eBay vs. Amazon: The Gap Grows More Narrow

As we go into the final quarter of 2009 the race will get tight for the top of the mountain. What I think many forecasted would take place years down the road could possibly manifest in the next 4 months?!? Could Amazon overtake eBay in the 4th quarter?

I could be speculating and accelerating this thought, but IF the changes that eBay is planning for October 2009 miss-fire, Amazon could put the smack down on the king of e-commerce. The changes to eBay are mostly geared toward facilitating better sellers and seller experience. Although many of the changes are masked and marked as "improving the buyer experience", do they really? Are they improving buyer experience directly or only do by default?

For me, what was lacking on eBay changes is a fundamental OVERHAUL of the antiquated interface. While eBay may want to distance itself of the old style auction format, they made NO announced changes to the distance from the old interface?

An average search page on eBay gives up nearly 30% of the above to fold real estate to Banner Ads, Multiple Search Bars and space wasters.

Banner ads on an ecommerce website? damn dude that is so "2000 and late"! Any given eCommerce web designer would tell you that multiple search bars are confusing and space waste. While a good best practice is that you should push to SELL above the fold as that real estate is the most important part of the customer view.

A quick view comparison of the two site searches shows that Amazon is PRIMED to sell in the new millennium, while eBay seems to be stuck in the 90’s. What is most telling to me about an Amazon search vs. and eBay search is simple.

1. Amazon will display just about EVERYTHING I need to know about the product right in search, while eBay makes me click and READ…ewe.
2. eBay shows MULTIPLE listing of the same exact item over and over, while Amazon rolls the duplicate items into 1 listing.
3. eBay search shows only 3 items above the fold while Amazon shows 5.

I could go on and on with this comparative analysis…And I just might one day soon, but for right now? I am afraid that eBay spends way too much time trying to keep sellers from selling stuff instead of making it EASIER for buyers to buy stuff. That could ultimately leave it open to conquest by the competitor sooner than expected by anyone!

Related posts:

1. STOP The PRESS: Amazon Traffic Beats eBay For The First Time EVER?!?
2. Amazon Testing Buy Used Box on the Platform: WOW…Cha Ching?!?
3. Amazon vs. Wal-Mart: Will Retailers Outperforming Pure Play eCommerce?!?
4. Product Release: ChannelAdvisor Launches New Amazon Solution
5. Catalyst ‘09 The State of Ecommerce – Keynote by Mr. Wingo