Amazon.com has long battled with eBay, but now the competition is getting even more serious. The Wall Street Journal reports that the online auction marketplace plans to begin a new “merchandise storage-and-shipping service for its sellers” that would compete directly with Amazon’s highly successful fulfillment service.

eBay’s offering sounds as if it will be very similar to Fulfillment by Amazon, which allows merchants to store products at the online retailer’s massive warehouse facilities across the country.

Essentially, the service provides the entire back-end infrastructure for handling a wide array of products, including packing, shiping and customer service.

The Journal reports that a test of the eBay service will start later this year with sellers in the U.S. and China, with a goal of reducing delivery times for products between U.S. and China from 18 days to nine days.

As an online marketplace, eBay does not have as much experience as Amazon in the realm of warehousing and shipping products direct to customers. The Journal said it was unclear whether eBay would utilize its own warehouses or contract with a partner.

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