DISCUSSION
Will a new price match program lead more people to shop on eBay?
Written by George Anderson
Source: ebay.com
Yesterday, eBay announced the launch of a price match guarantee on more than 50,000 new, unopened items sold as part of its daily deals selection. Whether this will be enough to convince consumers to shift their purchases from other sites remains to seen.
EBay’s price match offer is targeted at shoppers who frequent key competitive e-commerce sites including Amazon.com, BestBuy.com, Jet.com, HomeDepot.com, Sears.com, Target.com, Walmart.com and Wayfair.com. Items included in the offer must be new, in-stock and the exact same product. EBay claims that 90 percent of its deals are new items.
To trigger the price match, shoppers must contact eBay customer service to let them know where they found a better price. Customer service will then “verify the price match on the spot” and send a coupon for shoppers to enter and receive a better deal.
“Shoppers can shop with confidence knowing that they’re getting the best value available on eBay,” said Hal Lawton, senior vice president of North America at eBay, in a statement. “Our eBay deals selection has grown exponentially since being launched in 2011. The vast majority of our deals are already lower priced or equal to our competitors, but if a shopper finds it for less, we’ll gladly match the price of our competitors.”
EBay markets its deals as an alternative to Amazon’s Prime and other paid subscription services. No membership is required and items are shipped free from over 900 of eBay’s “most trusted sellers.”
The announcement of the price match program follows another made in March of eBay’s Guaranteed Delivery, which promises free delivery in three days or less on more than 20 million eligible items.
EBay continues to work at recreating its image from its early days as an online auction site. Today, 87 percent of the items sold are fixed price and most come with a money back guarantee. EBay was the second most visited site in the U.S. during the 2016 Christmas selling season. Its marketplace sales exceeded $10 billion for the first time in its history, according to the company.