eBay and Shopify Form Alliance

eBay and Shopify announced a new partnership on Wednesday morning, as the two companies look to join forces to give Aussie e-commerce businesses greater access to eBay’s network of roughly 11 million monthly shoppers.
As part of the partnership, Shopify merchants will reportedly be able to list and sell their products on ebay.com.au directly through the Shopify platform. According to eBay, this deal means its shoppers will have access to a greater selection of products.
“Partnering with Shopify means we’re able to bring more great products to eBay buyers, while offering Shopify merchants the chance to build their brands at scale by tapping into our unparalleled marketplace,” eBay’s Director of Commercial Partnerships, Mark Mansour said in a statement.
According to PayPal’s recent mCommerce Index, 89 percent of Australian consumers currently shop through online marketplaces. The report also found that 43 percent of shoppers also use marketplaces as their preferred product search engine, over sites like Google, while 29 percent turn to individual retail stores. eBay and Shopify hope to take advantage of this shift in shopping habits to increase revenue and conversions.
“eBay was built on the notion of partnership, whether that’s with retailers, service providers or platforms. Our goal has always been to partner, not to compete, and to provide our buyers and sellers with the best experience,” he said.
Mansour’s comments on the partnership are definitely interesting ones, given the competitive nature of most of eBay’s announcements over the last 12-months. Since its biggest global competitor, Amazon, launched in Australia in December last year, eBay has scrambled to form a number of valuable partnerships with local Australian companies to keep its spot as the country’s most visited marketplace.
In July, the company announced a partnership with Australia Post subsidiary, Fulfilio in an attempt to provide an FBA-style delivery service for its network of local sellers, and in May eBay released its new membership service that took a direct shot at Amazon’s own Prime membership.
The program has allowed members to receive free delivery and free returns on Plus items, double FlyBuys points, exclusive offers and deals, premium offers and premium customer service. It costs members $49 per year, however, there is also a free 30-day trial and offer of $29 for the first year.
The most recent example of eBay’s new competitive nature is its partnership with Stan, which allows shoppers to access both eBay’s e-commerce marketplace and Stan’s entertainment services in one deal – much like Amazon Prime’s dual offer of shopping and streaming services through Prime.
The two global goliaths are also currently locked in a legal battle, as eBay has accused Amazon of trying to poach sellers from its site through its internal messaging service.
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