Are Marketplaces the New Department Stores?

The two biggest e-commerce sites in the UK are marketplaces, with our platform eBay being the UK’s second largest with 28m registered users, more than one account per household. eBay allows you to open your shop where your customers are.

• The evolution of retail is consistently evolving – the core used to be the high street, then the shopping mall, now it is the internet. Just like food used to be bought in fragmented speciality stores, then supermarkets and can now be delivered.
• Many customers that would previously use a department store for one stop shopping – fragrance, winter coat, new tennis racket – where are they shopping for that now, a marketplace one stop shop? All within a user experience you are comfortable and used to.
• Our shopping behaviour and the behaviour of those around us, across age groups and customer bases has been changing over the last ten years, at an even more dramatic pace due to circumstances since March.
• There will continue to be space, need, and want for traditional and contemporary stores and forms of retailing, but certainly the mix of these will evolve. Traditional retailers will need to adapt, the best will survive with great product, experience, strategy and customer service, there will be no space for mediocracy.

Words: Helen Riley, Fashion Acquisitions Manager at eBay UK