Ebay’s Tim MacKinnon talks ParcelPoint, Amazon
Internet Retailing editor Heather McIlvaine recently spoke to Tim MacKinnon, chief marketing officer at Ebay Australia, about GST, Amazon and the recent integration with ParcelPoint.
Explaining Ebay’s position on the new GST law, MacKinnon said, “Ebay’s not opposed to the idea of lowering the GST threshold. We understand what the government is trying to do with the bill.”
According to MacKinnon, the company is working with the Australian government to implement the law in a practical way.
On the topic of Amazon, MacKinnon suggested that “competition is good”, but conceded “there’s a lot of nervousness” among retailers.
“Amazon play by a different set of rules. They don’t have to make a profit and therefore they compete very fiercely. And they compete with everybody. They compete with sellers and brands – even the ones that sell on their platform,” he said.
He contrasted this with Ebay’s own strategy. “We don’t compete with our sellers, we don’t build warehouses, we don’t buy planes, we don’t buy stock. Our model in the Australian market and overall is to partner with retailers.”
MacKinnon said he is not concerned that Amazon’s comparatively robust delivery proposition will persuade sellers and buyers to switch platforms.
“We partner to deliver logistics services to our sellers. So one example that Amazon hasn’t done and probably never will do is we enable click and collect for retailers on the platform.
MacKinnon also revealed a new partnership with ParcelPoint, which lets Ebay customers return items via courier. They simply choose the ParcelPoint return option online, print out a pre-filled return label and leave the parcel on their doorstep for a courier to pick up.
Find out more details about the ParcelPoint integration as well as MacKinnon’s thoughts on new consumer trends in the full podcast below.
Would you like to share your e-commerce insights on Internet Retailing’s weekly podcast? Email Heather at iretnews@octomedia.com.au.
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