Ah yes, at eBay it’s automatic. In principle, people complain about their fees, but they provide all the tools to work with, there’s customer service, etc. Personally, I’d prefer eBay to regain its former glory and work with them rather than having to deal with all of Vinted’s nonsense.
The problem is that Vinted is now the giant. LBC remained large because they have separate and strong categories (real estate, cars, etc.) and eBay has large new item stores and benefits from countries where Vinted is not yet established (or hasn’t really taken off). Before Vinted, we had 3 large platforms (eBay, Price Minister/Rakuten, and LBC) and all 3 were doing well; I could sell easily on all 3. Now, Vinted has taken over too much compared to the others, which are struggling in Vinted’s categories.
After all, let’s not fool ourselves; when you look at the numbers, the bulk of the business isn’t on these platforms. They are tiny compared to Amazon’s marketplace, for example.
I don’t know Amazon’s marketplace. Is it okay for second-hand items too? In France, Vinted should be wary of LBC, which is a large company. We said the same thing about real estate back then, with a sort of contempt. They are number 1 now. Their strategy is now targeting textiles. People have understood and are publishing more and more.
LBC is very complicated in my niche, it has really dropped. I’m even hesitating to continue. Well, I’ll keep my account and let it linger with what’s already online, but I can’t be bothered to put everything on it to make just a few sales a month (even though it was doing quite well last year).
But hey, Vinted isn’t possible, by bothering people over trifles they’ll end up getting a backlash.
LBC was there before Vinted. It’s not LBC that threatens Vinted, but the other way around.
In terms of positioning, LBC is the only platform that promotes proximity and physical meetings between sellers and buyers. This is undoubtedly what best differentiates it. Otherwise, the search engine is effective, and the fees are slightly lower than Vinted’s - but I’ve never seen anyone care about this difference. Oh yes: customer service on LBC is very good, pragmatic, attentive, a real surprise. And the last asset: 5-6 weekends a year with reduced shipping costs, which boost sales.
Major limitations on LBC:
Limited to the French market, even Belgium is outside the zone. This is deliberate, certainly, but I note that 25% of my Vinted sales are exports (thanks Clemz and your dashboard ).
And a major usability problem for displaying items from a large store, whether it’s your own or a third party’s: it consumes so much memory that the browser crashes beyond a few hundred listings. So it’s not at all designed to favor bundles, unlike Vinted.
PS: I found my apartment on LBC. But we went directly to the owner, the site didn’t take a commission…
Regarding real estate, which was my profession for a long time, don’t worry, Le Bon Coin is paid for differently. The sale of private individuals represents only 30% of the market. Professionals always end up recovering a good portion of the properties from private individuals. The price of listings for professionals is exorbitant. Regarding the rest, Vinted is trying to challenge Le Bon Coin on various items, and Le Bon Coin is responding by encroaching on Vinted’s territory of textiles. Le Bon Coin is much more flexible. If Vinted doesn’t show a little flexibility, it will become tiresome. French people are rebellious. In the US market, Vinted will have to adapt to hyper-liberalism, otherwise it will fail.
Personally, I even find it strange that people cling so much to Vinted when you can do exactly the same thing with LBC, or even Beebs, and they are much less annoying for trivial matters.
How annoying that is. Sometimes I have to go around to check that I haven’t forgotten to delete listings sold elsewhere and it’s hell.
What was good about Beebs is that you could import your wardrobe, but since you can no longer do that, I don’t have time to list items for sale on Beebs.
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