eBay Alternatives: 10 Alternatives to selling on eBay

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eBay Alternatives
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eBay is often regarded as one of the best marketplaces to start when starting selling online. Founded in 1995, eBay has helped thousands start profitable and successful online businesses. However, you may consider eBay alternatives to grow your business further.

It should be worth noting that selling on Amazon and Etsy are the obvious choices for alternative marketplaces to eBay (we recommend all three). These platforms are a great way to scale your business.

However, more marketplaces are available beyond Amazon, Etsy, and eBay. The marketplaces can offer an opportunity for your online business to expand into new territories, obtain new customers, or expand your product lines to cater to specific niches.

Below, we identify a further 10 marketplaces as eBay alternatives that can help you scale and grow your business.

Why do you need an eBay Alternative?

Connecting sellers with buyers on a global scale, eBay is an online marketplace that allows you to sell virtually anything. So why would you need another platform?

Well, there are several reasons to sell on eBay alternatives. Some of these reasons are due to the policies that eBay has introduced recently.

eBay has grown significantly over the years and has made many changes to its policies to protect consumers. While necessary, this can lead to additional administrative costs for merchants as they abide by these policies.

These changes are unlikely to cause merchants to abandon eBay. However, they are likely to cause a slight decrease in profitability. This has led merchants to look for alternative marketplaces to eBay in an effort to increase their sales and maintain profit levels.

Here are some reasons why eCommerce businesses may seek to trade on alternative marketplaces:

  • Costs: As one of the world’s leading platforms, eBay must provide adequate buyer protection. This can sometimes translate to an increase in overheads for sellers. Seeking an alternative to eBay allows eCommerce businesses to offset such costs by increasing their revenue in other marketplaces, thereby maintaining their profitability.
  • Competition: The popularity of eBay means that many businesses use it as a platform to sell their goods. This can make it challenging to stand out, particularly for new and small businesses, since you will compete with hundreds of other sellers selling the same product.
  • Growth: With increasing costs and competition, many eBay businesses may find their sales and profits to plateau. While eBay remains a viable and stable source of sales revenue, to scale their business, eBay sellers may look to alternatives to stimulate growth by:
    • Reaching New Audiences – Accessing larger audiences and potentially lucrative revenue streams. New and alternative marketplaces offer opportunities to sell to a more diverse or niche consumer base
    • Selling Excess and End-of-Line Stock – Alternative marketplaces may provide an avenue for moving surplus, slow-moving, or end-of-line stock
    • Building Brand Reputation – Other market platforms provide an excellent opportunity to build your brand and reputation further and increase awareness across a new and existing consumer base

Does eBay remain profitable for eCommerce?

Yes. The average eBay seller earns around $35,000 per year. Top-level sellers can easily exceed $70,000 per year. With more than 182 million active eBay customers globally, selling on eBay can be very profitable.

However, everything hinges on your eBay marketing strategy – keyword optimization, customer service, marketing, and product pricing.

If done correctly, eBay provides a tremendous amount of earning potential.

What is the best marketplace for C2C eCommerce businesses?

Generally, eBay and Amazon are the market leaders in consumer-to-consumer (C2C) marketplaces. These platforms offer a combined audience of 400 million active buyers and generate billions in revenue. Both these marketplaces provide a robust platform for any business seeking to establish and grow.

If your product offering consists of handmade goods, Etsy is the best eBay alternative for C2C businesses.

RELATED: Selling on Etsy vs. eBay vs. Amazon: Which is the Best Online Marketplace?

1. Bonanza

Best Alternatives to eBay - Bonanza
Image Credit: Bonanza

Bonanza is less well-known than eBay and is still a relatively new E-commerce platform. However, it’s quickly establishing itself as a global marketplace. The website’s tagline “Find everything, but the Ordinary” describes the many unique and unusual items you can find on it. Bonanza offers everything, from colorful shoes to artistic planters.

The website also has a high rating. It ranks at the top of the Seller’s Choice Awards for communication. It also won the highest ranking for most recommended selling venue, beating all competitors.

Bonanza does not charge sellers a listing fee, but they collect a 3.5% fee for sales below $500. The website charges 3.5% for transactions above $500 and 1.5% for sales over $500.

Sellers can give up a larger percentage of their sales to get more advertising or a higher search ranking. This is a risk-free way for sellers to expand their advertising efforts.

Visit Bonanza for more information

2. eBid

eBay Alternatives - eBid
Image Credit: eBid

eBid can be a great alternative to eBay if you are looking for a natural choice. eBid’s name is clear. It draws inspiration from eBay.

How does it differ from eBay? eBid uses an auction-style format to list its products, which makes it easy to switch between the two. Unlike eBay, however, eBid charges a lower listing fee and commission per sale.

There is a tradeoff: eBid has fewer users than eBay. It’s more challenging to find great deals on eBid than on eBay. If you want to sell unique products, it will be harder for you to reach your target audience. The best thing about eBid? It’s a low-risk platform, making it perfect for product testing.

Visit eBid for more details

3. eCrater

Alternatives to eBay - eCrater
Image Credit: eCrater

eCRATER may be the best option if you want to test the waters of online selling but have been discouraged by eBay’s listing costs.

Unlike eBay, eCRATER is entirely free to use. You may create a store without incurring expenses, and eCRATER will not charge you if you generate sales via your marketing efforts. However, a commission on sales is still generated through the eCRATER service.

Traffic on eCRATER will undoubtedly be lesser than on eBay. However, if you’re starting and looking for a no-risk or no-cost solution, eCRATER is a viable option.

Visit eCrater for further details

4. Facebook Marketplace

Best eBay Alternatives - Facebook Marketplace
Image Credit: Facebook

As the most popular social media platform, selling on Facebook marketplace is not an opportunity to be missed. Community-driven, Facebook Marketplace does not charge fees and is free to all members of the community.Anyone can create a local shop and build a buyer base.It is also much easier to list and then sell.

As for the downside, Facebook Marketplace does not offer the same safeguards as eBay. In addition, there is the risk of fraudulent offers.

Despite these disadvantages, Facebook Marketplace appears to be a viable choice for resellers who wish to test the waters.

Visit Facebook Marketplace for further information

5. Mercari

Alternatives to eBay - Mercari
Image Credit: Mercari

Mercari, a third competent eBay alternative, was founded in 2013. Mercari’s user base is mainly Japanese but also has significant traffic from other countries, operating only in the U.K., U.S., and Japan.

More than 100,000 products are added daily to the platform, including designer items and phones.

Signing up for Mercari and listing your products is free. However, the platform charges a 10% commission for successful transactions.

Mercari makes selling products easy. You need to download the app, upload the product information, and ship the item immediately after someone places an order.

Visit Mercari for more details

6. Newegg

eBay Alternatives - Newegg
Image Credit: Newegg

Although the name is funny, it’s a great place to showcase tech-focused products.

Newegg sells most items in computer parts, electronics, and gaming equipment.

This site is targeted at a tech-savvy audience between 18 and 45.

Newegg is based in California but has distribution facilities throughout the United States.

The Newegg platform is available in over 50 countries and has more than 4.2 million active users. While this may not sound like much compared to eBay, keep in mind that Newegg is a niche market.

Newegg offers an Amazon FBA-like fulfillment service to simplify shipping. You can also use the services of a third-party logistics company to deliver your order.

There are three subscription plans, and they usually charge between 8 and 15% commission.

Visit Newegg for more information

7. Walmart

Best eBay Alternatives - Walmart
Image Credit: Walmart

Walmart is one of the most recognized retailers in the United States, with projected 2021 revenues of $64.62 billion. Walmart offers many opportunities to generate money, especially once you’ve mastered the platform.

Established businesses with strong brands have a good chance of succeeding in the Walmart Marketplace.

If you’ve always wanted your product sold at Walmart, this may be a fantastic method to make an impact. Businesses wishing to sell on Walmart should have a clear plan for how they’ll make the most of it if they’re a new seller wanting to establish brand awareness and trust from the beginning. In addition, Walmart has a massive monthly readership of more than 120 million people.

Walmart, unlike eBay, does not charge an insertion fee. After a successful transaction, you will only be required to pay an 8-20% fee.

You’re permitted to sell most things at Walmart, which has few limitations. However, remember that competition on the platform may be rather intense.

The sole disadvantage of the website is that it has a rigorous onboarding procedure. However, this is to ensure the site’s quality is maintained.

Visit Walmart for further details

8. Wish

Alternatives to eBay - Wish
Image Credit: Wish

Wish offers a wide range of items, including those related to fashion, accessories, and technology, amongst other categories.

Wish is a potential alternative to eBay because of its revolutionary algorithm, which provides users with appropriate product suggestions based on the data acquired through wishlists and buying patterns. This allows Wish to provide customers with a more personalized shopping experience.

When you make a sale through Wish, you will be charged a fee of 15%, which is a significant amount, particularly for larger firms that make a substantial number of purchases daily.

On the other hand, on the good side, there are no hidden commissions or required monthly subscriptions, which means that there is practically any need for an initial investment.

Visit Wish for more information

9. Rakuten

Best Alternatives to eBay - Rakuten
Image Credit: Rakuten

Rakuten is an online marketplace that’s highly popular and versatile. Rakuten, formerly buy.com, is the “Amazon of Japan.” Japan has a population of more than 126million. Rakuten is used by more than 90% of Japan’s internet users. This is a vast market.

This is ideal for online businesses that are tired of Amazon and eBay’s intense competition and want a new eCommerce revenue stream and customer base. Rakuten offers a great opportunity for anyone with Japanese experience or who wants to enter the Eastern market.

Rakuten has one advantage: you are not competing with the site. Rakuten is unlike Amazon, which sells many brands on its website. Rakuten also allows you to customize your store on the platform, something not possible with other major eCommerce sites.

Many big brands, such as Dyson, Office Depot, and Lenovo, use Rakuten.

Rakuten’s downside is the $33/month maintenance they charge to sellers and other commissions.

Rakuten is an excellent alternative to eBay if you are looking for Eastern markets and can afford the fees.

Visit Rakuten for more details

10. Zibbet

eBay Alternatives - Zibbet
Image Credit: Zibbet

Zibbet is another well-known marketplace that specializes in handcrafted goods. It is more of an Etsy equivalent, but creative eBay customers can also utilize it.

Zibbet’s free plan permits merchants to sell up to 10 goods monthly. Beyond that, you would be required to pay a membership, which begins at $5 per month.

A further disadvantage of the free plan is that sellers may only upload one image to their listings, rendering it nearly worthless for marketing purposes.

The Ultimate Plan of Zibbet enables retailers to make promotional offers and discount vouchers for their customers. In addition, it provides access to comprehensive statistics and premium themes for shop customization.

The software offers multichannel selling and is compatible with major social media networks like Facebook and Instagram.

Visit Zibbet for further information

Choosing an alternative to eBay

We have compiled a long list of eBay alternatives, some of which may be more suitable for your company. Review the marketplaces in this article, selecting one or two that correspond most closely to your business objectives and plans.

Because every marketplace has rules and regulations, the decision of whether or not to use an alternative to eBay should mainly be based on the items you want to sell. For instance, Etsy is the finest choice for you to use if you want to sell handcrafted items.

Choosing several marketplace platforms is just one-half of the equation. To ensure success, you should take appropriate steps to minimize supply chain risks.

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