At first it was an issue of rethinking same-day delivery for eBay.  In December of last year, eBay made a move to officially pull eBay Now from the app store.  The e-retailer appeared to shift toward integration of the stand alone app into its’ main mobile app and website instead.  The app allowed mobile shoppers to buy from local retailers and have their online items delivered for $5 the same day.  However, recent moves communicate much more, even if eBay has turned away from same-day delivery toward a focus on store pick up.

A recent report by Yahoo Finance discussed how eBay may not be interested in same-day delivery.  EBay has signed a deal with Woolworths in Australia, giving eBay shoppers the convenience of making online purchases on its’ site and then pick up from Woolworths stores.  The e-retailer also has previously partnered with Argos in the UK to do the same thing.  Online retail is projected to increase to $500 billion by 2018, and in-store pick up will have a lot to do with these figures.  Wal-Mart and Macy’s are just two of the many big name retailers offering in-store pick up, pushing to meet shopper demand.

The article mentions how eBay feels in-store pick up meets the demand of not only customer convenience and speed, but also no shipping costs.  EBay feels customers will opt for faster delivery without paying for shipping.  A Harris Interactive survey of 2,241 US adults showed that 70% of consumers don’t want to pay additional charges for overnight or same-day delivery.  This means if given the choice to not pay for shipping, customers will opt to order online and simply pick up their items from their local store.

EBay also sees this model as being beneficial for returning defective items directly to a physical store versus shipping it back to them.  This minimizes the wait time for customers to get their purchase in their hands.  A same-day courier like 1-800 Courier is a viable option for shoppers that simply don’t have the time to return the damaged items to the store and bring the corrective items back.  The Chicago courier has a national footprint for same-day delivery and can perform last-mile deliveries for customers, as well as retailers like eBay.

In spite of eBay’s potential change in business strategy, other web-retailer leaders are still all in with same-day delivery. Amazon has a multitude of investments into the same-day delivery, including more than 50 fulfillment centers nationwide, expansion of the service into 8 major US cities before the holiday season last year, the opening of its’ very first physical store location in Manhattan, and the launching of bike service there as well.  The physical store location is primarily for online customer store pick ups, but also for last-mile deliveries.

Google offers Google Express with same-day or overnight delivery, competing with Amazon.  Consumers can place orders online for goods from retail stores like Walgreens, BestBuy, Toy-R-Us, and Staples, then Google Express vehicle delivers the items same-day or next-day to its’ customer’s front door.  As eBay makes it adjustments, there will be more online retailers making changes of their own to keep shoppers coming back for more.

Reference:  3.9.15, Yahoo Finance, Patricia Garner, Why eBay is not interested in same-day delivery