Being an online retailer in 2019 means competing with Amazon on every front. For eBay, the latest idea to keep merchants on its platform is by offering them a product storage and shipping service called "Managed Delivery."
As Reuters reports, eBay is currently trialling a warehousing, packing, and shipping service for its merchants in the US and Germany. Each merchant can rent space in a warehouse to store their stock and then have eBay handle shipping out products as they are sold (for a fee) in eBay-branded packaging. If this sounds familiar, it's because it's basically what Amazon does with its "Fulfillment by Amazon" service for Amazon Marketplace merchants.
It's hoped Managed Delivery ends up benefiting both eBay and its merchants. For high-volume merchants, it removes the hassle of having to find storage locally and therefore allows them to offer more goods if they so wish. For eBay, it allows orders to be shipped more quickly to customers and fully-tracked for peace of mind, with eBay's CEO Devin Wenig stating he hopes it allows for free two-day shipping to become the norm for the 50 percent of items this program can cover already.
According to Wenig, "Our 182 million consumers shop on eBay because of the value and uniqueness of our inventory. We're not the one-hour delivery guys. We're never going to be that, but consumer expectations are changing." In other words, don't expect free same-day deliveries anytime soon from eBay merchants.
If everything goes to plan with the trial, eBay hopes to roll Managed Delivery out more widely in 2020. One thing it's important to point out, though, is the fact eBay isn't setting up these storage facilities itself. Instead, the company will use a network of "trusted, strategic logistics providers."
