EBay Shuts Down EBay Now Same-Day Delivery

Ebay is one of the top online retailers in the market, in spite of the recent news of its move regarding shut down same-day delivery nationwide. EBay Now had a lot of potential, however, it just didn't produce the results eBay was looking for.

CNet reported how eBay has totally put to rest eBay Now. Former CEO John Donahoe said last October that the service is "not essential to our core target customer". It's an end to eBay Now that many saw coming, as the e-retailer stopped growing the pilot program service and pulled the plug on its' eBay Now mobile app. EBay's shut down of the service shows no matter how popular a service can be and what competitor is doing it, it has to make sense for you to sustain and continue forward. EBay started the service three years ago in hopes to compete with Amazon and Google, two of its' other competitors that have a web-based arsenal. Both of them have heavily invested in same-day delivery services as well.

Amazon has put itself on the fast track to make same-day delivery an integral part of its' business. What started with around a small fee for Prime members, is now going to be free. The retailer has set up Prime Now in several major US cities, including the San Francisco Bay Area, Baltimore, Dallas-Fort Worth, Indianapolis, New York, Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Diego, Seattle-Tacoma, Tampa Bay, Washington DC, Boston, and Atlanta. With the launch, more than 500 cities and towns included, as well as additional cities that Amazon plans to add in the coming years.

Google has launched Google Express in major US cities as well. It's no longer just a search engine, but has found partnering with physical store retailers is a niche that it can gain revenue from. Target, BestBuy, Wal-Green's, Toys-R-Us, and others have partnered with Google to pick up and deliver retail items directly from their stores to customers. EBay was in the race too, but decided to throw in the towel, even shutting down the same-day delivery pilot program in Brooklyn that began last December. The retirement of the Brooklyn service involved roughly 80 local merchants. The service will slowly cut away at eBay Now until it has totally been eliminated.

The article stated that EBay Now was available in New York, Chicago, Dallas and in the San Francisco Bay Area. Both the Brooklyn program and eBay Now will gradually end completely by this Friday. The retailer will also stop using eBay Motors, eBay Fashion and eBay Valet, which are three of its' less popular apps to cut down customer confusion and streamline attention to it's primary eBay app. Same-day delivery isn't just about having a same-day courier like A-1 Express to help with the delivery aspect of the service. The San Francisco Courier has a national footprint to help eBay thrive, yet, it shows that a business model ultimately has to to be profitable in order to stand long-term. We will see if eBay chooses to try same-day delivery again in the future.

Reference: 7.27.15, www.cnet.com, Ben Fox Rubin, eBay Now rapid delivery service shut down