Ebay Pulls A One-Two Punch To Amazon With 3-Day Delivery

Given the impending takeover of speedy delivery from Amazon’s Prime membership program, it’s tough for a lot of other retailers to compete.

Amazon is a beast that most of the eCommerce world has yet to take on and conquer — until today. EBay announced a new program that just might be up to snuff. The online auctioning giant is now offering its shoppers a three-day delivery guarantee on 20 million products, some of which may include a free price tag. Dubbed the Guaranteed Delivery, this program, along with a new home page focused on consumer personalization, will begin rolling out to U.S. consumers this summer.

EBay’s Senior Vice President of North America, Hal Lawton, talked about this offering with TechCrunch: “While the majority of items on eBay already ship within three days or less, as well as for free, Guaranteed Delivery will give shoppers even faster delivery options and the confidence that their items will arrive on time.”

What does this mean for the ever-growing world of competing eCommerce sites?

While eBay has moved the ball for itself to help chip away at Amazon, it’s likely that we may see other retailers following suit with similar programs. Given the nature of today’s society, which craves instant gratification via an online order’s delivery, this is a real possibility of disruption in the eCommerce market. Being able to guarantee a swift delivery for products has moved from a nice-to-have, higher priced service to a must-have for retailers.

Gone are the days where consumers ordered items online and waited more than a few days to receive them. It seems that eCommerce loyalty may rest on retailers’ ability to offer instant delivery and tracking for their merchandise.