Sites like EBAY includes: Amazon, eBid, Etsy, Newegg, Alibaba, Rakuten etc. Read the full details of each of the alternatives below.
EBAY is a commercial platform recognized globally for its efficient method of connecting buyers and sellers. It all started as far back as 1995 when Pierre Omidyar, the founder of eBay decided to launch a website called “AuctionWeb” which will enable buyers and sellers to connect.
He made his first sale when Mark Fraser, a Canadian buyer bought the broken laser pointer he listed on the site. The AuctionWeb site was able to record up to $7.2 million as the worth of merchandise it sold. By the year 1996, they moved to their first office at Hamilton Avenue, San Jose, California and today, this headquarters is still located at San Jose, California, United States.
By September 1997, he officially renamed AuctionWeb to eBay, hence, the birth of this multinational commerce site, called eBay. Today, eBay stands as one of the largest commercial online market globally.
Along the line, eBay started diversifying and acquired some companies such as half.com, PayPal (although eBay and PayPal started operating as separate companies from 2015), Skype, StubHub, Milo.com, zong, Magento, Gumtree, Expertmaker and Giosis.
They also joined partnership with some other companies such as Rent.com, United Nations Global Compact and lots more, and have also launched several services which have helped them bring great satisfaction to their users.
Today, you can get just about anything on eBay, as long as it has existed before. As at 2019, eBay has made it to the No 8 in Indeed’s 2019 Top-Rated workplaces list from the No. 15th as of 2018. They now generate billions of dollars from buying and selling through their web.
There are some characteristics associated with eBay which may have distinguished them from other online market places but way not go well with some other customers. On a brighter side, sellers are sure to receive a higher amount of attention on the products they tend to sell because of the high influx of users.
You can also customize your businesses on eBay and the whole process is very simple. eBay also offers the sellers protection which makes you safer than most of the random online stores out there. But then, eBay may seem expensive for the sellers since they charge you a fee just for listing your product on their site (it doesn’t matter if you made a sale or not).
Also, because of the high influx of sellers, eBay gives the liberty for buyers to bargain prices and this may not favor the sellers. Therefore, I’d understand when you feel like wanting to know other safer sites which offer similar services to eBay. Below are some of the sites to look out for;
Similar Sites like eBay:
1). Amazon
Amazon, one of eBay’s nightmare. They stand as one of the best competitive online market places to eBay today. Amazon was previously regarded as the largest online bookstore globally but now, almost everything you can imagine can be bought from Amazon. Amazon originally began in 1994 as Cadabra but changed to Amazon in 1996.
It is a public company that has its headquarters in Seattle. Amazon was founded by Jeff Bezos and today it has so many products on offer which include; Amazon music, Fire tablets, fire music, prime video, Amazon web services, Echo and Alexa, and of course, the main amazon store. They now generate billions of naira and currently has invested more than 160 billion dollars in the US.
Amazon operates on 4 principles which are;
- Passion for invention
- Obsession of the customer and not the competitor focus
- Long-term thinking
- Passion for invention.
Now, you may want to consider Amazon because, unlike eBay, prices of items are fixed and not negotiated or auctioned like eBay. Also, Amazon does not charge you just for listing your items on their website but you will only pay a token of $0.99 for every item you sold. I guess it sounds fairer.
Handmade items or brand-new items are best sold through the Amazon poster. You can simply log into their website and check out their products and services at www.amazon.com.
2). eBid
eBid is one of the online market places that operates more on a lower level other than eBay and Amazon in the sense that they cover just about 23 countries for sellers and over 100 countries for buyers.
The company came to live in 1998, founded by Gary Sewell and Mark Wilkinson and has its origin London, England United Kingdom. Today, they have their headquarters in Surrey, England.
It both supports the auctioning style of eBay and well, prices can be fixed. All is dependent on which method the seller decides to choose. Since eBid receives lower traffic than eBay, it is wise that they also decided not to attach any fee to the listing. But eBid does charge a 3% fee for every item you sell. You can check out for more details on their website using www.ebid.net.
3). Etsy
Think of an online marketplace for craft, vintage items or other handmade items, then you can think of Etsy. The site was created by a group of people, Robert Kalin, Chris Maguire, Haim Schoppik, and Jared Tarbell and it came to live in the year 2005.
Items listed on Etsy are quite unique when compared to those you can buy off Amazon and eBay. They do have a price for listing items ($0.20) and a 3.5% commission on each sold item. It’s more like eBay, and also has the fixed pricing model.
But they are a lot cheaper when compared to eBay. They also deal more on direct sales, but you are sure not to receive a lot of attention on your listed items as you would have gotten if you are selling on eBay.
Check out www.etsy.com for more info.
4). Newegg
Newegg is an online marketplace for tech devices, computer hardware and other things in the electronic category. It was founded in the year 2001 by Fred Chang.
He came to name it Newegg in the era when e-commerce experienced a lot of struggle, making the name “Newegg” to symbolize new hope for the world of e-commerce. Unlike eBay where you can get just about any item you can think of, you can only get tech-related items on Newegg.
This makes sellers items to be thoroughly vetted before they can be able to list it to ensure that it fits the description.
Commission ranging from 8% to 15% are taken from items sold on Newegg. Now, Newegg has gone global having its presence in more than 80 countries around Europe, Middle East, Asia, Latin America among others.
Their headquarters is in City of Industry, California, United States and some of their distribution facility scattered all over Canada and the United States.
Feel free to know more about them at www.newegg.com.
5). Alibaba
Alibaba, the home of Wholesale trade. Alibaba came live in 1999 by Jack Ma and it has gone global ever since. It’s a conglomerate industry that serves millions of buyers and sellers around the world who would love to sell or buy items in bulk.
They have their headquarters in Yuhang District, Hangzhou, Zhejiang. Items sold on Alibaba covers cuts across 40 major categories including machinery, apparel, consumer electronics. Some of the services provided include Alipay, AliGenie, Tmail, Alibaba cloud, AliExpress, AliOS and so much more.
You can get to know more about buying and selling on Alibaba at www.alibaba.com.
6). Rakuten
Rakuten is an online retail shop founded on the 7th of February 1997 by Hiroshi Mikitani. For the Japanese, Rakuten is very popular and can be equated to Amazon. Rakuten have their headquarters in Setagaya, Tokyo, Japan but has spread to over 29 countries around the world.
They deal more on electronic commerce although they have diversified now. It may seem costly for sellers selling on a lower scale since they seem to charge a little higher than eBay. First, you have to pay the seller fee of $33 monthly, then the 88 to 15% category fee and also a commission of $0.99 on every item sold.
Nevertheless, their technology is top-notch and sellers have assured safety. You also have the opportunity of customizing your products and can as well choose your mode of interaction with your customers. It is worth a try.
Check them out using www.global.rakuten.com.
And also Read: E-Commerce Sites Like Ebay
Conclusion
Having listed a few other sites that make trading online possible, you can now compare them and choose the one that is most suitable for you to trade-in.
All the sites listed here are safe and secure to trade-in.
