As a long time eBay member, I can honestly say that I am quite happy with the direction in which eBay is headed. Its newly re-designed website, and allowing most sellers to list for free, has helped grow the user base and bring more items to market.
A little over a year ago, eBay announced the new eBay Now, allowing users located in San Francisco and New York City to receive same-day delivery for any item bought on eBay. With this service, eBay teamed up with a large variety of major retailers, such as Best Buy, Finish Line, GNC, Home Depot, Macy’s, Office Depot, RadioShack, Target, Toys R Us, and Walgreens, all of which have an eBay store, and made an agreement with them that, as long as a customer pays using PayPal or a Credit Card, their item would be sent and received all within 24 hours.
So far, so good, as eBay CEO, Devin Wenig, states that the company is currently looking to purchase London-based delivery company, Shutl, to help “scale quickly and cost effectively around the country and around the world.”
EBay has also announced this week that they are looking to extend the city base to a total of 25 cities for 2014. EBay did not state all 25 cities; however, the service should soon be available to any Chicago or Dallas resident.
As an eBay user, I too have a PayPal account. Strangely enough, I received an email stating that I was now offered free two-day shipping on any PayPal purchase. Since eBay is the sole owner of PayPal, I would not be surprised to see this service expand to PayPal or other companies as well. Google even tried out this same-day delivery tactic a year ago, but with little success.