Same-day delivery via Ebay Now is a growing effort on the part of brick-and-mortars to compete with Internet rivals like Amazon.
According to an article on latimes.com, the EBay Now pilot project was launched in August, partnering with the retailers like Macy's, Target and Best Buy. Customers order an item on a smartphone and an EBay "valet" personally delivers by the end of the day for a $5 fee, with the first three deliveries free. The service was expanded to New York last month.
According to analysts, time-sensitive services like same-day delivery may be difficult to implement nationwide.
"It's going to work in an urban area where stores are very clustered together and items can be delivered very fast," said Brian Sozzi, chief equities analyst at research firm NBG Productions. "If I order something from my house, and the local Walmart is 10 miles away, that's going to be challenging."
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But... the delivery service has to make money to stay in business and no way a company can offer delivery for $5 (it takes about an hour). That doesn't begin to pay the courier, the dispatcher, the mobile devices, the transportation, or the infrastructure. eBay doesn't own the products they sell—they don't make any profit on it, they simply resell it.
I can see the big retailers and consumers supporting this service, but at $5 per delivery, eBay is going to lose about $20 an hour or more, so how long will it be available?