With shopping online being a matter of choice, opening your own store and selling online is a total different story. If you’re not careful enough to read the terms and conditions, you’ll most likely lose a considerable amount of your profits, not to mention risking your entire business.

In an effort to help our readers pick the best marketplace, we’re going to chose four popular platforms for retail while breaking down the ups and downs for each one of them. In the first part we’re going to talk about Ebay.

1. The ups

  • Ebay charges less

Between Amazon and Ebay, Ebay charges less for listing and selling a product on their platform. On average, Ebay lets you keep a profit margin between 78,97% and 86,79% compared to Amazon which allows you to keep between 69,40 % and 84,66 %.

  • Ebay has more seller tools

With shopper’s behavior having a major role in improving your selling rate, Ebay has your back when it comes to shopping analytics. Unlike Amazon who completely ignores this aspect, Ebay is relatively good in assisting you with seller tools.

  • Ebay is great for niche items

It seems like Ebay shoppers have a lot of nostalgia in them because when it comes to vintage goods and used clothing, this marketplace dominates the Internet. If you plan on selling sports goods or memorabilia, Ebay is the place to be.

  • Ebay is more global-friendly

With Amazon being present in 11 marketplaces across North American, Europe, and Asia, Ebay has 25 dedicated sites with 62% of overall sales in the eBay marketplace being international as of 2016. Amazon scored only 33% when it comes to international shoppers.

Obviously, that doesn’t necessarily mean a bad thing because if you’re looking to focus on the North American public, Amazon is the place for you.

2. The downs

  • Insufficient seller tools

Even if Ebay has shopping analytics and mobile readiness that help you improve your success rate, the platform still lacks SEO and further selling tools. Yet, Amazon lacks any selling tools so we guess Ebay scores some points for that. However, much more can be done.

  • Lowballers

With bidding and make-an-offer type-of deals, lowballers are quick to take action when the price allows them to do so. Make sure you set a minimum price for your goods otherwise you’ll be forced to make certain deals just to keep your feedback clean.

  • Ebay sells less

In Q4 2017, Ebay’s online trading community generated $22.3 billion in sales. Those are great numbers, obviously, but that’s half of what Amazon buyers spent on their platform.

  • Ebay has less users

Esentially, Ebay has 167 million users with Amazon having no less than 300 million users and 30 million app users on a monthly basis.