Shopify vs eBay: eCommerce Platform or Marketplace Website?

When it comes to choosing the right platform for your dropshipping on eBay vs Shopify or online business, it is crucial to consider the options available. Shopify vs eBay are two popular choices that offer their own unique advantages and disadvantages. While both platforms have their strengths and features, it is important to assess which one aligns better with the specific needs.

To gain a better understanding of Shopify vs eBay, BSS Commerce Shopify will delve into some basic information about its compatibility with different types of businesses. Thereby, you will have a clearer understanding of which platform suits the business best, enabling you to make an informed decision.

Shopify vs eBay: At a Glance

What is Shopify?

Shopify is an eCommerce platform that is hosted and provides complete control over your online store. It enables businesses to create and manage their own online stores, allowing them to customize their storefront, accept payments, and manage their inventory all from one place. In addition, Shopify is recognized for its powerful features, including abandoned cart recovery, marketing automation, and social media integration.

Shopify offers a high level of security as it is both cloud-based and hosted. This ensures that you can securely access your Shopify account from any device that is compatible and connected to the internet. This flexibility allows you to efficiently manage and operate your business from any location.

Read more: Best Products to Sell on Shopify: List 14+ Profitable and Trending Products

What is eBay?

eBay, which was founded in 1995, is one of the most popular online marketplaces and plays a significant role in the shopping industry. In contrast to the Shopify platform, eBay primarily serves as a platform for people to find items at more affordable prices compared to what traditional brick-and-mortar stores offer.

One of the big pluses of eBay is that it also provides a convenient method for businesses to showcase their products to a wide range of potential customers without the need for extensive investment in building their own eCommerce infrastructure.

Learn more: 20+ Best eBay Trending Items to Sell and Get High Revenue

Main Difference Between Shopify and eBay

When considering the use of the two platforms, you need to refer to the main difference between Shopify and eBay to cater to your own requirements. In the table below, BSS Commerce Shopify will discuss details on these elements, including:

Is Shopify Better than eBay: The Full Comparison

To help you select the most suitable selling platform for an online store, it is important to carefully evaluate the features offered by each platform and determine which ones align with the online store model. In the section below, BSS Commerce Shopify will discuss and highlight a few notable features of Shopify vs eBay:

Shopify vs eBay: Easy to Get Started

Don’t worry about the complexity and time of building an online store. Shopify vs eBay dropshipping are both great options for an easy start in the eCommerce world.

When signing up for eBay, you can choose between a personal or business account. If you plan on selling a lot of items, BSS Commerce Shopify suggests you should choose a Business account and be prepared to provide additional information for verification purposes. Otherwise, the Personal account is also a great option. And regardless of your choice, you’ll need to answer some questions before accessing the main dashboard.

With Shopify, starting with Shopify is different from eBay, as you will have to build an online store from scratch. This means that you will need to design and create the website, which can be done using Shopify’s frontend editor. With this editor, you can customize the website’s color scheme and font and add content and pictures that reflect the brand. It is important to remember that Shopify requires a more time-consuming process to create a unique and fully branded website.

📌 Final Verdict:

When it comes to getting started, eBay stands out as the easier platform to begin selling on compared to Shopify. The signup and product listing procedures are incredibly straightforward. Nevertheless, the process of creating and uploading the products on Shopify is more complex, but you will have a fully fleshed-out store.

Shopify vs eBay Fees and Pricing

When selecting an eCommerce platform, people often prioritize the overall cost and value for money. It is crucial to avoid becoming infatuated with a particular eCommerce solution only to discover that it exceeds your budget. Fortunately, both Shopify vs eBay provide a variety of plans that cater to different needs and budgets.

Shopify Pricing

• Basic Shopify: $25/month for solo entrepreneurs
• Shopify: $65/month for small teams
• Shopify Advanced: $399/month as your business scales
• Shopify Plus: $2300/month for more complex businesses

You have the opportunity to test out Shopify for free for a period of 3 days without the need for a credit card. Once the trial period ends, you can select a plan that is tailored to the size and stage of the business. Try $1 free for the first month to make your dream come true.

Regarding transaction fees, Shopify Payments does not charge any fees for stores that use their service. However, if you opt for a third-party payment provider, there will be additional fees of 2%, 1%, or 0.6% depending on the plan you choose – Basic Shopify, Shopify, or Advanced Shopify.

Furthermore, Shopify charges a small fee to enable you to accept major credit cards like Visa and Mastercard as payment in your store. The fees vary depending on the plan you select.

eBay Fees

eBay imposes 2 primary types of fees for sellers: an insertion fee upon listing creation and a final value fee upon successful sale of an item.

The fee amount is determined by various factors, including the price of the item, the chosen format and category for the listing, any additional listing upgrades opted for, as well as the seller’s conduct and performance.

Insertion Fees

Each month, you have the opportunity to receive as many as 250 zero-insertion fee listings, and having an eBay Store may entitle you to even more. Once you have exhausted your zero insertion fee quota, insertion fees are:

• If your item fails to sell, there will be no refund provided.
• Charged for each listing and for each category that you choose to list your item in. This means that if you list your item in two categories, you will be required to pay an insertion fee for both categories.
• Charged for the original listing each time you decide to relist your item.
• If you create duplicate auction-style listings for identical items, you will be charged per listing.
• You will only be charged once per listing if your listing includes multiple items.

Final Value Fees

eBay only charges one final value fee when your item is successfully sold, so you don’t need to worry about additional fees for third-party payment processing. This fee is determined by a percentage of the total sale amount, along with an additional $0.30 per order.

The total sale amount encompasses various factors, including the item price, any handling charges, shipping costs paid by the buyer (with some exceptions), applicable sales tax, and any other relevant Shopify vs eBay fees.

However, in the event that you need to refund the buyer or cancel the sale, you may qualify for fee credits in accordance with eBay’s fee credit policy.

📌 Final Verdict:

Both platforms, Shopify vs eBay, offer a range of plans. Although eBay does offer a more affordable starter plan compared to Shopify, the features included are quite limited and may not be sufficient for scaling your business. However, apart from this distinction, both platforms have comparable costs.

Payment Options: Is Shopify Better Than eBay?

Shopify

Shopify, being a professional eCommerce platform, provides a wide array of payment options for your customers. Shopify facilitates more than 100 diverse payment gateways, including all the renowned names like PayPal, Stripe, Amazon Pay, Square, and more, along with other lesser-known alternatives.

eBay

The payment options available during eBay checkout are as follows:

• PayPal
• PayPal Credit
• Credit card or debit card
• Apple Pay
• Google Pay
• Spendable funds
• Payment upon pickup
• Wire transfer facilitated by eBay (select categories only)
• eBay gift card or eBay voucher or eBay Bucks

>> Read more: Top 10 Best Shopify Payment Gateway to Integrate

📌 Final Verdict:

In this case, Shopify is worth prioritizing more in the payment options section due to its extensive support for more than 100 diverse payment gateways. Moreover, with the utilization of Shopify Payments, you can steer clear of any transaction fees in addition to commissions. This sets it apart from eBay, where numerous fees are deducted from your earnings.

Shopify vs eBay: Email Marketing Features

Boosting traffic to the eCommerce platform is crucial for achieving sales success. However, attracting visitors requires a great email marketing feature. In this section, let’s take a deep look at these features, which can assist you in expanding your customer base and boosting sales effectively.

Shopify

Shopify Email offers a comprehensive platform that includes templates, reporting, and automated workflows to help you expand your business. Specifically, with the email marketing features of the Shopify platform, you will have:

• Easily design branded emails. Create stunning branded emails within minutes using our intuitive drag-and-drop editor and fully customizable templates. Let your brand shine through every email you send.
• Simplify email design with templates. Save time and effort by choosing from our wide range of pre-built templates. These templates automatically incorporate your branding, products, prices, and more, directly from your store into your emails. No coding required.
• Streamline email automation. Boost engagement with our automation feature in Shopify Email. Select from a variety of automation templates, customize the email content, activate the automation, and witness your business thrive.
• Centralize campaign management. Manage your email campaigns seamlessly within Shopify. Create, send, automate, and track your campaigns all in one place—the trusted platform that helps you efficiently run your business.

Learn more: Top 10 Best Shopify Apps For Email Marketing

eBay

As an eBay Store seller, you have the convenience of creating and sending email campaigns to your subscribers, followers, and previous customers who have opted to receive newsletters from your store. Utilizing the newsletter, you can extend a warm welcome to your customers and inform them about any new listings.

eBay provides design templates that allow you to customize and personalize your Store newsletter. At present, eBay offers 6 email templates that cater to various occasions and marketing campaigns. These templates enable you to send markdowns, volume pricing, coupons, order discounts, and ultimately drive traffic back to your store.

📌 Final Verdict:

In general, both platforms will have their own strengths. Shopify has a lot to offer in terms of marketing features that can help you expand your brand’s reach. Its analytics tool is top-notch, and its app store provides a way to connect your store to email marketing and a variety of social media platforms.

In contrast with eBay, creating store newsletters is an excellent method to inform customers about ongoing sales or promotions, showcase new products available for purchase, and foster a loyal community of recurring buyers.

Customization and Branding: Is Shopify Better Than eBay?

eBay

Having an eBay Store provides you with the benefit of owning your own homepage and the ability to tailor it to align with the brand. The next step is to determine how to customize the layout of the page to attract a larger customer base.

eBay’s branding and customization features are quite restricted and can only be accessed with a Basic subscription or higher. You can only customize your store’s sections, including:

• Store name
• Main image
• Store logo
• Store description
• Featured categories
• Featured items
• Marketing banner
• Store video
• Store policies

Shopify

Shopify’s themes serve as a strong base for your store, forming the foundation upon which you can establish your brand’s unique appearance. Moreover, the Shopify platform’s theme editor offers two main convenient features:

• Page templates: These can be easily accessed from the drop-down menu at the top, allowing you to swiftly create essential pages such as the homepage, about us page, product pages, and more.
• Sections: With this functionality, you can seamlessly integrate various elements like featured collections, slideshows, and videos into your store, enhancing its visual appeal and engagement.

In addition, if you want to advance your design with a more appealing appearance, there are two options worth considering.

• Firstly, Tapita Landing Page Builder is a great choice to create beautiful landing pages and product pages.
• Secondly, you can refer to Shopify Website Development Services to minimize the time spent creating an online store. As a leading development agency with over 10 years of expertise, BSS Commerce can assist you in creating intuitive, sales-driven, and robust online stores.

📌 Final Verdict:

eBay’s store design options are limited, whereas Shopify offers a wide range of comprehensive design choices to make an online store more appealing.

Shopify vs eBay: Fulfillment and Shipping

Shopify

The Shopify Fulfillment Network proves to be highly beneficial for a wide range of businesses, regardless of their stage of development. Whether you are a novice with no sales or an enterprise on the verge of expansion, this network is an excellent choice. Shopify will streamline your processes and reduce the complexity of your fulfillment, thanks to the following elements:

• Hassle-free product returns: Establish customer confidence with effortless and trustworthy return processes. The Shopify team will carefully inspect and restock your items while keeping you informed with regular updates.
• Faster delivery: The Shopify team ensures swift delivery of your products to fulfillment centers, guaranteeing timely and dependable shipments that will impress your customers.
• Simple pricing: You may scale your business with fixed prices that include shipping and inventory management at no upfront fees.

eBay

On eBay, it is your duty to handle the packaging and shipment of products, as well as manage returns. The platform places a strong emphasis on providing comprehensive shipping solutions, which is evident through the range of services offered:

• eBay Labels: When listing your merchandise, you can easily add shipping services and conveniently print the labels once the items are sold.
• Domestic shipping: For shipping within the United States, eBay has established partnerships with reputable carriers such as USPS, UPS, FedEx, and also offers the eBay standard envelope service for smaller items.
• International shipping: eBay’s international shipping program enables you to expand your reach to buyers in over 200 countries. This program takes care of the complexities of shipping, customs, and returns, making it hassle-free for you.
• Freight shipping: In addition to regular shipments, eBay also handles the shipping of oversized items through its freight shipping service.

📌 Final Verdict:

Depending on your requirements, you can select the appropriate category. You should take into account whether you want to manage your products, sell large items, or cater to various international markets.

Shopify has an edge over eBay because it offers a managed fulfillment network that takes care of logistics on your behalf. On the other hand, eBay’s global shipping program enables them to serve customers from all over the world.

Shopify vs eBay: Customer Help and Support

To succeed in online business, having excellent customer service is essential, so think carefully about which sales channel offers the best support.

eBay

eBay offers a range of customer support options that are tailored to your specific plan, including:

• 24/7 chatbot support
• Live chat support
• 24/7 phone support
• Community forum
• Help center

In addition, if you have a Starter to Premium plan, you will have access to standard service, which includes various support resources such as support pages, an automated assistant, an agent, and the eBay community. These options are designed to assist you in resolving any queries or concerns you may have while using eBay.

Shopify

Shopify provides a multitude of support options available 24/7. However, if you require further assistance, you can reach out to their support team via chat or by leaving a message. Specifically including:

• 24/7 phone support
• Social media support
• 24/7 live chat support
• Community forum
• Email support
• Help center
• Video tutorials
• Advanced specialist support

📌 Final Verdict:

Shopify offers various avenues for assistance and support whenever you require it. Whether you opt to communicate via email or phone, Shopify is equipped to cater to your preferences. Additionally, the Shopify help center is a useful forum, brimming with practical guidance.

Shopify vs eBay: The Bottom Line

In the end, is Shopify better than eBay?

Shopify vs eBay may both offer the opportunity to establish an online store and engage in product sales, but it is important to recognize their fundamental differences. Shopify stands as a comprehensive e-commerce solution, providing all the necessary tools and features for a fully functional online business. On the other hand, eBay serves as a specialized marketplace, primarily catering to the realm of second-hand sales.

Let’s choose a Shopify platform if:

If you’re looking for a platform that can help you grow your online store and give you complete control over its branding and design, with its advanced eCommerce and marketing features, you’ll have all the tools you need to succeed in today’s competitive online marketplace.

Let’s choose a eBay if:

You have the ability to oversee a store that falls within the range of small to medium-sized. You don’t need to seek extensive advanced customization over the design of your store and want to approach a bigger audience and a more established clientele.

BSS Commerce Shopify hopes that this post has explained all sides of the difference between Shopify and eBay. If you are confused about choosing a suitable platform for online business, the BSS Commerce Shopify blog is a reliable page to refer to for helpful knowledge about the eCommerce industry.

Shopify vs eBay – Frequently Asking Questions

1. What kind of online business works well with eBay?

eBay is a popular platform for online retail businesses, particularly those that specialize in selling unique or hard-to-find items. Some examples of businesses that do well on eBay include vintage clothing stores, collectible shops, and niche electronics retailers.

2. Can I run my online store on Shopify vs eBay at the same time?

It is possible to earn profits by selling on both platforms, and all you need is an eBay connector from Shopify’s app store. You have the option to sell on both platforms at the same time or use eBay only when necessary.

For instance, you can focus on Shopify as your primary platform and utilize eBay to sell returned items and recover losses. If your business deals with electronics and appliances, you can sell smaller products through Shopify and list larger ones on eBay, which offers freight shipping.

3. Is it difficult to begin selling on Shopify vs eBay?

Certainly not! In reality, both Shopify vs eBay offer incredibly user-friendly methods to establish and operate your online store. While eBay may be considered slightly simpler as it eliminates the need to construct a website from scratch.

However, it’s important to acknowledge that both options require a certain amount of time and effort. Running an online store demands patience. Nevertheless, if you are ready to do this, initiating your eCommerce online business has never been more effortless. 

Discover other comparison posts of Shopify with other eCommerce platforms:

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• Shopify vs Shopify Plus
• Shopify vs Squarespace
• Shopify vs BigCommerce
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