Rob Bigler Tells Us The Advantages of eBay Shopping
Rob is the general manager at eBay Canada, the famous online shopping platform, which has 1.5 billion listings that Rob says guarantees you’ll find what you're looking for whether its new or used. eBay now has more new items according to Rob, with 80% of sales being brand new. Rob says that when people think of eBay, they think of the auction aspect of buying desired items, but he says about 90% of what they sell is fixed price. No need to fight over that retro toaster oven! “It's a trusted safe place to find those items, and a lot of its brand new, a lot of its fixed price,” He reiterates.
eBay is staying competitive by remaining true to its roots, passion and connecting people with items stories, and allowing the technology to create trust. Another thing that has kept eBay relevant, especially for Canadians, is its gateway to the world. You have local Canadian stores and beautiful websites, but sometimes you just need that item that's only sold in Germany! That's when eBay steps in. It’s also a great tool for creating more business for yourself, on top of your physical or online store. “You sell on eBay, easy to do, and you get access to 103 million active users,” Rob explains, that's when the excitement starts without competition.
It’s easy to get started on eBay, using the app, you can scan the UPC code of the item and the app will fill in all the information that is needed for you. “You can set your price and your shipping options, so we try to make it super simple so anybody can sell on eBay,” Rob explains. This way private sellers or businesses can post their products in just a couple of minutes to anyone around the world. Although there are fees to use eBay, the results are worth it and the world is moving online, so you have to keep up. “Stay local, sell global.”
In the time of COVID-19, Rob says he’s proud of what his Canadian eBay team and the company have done to combat the losses that businesses are facing. “I feel like between sellers and the partners that we have we’ve done a ton to help Canadian small businesses,” Rob explains. The team helped the existing sellers first by pushing fees, getting rid of insertion fees, and extended protections and delivery delays because especially within the first few months the cash flow and inventory collection was an issue for many businesses. Next, they helped out small businesses that had not been on the site prior to COVID by implementing their “Up and Running” program which gave them free storage subscription for 3 months, waived their final value fees on their first 200 items, created tutorials, and partnered with organizations that also helped small businesses in need. They also helped out private sellers, as well as buyers by gearing marketing efforts towards what they thought people might need like exercise equipment (which was up 200%) or electronics like laptops for working from home.
“We’re lucky to have a website that can help, we’ve got a platform to give Canadians access to 183 million buyers, so we’re in a unique position to really help out with everything we could,” Rob boasts.
Written by Juliana Bermudez