As the war between online retailers heats up, ebay has
introduced one hour delivery in select US cities.
eBay has partnered up with big name retailers like Best Buy,
Target and Macy’s and provides a “valet” to pick up the goods and deliver to
you for a flat $5 fee. eBay employs the “valets”
for now but intends hiring outside contractors down the track. This is eBays
way of linking with bricks’n’mortar retailers. Meanwhile its subsidiary,
PayPal, is rolling out payment facilities in over 250,000 US stores where users
pay for goods by simply typing in their mobile phone number and PIN.
Any war has its casualties and retailers who don’t meet the
service standards offered by major players are likely to suffer. Service and
convenience is the name of the game and whilst the type of service and its
delivery will vary across the battlefield, doing things the old way is unlikely
to be an option.
QVM traders have the advantage of trading at the one site so
organising co-ordinated delivery services would not be difficult. We already have
food delivery services operating out of the market and a number of our traders
use Australia Post for delivery anywhere in Australia. At least one of our
traders offers free delivery on larger items. It may be time to think of how
responsive your business is to consumer needs.