eBay vs. Amazon: Who’s Winning?

When we first started tracking eBay and Amazon back in 2002, the two companies had almost identical Net Promoter Scores of around 70. Cut to 13 years later, and Amazon’s score is in the same spot, while eBay’s is 32 points lower. So what happened? While there have been ups and downs along the way, 2015 seemed to be the year when the gap between the two companies really widened. eBay’s NPS had its roughest year to date, with a significant drop of 16 points, taking the brand from 3rd to 5th place in our benchmark report on the online shopping sector.

 

 

Looking at shifts in how consumers used and viewed the two companies over the previous twelve months shows some interesting differences. Firstly, Amazon’s refinement of its recommendation and search algorithms continues to pay off, with significant satisfaction improvements around product browsing and discovery. Secondly, many of eBay’s drivers have been stationary or heading downward, with significant decreases this year for its general feature set and overall price competitiveness.

 

These differences build on existing performance gaps between the two companies, generally in Amazon’s favor. The company has a relentless focus on making shopping very quick, and on eliminating friction between the landing page experience and the order confirmation process. The effects of that focus show up in the form of large gaps between eBay and Amazon in satisfaction with ease of doing business, and the overall buying experience.

 

Phone Shopping May Change the Game

For both companies, a trend has emerged over the last few of years — people who use their phones to shop are more loyal And the proportion of smartphone shoppers, while still dwarfed by desktop usage, is increasing rapidly. Almost double the respondents accessed the services via mobile in 2015 compared to 2014 (10% vs 19%).

 

This trend holds some hope for eBay; its customers report higher mobile engagement, and among this group, its NPS is not decreasing. However, they’ll need to do more to stay competitive — Amazon’s NPS among smartphone shoppers is starting to show a gradual upward trend.