eBay vs. Amazon: Who’s Winning?
Trends Behind the Battle for Loyal Shoppers
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.