It’s been looking like eBay Now’s days were numbered for quite a while now. Now, the mobile apps for the e-commerce company’s same-day delivery service have gone M.I.A.
VentureBeat reported all the way back in June that eBay Now could be on its way out. Last month, eBay held its Q3 earnings call, when eBay CEO John Donahoe made a comment indicating that the service wasn’t “essential” to is target customer base.
Re/code then conducted an interview with him, proclaiming eBay Now to be “essentially dead’. Jason Del Rey shared some comments Donahoe made:
“There’s no active plan to close it down,” he began. “But,” he added, “I think what you’re seeing is the shoppers that want same-day delivery tend to want it for consumables … groceries. That’s not really the sweet spot for eBay. Buy online and pick up in store — those are the kinds of things relevant to the eBay shopper.”
At another point in the call, Donahoe referred to the service in the past tense as an “experiment” and pointed out that the company hasn’t expanded from four to 25 markets as it originally said it would by year’s end. He also noted that eBay customers seem to care more about being able to pick up an order for free than pay to have it delivered super quickly. Donahoe said the company’s partnership with United Kingdom retail chain Argos, which lets eBay shoppers order stuff online and pick it up at an Argos near them, will serve as a model for how eBay continues to try to help its shoppers get their orders quickly at no extra cost.
Last week, Reuters reported that the company planned to “dismantle its standalone mobile app for its $5 same-day delivery service ‘eBay Now’ as soon as this week”.
On Monday, TechCrunch pointed out that the app has gone missing from Apple’s App Store. It’s also gone from Google Play.
It would appear that the service isn’t completely dead, however. According to TechCrunch, which spoke with an eBay spokesperson, it will be folded into eBay’s main apps and website.
Even still, eBay Now as supposed to expand to 25 new markets, and from the sound of it, that’s no longer happening.
The service appears to still be operational from the desktop.
eBay Now was initially launched in beta in August, 2012.
Image via eBay