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Competition

Although there are now few direct competitors of online 

auction services in many countries, there are many 

indirect competitors. eBay (2013) describes competing 

channels as including online and offline retailers, distribu‑

tors, liquidators, import and export companies, auction‑

eers, catalogue and  mail‑  order companies, classifieds, 

directories, search engines, products of search engines, 

virtually all online and offline commerce participants, and 

online and offline shopping channels and networks.

In their SEC filing, eBay states that the principal com‑

petitive factors for the Marketplaces business include 

the following:

● 

ability to attract, retain and engage buyers and sellers;

● 

volume of transactions and price and selection of 

goods;

● 

trust in the seller and the transaction;

● 

customer service; and

● 

brand recognition.

Although eBay is one of the largest e‑commerce busi‑

nesses, these factors also need to be actively managed 

by the smallest online e‑retailer. For their online and 

mobile competition, they describe additional competi‑

tive factors, including:

● 

community cohesion, interaction and size;

● 

website or mobile application ease‑of‑use and 

accessibility;

● 

system reliability;

● 

reliability of delivery and payment;

● 

level of service fees; and

● 

quality of search tools.

Before the advent of online auctions, competitors in the 

collectables space included antique shops, car boot 

sales and charity shops. Anecdotal evidence suggests 

that all of these are now suffering. Some have taken the 

attitude of ‘if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em’. Many smaller 

traders who have previously run antique or car boot 

sales are now eBayers. Even charities such as Oxfam 

now have an eBay service where they sell  high‑  value 

items contributed by donors. Other retailers such as 

Vodafone have used eBay as a means to distribute cer‑

tain products within their range.