Looking for eBay Alternatives? Check the 8 Best Marketplaces to Grow Your Online Business in 2024

Updated by March 18,2024

Starting your online store to make money is great in 2024 during the pandemic since more and more people prefer to purchase online. Naturally, eBay might come to your mind first where you can sell online as it’s one of the most popular and reputable online marketplaces.

The power of eBay is universally recognized. People may find it's a brilliant option to sell your products with a better reach to different markets and benefit from its large user base to boost sales. Founded in 1995, eBay has consistently been one of the largest e-commerce marketplaces around the world. It has turned thousands of hobbyists into powerful sellers and allowed more people to run profitable home businesses.

However, due to different reasons, sellers now might be looking out for alternatives to eBay. In this article, we will cover 8 best marketplaces that could be eBay alternatives.

Let’s see what they are:

Why You Should Look for eBay Alternatives

eBay is undoubtedly a good marketplace for e-commerce businesses. However, there are popular alternatives for you. It is worth taking a few minutes to learn the pros and cons of those marketplaces and figure out which one is the best for you.

There might be some problems with eBay, like:

1. High costs and fees

The type of item you list, selling price, and whether you have an eBay store or not will influence the fees scale on eBay. Sellers have to pay both an insertion fee and a final value fee. It will cost you extra money by offering upgrades to their listings, such as a bold listing, a more extensive gallery for photos, subtitles, and a themed layout for the listing. These fees will add up over time, and when they sell low-priced items, it badly hurts sellers’ profit margin.

2. Limited control over your listings

eBay focuses more on the products in each listing, instead of you. It means you might have a limitation on controlling your product listings. Most importantly, eBay may cancel your product listing at any time.

3. Less flexibility

Policies on eBay usually bring less flexibility to you. How? It may require you to take only specific kinds of payments, limit which keywords you can use, put certain text in your listings, and prevent you from cross-marketing to other platforms.

8 Best eBay Alternatives

Selling online is a great and easy way to earn money. You can earn a lot with powerful marketplaces, like eBay, and the 8 eBay alternatives. However, no matter which marketplace you use, you need to find a product to sell.

AliExpress, as the biggest and most popular wholesale place, helps you reach the products you prefer as quickly as possible. In this article, we will mainly focus on marketplaces you can choose. If you want to learn more about AliExpress, you can check on What Is AliExpress.

1. Amazon

Amazon now is one of the largest online marketplaces and most popular worldwide. It allows you to sell millions of products across a range of product categories.  Furthermore, Amazon provides plenty of tools and services to help sellers offer excellent customer experience and support.

• Better consumer trust owing to the reputation of Amazon
• No listing fees for each time adding new items to your Amazon shops
• With Amazon’s supply chain, items will be stored in various locations, which can ship the items to customers as soon as possible

• Larger competition - Because of its popularity, you may have to face tight competition in this marketplace
• Limitation - Some items are forbidden to sell on Amazon, like Auto Parts Products. And you need to ask for permission to sell health care products, such as masks

2. Etsy

Just like eBay and Amazon, Etsy is a popular marketplace, too. It is designed for artisans and craft creators, and those who sell vintages. Founded in 2005, Etsy has grown to one of the most popular online marketplaces.

• Tools - You can access a large number of tools to help you easily manage your product catalog
• Grow your business easily- There are free tools and services for marketing and analytics to help you grow your business effortlessly
• Flexibility - You may find a mobile app allowing you to manage your products while you are on the move

• Small audience - If you are not selling handmade and vintage items, Etsy is not for you
• Limited products scale - They prefer niche merchandise and handmade, retro, and unique products, expansion of your business may be difficult

3. Facebook

Facebook marketplace is a more safe, convenient, and user-friendly place to grow local sales. With Facebook's built-in buying and selling channel, users can sell items directly to each other. In addition, it allows eligible sellers to offer delivery for certain categories of products in their nation.

• It allows you to reach a wide range of potential customers easily, as long as you have fans for your account
• It’s convenient for local buyers, making them get the products as quickly as possible
• It helps you reduce risks since you are selling to someone you know.

• You cannot access features like Facebook checkout if your e-commerce is out of United States, but you still can list the products.
• Still, it has some limitations on items categories you can sell on this marketplace

4. Newegg

Founded in 2001, Newegg is an American online retailer. It is well-known for selling items like Computer Hardware and Computer electronics. The items also include gaming products. The company center is based in California and has globally expanded up to 50 countries.

• They have branches in 50+ countries
• They offer a unique fulfillment service, like Amazon’s FBA
• They have multiple membership options, which can promote your business well

• You can only sell tech products with a Newegg account

5. eBid

eBid is also a good alternative to eBay. However, compared to eBay, it doesn’t have a huge customer base and reaches. Nevertheless, if your requirement is a lower-cost alternative to eBay, it’s a great option to sell products from different categories if you are based in the United States. What’s more, you can import products from other marketplaces easily.

• You don’t need to pay for anything for listing items
• On eBid, the commission rate is 3%, comparatively low
• eBid’s free listing fee and low commission make it be a low-risk market

• Compared to huge customer base on eBay, eBid has a relatively low customer reach
• The site has less traffic, so you need to promote your business through social media or your networks

  6. Rakuten

  Rakuten company is based in Tokyo selling electronic products. It established its online retailing store in 1997. Rakuten is known as Amazon in Japan, what does it mean? It’s suitable for you if your targeted customers mainly live in Japan.

  

  PROS:
  • With Rakuten, there are multiple options for you to freely customize your store
  • They offer excellent sellers tools and support, which can make you sell your products with no hardness
  CONS:
  • Compared to eBay, Rakuten takes you a little bit more money

  7. Bonanza

  Bonanza may not be as popular as eBay and is relatively new in e-commerce, but it will soon become a ‘giant-killer’. In terms of communication with your buyers, it’s the first choice. In addition, it lefts behind all other competitors, winning the highest-ranking of the most recommended sales locations.

  

  PROS:
  • They allow you to sell a wide range of products, from artsy planters to colorful shoes
  • On Bonanza, you can share the transparent communication
  • There is no need to charge anything for listing items
  CONS:
  • However, the marketplace is more suitable for unique items
  • It has a relatively low customer base, compared to eBay and Amazon

  8. Ruby Lane

  Ruby Lane aims to bring together buyers and sellers of art, antiques, antique collections, and jewelry - very similar to marketplaces such as Etsy and Bonanza. Despite being a niche market, Ruby Lane does have a vital global influence. Ruby Lane is mainly beloved in the United States, Britain, Germany, Canada, and Australia. Unlike eBay, it is a fixed-price market.

  

  PROS:
  • It targets a niche market of jewelry, antiques, art, vintage collectibles, and more, you can easily sell these categories
  • It has a Significant global reach
  CONS:
  • The Overall cost of Ruby Lane seems a bit high. However, in turn, you can gain a trusted marketplace for selling vintage items

  Conclusion

  eBay is a brilliant marketplace to sell online, but it’s not the most perfect option. Hence, these 8 top marketplaces above might be eBay alternatives.

  However, these marketplaces might not be your only choice. There are still other excellent opportunities for you to penetrate the e-commerce industry, such as setting up your online store with Shopify, WooCommerce.

  Worth mentioning, these platforms do not only support a regular business model but also support dropshipping. With great dropshipping solutions such as DSers, you can dropship on these platforms profitably.

  They all have their pros and cons compared to eBay. Thus I hope you have made up your mind to select the best online market based on your needs and preferences.