eBay is gaining legs on other e-commerce players with its latest pricing initiative.
The e-tailer debuted a Price Match Guarantee, which spans more than 50,000 deals in the U.S. With the guarantee, eBay ensures consumers that eligible deals will be the best online price or it’ll match the lower price from competitors, including Amazon, BestBuy.com, Target and Walmart.
“Shoppers can shop with confidence knowing that they’re getting the best value available on eBay. Our eBay deals selection has grown exponentially since being launched in 2011,” eBay SVP of North America Hal Lawton said. “The vast majority of our deals are already lower priced or equal to our competitors, but if a shopper finds it for less, we’ll gladly match the price of our competitors.”
(Read more about what eBay’s doing to ramp up its shopping experience: eBay Turns to Personalization to Up Its Shopping Experience)
Items that qualify for price matches must be brand new, found at competitors, identical and available in stock. If a consumer finds an eBay deal for less, they can contact eBay customer service to request a price match. Once customer service verifies the price match, eBay will provide a coupon for the difference of the price that can be put toward the purchase of that product.
Unlike other e-commerce platforms, eBay Deals don’t require membership, and all eBay Deals ship for free. Deals include inventory across categories, including fashion and home goods, that are usually between 20 percent and 90 percent off original prices. More than 900 eBay sellers participate in the eBay Deals platform, including major consumer brands and smaller merchants in the U.S. Roughly 1 billion listings are available on eBay at any time and “featured deals” are updated periodically throughout the day.
eBay’s Price Match Guarantee follows the company’s new three-day shipping service. Starting this summer, eBay will roll out guaranteed three-day shipping on over 20 million items. With this offering, consumers may filter their search results for eligible goods and receive desired items in a shortened period. Although eBay’s shipping could compete with Amazon’s Prime membership, eBay allegedly started the service to fulfill consumer expectations.