Ebay Review

By: Jenny Xiong
15 October 2009

Ebay Review

Introduction
EBay is a website that consumers bid for what they want. In order to sell or buy products on eBay, the individual must be a member. There are no fees in being a member. The purpose for this website is for those who want to sell anything, even items that might not be profitable to the pawnshop. The audience for a website like this are those whom want to buy things for a cheaper price, or those whom want to sell their items. EBay uses a safer way to pay for their products through PayPal. Paypal is its own website that EBay uses for payment options, not only EBay uses PayPal, there are several other websites that use this method of payment. From PayPal it states that the customer’s financial security is their highest priority and that it is protected from any unauthorized payment made from the account. EBay is a very effective website because there are many members that sell and buy products on there; not only individuals but company and name brand products are sold on eBay. Whether the products are brand new or used, members can sell them.

Another option that consumers may use for online shopping is Ubid. Unfortunately this website is not open for anyone to sell. This website only sells name brand products, its main products are electronics. The audience targeted is those that are looking for cheap name brand products. The method of payment used on Ubid is credit cards. Ubid lets the customer bid on what they want, only if they are a member. This website is effective because there are many consumers who are looking for nice things for a cheaper price, things on Ubid are brand new and all name brand items.

History
EBay has been around since 1995. On Happy News, it was stated that Pierre Omidyar was the starter of eBay. The starting name was Echo Bay Technology, but after trying to register the website, they found that the name had already been used, so it was cut short to eBay.

Ubid was founded two years after eBay and its head quarters are located in Chicago, Illinois, stated Answers. It is currently one of the largest auction websites.

Design
The design element of eBay is appealing to the audience. When one goes onto eBay there are many categories to choose from. The pictures of the products are posted up by the seller, and as many as they would like for an additional cost, however. EBay is a website that is easy to navigate; there is the search engine for specifics or one can choose from many categories including: automobiles, books, and clothing. EBay also has a watch list where members can save items that they’re interested in. Near the ending of any auction on the watch list, eBay will e-mail the user, who then can access it by clicking on the link. When one is searching for an item, there is a drop down box that can relist the items by certain categories: by price, ending soon, or nearest.



Ubid has about the same navigational features. When going onto Ubid, the front page shows pictures of products and their ending time that catches the consumer’s attention. When selecting a product, it is possible to choose whether it is nearest, cheaper, or ending sooner. Ubid has a nice feature to their website which is ucompare. Ucompare is where members can compare other prices online. In the picture, it shows an item that the customer was searching for, after finding the item and selecting it, it comes to this page where the customer has the option of comparing it to other prices. This is a great feature to have on an online shopping site. Throughout the website, there several advertisements directed towards the companies that Ubid works with, this is a great way to shop. The color scheme is attractive by using consistent colors, such as blue.




EBay vs. Ubid
In comparison to Ubid, eBay is used more and popular. Ubid is a website that sells brand name products, unlike eBay where anything and everything is attainable. Going onto Ubid, it shows that it has similar features like eBay. Ubid doesn’t have a watch list like eBay does, this feature should be put on a bidding website so that the consumer can go back and look at the items instead of having to search for it again. Wikipedia stated that Ubid's sale price fees are higher then eBay's, but it eliminates any additional payment processors. As stated on the website online-auction-sites, Ubid is a more justifiable website to buy products from because it’s reliable and legitimate, on the other hand eBay items can be listed by anyone so therefore the customer buying the product is not guaranteed that they are going to get what they expected.

Works Cited
Mullen, Amy. The History of EBay. 2009. http://www.happynews.com/living/online/history-ebay.htm. 4 October 2009.
n.p. About Paypal. 2009. https://www.paypal.com/. 3 October 2009
n.p. EBay. n.d. http://www.answers.com/topic/ebay. 4 October 2009
n.p. Ubid. 2008. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UBid. 3 October 2009
n.p. Ubid. n.d. http://online-auction-sites.toptenreviews.com/ubid-com-review.html. 4 October 2009