Amazon and eBay are both great places to sell your products online. But when trying to decide how to approach each marketplace, it’s important to know what the key differences are between them. In this blog, we will be taking a look at a few of these differences and how they should influence your deployment strategy when launching your products.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
SEO is the term given to the process of improving your rank in Search Engine results. Every search engine uses a process to determine the relevancy of the results you will see on a page. Amazon and eBay go about doing this slightly differently and look at different areas of your listing to determine how you rank. So how do eBay and Amazon allow you to optimise your rank in search? See below.
eBay’s Cassini Engine
eBay’s search engine, called Cassini, is affected primarily by keywords within your product’s title. This means that when the search engine is searching for something, it will be looking out for the types of words that you have used. To make sure that your product appears in the search results, you want to match your keywords with the words that customers are using in the search engine. There are several websites for finding what keywords customers are searching for.
However, Cassini is affected not only by the keywords you use but many other factors as well, including:
Your prices– If a competitor is selling the same product at a cheaper price, they will show up higher on the search results than you. Try to sell your products at a price equal or cheaper than your competitors.
Your Shipping methods, times and policies– Using shipping options such as Free Delivery will give you a boost in the search results. Providing a variety of options for customers will also help you.
Your enquiry response speed– Sellers with higher response times will appear higher in search results. You should aim to respond to customers within 24 hours if possible.
Whilst it is still important to take keywords into account, you should make sure that you are considering these other factors as well and making improvements where you can.
Amazon’s A9 Algorithm
Amazon’s search engine uses a system which many Amazon experts have dubbed the “A9 Algorithm”. A9 is similar to Cassini, it’s also primarily affected by the keywords you’ve used. However, A9 not only takes into consideration words you’ve used in your title, but it also looks at the words you’ve used in your bullet points and product description as well. The additional factors it takes into account are also slightly different:
Stock Availability- If you have a lower amount of available stock, your product will appear lower in the search results. Making sure you regularly refill your stock can help to resolve this issue.
Price- If your product is priced significantly higher than the rest of your competitors, it will most likely appear lower in the search results. Make sure your products are reasonably priced.
Where to use Search Terms
Keywords are one of the biggest factors that impact Search Engine Optimisation. So, it’s important to know where on Amazon and eBay you should be using these keywords. Keywords on Amazon can be used in the backend section of your Seller Account, as well as your title, bullet points and product description. eBay on the other hand, only allows you to utilise keywords within the product’s title, which is why many product titles on eBay end up maxing out the character limit.
Cost
The cost of selling on either platform can often vary, as it can be very dependent on the services you are using on that platform. However, Amazon is generally more expensive to sell on than eBay, as Amazon charge higher rates for the that you need to pay. Although Amazon has a wider range of features like Fulfilment by Amazon, as well as a greater number of potential customers, so using Amazon could have more potential for success.
HTML vs EBC
Both Amazon and eBay allow you to provide additional information on your products. However, the two go about it very differently. eBay opts for an HTML based method, where you can essentially have a mini-site underneath the main section on your product page. Amazon by default use a more basic HTML text-based description, however, brand-registered accounts have the option to take a more graphical approach with Enhanced Brand Content.
Amazon’s method of EBC is more user-friendly to the seller, as it does not require any additional knowledge to utilise, as opposed to eBay’s method, which requires you to know at least the basics of HTML coding. However, if you do know HTML, eBay’s method offers a lot more in terms of interactivity; allowing you to include a variety of HTML features.
Customer Demographic
Amazon and eBay have very different customer bases. The key difference between the two customer demographics is that eBay customers are usually more loyal to a certain brand, whilst Amazon customers tend to be loyal to Amazon as a platform. Customers on eBay will often stick to brands on eBay that they trust and are usually more likely to give feedback to that brand and leave reviews. Whereas Amazon customers tend to be less picky on who is selling the product, instead opting for products that Amazon will send to them quickly via Amazon Prime.
This concludes our blog on the differences between Amazon and eBay. We hope that this blog has given you some useful information which will help you to choose the platform that is best for you.