especially seeing as eBay was made to make buying easy on the internet, this wouldn't go down well. Although it is an interesting idea.
If Ebay decided to go off-line then my idea of an off-line E-bay would be a fleamarket. Where there would be independent sellers each with there own stalls offering different products rather than an actual store. The problem with a store would be that each seller has a fixed idea of how much he wants for his item rather than get someone to sell it for him.
I wouldn't mind if there were offline eBay stores like the one in The 40 Year Old Virgin where you drop off your stuff and someone sells it for you online. They don't really have those stores where I live. It would be convenient to have someone else deal with listing stuff and you just collect the money and give them their cut.
It's an interesting idea, but I think it wouldn't work. Ebay is the essence of online commerce. That's their home and I think his performance is geared to that dynamic. Trying to see a parallel offline, however, is an interesting marketing exercise. I think the direct parallel is a great store (the style of a large supermarket), because the supply of Ebay is practically unlimited. I think at some point in the history of the company, its owners and managers analyzed and considered that possibility was not viable. The future belongs to those who encourage more, for that reason the possibility is always present.
Thanks for the input so far, I understand that my initial post was a very premature idea, just thought i'd put it out there so we could all think about it together. I think cmartens post brought a good elaboration. Of course if the shops were local then sellers and buyers could be restricted to those in the area. It would be interested on how eBay would make money, is it due to their reputation that people go through them, a safety net in case of disputes?
I don’t think it would work. I never shop at Ebay, because the prices are rarely any cheaper than going to a store. I guess people are raising prices on used goods to cover the Ebay costs. I think Ebay and sellers would have to make many changes for it to work.
OK. I think it would be interesting if we here, thought about what changes would need to be made for it to work. If we were in charge, what decisions would we make to achieve a successful offline eBay shop? We have take into consideration the benefit for the customers the sellers and the company.
A brick-and-mortar Ebay store would be like a consignment shop. There are plenty of those around already.
My thoughts exactly. It would be a "buy it now" setup of Ebay instead of the auction-style sales, so I don't really see the point. There are plenty of independent shops that already do this and are successful. I don't see any reason for Ebay to back them up.
We have this sort of things, called....markets (or trades) And the prices are negotiable too. You go there, see the item you like, negotiate it and get it. I don't think people will need an Ebay shop to do this, any other location will work fine.
I didn't know consignment shops were that popular; I'm not sure if they actually exist in my city. But imagine if all eBay sellers from a same location gathered up and placed all kinds of stands to show the items they have on sale. It'd be a credit card killer!
eBay is made as an online store where sellers can sell their products without the hassle of rental fees, transportation fees, and etc. If eBay would make an offline store then I guess it would destroy the essence of eBay itself as a prime online store.
An eBay branded store where you just take what you wish to sell in, and when you look on the site would only be listed if you were local to the area could actually work quite well... Although, chances are, it would take longer to sell than the online version. Offline expansion is never bad in my eyes.
There's no point in Ebay creating offline stores. They generate enough revenue from their online auctions. Also, how would Ebay stores be different from any other kind of auction house (I'm assuming that's what you meant) or if they create a simple supermarket, then it would be the same thing as Walmart and Target and so on. Bad idea.
