Price and Distribution

Since Ebay does not carry actual "goods", the company positions its services in many different ways. For example, Sellers receive discounts in selling fees if they post a certain amount of items on the website. Buyers also receive discounts for purchasing certain items at certain times i.e. holidays, bulk items. Ebay positions its services at a competitive price and since the website is well known, most online buyers or sellers will resort to utilizing the site.

To post an item on the site, initially the Seller will be charged a listing fee, along with other fees involved with the initial post. During creating the ad on the website, Ebay offers many services and additional features that can increase the odds of selling their items, for a price of course. After the item has been posted and once it has been sold, there is a final selling fee that is incurred and automatically withdrawn from the final selling price. Ebay offers certain discounts to Sellers whom sell frequently on the site, such as no fee listings or no fee picture additions, increasing the loyalty of the Sellers and also increasing the flow of goods on the site.

When purchasing items, Buyers generally are looking for a specific items. Again, along the same lines of a Seller, Buyers are offered 10%, 25% and even 50% discounts off of certain listings. Although these discount are occasional, although Ebay is the third party who monitors the transactions, when these discounts are offered, the purchase is made for the final amount bid for the item and the discount is applied through Ebay, so technically Ebay is the one paying for the difference of the discount for the Buyer to the Seller. This again gains customer loyalty and a positive view of the company overall.


Since Ebay's product is a service, they generally position themselves in the distribution chain as the "middle man" and allow for an even flow of goods from Buyers to Sellers. Ebay offers such a wide variety of services to any type of Buyer or Seller, the demand for the service is always there and the demand for the variety of items is unparralelled. Ebay allows for a Seller's item(s) to reach an unlimited amount of markets, which increases selling potential. Since Ebay is already an established name, when listing items on the website, Seller's barely have to do any of their own personal marketing. The site allows any user, at any level to be able to sell almost anything through the site, making the distribution levels limitless.