Amazon versus eBay—Which one is the best?

For online shoppers, knowing the pros and cons of these two giants’ online markets is very crucial. Online shoppers are concerned with getting the best value for their money; they want to get huge benefits from online retailers. It is important to know that both eBay and Amazon are American companies, and are best assessed by Americans; although, people from other countries can buy things from these two giants also. This article attempts to show the benefits and the other sides of these two giants.

· Amazon is an online market that allows people to buy things immediately after their payment is confirmed. On the other hand, eBay is an auction site, i.e. people have to bid for merchandise before they can buy it. One should note that eBay also offer some ‘buy it now options’, but it mainly deals in auctions. This shows that for someone that wants to buy a good instantly, Amazon may be a better option. This is a plus to Amazon. However, it is advisable for someone to have a look at what eBay has to offer before making the final decision.

· The form of payment on eBay is PayPal While that of Amazon is credit card. Online shopper who has only PayPal has his/her form of payment will have to buy from eBay. Also for someone who has credit card and not PayPal, then he/she will have to choose Amazon. However, PayPal allows someone to link his/her credit to PayPal account, and since opening a PayPal account is free of charge, this solves the problem of those having only credit card. This is a plus for eBay.

· Amazon does not provide a place to fill the security code (three or four codes) at the back of credit card when filling the credit card information. This constitutes a problem if the bank that issues out the credit card make the filing of security code compulsory before a transaction can be approved. This is not applicable to eBay, and this is a plus to eBay.

· EBay allows online shoppers to set their price, but this does not apply in the case of Amazon. However, in most cases online shopper does not have the opportunity to set a lower price because prices are usually forced up through the bidding process.

· Both eBay and Amazon allow online shoppers to buy merchandise at the best possible price. This is possible because they allow you to see different prices of the various retailers.

· Amazon provides an avenue for online shoppers to see the comments people are making about a particular product, and this helps one to be in better position to make judgement about a particular product. These types of comments are not available on eBay.

· Amazon allows online shoppers to see the star ratings of each product based on the customers’ review. This star rating ranges from one to five. One star being the worst, and five stars being the best. This is also not available on eBay

I will like individual reader to decide who wins between these two giants.

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