Amazon Overtakes Ebay as Number One Online Retailer

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August 14th, 2008

Amazon (Amazon.com), created and originally operated as an online bookstore, is overtaking Ebay (Ebay.com) a number one online retailer. Amazon has opened doors to more than a million outside merchants who might other otherwise set up small shops with Ebay.

Busy shoppers would rather skip time consuming auctions and the opportunity to wait seven days to purchase the handbag or luxury vehicle of their dreams only to be outbid at the last minute.

Now Amazon prepares to launch the ultimate competition is successful; an online payment system, comarable to Ebay’s subsidiary Paypal.com. This has investors researching if Amazon is the new retailer to purchase now.

Take a peak at some facts from MSN’s MoneyCentral.com:

Amazon’s growth story

Numbers from the most recent quarter:

- Amazon’s sales jumped 35%, and that’s after the impact of currency changes was stripped out. In contrast, eBay’s revenue was up just 13%.

- In North America, Amazon’s revenue was up 35%, or nearly three times the growth in overall Internet retail sales tallied by comScore. In contrast, eBay’s North American revenue grew 12%, simply in line with the market.
- Amazon finished the quarter with more than 81 million active customers, up 18% from a year ago. The number of outside merchants on its site also grew 18%, to 1.42 million. In contrast, active registered users at eBay crept up only 0.7%, to 84.5 million. For the past five quarters, the number of active users at eBay has shrunk or grown by less than 1%.
- Amazon’s global page views increased 4% in June, while eBay’s were down 11%, according to Deutsche Bank (DB, news, msgs). Visits to eBay’s U.S. Web site have been down in nine of the past 11 months.
- Amazon generates nearly twice as much revenue as eBay
- Amazon stock advanced more than 16% in the past year while eBay’s has fallen more than 25%. Amazon shares were trading recently at $88; eBay’s shares were at $26.75.

Read the complete story at MSN’s MoneyCentral.com.

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