eBay Launches New Speedy Shipping Service in Germany

Feb 16, 2015 Web Developer Market Analysis 0

In the past few years eBay has gone viral and people just can’t get enough from it. It has become one of the leaders of the online shopping and according to the latest reports it doesn’t seem as if they plan to slow down. Moreover they are now launching a new program, custom made for the German market that includes free and fast shipping to this country.

Now with the eBay plus membership plan for the German consumers, for an annual fee of $22 you can get a free delivery within two days of your purchase giving you access to the products sold by millions of sellers across the globe who offer their products on eBay. In addition you get a free return policy within 30 days from the day you buy the product.

Although for now it doesn’t seem that eBay is planning to go across the German border and offer the services to other countries, Carl Gish, who is vice president of shipping, says that in future everything is possible.

Advantages of the New eBay Plus Program

This program had its test period earlier this year to see if it’s going to work as planned. The idea was that eBay would use the money they collect from the fee that people pay for the annual membership and reallocate those funds to provide free delivery for the members of this program.

These program is not only beneficial for all eBay shoppers that fancy shopping through this platform, but it can also be very appealing for the small businesses that use eBay on daily bases to promote their products and make them available to the public.

However, things wouldn’t be so simple for those business owners that want to be part of the new eBay plus program. In order for their products to be promoted to the new members they would have to comply with some pretty strict rules.

These business owners have to agree to ship the goods ordered from their premises on the same day the order is placed, assuming the transaction was completed before 2 pm. Every eBay seller that agrees to be part of the plus membership would also benefit from the program as they will have lower listing fees and their products will have a better position in the listing.

Improving Shipping Options

Currently the e-commerce industry is focused on improving the shipping conditions. This is triggered by the success that Amazon Prime has had in the past few years. Researches have shown that the Amazon Prime which carries $99 annual price tag and offers the opportunity of unlimited shipping across the US only for two days has proven to be a great success. In the period of 10 years, since Amazon first introduced their prime program, around 40 million customers have joined the program.

These results have inspired a lot of eCommerce sites and retailers to reconsider their shipping options and to implement the opportunity for speedy shipping. A solid proof that shipping does matters is the fact that earlier this year Walmart joined the group of companies that try to compete against Amazon’s prime program. Walmart announced that they are working on a new model that will include unlimited shipping services that will be similar to the services that Amazon offers in their prime program, but they would cost half the price.

Walmart is planning on offering their prime shipping for an annual fee of $50 where you would get free unlimited three day shipping for some selected products.

The CEO of Clarus Marketing Group, Tom Caporaso, who not only operates but also owns FreeShipping.com says that people who usually pay a certain fee for a promotional shipping program, end up increasing the average price of their order.

Freeshipping.com offer their services for a monthly fee of $12 giving members the opportunity to sell product from over 1,500 retailers, have free returns and a 10% cash back for every purchase they make.