Is Selling on eBay and Amazon at the Same Time Smart?

So, you know it’s great to sell on Amazon and eBay has plenty of advantages too. You may have even started selling on one or the other. But the question is, should you try selling on eBay and Amazon at the same time?

There are a few obvious downsides. You have to learn all the rules of both Amazon and eBay, work with another source of income when handling your taxes, and provide support to customers from both marketplaces. Are the advantages worth those difficulties?

Having succeeded at selling on both platforms, we say yes. Here are five reasons why:

Fully updated 1/10/2019.

1. Massively Increased Reach

In late 2018, eBay had 177 million active users. That’s a lot of buyers who might see your product! Amazon is even more impressive, with 310 million as of early 2016.

Either one is a giant market. But why limit yourself to one? Put them together and that’s 487 million potential buyers!

Of course, those are not all unique users. Some buyers do use both Amazon and eBay. But even if selling on both “only” put you in front of 311 million unique buyers, it would clearly be worth it. Most storeowners would kill for that kind of reach.

2. Faster Inventory Turnover

Few things are worse than inventory that sits in storage. Whether it’s clogging your living room or racking up storage fees in a warehouse, inventory you haven’t sold is deadweight for your business.

On top of that, selling at low rates means you have to buy in smaller quantities or risk drowning in expenses. That often results in higher prices from your suppliers and lower profits per sale.

Selling on both platforms is virtually guaranteed to increase your sales. That means faster inventory turnover, and therefore higher ROI.

3. You Might Dodge the Competition

It’s entirely possible that competition for your products will be lower on one site than the other. You might be surprised to find that the lower-competition site is the one you haven’t been using.

4. Different Demographics

According to Alexa's 2017 Amazon and eBay statistics, there are some clear differences in the users of Amazon and eBay. Amazon users typically have a higher education level and are more likely to be female than eBay users. It’s also commonly stated that Amazon users have more money to spend. 2018 research indicates roughly half of Amazon users went to college, and about the same percentage have an individual net worth of over half a million dollars.

This means certain products and price ranges will do better on one site than the other. You might have a lot of success selling less expensive items on eBay. On Amazon, you might be able to charge higher prices to compensate for the higher fees—and perhaps even take in a bigger profit.

Don’t obsess too much over the demographics, though. There’s a significant overlap in the type of people who shop on the two sites. Many users simply prefer one over the other.

The important thing to take away is that you will get different customers with different tastes and values when you sell on both platforms. Therefore, you'll be able to sell a wider variety of items.

5. You Can Simplify the Difficulties

While there’s no shortcut to learning the rules on both sites (other than reading our quick guides to things like eBay and Amazon seller return policy), you can definitely make customer support easier.

We thought having to log in to Amazon and eBay separately to provide support was a pain in the neck. We already loved to use Zendesk to provide customer support for things like our own website, but it was impossible to integrate it with these marketplaces.

So, we decided to have our developers figure out a solution, and the result is ChannelReply. It’s now possible to get all your Amazon and eBay messages in one place: Zendesk, Freshdesk or Help Scout.

We made good money selling on both platforms even before ChannelReply existed, but it sure has made our lives easier! And now that we’ve done the hard work for you, selling on Amazon and eBay at the same time is simpler and more efficient than ever before.

In Summary

Selling on both eBay and Amazon can make a huge difference for your business. Plus, the disadvantages of selling on both are disappearing as more tools become available. It’s worked for us, and we’re sure it will work for you, too.

Author

Justin Golschneider

Product Manager

Justin has over a decade of experience in ecommerce and customer service. He is an obsessive researcher with a passion for accuracy, and his articles for ChannelReply alone have reached over a million readers. He holds a bachelor's degree in English.