It’s all well and good having a online peer-to-peer marketplace that accepts crypto as a form of payment for goods and services, but if it doesn’t provide some other advantages over its already extremely popular competitors then it’s going to very difficult to attract merchants who have no desire to accept crypto. So would merchants on whom the Ecryptostore deem to be their biggest competitors, Amazon and Ebay, be willing to more their business over to the Ecryptostore even if they weren’t planning on accepting cryptocurrencies?
This is what will make or break the Ecryptostore, which is currently trying to drive merchant volume to increase their product listing on the Ecrytostore, which will in turn attract more recurring customers using Ecryptostore as a one stop shop like they do Amazon and Ebay. Let’s see how they stack up against the giants of the industry.
Firstly: First Mover Advantage
Ecryptostore has first mover advantage for accepting cryptocurrencies for goods and services online. They are joined by a few online marketplaces, although none of these accept the wide variety of cryptocurrencies that the Ecyptostore does.
The advantage that the Ecryptostore has over the current market giants is that they accept crypto payments alongside FIAT payments; they accept crypto and the market giants do not. Why do they not? For such large companies, backed by investors, crypto is just too volatile. This fact coupled with the newness of crypto and its regulatory uncertainty, we'll probably see these market giants holding cryptocurrencies at arms length for quite a while. This will give the Ecryptostore ample room to grow before its biggest competitors cut into it’s (growing) niche market segment.
Note: the accounts that the FMT whitepaper use to compare Ecryptostore to their competitors are “Staked” versions of these accounts that use tokens for transaction fees, rather than accounts that use FIAT for subscription and transaction fees. My next article will cover the benefits "Staked" accounts give you.
Ecryptostore VS Ebay
Note: the accounts that the FMT whitepaper uses to compare Ecryptostore to their competitors are “Staked” versions of these accounts that stake and use tokens to cover subscription and transaction fees, rather than using FIAT for these costs. My next article will cover the benefits "Staked" accounts give you over their FIAT paid counterparts.
The Chart above is lifted from the FMT whitepaper and here’s how it all stacks up in words. Overall Ecryptostore staked accounts are much better for merchants than Ebay accounts. Transaction fees on Ebay are at least 3x and, item dependent, up to 7x those charged to staked accounts the Ecryptostore, and Ecryptostore staked accounts don’t require reoccuring monthly subscription payments.
Something to take note of is that Ebay gives you credit towards branded shipping supplies with Basic and Anchor accounts and credit to promoted listings with the Anchor accounts. There is also a maximum limit on the transaction fees of $339AUD ($250USD) Which there isn’t on the Ecryptostore. A limit that means a private seller needs to sell an item worth around $3400AUD to reach it. Even with these Ebay benefits included the Ecryptostore still comes out on top.
I’m not sure where the “1%” subscription fee comes from for the “Power (Staked)” I’m assuming it’s a typo.
Ecryptostore VS Amazon
The Chart above is lifted from the FMT whitepaper. Transaction fees on Amazon are double and triple what they’d be for basic and gold merchants respectively, on the Ecryptostore's comparable accounts. Amazon's transaction fees, for some items, go much higher than those on Ecryptostore and Ebay. Amazon also charges a listing fee which the Ecryptostore doesn’t. Ever. As it’s probably easy to read from the chart above the Ecryptostore is a significantly better for merchants wishing to post their products online when compared to Amazon.
Will These Limits Change?
Ecryptostore is a new company trying to make headway in a market dominated by big names so it makes sense that their offerings are lucrative compared to their competitors. Their competitors started off in more or less the same way when the internet was becoming the “thing”, and Ecryptostore is doing it as crypto is becoming the “thing”. With that in mind will the different merchant levels of the Ecryptostore be the same if they see the success they’re aiming for (a modest 1% of the online buy/sell market)?
Amazon and Ebay have evolved these levels over time, especially as their customer base has grown and they’ve had to take on more staff, moderators, buy more server space, etcetera. They may have started with much higher listings limits for merchants, like the Ecryptostore, but has this been reduced to combat spam on the platforms and to control the amount of staff they’ll need to check over listings? More items than their competitors and a recognisable brand also makes these platforms the goto for customers when browsing for items online, this allows them to charge a higher premium to those who want to sell items on their platform. If the Ecryptostore grows to a significant size will we see an increased merchant cost?
These factors are far away over the horizon for the Ecryptostore and only once they’ve overcome many other hurdles will they begin needing to consider this, but it will (hopefully) eventually be a think the team considers. The main reason I want to say that increased merchant costs won’t occur is because the Ecryptostore has no investors to answer too, a set amount of tokens, and no traditional stocks. Therefore, so long as the money they’re making is enough to run their business and pay for staff, servers etc then they should have no profiteering needs or pressure to raise or alter their merchant levels their prices.
Conclusion
Amazon’s and Ebay’s fees vary by item category and Amazon’s are as high as 45%. Ecryptostore's fees are much lower than those on these two competitors and are flat across the board which makes things a lot less of a headache for merchants. From the merchant's point of view, the Ecryptostore outstrips its competitors in all aspects of selling except for customer base. Which it does not have right now. If it does garner a customer base then it could be a force to be reckoned with in the ever-growing online marketplace. The concerns raised in the last section are very real however I throughly believe that the lack of traditional investors and stock holders demanding profit will stop the Ecryptostore from changing its terms unless drastically necessary.
My next article will cover why you would want to stake and use FMT VS using FIAT to pay subscripton and transaction fees, so stay tuned!!
All whitepaper prices are in AUD and all of my conversions were done on 6/18/2018 with a rate of $0.74AUD to 1USD.
Disclaimer: This article was written for the FreeMarketToken Bounty Program (See link below to join). This is a program through which writers, video makers, crypto-enthusiasts and absolutely anyone else can earn FMT to use on the Ecryptostore, by spreading the world about how we can all use our virtual currencies to purchase real world items, right now!! Anything I write is not financial advice and should not be considered as such. Before making any investments you should conduct your own through research.
Find out more:
FMT Website
FMT Whitepaper
Bounty Thread
Ecryptostore
Authors Bitcoin Talk Account
