eBay Adds In-House Fulfilment Service to Sellers

Last year, eBay debuted the service in the UK and Germany. eBay Fulfilment by Orange Connex, which launched today, is a service that’s similar to FBA (Fulfilment by Amazon), allowing sellers access to benefits such as end-to-end tracking, and eBay Plus integration.

As part of the launch, eBay is integrating its fulfilment centres in Sydney, with plans to roll out more in Australia’s capital cities as time goes by.

“At eBay, we understand that housing, managing stock and delivery in tight timeframes can be challenging for growing a business – especially as e-commerce continues to accelerate and consumers expect faster and more seamless experiences,” said Hayat Horma, Director of Shipping at eBay Australia.

As online marketplaces continue to grow in popularity across Australia, there has been an increasing demand for services like FBA. A report (eBay Australia in August 2021 on 211 online sellers) indicated that 73 percent of businesses said it’s important that online marketplaces offer fulfilment services.

“eBay’s priority is to provide the tools that enable our 40,000 Australian retailers to compete and grow; eBay Fulfilment by Orange Connex will provide that – from streamlining the delivery experience to eBay Plus integration that gives sellers more opportunity to showcase their products to eBay’s nearly 12-million unique monthly visitors,” said Horma.

via eBay Australia

eBay’s new fulfilment service sounds similar to FBA (Fulfilment by Amazon), but are they really that analogous?

To start with, the core of the two services are essentially the same. Both eBay Fulfilment and FBA take care of the storage, packing and postage of sellers items. Moreover, both offer sellers that use the paid service to place badges on their pages to indicate their service; the platforms equally explain that these badges can increase item view uplift and a higher conversion rate (up to 17 percent for eBay, 10-15 percent for Amazon). Similarly, eBay Fulfilment handles an end-to-end tracking service and seller protection and multi-channel capabilities.

There are some key differences, too. FBA boasts an extra customer service option exclusive to FBA sellers; eBay Fulfilment does not mention any such services at this current time. eBay Fulfilment also offers ‘competitive’ postage rates, something that FBA does not indicate on its page.

“eBay Fulfilment by Orange Connex has been a game-changer for our business. We do most of our sales through eBay, so seller protection and competitive shipping rates are two of the most important benefits for us. We’ve worked with other logistics companies and this is the first time we’ve been able to significantly improve our operations and efficiency,” said Matthew Ling, the MD of AZAU, a seller on eBay.

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