Does Ebay has their own warehouses anywhere in the world?

[digihead1]

read some strange news - http://www.dnaindia.com/world/report-ebay-to-open-warehouse-in-latvia-1970703

is it true that ebay has their own warehouses?

doesn't make sense.... just curioius 🙂

[Anonymous]

Hi there,

I think thats a first but may be wrong. Judging by recent international events involving Russia theyve timed that wrong.!! 

They had a scheme going a couple of years back where they took over an empty highstreet shop and did them up as a promotion. It was a bit odd as people could go and browse and order items but not take them direct from the shop. They did that in several larger towns. I'm not really sure what they were trying to achieve with those?

[aernethril]

I think that was just a promo gimmick which if it had worked, they may have extended.

The Latvia thing sounds more like eBay's long-term attempt to copy Amazon with a "fulfillment centre".

Driving sales into Russia is one of eBay's big 'things' and they've been encouraging sellers one way or another to sell there, as well as other 'emerging' countries.

I don't know if this is their first 'fulfilled by eBay' operation, but it will be interesting to see if it works and whether eBay does expand this to other countries in direct competition with Amazon.

[wilsonhepple]

OP.

Here in the USA, eBay has been offering franchise stores for the last few years, where the public can consign their items, and have the employees sell for them.

Operating under the name ISOLDIT...they were a big hit when they first started offering these franchises, but I have read that many of the stores are closing due to high fees, and customer complaints, etc.,

There are still a few in operation, but they appear to be struggling..?

Here's a link to one of the sites.

http://www.i-soldit.com/franchise-opportunities/index.asp

[wilsonhepple]

I'm curious to know if eBay is offering their latest 'Valet' service to the eBay UK members.?

It's fairly new here in the USA, but like all eBay's bright ideas, it appears to be a hugh failure..

Here's the general information on this program.

From what I can gather, it is similar to the old Trading Assistant. (TA) partner service which eBay stopped offering a year or so ago..

Sellers receive 70% of the proceeds.

http://pages.ebay.com/sellforme/terms.html

[Anonymous]

Interesting reading thanks for posting those links.

I think the TA system was a flop over here except in heavily populated areas. I think unless they already had their own selling and distribution set up it was just not possible to make money and hold on to their accounts.   I'm not sure how the "valet" will make money if the owner of the item gets 70% though I assume thats 70% after cost deduction? It has to be a numbers game tiny profit but large enough sales to make an income.

[cee-dee]

Ebay was a fantastic idea when it started but they fell victim to the more, more, more culture and in so doing drove away the very people they should have been encouraging to stay.

The site now is over cluttered with all sorts of stuff that's not needed and having stuff unconnected to your interest rammed in your face at every turn just helps put even more people off.

Early on it wasn't helpful having employees singing the company song, wearing the company hat and doing the company dance while reading from the company script.

It may be too late now to sit back, take stock and try to go back to the early ideals because of the changed market.

All that said, I'm very grateful to ebay for the opportunity to make a lot of money which I couldn't have got any other way.

[Anonymous]

Yes it was fantastic concept when it launched. To be able to buy something from Mrs x's house and get it posted to my door was heaven. I've bought so many one of a kind items that I simply wouldn't have had access to before. The postal services got greedy on the back of it as well, I used to buy all my paperbacks 2nd hand at half the delivered new price. Now its cheaper to buy new on the river.  So all in its doubtful it will ever go back to how it was.

[saasher2012]

I've only ever sold collectables from my own collection so that I could continue to buy things I was interested in. The couple of occasions I needed questions answered to help me do that I can quite honestly say I got good honest & helpful advice from more experienced sellers than I ever did from EBay .

[digihead1]

to have warehouse for russia in latvia  - makes no sense at all - so, if goods coming from china, then you have to get them through customs to bring into eu and then through a customs again to get to russia...

so i rather think it's fake "news" at the end of day