eBay “retires” eBay Now delivery service in US
Online giant eBay has announced that it is terminating its eBay Now same-day delivery service in the US – but it will continue to pilot scheduled delivery in the UK. In a notice posted on its press room blog yesterday (27 July), eBay said: “We are retiring the eBay Now service in the U.S., including the local Brooklyn pilot program.
“Last year, we retired our eBay Now app and brought the program’s delivery capabilities and many participating merchants’ inventory into our core mobile apps.
“This significantly reduced our dependency on a separate standalone service.
“While we saw encouraging results with the eBay Now service, we always intended it as a pilot, and we are now exploring delivery and pick-up/drop-off programs that are relevant to many more of our 25 million sellers, and that cover a wider variety of inventory that consumers tell us they want. We will continue to pilot scheduled delivery in the UK.”
As previously reported, eBay acquired the same-day delivery start-up Shutl in 2013 in order to ramp up the eBay Now service. However, it struggled to make much headway in this tough market. Observers said that it has had more success with click & collect – and yesterday’s announcement suggests that eBay will be looking to develop this service further.
