The biggest threat to eBay is Facebook

Over the past couple of months, a growing number of buy, swap and sell Facebook groups have started emerging. The second hand good market sure is a lucrative one, something eBay and others have built multi-million dollar businesses on. But times are changing, the transaction of second hand good is going much more local, with Facebook groups exploding in numbers.

With more than 800 million users now on Facebook, the people who are transacting online, aren’t those business degree, come IT professional who’ve setup an online store. But rather your everyday, housewife, your brother, your wife, basically everyone. With the proliferation of smart phones, it’s easy to snap a photo, post it to the group, add a description and your done.

It seems no category is off the list, with everything from clothes to vehicles behind traded. Pickups are often listed as local only to achieve a quick sale and eliminate delivery costs. Previously the service of choice to get rid of used or unwanted goods was eBay, but by selling on Facebook there’s one huge advantage.. it’s free.

These local trading groups on Facebook are emerging as a real competitor to eBay’s successful and undercutting a large part of their business. eBay has shifted to focus much more on the traditional online store, selling to consumer model, rather than their auction business, perhaps they seen the writing on the wall.

As a member of a couple of these groups, I’m astounded at the rate of products being posted. Checking back multiple times per day, there’s often more than 20 new updates each time. All in a city of Albury Wodonga, that has only around 100,000 people. It’s likely in larger cities, that these groups are localised to suburbs, making it easier to find items in your area.