If you would like to set up an online store, should you use eBay or should you set up an standalone e-commerce website? We compare the Pro’s and Con’s for each below.
ebay Advantages.
- E-bay is well known
- It is a pre-designed platform, very cheap to start
- User already understand how it works
- There are already a lot of users
- Advertising on ebay is relatively cheap
- Faster to set up
ebay Disadvantages:
- Your product will be listed right next to your competitions, unless you know of have an unique selling point your potential customers will definitely go for, you might be putting your self in a bad situation
- You become dependent on buyer rating system. If one user leave a negative comment, it could ruin greatly damage the e-bay shop
- E-bay popularity is going down
- Expensive on the long run, as you will be paying eBay for each listing and for each sale
- Not suitable for products with a slim margin
- Would you target audience go to ebay to look for packaging materials? I personally only ever used it for books and camera lens
- Limited customisation
- You have to track down payment on each sales
E-commerce site advantages
- Freedom to design the site how you best see fit
- A standalone site will appear more professional and trustworthy (Anyone can set up an ebay store)
- Expected monthly operation cost
- Positive brand connection/loyalty
- Less competition once the customers are on your site
- Allow for user interaction tracking, for understanding how customers arrive at your site and how they use the site
E-commerce site disadvantages
- A lot more effort need to be placed on marketing to ensure potential customers can see it
- More expensive to set up
- Takes more time to set up
- Marketing cost
To conclude
If you have the budget and time, I would suggest e-commerce site. If you would like to get things of the ground quickly with a smaller budget, perhaps e-bay is more suitable, but this will only work if you know you can beat your competitions.