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Competitor Analysis Paper
Competitor Analysis Paper
JB Gammon
Central Piedmont Community College
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Competitor Analysis Paper
Amazons biggest and most obvious competitor is EBay. EBay is an international online
marketplace and a multibillion business operating in 37 countries. There are millions of items
listed on eBay across thousands of categories, including antiques, toys, books, computers, sports
and electronics, amongst many others. EBay, once a scrappy auction site for mom and pop
sellers, is enticing some of the world’s largest retailers by arguing it can help them compete better
against e-commerce leader Amazon.com Inc (Barr, Skariachan, 2012). The Chief Executive of
EBay and other executives like to tell retailers that Amazon is their enemy. Supposedly EBay is
the better option because unlike Amazon, it holds no inventory. Amazon buys products
wholesale and stores them in inventory then sells them to consumers at higher prices. EBay
claims that their prices are set by matching buyers and sellers. If you look at the numbers
Amazon is winning with the highest amount of active customers. They have over 180 million
while EBay has only a little over 100 million. Even though Amazon gets more action, some big
name companies still partner with EBay over Amazon. The reason behind this is, “When you
partner with Amazon, they are looking at your data, learning your business and have ambition to
get into every category” (Barr, Skariachan, 2012). The foundations of eBay now rest on Milo, a
start-up eBay acquired in late 2010 which lets merchants upload in-store inventory onto eBay’s
online marketplace. When shoppers search on eBay now, they see what online sellers are
