I'd posted last month that Google had built more than a payments system, but an entire order management system that could handle settlement for many Google marketplaces (Base, Video, Dark Web content). After I played with the latest enhancements to Google Base today (which integrates that order management system), I wouldn't want to hold eBay shares at a PE of 51. So this afternoon I bought 100 put options on ebay, and may buy more tomorrow if the market doesn't immediately recognize this emerging threat.
What's the big deal? While I've been an avid eBay buyer and seller since 1997, today I sold my first item on Google -- and it was much simpler and less costly than using eBay.
It's simpler for the seller - payment is fully integrated into the listing, and an intuitive order statusing process walks you through listing, charging, shipping and archiving completed orders. You can even see the buyer's credit card get authorized in real-time, and get the green light to ship.
It's simpler for the buyer - two clicks and you're done, just like buying on Google Video. Click the big blue Buy button, confirm your purchase, and you're done.
It's cheaper for everybody - Google keeps a flat 2.5% of every transaction plus 25 cents, and only if the product sells. On a $100 item with a few photos the seller would pay $2.75 to Google when payment is made. On eBay you'd pay a whopping $10.18 for the same item - $6.98 to eBay in listing, final value and buy-it-now fees, and another $3.20 to PayPal for the payment. (See eBay fee calculator here, and PayPal fee structure here.)
And as several have blogged today, Google Base now features feedback (though only for sellers as far as I can tell, and not made public yet).
Google has a loooong way to go to kill eBay, since it's just a bare-bones service now and the real asset is the network of users with reputation history. But Google has built a clean, simple and effective system and can expose Base items in Froogle and Search. And the lower cost is sure to be powerfully attractive. Even the threat that Base could take the edge off eBay's growth or force eBay to shave fees could crater eBay's stock.
Google Base now provides an inbox to manage orders for products you've listed, to charge the customer's credit card, and to ship the product:
When charging an order, you can see the customer's credit card authorized in real-time -- and when successful, the status changes to "ready to ship."
3/8/06 1:16 pm update - more screenshots of the transaction flow over at Techcrunch.