eBay Alternatives Comparison - Why Bother With Second Best?

OK, so if you're here, I'm going to assume that eBay did you wrong. You're in good company. Between the February eBay boycott, the scoop at Henrietta's excellent blog, and eBay's declining traffic and listings, it has become conventional wisdom that eBay is in some dire straits right now. But it's one thing to hate eBay, and it's another to choose and use an eBay alternative. Usually once people start thinking about whether they can realistically ween themselves of their eBay habit, they learn there are some serious tradeoffs that need to be made. This post will discuss some of those tradeoffs in regard to how each of the current eBay alternatives compare to each other.

Established Sites

• Amazon Marketplace: OK, full disclosure -- I've always had a soft spot for Amazon. Shopping there doesn't make me think, it makes me happy. Strengths: Good user base and great user experience. Amazon inspires Bonanzle's obsession with making things as utterly intuitive as possible. Weaknesses: You can only post items for sale that are in their inventory, so unique collectibles and such are out. Also, since Amazon gives so little information about each item, the only two metrics you can differentiate on are price and feedback. For users that don't want to sell their items at bargain basement prices, or for users that haven't already sold hundreds of items, this is a problem.
• iOffer: iOffer has been working hard over the last few years to try to become the next eBay. In my mind, they have succeeded in doing so from a user experience standpoint. Strengths: Good sized user base, lots of items. Allows users to group together items into offers. User experience that feels extremely similar to where eBay was a year or two ago. Or is that a bad thing? Weaknesses: User experience that feels extremely similar to where eBay was a year or two ago. Prices hover amongst highest site not named eBay site. Excluding multi-item offers, little in the way of positive improvements compared to eBay. For my part, I prefer eBay's user experience to iOffer's as of today.
• Etsy: Who doesn't love Etsy? It's beautiful, its user experience is second to none, and creativity abounds. Strengths: Presentation is superb. You don't need to be a web wizard to realize that many of the ideas for Bonanzle's presentation were adapted from seeds planted by Etsy. Lots of fun Flash widgets to play with. Good user and item base. Weaknesses: If you aren't selling homemade gifts, you're out of luck. Also, their prices aren't that low. But as you'll see in the next group of shopping choices, low prices can be a mixed blessing anyhow.

Up and Comers

Herein lies a scrum of sites with big dreams but not as many items or users. These are not sites for Powersellers looking to liquidate thousands of items by the end of the month. Yet they play an important role in the buying and selling ecosystem, because for these smaller sites need to survive, they've got to have creativity and a certain pluckiness. Remember in 1998 when you thought that Yahoo! had solved the problem of Internet search, and then Google arrived? Even though you the behemoths above have been "good enough" so far, the up and comers are where you'll see the hope that a significant step forward is still possible.

• Bonanzle: OK, who did you think was going to start this list, Einstein? I would subjectively say that, moreso than almost any other entrant on this list, Bonanzle is different than what you're used to. This starts from Bonanzle's founding principle of "Relentless Simplicity," which itself is a pretty big leap from the 90's way of thinking that "the more features the merrier." The implications of this mantra are far reaching for the product that's evolved. Strengths: User experience and focus on gathering user feedback comparable to Etsy and Amazon, respectively. Focus on real time deal making and interaction. High emphasis on sociability and community. Relentlessly simple. eBay/Craigslist item/feedback importers built in. Integration with all IM clients built in. Offers and counteroffers built in. Real time sales (Bonanzas) where buyer and seller interact built in. Can search for local items that are able to be picked up same day. Store-centric approach equals item synergy. No pre-registration to set up a store. Weaknesses: If you like auctions, you won't find them here -- too slow and unsimple. If you like cents, you won't find those either, we think they're so much mental clutter. Tradeoff for community-centric atmosphere means generally less anonymity than eBay.
• eCrater: This is almost what I'd consider an "Established Site," but with only 20% of the inventory of iOffer, I think it still belongs as an Up and Comer for now. They're scrappy. They probably like it. Strengths: No fees of any sort to setup your store. Decent traction with items and users. Reliable and been up for a long time. Weaknesses: I was playing with my eCrater store yesterday to see how they'd setup Google Checkout. After a couple minutes, I was done setting up my store and decided I wanted to see the home page again. I clicked on the "eCrater" logo. Nothing. I look at the top of the left navigation bar. Nothing. I went into deep thought and scoured their interface for a way... any way... to escape from the selling part of the site. No dice. I left the site. Long story short: because they're free, and have nothing to lose, it feels like there is some accountability missing for designing an intuitive experience or good presentation. Also, eCrater has been up for enough years now (5ish I think) that it's hard to imagine it suddenly breaking through and gaining the mass of users to be a leader.
• BluJay, ePier, Wagglepop: Some of the sites on the trail of eBay/iOffer. I bet there are some great features on these sites, and if any of the developers of those sites stop by this blog and can concisely explain how they are different and better than eBay (excluding fees, any site can be cheaper than eBay), I'll include their feedback here.

Auction Goons

Google "eBay alternatives" and you won't have any trouble locating more than 100 sites claiming to be "the next eBay." These are the sites that you visit and you think to yourself, "if this is the next eBay, maybe I could learn to put up with current eBay after all." These sites go up and down regularly, and aside from cheap entertainment value, they provide little of value to the eBay alternative seeker. I'll refrain from arguing that the goons do a disservice to the serious up and comers, because it's so easy to make a lame auction site that who could blame a bored person for doing it as a fun side project. But they do generally clutter up the space and make users more (rightfully) skeptical of the legitimate eBay alternatives. Oh well. Maybe if you ask really nice I'll give you a couple links to some of the most amusing of the current crop of goons. But as a rule, you must Beware the Auction Goons.

So, Why Bother With Second Best?

In essence, the choice to try an Up and Comer is the choice to sacrifice a known quantity in hopes of a better buying and selling experience. For many eBay users, this is a no-brainer, they're sick of eBay fees, or they're sick of draconian eBay user policies, or they're bored of auctions, or they're tired of it taking 10 minutes to post an item, or they don't feel like wading through pages upon pages of gaudy HTML to find a quality item. Some people are just curious about what life might be like after eBay. Still other users (the Google generation) feel personally responsible for implementing the "Don't be Evil" mantra, and avoid eBay on principle. Whatever the case, the reality that eBay has lost more than 10% of its listings since last year (after growing every year prior) attests to the fact that more people than ever are willing to go out on a limb to find something better. For the Up and Comers sake, the challenge is to prove to these free agent users that the risk is worth it. Bonanzle is ready to prove it to you.