eBay's Bill Me Later Loses Amazon Business

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AuctionBytes Blog
News and insight focusing on
ecommerce and the online auction industry
by Ina Steiner, Editor of AuctionBytes.com

December 30, 2008

eBay's Bill Me Later Loses Amazon Business

By: Ina Steiner

Tue Dec 30 2008 22:06:12

Amazon.com abruptly announced this afternoon it would no longer accept Bill Me Later (BML) as a payment method effective tomorrow. Amazon had owned a stake in BML - 10 percent, according to one analyst - until eBay's recent acquisition of BML.

eBay completed the acquisition of BML last month, and it seems likely Amazon wanted to get through the holiday shopping season before pulling the plug on the service that lets consumers finance their online purchases without the need for a credit card.

A Bill Me Later spokesperson told me today it would welcome the chance to work with Amazon.com in the future, so it seems certain it was Amazon's decision to stop offering the service. It's likely Amazon didn't want eBay having access to any more of its transaction data and customer information.

Amazon has already rolled out its own online payment service (and does not accept eBay's PayPal service on its site), and it's conceivable it could develop its own consumer financing service as well. It integrated the service on its site and had it running on Amazon.com from July through December, giving it enough data of its own to know the impact on conversion rates.

The question I really wanted to know is what percentage of Amazon transactions used BML during the holiday shopping season, and in which categories and at what price points (one would think consumers would be inclined to finance more expensive items). Amazon has not yet gotten back to me, and would be unlikely to make that level of data publicly available.

Comments (27) | Permalink

Readers Comments

eBay's Bill Me Later Loses Amazon Business

by: Karma

Tue Dec 30 22:29:56 2008

Ha ha .....
deserves them (ebay) right!

eBay's Bill Me Later Loses Amazon Business

by: John

Tue Dec 30 22:49:31 2008

What goes around comes around. Frankly given our poor economic state of affairs I would think that a lot of business's will not allow BML on their sites. Last thing they need is a lot of buyers purchasing high end items and then not paying for them. So amazon doesn't take PP or BML on their site. Good to see a big business publicly staying away from PP perhaps it will catch on.

eBay's Bill Me Later Loses Amazon Business

by: Mechelle

Tue Dec 30 23:55:51 2008

Amazon probably discontinued its use because of eBay Inc.'s new this year sharing personal account information throughout every aspect of the eBay corporation - eBay, paypal, stubhub, rent.com, kijiji, shopping.com, ...... everything AND any outside entity that eBay is considering doing business with in some capacity. Maybe Amazon has more- rather actually respects its users as opposed to eBay's incessant exploitation of its users.

Or, Amazon might be savvy enough to realize eBay would likely use the service to attempt to hinder its growth. Such as, not allowing Amazon users the opportunity to use the Bill me Later causing 1) obviously significantly reduces the possibility of a transaction, and 2) might sour a users Amazon experience if they are denied credit

eBay's Bill Me Later Loses Amazon Business

by: Whateverebay

Wed Dec 31 01:11:45 2008

About time. I am glad to know that Amazon wil continue to distance themselves from eBay. I am anxious to know the outcome of the lawsuit eBay filed against Craigslist.

eBay's Bill Me Later Loses Amazon Business

by: steve

Wed Dec 31 01:32:42 2008

Ebay will benefit largely from this move. With people preferring to make deferred payments in a slumping economy, a service such as BML is an add-on. Amazon included BML initially due to the similar reasons as a payment type on it's website, however, I guess Amazon wants to alienate itself with anything related to Ebay.
Ebay still has the best prices for commodities, if not hte best shopping experience and a service such as BML will help boost high-end credit based item sales which fell out of the instant payment paypal solution initially. 2009 will be an interesting year to watch out for Ebay to integrate BML into it's payment system and to see how Amazon reacts back to it.

As of Amazon, I guess they will have to continue to innovate.....

eBay's Bill Me Later Loses Amazon Business

by: eBay is Scum

Wed Dec 31 04:41:08 2008

ebay will be hurt greatly from this mover & good riddance. Pay back time. When the new adminstration comes in the ecomony of course will get better with the nitwit finally out of the white house. ebay is the worse shopping experience for both buyer & seller, changes the rules everyday, silly paranoid hidden rules and regulations, paypal is hated my most buyers etc. bye bye sleezebay. What ebay does will be wrong as history as shown. almost boring to watch ebay's demise.

eBay's Bill Me Later Loses Amazon Business

by: Ming the Merciless

Wed Dec 31 05:15:48 2008

THE EBAY ANTHEMN

"Some people say a man is made out of mud. Well a poor man's made outta muscle and blood.

Muscle and blood and skin and bone..and a mind that's weak, but a back that's strong.

And he was born one morning when the sun didn't shine.

He picked up his shovel and he went to the mines. He loaded 16 tons of that number 9 coal 'til the straw boss said Well-uh b-less my soul!

You load 16 tons and whaddaya get??
Another day older and deeper in debt.

Saint Peter doncha call me 'cause
I can't go...

I owe my soul to the Company
Store.

So if you see The Ho coming..you better step aside.

A lot of men didn't and a lot of men died. He's got one fist of iron, and the other of steel.

And if the right one doesn't get you,
then the night one will..."

eBay's Bill Me Later Loses Amazon Business

by: Patrick Alexander

Wed Dec 31 06:17:54 2008

Get ready for that sub $10 eBay stock....

Another bad acquisition, in the Skype tradition...

:0)

eBay's Bill Me Later Loses Amazon Business

by: Daisy

Wed Dec 31 07:42:10 2008

As Ina mentioned, Paypal doesn't want Ebay to have access to any of Paypal's data and customer information. But I also wonder if Paypal wants to protects it's sellers and buyers from Ebay's predatory, bully-like tactics.

If it Ebay keeps on with it's arrogant, 'we know best' attitude toward doing business, the stock will continue to plunge and sellers will continue to flee and the buyers will follow.

eBay's Bill Me Later Loses Amazon Business

by: beachy

Wed Dec 31 08:01:30 2008

What a great way for Amazon to start the New Year!

They just saved their customers' personal information (including their banking & credit card info) from being shared by eBay's entire corporate family.

I'd be surprised if a lot more online retailers don't follow Amazon's lead.

eBay's Bill Me Later Loses Amazon Business

by: beachy

Wed Dec 31 08:18:19 2008

Ina I've got a question for you.

If an eBay buyer uses Bill Me Later and subsequently files bankruptcy, will sellers get chargebacks?

Bill Me Later will probably claim the debt is secured BUT if the buyer says they no longer have the item financed, then the debt is unsecured & therefore discharged like any other debt.

I'm thinking that Bill Me Later can't issue a chargeback to sellers because the debt is discharged (therefore uncollectable) but could you please confirm this?

Thanks!

eBay's Bill Me Later Loses Amazon Business

by: o.c.d.collectibles

Wed Dec 31 08:39:32 2008

Lets all hear it for destructive innovation! And Corporate fraud, a la "Madoff"!!! Happy New Year!

eBay's Bill Me Later Loses Amazon Business

by: Daisy

Wed Dec 31 08:47:50 2008

Regarding beachy. If the buyer defaults on the BillMeLater loan, the seller should be protected. But knowing Ebay they'll find a way to pass the loss on to the seller. They're big enough scumbags to do that.

eBay's Bill Me Later Loses Amazon Business

by: May

Wed Dec 31 09:16:35 2008

eBay management is bunch of extortion artists who will sell their soul to meet their quarterly projection and screw the customer in process.

Remember the Chinese recording Skype conversations of their population to spy on them? There is no privacy once you surrend your information to an eBay owned company. Amazon did the right thing. One thing is to cooperate with non-competing enterprise - but then BML was sold to feebay.

I am sure, Amazon does not want AMAZON's customers who purchased something on Amazon be bombarded by eBay marketplace offers because they surrendered their complete info, including their social security info to eBay owned company. Simple and Smart move on Amazon's side.

eBay's Bill Me Later Loses Amazon Business

by: beachy

Wed Dec 31 10:15:26 2008

Daisy - You must have read my mind. eBay will probably find a way to issue a chargeback to sellers a la Paypal because if I understand it correctly Paypal is processing Bill Me Later.

eBay's Bill Me Later Loses Amazon Business

by: Ebay's toast

Wed Dec 31 10:16:29 2008

This is funny! HA...eBay's largest customer DUMPS BML. Oh well,to those still selling on FeeBay get ready for another fee increase to pay for their latest billion $$$ disaster buy-out.

Bawhhahhhahahahahah!!!!

eBay's Bill Me Later Loses Amazon Business

by: Duh!

Wed Dec 31 10:17:35 2008

With the mountains of credit cards out there, why do any of these companies even NEED a BML system? If folks don't have a credit card they can use for purchases they are either in credit card debt up to their eyeballs anyhow or the sane folks that pay for their purchases through their bank accounts. Amazon already has a system in place to use multiple kinds of payment options, why add another one? I suppose this BML is significant to somebody somewhere, but to me it was just one more thing ebay has been tinkering with instead of FIXING the breaks in their plumbing--such as a usable search.

eBay's Bill Me Later Loses Amazon Business

by: Ebay's toast

Wed Dec 31 10:21:17 2008

BTW....know this:

If a customer buys your item and uses it for 30-60-90 days and THEN claims they can't pay guess who will get the SHAFT?!? You got it,Feebay and their evil twin Preypal will NOT go to bat for you and demand the buyer pay. No,they'll just tell them to return it and all will be forgotten. So you end up with an opened and used item you can no longer sell as new--you LOSE.

In the meantime those funds will be YANKED out of your PP account so fast your head will spin.

eBay's Bill Me Later Loses Amazon Business

by: Ghost of 2008

Wed Dec 31 12:12:16 2008

Amazon obviously did that out of good business sense. Why line the pockets of the competition?

But as far as the BML purchase coupled with some or all of ebay's other practices & changes, let me see if I have this right...

They are shucking X% of paying buyers (who could pay NOW with checks & MOs) via the Paperless Payments policy and (hopefully) replacing them with new users that need to borrow funds to buy with? Is that correct?

Is BML more-less the electronic equivalent of those "fast cash advance" type places?

Meanwhile they are also actively steering the users OFF their own site and to the competitors (including Amazon, as we have seen) with the ads?

Brilliant!

Happy New Year!

eBay's Bill Me Later Loses Amazon Business

by: Down in Rio

Wed Dec 31 13:09:13 2008

They should change the name to BILL ME NEVER or PAY ME LATER, 'cause that is what most of my eBay customers do since we lost our ability to leave negative feedback to buyers.

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