eBay is an online auction company that does the business of listing products on its site to connect both sellers and buyers. The case study majorly enumerates on the history of eBay and clearly explains all the steps that the company has taken in its bid to increase its market growth and internationalize its operation.
Also contained in the essay are the strategic partners and alliances that eBay formed in order to grow. Clarifications are given on some of the factors that might have caused the company’s slow growth in Japan and the quality of management of the company among many more (Hsiao, 2011).
eBay strategic decisions
The main management issue here is the strategic decisions the company needs to make for it to widen its market share and customer base. In the case study, we get to know the strategic alliances that the company has entered into. The poor marketing strategy and promotional means that eBay has pursued could be responsible for the failure to penetrate the Japan market.
The robust competition in Japan from already established competitors especially yahoo auction dominance requires brilliant and stronger strategies if the company is to survive. eBay should increase its marketing cost and reduce its listing charges to break through the high switch cost from yahoo auction (Brooke, 1996).
Important data of case study
In the case study, the most important data is the information explaining the reasons for the company’s failure to penetrate the japans market. This is because such data can assist the managers to get information necessary in formulation of strategies and course of action the company can exploit. The information will also assist in analysis of trends and support the management assertion and decision.
From the analysis of the case study, the theories that need to be considered are the internationalization theories and the international business location theories.
This theories will improve the quality of decisions of internationalizing operations and determination of the locations which the company should establish its operation (Ahlstrom & Bruton, 2009). Pricing and promotional theories are also essential for the price setting and the advertisement decision to be undertaken by the company (Ahlstrom & Bruton, 2009).
The information pertinent to the management of eBay can be obtained from various reading materials. Text books on strategic management, international marketing and books on management of online services are useful. Other materials that can be used to gather data will be the journal of the company’s competitors like yahoo and the periodicals on online business linkages.
Information omitted in the data
Other information that should be included in the case study above is the financial statements of eBay and its strategic partners. Such information will be useful in the determination of the type of relationship that can be developed. Information on the company’s mission and vision will also be needed clearly incorporating the core values and other intermediate plans (Deresky, 2008).
Recommendation and conclusion
For the company to strategically establish itself, it needs to embark on heavy marketing strategies that can enable it penetrate the new desired market. Stronger strategic alliances and high quality services should be developed by the company (Elsevier, 2010). The site that is used for marketing must be made user friendly to be accessed by those without much computer knowledge.
eBay can also strategies by increasing their customer loyalty by initiating rewards and incentives for those who list and acquire products on their site. These decisions can only be made feasible by employing management with high qualification.
Reference List
Ahlstrom, D., & Bruton, H. D. (2009). International Management:Strategy and Culture in Emerging World. London: Cengage Learning.
Brooke, M. Z. (1996). International management: a review of strategies and operations. London: Nelson Thornes.
Deresky, H. (2008). International management:Managing across Boarders and Cultures. London: Pearson Prentice Hall.
Elsevier, T. (2010). How Emerging Economies are RESHAPING OUR Undestanding of Global Entrepreneurship. (M. Kotabe, Ed.) Journal of International Management , 16 (4), 321-434. Cahil.
In 2014, Sotheby’s and eBay announced a collaboration that could see the former sell its art through the former via online auction. Sotheby’s, a 270-year old company, is a world leader and an iconic international art business and auctioneer. On the other hand, eBay is a global giant in e-commerce.
It has over 145 million customers. It offers a prime avenue for Sotheby’s to take its auctioneering business to the masses. However, it is worth noting that this observation is not the first time the two companies have entered into such collaboration. In 2002, the two companies entered into the same collaboration, although it was not successful.
To many business analysts, online auction of art was seen as an idea that was ahead of its time. At the time, fine art was regarded as a field for the elite in addition to being out of reach for the masses in terms of prices. Although this perception continues to persist, eBay and Sotheby’s have been keen on changing it within their new collaboration.
The two companies will create an online platform for mid-priced inventory, which will feature online subsisting public sales and instantaneous ordering. While Sotheby’s already offers online auctions and sales, its collaboration with eBay is a good move that targets customers for mid-priced art.
On the other hand, eBay will have the right to use classy commodities and purchasers and hence the importance of the collaboration for the two companies. This paper will discuss the viability of this new collaboration and its implications and importance for the global art network development.
Analysis of Sotheby’s and eBay 2014 Collaboration
In the last decade, the global arts sector has grown enormously across the world. For instance, in 2002, the sales of art stood at approximately €18.6billion as compared to the present-day sales that reached approximately €47.4billion as at 2013, representing a growth of 155% as Deloitte & ArtTactic confirms1.
During the same time, the use of internet grew significantly starting from approximately 720 million users to 3 billion in 2013, which was a growth of over 315%. At the same time, online sales or e-Commerce has grown enormously. Billions of sales are done each year through the platform.
In 2013, over €1.3 trillion-worth transactions were carried through e-Commerce. According to Andrew, the figure was a rise of 20% from the previous year2. The trend is expected to grow enormously in the next few years to reach €2.3 trillion by 2017, which will represent a growth rate of 180%.
In the e-Commerce categories, Beales asserts that mobile phone e-Commerce will experience the highest growth rate of approximately 230% to reach €1.4 trillion in the same period3. From these statistical observations, it is evident that as more and more transactions are made online, it is disastrous for the arts sector to lag behind.
The time for online auctioning of the contemporary artworks is now perfect as evidenced by the above findings, which show a significant shift in the market situation as compared to 2002. In addition, it is worth noting that by collaborating with eBay, Sotheby’s will only be expanding its online auctioneering and exposing it to more potential customers.
Already, the company has successfully carried out its online auctioneering with good and impressive results. However, its journey has not been without its challenges. The first online platform for the company was launched in 1999 when it collaborated with the Amazon Company. This collaboration did not see the light of the day, as it pulled off within a year.
In 2002, its new collaboration with eBay ended in the same year after it was pulled off within a year. Lessons that were learnt at the time were very valuable. They have helped the company in its subsequent online platform known as BIDnow, which it has solely been running. In 2013, the company redesigned its BIDnow platform to allow more integration and streamlining within mobile and tablet devices4.
With these changes, the company has seen its online bidding grow by 45%. The figure is an increase of 50% in the Asian client traffic and a 25% increase in the time spent on mobile devices. The company’s online catalogue distribution has grown to over 3 million as compared to the print version catalogue, which stands at approximately one million5.
In addition, Sotheby’s preferred client programme web traffic doubled. It has shown impressive growth since 2013. Bids of more than €1million have become a common occurrence. The commendable progress of Sotheby’s reflects the current trends in the wider arts business in the world. A close competitor of Sotheby’s, namely Christie’s, has also experienced impressive growth in its online sales of arts services.
The company controls approximately 46% of the world’s arts auction together with Sotheby’s. According to Hiscox, the two generated €18 million from online-only sales, which were from 49 online only sales as compared to €4.1 million from seven online-only sales that were achieved in the previous year of 20126.
Further, the company’s 45% of registered buyers through the online platform were new clients from over 100 countries. According to Caines, its testimony of an online sale was recorded in July 2013 when it sold an Apple 1 computer for €335,395 while the record that was set through its Christie’s Live (an online extension of the ‘live’ auction) was achieved through the sale of Zao Wou-Ki’s 09.05.61 at €1.47 million7.
Other major players that have joined the online arts sales sector include Amazon that announced its entry in August 2013. Such close of interest and prospects for online auction in the arts sales are key indicators of the confidence that players in the industry have. On the wider auction business, Vogel and Isaac present the-saleroom.com, which had one of its best years where it hosted over 7200 auctions, 3100 live auctions and sales of €97 million8.
In the United States, the Invaluable.com realised a record-breaking 102% growth in the fourth quarter of 2013 during the same time for the previous year. This tremendous growth was attributed to an 80% increase in buyer transaction, owing to the increase of excellent commodities that were available on the platform.
Another major player, namely LiveAuctioneers.com had its best years with gross online sales reaching € 195 in 20139. According to Beales, one of the best indicators of the confidence that the online arts auction market is experiencing can be clearly indicated through the money that is flowing to the sector in terms of investment10. In 2013, the year saw increased rounds of investment for various online arts auction platforms.
For instance, Paddle 8 received €5.2 million from various investors. Further, Artsy was able to raise €4.8 million in new funding to propel more growth. According to Shatkovskaya, Artspace was also able to raise a considerable amount of outside investment totalling to €7.4 million11.
Lofty.com, with an initial investment of €2.6 million, joined the auction business for fine art. Other major investment trends included €7.6 million investment funds that were received by 500px, €36 million for 1stdibs and €5 million for the French Expertissim12. Such trends present important indications for the confidence that the industry is experiencing from investors and hence a promising future ahead.
Sotheby’s and eBay Collaboration
Many questions have been asked by different opinion experts on the viability, convenience, and other areas relating to the 2014 decision of Sotheby’s to eBay to collaborate. These questions are much warranted, owing to the fact that the two companies have had the same kind of agreement in the past.
In 2002, their collaboration did not succeed. It failed within a year after its launching. How will this situation be different this time? Is the risk worthy? Above all, why is eBay in the mix again? Such questions are an indication of scepticism regarding the viability of online arts auction, especially in an industry that is known for its target of the high and wealthy members of the society and not masses.
However, apart from the trends that have been well discussed concerning the state of the market, it is important to understand the nitty-gritty details of the collaboration between the two companies. Firstly, the new online auction programme aims to bring arts to the masses as a way of breaking the notion that it is only for the elite.
However, who are the masses? According to Hiscox, the main target for the online auction platform collaboration between eBay and Sotheby’s is the $5,000-100,000 range.13 The range is taking an increasingly large share of the company’s transactions14. In 2013, dealings under this category are attributed to approximately 30% of all transactions, thus bringing in 1.5-2% of the company’s revenues15.
Despite such small figures that the country accounts for in terms of the company’s income, the potential is enormous since more people and online dealers continue to embrace arts merchandise. Such an increase in interest has been fuelled by growth in the emerging markets, especially in China and other Asia Pacific nations.
For instance, the Chinese market led the world in terms of arts purchases in 2013, accounting for $4.1 billion of all sales. In addition, the number of registered users and auction signups increased by 43% and 35% respectively16. Such growth in these emerging markets represents a platform that Sotheby’s must target in its expansion plans and push for becoming a leader in the online auction for the arts business.
Secondly, eBay makes a great platform for Sotheby’s to expand and reach its online target customers in the $5000-100,000 category. The company has over 145 million customers in over 180 countries worldwide. Further, according to its statistics, over 3500 transactions are made daily in the $5000-100,000 category of goods. Such transactions are not just in the US but also worldwide.
In addition, with an experienced running for nearly two decades, the company has a very secure and efficient online auction platform that will go a long way in supporting Sotheby’s aspirations of joining eBay’s large network. However, this arrangement is not only beneficial to Sotheby’s but also to eBay. It is worth noting that most of the big Sotheby’s clients are super rich individuals.
Hence, the growth of this online auction platform is an opportunity for accessing high-end clients and incomes that will be a great boost to the company’s revenues. Consequently, the collaboration between eBay and Sotheby’s comes at a great time that will be devoid of factors that hindered the initial collaboration of 2002. During that time, the internet was still a new invention.
People had little confidence if any regarding e-Commerce, especially on the selling of highly valuable arts merchandise. Further, owing to the low number of people who regularly used the internet, it was impossible to reach a high number of potential customers. Another important fact was that the target population comprised high-end customers who were not ready to purchase arts worth millions on an online platform, which at the time would have been equated with blind faith.
In addition, without support from key stakeholders such as collectors and customers, the idea was much ahead of its time. Hence, the collaboration was headed for failure. Therefore, when the association failed, it did not come as a surprise to many since it was expected.
The situation has changed drastically since that time. The years ahead offer a great promise, owing to the support that online auction platforms have received in the recent past. Consumers are becoming more comfortable as evidenced by the efforts to make large and costly ticket items online.
For instance, in 2014, Sotheby’s facilitated the online auction of John Audubon’s “The Birds of America”, which went for $3.5 million, thus setting a record for the company. Such high-end arts can only indicate one thing: confidence in the market17.
According to Hiscox, the global online arts market in 2013 was estimated at $1.57 billion18. At a growth rate of 19%, it is expected to reach $3.76 billion. The available data is very impressive. It clearly indicates where the focus of Sotheby’s and other arts companies should be.
On the other side, collectors who act as the major stakeholders in this market have expressed their confidence in other online arts markets. In the same report by Hiscox, as confirmed by Shatkovskaya, 77% of the collectors and 69% of arts professionals seem confident that the online arts business model will be highly successful19.
Swot Analysis
To understand the collaboration and its viability, it is important to carry out a SWOT analysis. The SWOT analysis is an important tool for understanding the market dynamics and other key factors that help an organisation to decide whether to go on with an idea or not. The following SWOT analysis table will represent the key factors concerning the viability of eBay and Sotheby’s collaboration:
SWOT Analysis for eBay and Sotheby’s Collaboration for 2014
Strengths
Weaknesses
Experience in online auctions for both eBay and Sotheby’s
Existence of a secure online payment system, PayPal, owned by eBay
Increasing confidence on online auctions by customers and collectors
Over a 270-year experience in sales of arts by Sotheby’s
A larger collection of arts by Sotheby’s
A large client base of over 145 million people in over 180 nations
Low cost of doing business and transactions
Reliable financial resources for the two companies
Security and fraud concerns in online transactions
Show rooming where clients wish to touch and see their high-value merchandise before buying
Costs involved in shipping and transportation of highly value arts material
The number of potential customers who can confidently purchase online is yet not enough
Lack of direct customer-buyer interaction
Opportunities
Threats
The rapid growth of online users offers great potential for market growth
Growing confidence among online buyers on the credibility and security of online market platforms
The potential of accessing over 145 million customers through eBay
The growth of arts markets in emerging countries such as China
Potential for the expansion of sales in the $5000-100,000 category in the emerging markets
The threat of competition from other big players such as Amazon and the existing big names in the industry
The threat of new entrants in the online market segment
Security and fraud issues, which have the potential of disrupting any progress
Government regulations that may affect the progress of online auction
From the above SWOT analysis, it is evident that the strengths and opportunities for the collaboration greatly outweigh the weaknesses and threats. Therefore, it is important for the collaboration to go on to address the weaknesses and threats as they arise while maximising on the strengths and opportunities.
Opinion on the Collaboration and What it Means for the Arts Industry
To many critics and supporters of this new development, it is evident that the movement to online auctioneering for arts is unstoppable. Any efforts to stop it are minute. With trillions of people having transacted for years through the online market, it will be unfortunate for one of the oldest businesses in the world to remain behind.
According to Shatkovskaya, support from different opinion leaders and key players in the industry towards the online sale of arts is overwhelming20. For instance, as previously stated, more than 77% of the collectors are confident that the new business model will be highly successful.
In addition, 63% of the collectors have confirmed the convenience of the online bidding and buying over showroom and physical presence that focuses on traditional auction21. It is also encouraging that 71% of collectors have purchased arts online, with 26% having spent over $50,000. Over 75% of them claim that the online platform offers them the advantage of finding artworks that they would have otherwise not found in the traditional physical space22.
Of great importance are the trends that are going on in the sector. New arts companies have emerged with a focus on making online auction part of the business. The entry Amazon and Alibaba among others into the sector is an indication of the confidence that is exhibited across the board.
Further, the many live auctions that run concurrently with the traditional auctions, especially at Christie’s and Sotheby’s are an indication that even though the transition to solely online platforms may not be instantaneous, the journey has already begun. As the challenges that come up are addressed, the online auctioneering will become more integrated in this important sector.
Relevance and Importance of the Collaboration in Contemporary Art Field
The move to online auction of artworks has far-reaching impacts on the contemporary arts industry. As more and new art establishments are realised on the online platform, changes are bound to happen. Hence, there is potential to change the industry and usher in a new process and a contemporary way of managing art.23 The traditional gallery model of auction and market will likely begin to lose its share of the market.
Hence, online auction will be more cemented. From the experience of sales of other artistic creations such as music and publishing services that have gone online and slowly pushed out the older models, it is evident that the contemporary online platforms offer more efficient and cost-effective model of managing art than the traditional methods.
While many experts claim that art is different and that it requires the interested parties to see, it is true that many of them are warming up to the idea of online auction. With the support of major online sales leaders such as Amazon and eBay, online auction of art will likely redefine the contemporary art and usher in a new way. One important fact is that the traditional art gallery and the conventional auction model are going to shrink over the next few decades.
On the other hand, the existing and new galleries will come up with aggressive online strategies as seen in Sotheby’s and other contemporary art companies. The idea might have come of age, but not on the specific segment within which Sotheby’s and the wider arts sector exists.
Accordingly, critics assert that the idea is still ahead of its time. Hence, they do not understand the hype about it. In addition, their citing of other issues such as authenticity, which is a major problem for the industry, is a valid reason for their concern. Another problem that critics have raised relates to the quality of arts merchandise, which in many instances has to be proven by the dealer.
Visual presentation has been one of the most important experiences that collectors seek. Therefore, in this case, it is obvious that many collectors will choose the traditional auction over the online auction. Among other reasons, critics have laid the above reasons as to why online auctioneering may not be that big after all.
Regardless of the position that has been taken by various opinion segments, one thing is guaranteed. The impact of online auctioneering on the arts sector is that it will open up the market to the masses and reach other segments and individuals of the society that would otherwise never participate in this prestigious and lucrative side of the economy.
According to Vogel and Isaac, online auction of contemporary arts will lead to what has been referred to as ‘democratisation’ or ‘globalisation’ of arts.24 For a long time, art commodities were associated with the super rich individuals of this world, especially in the United States and the United Kingdom. However, with the launch of the online platform, things will change.
It will begin with Sotheby’s and eBay. Now, Sotheby’s has a client base of 100,000 people. Under this collaboration, it will be ‘bringing arts to the masses’ when it will expand its client base to 145,000,000 people through eBay. The move will be indeed a democratisation and globalisation of the arts industry.
Socially and culturally, the trend is likely to lead to major changes. Firstly, with the internet spreading worldwide, new forms of arts are likely to emerge from different areas of the world that the traditional auction market had ignored.
Secondly, it will present an opportunity for new cultures to display their arts and/or sell the works to a worldwide audience. Consequently, it is evident that the impact of the collaboration of Sotheby’s and eBay will open new doors and trends that will have the potential of changing the arts sector forever.
Conclusion
From the discussion, it is without doubt that the collaboration between eBay and Sotheby’s has come of age and that it has the potential of succeeding in the highly internet-connected world that is characterised by growth in e-Commerce. The failure of the collaboration in 2002 was a matter of an idea that was ahead of its time.
In 2014, the time was ripe for the collaboration. By bringing the 270-year experience of Sotheby’s and eBay on online auction as well as its client base of 145 million customers who are spread across the world, the success is highly possible. At a growth of 19% annually, the $5,000-10,000 segment that the two organisations are targeting offers a great growth opportunity.
Despite the challenges and criticisms that have been advanced on online auction of arts merchandise, the benefits outweigh the disadvantages. It will also usher a new period that will change the sector forever. In this case, online auction will democratise the arts market and ensure that it is no longer a segment for the elite. Culturally, it will offer an opportunity for the often-ignored culture to display its arts. The world will wait and confirm how the collaboration will fair.
Bibliography
Andrew, Clare., TEFAF Art Market Report 2014: The Global Art Market, with a focus on the US and China (London: TEFAF, 2014)
EBay Corporation is a U.S. company that operates in the internet and digital media industry by providing an interface to buyers and sellers of different products online. The industry is very competitive and the company has managed to keep up with the level of competition. The management of eBay has pursued the internationalization strategy that has enabled it to expand over time to other multinational markets.
While operating in different multinational markets, the company has faced various challenges and risk such as fraud risks, difficulties of coping up with regulations in different countries of operation. The company obtains its revenue through eBay marketplaces, Paypal and Skype.
The findings of this study on application of internet marketing in eBay indicates that the company markets and earns revenue online by providing market stores for different companies selling different products to online customers.
Introduction
The internet and digital media are advanced technologies that are utilized by organizations in the modern business environment to ease business transactions. The two technologies were developed many years ago with their development beginning immediately after the Second World War.
The internet has made business transactions easy. Some companies such as eBay have utilized the technology as a competitive advantage in providing services to sellers and buyers. The company was established in 1995 and has utilized the internet to enable suppliers meet and supply products to their clients. The system has been successful and has enabled the company to grow and expand into international markets.
However, it has not been able to succumb to competition in all markets since it was pushed out of the Japanese market. Fraud risks and the risk of conforming to different regulations in different countries of operations threaten its future existence (Racin, Van Der Loos & Illes, 2007, p. 183).
The internet and digital media dates back many years ago after the Second World War in which there was need to develop a communication system that would survive any difficulties. The proposal to create the telecommunication network that had no central authority and could operate while in disrepair was put forward by Rand in 1964.
Research for the telecommunication network began in early 1960 with some milestones being made in 1967 when the physical laboratory of Britain developed the initial tests of the network (Lohse, et al. 2000, p. 19). This discovery was followed by the U.S development of the network that contained four nodes in 1969 that were characterized by high-speed computers.
The high-speed network developed in the U.S. grew faster in the 1970s and more networks were developed in the 1980s. For instance, in 1984, NASA entered into the internet industry. The company provided technical advancement that linked newer and faster microcomputers using thicker fast links (Calvin, 2004, p. 66).
A team of programmers in Geneva designed the web. The web is a form of the internet that utilizes the hyper-textual format of the internet to develop a network of information that is global in nature (Blossom, 2009, p. 65). It comprises individual sites for different organizations. Through the sites, firms and individuals are able to share different kinds of information both business and social.
The web can be accessed by any individual interested in it and has enough time. Blossom (2009, p. 65) notes that the legacy of the internet can be reduced to two that are egalitarian openness and flat pricing. Therefore, any individual can access the internet and the web at any time worldwide at a very low price based on the bandwidth being accessed (Lohse, et al. 2000, p. 21).
Company Profile: eBay
EBay Corporation was established in 1995 as an online auction that provides an interface between buyers and sellers of different products online. Pierre Omidyar, a software engineer base in California, established the firm.
According to Blossom (2009, p. 68), eBay has its mission as “pioneering communities around the world built on commerce, sustained by trust and inspired by opportunity.” The business practices in which eBay is involved in is three and includes:
EBay Marketplaces: this is the major revenue earner of the company. Under this section, eBay creates an online market for global corporations and individuals. In this online market, the company sells over 100 million products online daily.
The online marketplace is the number one revenue earner for eBay contributing about 70% of the total revenue earned by the corporation (Lohse, et al. 2000, p. 21). EBay has been successful in online marketplace because of the ability of the company to manage its functionality, safety, and reliability of the trading platform.
In addition, eBay has increased the usability of the online marketplace making its customers and suppliers to like it and prefer using it for the sale and purchase of different products (Blossom, 2009, p. 69).
Paypal: this is the second revenue earner for eBay because it contributes about 25% of the total revenue realized by the corporation. Under this business model, the company aims at creating a new global standard for online payments. The company made the acquisition of Paypal in 2003 hence utilizing it to make payments for its clients (Charlesworth, 2009, p. 121).
Skype Internet telephony: eBay acquired Skype in 2005 as another investment venture for the company.
The venture is the third source of income for eBay since it earned the firm 5% of total revenues realize din the 2007 financial period. EBay used to value the firm highly beyond the true value of the firm hence incurring an impairment charge. However, the corporation has been able provide services for MySpace users (Ngai, 2003, p. 30).
The last business model that was a source of about 4% of the firm in 2007 financial period was advertising among other online sources of revenue.
The revenue Model
Much of the revenue realized by eBay is obtained from the listing and commissions earned from its business transactions. The firm charges an extra commission on Paypal transactions. According to Allen (2008, p. 81), the margin that the corporation realizes on the transactions is phenomenal because the incremental costs made after the construction of the infrastructure are tiny.
The income that eBay realizes from advertising and other non-transaction net revenues only make up a small portion of the total net revenue realized by the corporation.
According to Blossom (2009, p. 66), eBay intends to maintain this strategy of low revenues from advertising and non-transaction net revenues. For instance, in 2004, non-transaction net revenue was about $94.3 million, which was only 3% of the total revenue realized by the company (Ngai, 2003, p. 33).
Customers and Proposition
The main customers of eBay are online customers willing to purchase different products online. In addition, the company provides an interface for suppliers willing to supply different products to their online customers. The company has established a competitive advantage on core service provision (Ngai, 2003, p. 38). EBay is a reliable marketplace in which sellers can successfully list their items for sale on bids or fixed prices.
Due to its reliability, the online marketplace is attractive to many sellers. For instance, in 2007, the firm had about 532,000 online storefronts established by different users throughout the world.
Different software tools such as Turbo Lister, Sellers assistant and selling manager among others to help them in conducting their transactions, provide traders utilizing the site on a frequent basis. Therefore, about 60% of suppliers listing their products are aided by software (Silver, 2004, p. 58).
Fraud is a significant risk experienced by different online operators selling and purchasing different products online through the company site. One out of 10,000 transactions recorded in the UK in 2005 were fraudulent. Although the number is small, the translation of the figure into the total number of transaction the firm makes worldwide results in a significant volume of transactions.
To overcome fraud cases and risks, eBay has developed trust and safety programs that reassure customers of the safety of their online transactions. For instance, the corporation has initiated the feedback system in which the credentials of both sellers and buyers can be identified (Charlesworth, 2009, p. 121).
According to Blossom (2009, p. 66), eBay make propositions to both the sellers and buyers. The proposition for buyers involves selection of products, their value, convenience and entertainment. The firm has established an online forum called neighborhoods in which buyers can discuss the different products and provided by the company.
For sellers, their propositions include access to broad markets, marketing and distribution that are cost effective, access to a large market base and good conversion rates (Acquisti & Varian, 2001, p. 25). The company changed its marketplace into three structures that are free structures, seller incentives and standards and feedback.
The structures were aimed at improving the quality of experience that would enable sellers provides detailed ratings. In addition, the structures provided sellers with the ability to review the items described, improve communication, period of delivery and improve postage charges. The changes made by the corporation improved the shopping experience by the firm’s clients (Acquisti & Varian, 2001, p. 25).
Competition
The competitiveness of an organization determines the survival of the company in the industry. Every organization including eBay aims at maximizing profits while minimizing the costs incurred. In order to minimize costs while maximizing the realized profits, it is necessary for the firm to have a competitive advantage (Tanner, Honeycutt & Erffmeyer, 2008, p. 116).
The company has established a competitive advantage in interfacing between online buyers and seller of different goods and services. The uniqueness of the services provided by eBay is that there is a direct link between firm and its clients since a feedback system exists for the clients on the services provided.
The services provided by the company are reliable and free of risks because the company has minimized fraud risks (Wang, Lee & Wang, 1998, p. 66). The examination of competition in the internet and online business will be done using porter’s five forces as explained below.
Porter’s Five Forces
Source: Porter (1980, p. 29)
Buyer Power
There has been an increase in the bargaining power of the online customers of online products and services due to their ability to purchase any products of any company in the industry competitors’ products. By venturing into different markets across the world, eBay competes with other dominant companies in the industry such as Yahoo among others.
The buyer power is high and the company requires strategic planning in order to provide high quality services that can compete with competitor products for effectiveness in the industry. The free choice from available alternative quality products of various competitors has raised the buyer power (Gay, Charlesworth & Esen, 2007, p. 99).
Supplier Power
There are many suppliers to eBay supplying different products being sold by the company online. Any fluctuations in the demand for online products and goods could easily cause an increase in the supplier power (Honeycutt, Ford & Simintiras, 2003, p. 219).
For instance, a fluctuation in the demand for computer chips sold through eBay could easily lead to supply of the chips on demand hence the increase in the supplier bargaining power for HP. Supplier power affects the operations of eBay (Porter, 1980, p. 77).
Substitutes
Substitutes to eBay services comprise of online and offline retailers, distributors, liquidators, import and exports companies. In addition, there are other online auctioneering companies, mail order companies, catalogues and directories.
Companies provide online and offline shopping channels and networks that are substitutes to the services provided by eBay. Due to these substitutes, competition for eBay provided products has increased.
Market Rivalry
There is very high rivalry among competitors in the online marketing and internet business. The main competitors in the industry include firms providing various services similar to the services provided by eBay. For instance, there are mail order companies, liquidators, online and offline participants, search engines, catalogue and mail order companies among other companies (Racin, Van Der Loos & Illes, 2007, p. 184).
EBay is not complacent with the competition in the industry. Due to the high level of competition in the industry with firms such as Yahoo providing similar services, eBay pulled out of the Japanese market in 2005. The company still faces competition from Yahoo in other markets such as Asia and China. Yahoo provides similar competitive services that are likely to attract more customers in the markets (Silver, 2004, p. 59).
New Entrants
The online business industry is characterized by free entry and exit. Every organization operating in the industry is aware of the threats that new entrants pose to their existence. In spite of heavy investment in the industry by eBay, new entrants such as Yahoo among others still pose a danger to the existence of the firm in the industry.
Opportunities
Competitiveness in the industry increases operating risks of operating in the industry for eBay. However, there are still many opportunities to be explored by eBay. For instance, the company can exploit emerging markets such as India and Brazil. In addition, the firm can exploit mergers and acquisitions with other upcoming organizations in the industry (Zacher, 2009, p. 201).
Threats
The threat in the industry is the threat of new entrants. The industry is at a mature stage and it has enough companies operating in it. Therefore, the entry of new firms would increase the level of competition further than expected. Moreover, fraud risks pose some dangers to the operations of eBay.
Strategic Decisions made by eBay Management
Strategic management is mandatory for firms in the modern business environment because of the dynamism of the business environment. EBay operates in a very competitive industry that requires the management of the company to make strategic decisions in line with its strategic goals and objectives. The company has its strategic objectives as:
Increasing the number of new users registered to utilize the services the company offers on its online marketplace.
Increasing the number of registered users that actively participate in bidding, buying and selling on the company’s marketplace (Ngai, 2003, p. 45)
The firm aims at increasing not only the value, but also the volume of active transactions on eBay marketplace. The organization had about 83 million active users by the end of 2007 compared to the 82 million active users that it had in 2006. The company defines active users as clients who bid, purchase or lists items on the website of the company in the past 12 months (Racin, Van Der Loos & Illes, 2007, p. 183).
The company achieves these objectives through other approaches as outlined by the management. The company has strategies to pursue the increase of category numbers and sizes of the marketplace. For instance, the company pursued this strategy to increase the categories such as books, art, antiques business and industrial clients in the marketplace.
EBay pursues the interaction strategy in which it has traditionally been realized through auction listings. The strategy was refined to its current “Buy-It-Now” price format (Schwartz, 2006). The format of the strategy is the ‘Dutch auction’ format that is characterized by sellers selling multiple identical products to the highest bidders.
EBay Corporation developed its stores for the main reason of enabling suppliers with multiple products to display their products in a more retail format. The management is pursuing the acquisition of other firms as a strategy to provide an enabling environment for suppliers of multiple products.
For instance, eBay acquired Mobile.de in 2004 from Germany and Marktplaats.nl from Netherlands. In addition to the acquisitions, the company has invested heavily in other organizations such as Classified ad in the U.S., acquisition of Rent.com and stubHub in 2007 (Silver, 2004, p. 57).
EBay has pursued another strategy of localization in different regions and countries. Under the localization strategy, the company has been able to achieve a larger market place for localized geographies such as Australia, India, Malaysia, Canada and U.S among others (Ngai, 2003, p. 48).
Success factors
Basing on the above strategies undertaken by the corporation, the company has been successful in meeting its set objectives. The ability of eBay to meet its set objectives is attributed to different success factors such as the ability of the company to attract buyers and seller, the ability of the company to handle a large volume of transactions, selection of a good price and good selection of goods for sale.
According to Howe (2000, p. 91), eBay provides high quality customer services that when coupled with high quality products and services offered, it creates a brand recognition, customer satisfactions and loyalty. These success factors have been able to lead to success due to the importance that the developing the value added tools and services by the company.
Value adding tools to eBay include tools used before and after trade to enhance user experience while making trading faster, easier and safer. With regard to competitors, success factors for eBay include the ability of the company to enhance community cohesion, system reliability, and convenience of the website, lower level of service charges and provision of quality search tools (Chaffey, et al. 2008, p. 78).
Challenges of doing business on the internet
EBay is a multinational corporation that operates in different business environments across the different regions of operation. Due to the dynamism of the business environment, the company encounters different issues that have negatively affected the performance and competitiveness of the company (Acquisti & Varian, 2001, p. 19).
To begin with, the company faces regulatory requirement challenges including regulation of auctioneering, professional selling distance selling and transmission of money. The company encounters legal uncertainties regarding the liability for listings and contents provided by users (Sellers, 2010, p. 103).
The uncertainty could also result from the less user-friendly internet systems in different markets of operation. As the company operates in the countries, it faces the challenge of integrating with local payment providers such as banks, credit and debit card associations and electronic fund transfers. Other challenges faced by eBay are as listed below:
differing levels of retail distribution, shipping and communication structures
Different employer/employee relationships that affects productivity and service provision of the firm, hence profitability
Challenges in staffing and managing overseas subsidiaries
Adverse taxation consequences that could affect negatively the profitability of the company
The firm faces strong local competitors that have forced eBay to exit some markets such as Japan.
The company faces cultural ambivalence towards or non-acceptance of online trading.
Fraud
In spite of the above challenges, eBay if doing everything to overcome them and ensure that it maintains its global competitiveness. The firm has employed various strategies such as utilizing locals from the different countries of operation to conduct it business.
The locals in different regions have enabled the company improve employer/employee relationship in a bid to improve its performance. The advance in technology has enabled the company to outsource expertise from different countries. This has enabled eBay to reduce its operating costs while maintaining a competitive edge.
Conclusion
EBay Corporation operates in the online market place industry that is dynamic and competitive the firm was established in 1995 and since its establishment, it has been able to grow and expand its operations to not only online marketplace, but to include international payment systems such as Paypal and Skype, online communication.
The company has established a competitive advantage in customer service and quality service deliveries that have enabled it maintain a competitive edge in the highly competitive industry. The management of eBay Corporation has pursued the internationalization strategy that has been achieved through several mergers and acquisitions over time.
Through the mergers and acquisitions, eBay has been able to successfully venture into other international markets such as in UK, Asia, China and Canada. In spite of the success in the expansion, the eBay has not been successful in keeping up with competition in all markets.
The company has been forced to exit in some markets such as Japan in which it received stiff competition from Yahoo. The company faces some risks such as fraud and high competition. It is recommended that the company increase its level of interaction and diversification in order to hold onto its market share while improving it performance.
References
Acquisti, A & Varian, H 2001, Conditioning Prices on Purchase History, Marketing Science, Vol. 1, no. 2, pp. 1-33
Allen, C 2008 Advertising and integrated brand promotion, New York: Cengage Learning.
Blossom, J 2009 Content Nation: Surviving and Thriving as Social Media Changes Our Work, Our Lives, and Our Future, New York: John Wiley and Sons.
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Honeycutt, E, Ford, J & Simintiras, A 2003 Sales Management: A Global Perspective, London: Routledge.
Howe, K 2000 Understanding advertising: History, persuasion techniques, mass media, target audiences, Ad creation, Wako, TX: Prufrock Press.
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Racin, E, Van Der Loos, A & Illes, J 2007, Internet Marketing of Neuroproducts: New Practices and Healthcare Policy Challenges, Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Review, Vol. 16, no. 02, pp. 181-194.
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Sellers, N 2010 Advertising techniques and consumer fraud, Volume 8, New York: Gregg Division, McGraw-Hill.
Silver, D 2004, Internet/cyberculture/digital culture/new media/ fill-in-the-blank studies, New Media and Society, Vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 55-64.
Tanner, J, Honeycutt, E & Erffmeyer, R 2008 Sales Management: Shaping Future Sales Leaders, Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.
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Zacher, R 2009 Advertising techniques and management, Harrison City: R.D.Irwin. Print.
eBay is an online company where people and companies do business by selling and buying a wide variety of goods and services globally, also known as e-commerce. Ebay’s business is different from the traditional selling and distribution.
It is similar to the auction market where bids are presented on the trading ground and the customer with the lowest bid gets the item being sold. Nevertheless, on eBay, buyers and sellers are not physically present like the face-to-face business at the auction floor (Ihlwan & Hof, 2006). This paper focuses on eBay, how it entered the Asian markets and problems faced.
EBay’s market platform is structured in a way that only buyers who can gain access to the e-commerce website participate in the market. Ebay started as a unique market and its aim was to connect customers from the whole world to trade goods and services. In essence, it is a market without stores or physical presence. In addition, it earns its income through the fee paid by the buyers and sellers, which is transacted through pay pal and Bill me online money transfers. Goods are delivered through FedEx, DHL and mail (Mangalindan, 2006).
Ihlwan (2006) affirms that eBay has entered many countries, for example, the UK, Canada, Germany, and Australia and other sites in Japan and France. eBay entered Asian markets through acquisition and joint strategies because it wanted to have fast access and create a leadership position. It acquired three big online markets in Asia. For instance, In 2003, eBay bought EachNet, which was the top e-commerce site in China. As it carried out its online business, it faced challenges from a rival company – the Taobao.
It later gave up and involved eBay EachNet into a joint venture with another big company – the Tom online. Despite merging, Taobao has stayed on the lead, and that is why eBay decided to try other business strategies such as linking Chinese entrepreneurs and exporters to eBay clients in other places of the world. eBay targeted big companies such as Tang companies, which sell dresses. eBay has helped Tang to pursue global customers, thus still operating in China.
Another advantage that eBay had over Taobao is that it gained more consumer reach outside the country. Although Taobao had opened a website called alibaba.com, which catered for midsize exporters and importers around the globe, it did not cater much to consumers. Consequently, eBay got an opening and had many service agents who cater to Chinese sellers.
Chan (2007) argues that although eBay found its way into China’s market, it was faced with many challenges, including the limitations enforced by China’s communist government. Such limitations were based on the use of the Internet, limitations on some of the products and the tax and duties enforced on Internet trade.
Mangalindan (2006) highlights that as eBay acquired Chinese Companies such sachet, they thought that they would dominate China’s e-commerce, especially when they developed a technology platform to support eBay China. However, when they introduced the platform, they were forced to centralize all their online businesses in the US.
This structure raised more restrictions on access to the eBay website in the US because the Chinese buyers and sellers were unable to gain access to the website. Other companies such as Taobao got almost 86 percent of Chinese online market, and eBay gained only seven percent of the market.
In Korea, eBay’s subsidiary known as Internet Auction was once a leader in the online auction market. It gained a lot of market share, but in 2006, Gmarket Company surpassed eBay because it sold billions of goods and services. According to Ihlwan (2006), Gmarket had an income of $29.6 million in the first quarter and totaled to $59.3 million in 2005.
This increase took everyone by surprise because no one expected it to perform that way since it was a new Company. However, eBay had almost given up as it started to look for markets elsewhere, but later returned and secured agreements to have a 67% venture of the Gmarket in a deal equal to $1.2 billion.
eBay operates sites in Singapore, Philippines, and Malaysia. It has promotional sites in upcoming markets like Vietnam and is involved in mobile phone shopping where it collaborates with Singapore operator M1 Mobiles phones and helps its members to shop as they are on the go. eBay has opened micro sites that offer different goods and services sold in other places for example, Singapore.
In conclusion, eBay remains the world’s largest trade market where millions of goods and services are sold. Nevertheless, it is still striving to attain its initial goal, which was to build a worldwide trading platform that would make a trade for goods and services easier and accessible to everybody, anywhere around the globe. It has used many options to look for new market opportunities. They have tried to acquire companies that already exist and have formed partnerships in different companies.
Despite facing challenges in other countries, it is still the most popular shopping place on the Internet. However, eBay should try to come up with many strategies to strengthen itself in the market place. For example, the acquisition of Skype will help in communication to consumers who might require oral communication. This will help eBay to have a competitive advantage over its rivals such as Yahoo auctions.
References
Chan, I. (2007). EBay has its eye on Southeast Asia. Business Week. Web.
Ihlwan, M. (2006). Gmarket eclipses eBay in Asia. Business Week. Web.
Ihlwan, M. & Hof, R. (2006). Out-eBaying eBay in Korea. Business Week, 3993, 74.
Mangalindan, M. (2006). China may be eBay’s latest challenge as local rivals eat into market share. Wall Street Journal, 248, pC1 (2).
In Kotter’s 8-step process, step 2 calls for the formation of a team to facilitate the successful implementation of the change process. In Meg Whitman’s case, within her first week after joining eBay, she arranged for meetings with all senior executives in a bid to understand their responsibilities and hear what they had to say concerning the organization.
In this case, a team was already in position and so Whitman needed to consolidate it. In addition, she later constituted a strong marketing, legal, and customer service team by hiring experts in these fields. At one point, she admitted that she knew the relevance of a united senior management team, which explains why she formed these teams.
In step 3, the leader has to develop a change vision. After joining the company, Whitman realized that eBay specialized mainly on the engineering aspect of business. However, she knew that the company had to move forward and increase the company’s investment in system capacity. Her change vision also included the formation of a marketing team coupled with writing a mission statement and such a thing had not happened in the company before. Whitman convened a meeting with all the nine engineers in the company, where she explained her dissatisfaction with the way things were working. Afterwards, she suggested a different approach where people would specialize in a given area.
In step 4, Kotter notes that the leader has to communicate the vision to the involved parties and ensure that many individuals as possible understand and embrace the vision. Whitman acted prudently on this issue and she made personal presentation in the presence of all staff members. In the presentation, she explained and appreciated how the company was doing and noted that the change leadership was an opportunity for the company to move forward. She clarified where the change would take the company and asserted her confidence in the staff members, which was a great buy-in strategy. In addition, Whitman held weekly full company meetings where she would discuss the change process and evaluate its progress.
Step 5 entails the removal of barriers that prevent individuals from achieving their best. One of the barriers that the company faced was lack specialization. Therefore, when Whitman joined the company, she empowered a broad-based action by ensuring that everyone specialized in his/her line of duty and she hired more people to fill positions, which were hitherto being handled by general workers. She also created new departments like the marketing department in the quest to streamline the business operations and allow people to specialize in areas where they could deliver optimally.
In step 6, a leader has to generate short-term wins and Whitman met this requirement sufficiently. In the second week, she came up with clear-cut short-term goals. The first short-term goal entailed formulating a strategy for the level of investment in terms of the company’s system capacity. The second goal was to come up with an efficient marketing strategy for the expansion of the company. The third goal sought to streamline and fortify the company and lastly make the proper preparations for the company’s initial public offer.
In step 7, Kotter notes that a leader should never give up and Whitman lived to this spirit. After streamlining the company under the leadership of Whitman, eBay listed its shares in September 1998. Whitman was always on an upward trend, and after the IPO, she executed numerous change strategies. In March 1999, the company partnered with AOL and later acquired Butterfield & Butterfield in the following month, which underscores how Whitman lived up to the Kotter’s spirit as espoused in step 7.
The eBay China and the Taobao are online shopping companies which also offers trading platform in China. Taobao has employed the laggard activism strategy to not only capture the Chinese market, but also leapfrog the dominant eBay China Company. The Taobao has better knowledge of the Chinese market and disruptive technology than the eBay within the Chinese market. Unlike eBay which operates on the Customer-to-Customer (C2C) platform, the dynamic Taobao functions on the Business-to-Business (B2B) platform.
Despite purchasing the Chinese based Eachnet Company, eBay failed to penetrate the Chinese market due to imbalance in factors such as the western business style. In order to penetrate the expansive Chinese market, Taobao’s business platform was modified through introduction of services such as premium customer experience, compact support from the community, and low charges for small businesses. This analytical paper explores the above differences in the perspectives of contingency paradigm, resource dependence and transaction cost paradigm, and institutional and population ecology paradigm.
Contingency Paradigm
The contingency paradigm describes a company’s ability on the basis of contingency of the situation. There are two kinds of companies according to this theory. The first are those that develop a good relationship with their customers to deliver a task. The second are those that are only oriented towards the task at hand. They make the accomplishment of the task as their primary aim and take all steps towards the achievement of this goal.
Open-system verses closed-system
The Taobao Company, its business model is based on the C2C market. The attitude of the CEO towards localization is an indication of clear goal of the company. The goal is to concentrate on the local market through use of an open-system business model. The strategy was meant to take advantage of the challenge of smallness to defeat the giant eBay Company, which depends on the closed-system approach in execution of business strategies. The Taobao Company transformed the challenge of late market entry into a competitive advantage strategy within the Chinese online business environment.
Centralized verses decentralized system
Unlike eBay which developed a fixed entry strategy in the Chinese market, which was characterized by overconfidence and inertia, Taobao was packaged as a humble and flexible online technological trading platform. As a result of stable knowledge of the Chinese market, Taobao jumpstarted operations through a flexible and rational business decision process. Basically, this strategy was helpful since changing would not be as costly as those companies that have fixed and mature formulas for doing business such as the eBay Company. As indicated in the case study, a decision which could be made within 9 days at the Taobao would take 9 months at the eBay Company due to the centralized management strategy.
Knowledge efficiency
It is apparent that the Taobao Company more efficient knowledge and experience in uniqueness of products and services in terms of standardization in order to present high quality services to the Chinese market than the eBay Company. The main variables of its business operations are connected at central point by strategic planning which encompasses costing, speed, quality, flexibility, and dependability to create a smooth continuous operation tracking model from one segment to another. For instance, the company has been in a position to establish Chinese online business leadership position due to its appeal to the local customers, in terms of easy to use interface, free trials, and localized purchasing experience.
Balance between the soft and hard skills
The major part of success puzzle for the Taobao business management delivery operates on the periphery of the soft skills involving the timeless vision of organizational principles, defining value of the business, determining requirements, clarifying the vision, building teams, mitigating task, resolving issues, and providing direction as incorporated in the operations management system. The management of the Toabao Company realized that its success lied in the B2B strategy, which was modified to rest on the customer satisfaction. The corporate strategies of the company were then based on the traditional marketing, localized human resource, and efficiency monitoring units. On the other hand, the eBay’s platform was not modified to guarantee the localized experience among its customers.
Taobao has a very unique organization structure. The company exhibits distinctive and unique organization structure that is shaped by the organization’s goals. In advancing organizational learning, the system that helps the organization to avoid the learning disabilities is proactive organization thinking. For instance, its CEO notes that there is need to ensure that the customers directly and positively associate with the business due to premium service experience.
Organizational flexibility
The Taobao organization exhibits flexibility in its organizational structure that enables jobs to be redesigned thus, facilitating work based innovations. The teamwork based organization structure actually identifies the hierarchy of the organization structure in order to understand the complex network. In addition, it provides myriad illustrations of persuasive importance of problem definition within communication contemporary context. Unlike eBay Company which depends on different functions such as the Asia regional office, the head office in Silicon Valley and intuitions of the CEO of the Chinese branch, the Taobao Company has a simple organizational structure model comprising of a single CEO who is in a position to localize the business management strategies within the conservative Chinese market.
Continuous knowledge acquisition is crucial for adapting to and surviving in the competitive business environment. Thus, it becomes an important feature of learning organization. Continuous knowledge can be through activities such as research and development, market research, and competitor analysis. Unlike the highly professional and mature online business platform of the eBay Company, the Toabao’s platform is developing and easy to modify to fit within the Chinese online business market. Besides, the use of B2B model by the Taobao Company expanded its market base since it targeted small business. On the other hand, the C2C model by eBay became ineffective in China due to complexity of the system.
Resource dependence and transaction cost paradigm
Resource dependence
The Taobao Company majorly depends on the local means of production and running the business. The Taobao’s business model was to create a decentralized system in terms of a management line for the much needed market expansion within the Chinese market. The approach adopted by the management was to ensure that decision making process is shortened thus, avoidance of bureaucracy. Furthermore, adoption of decentralization by management was to ensure direct contact with customers within the shortest time possible. The company heavily depended on the local resource to achieve this. On the other hand, the eBay Company establish a hybrid system of integrating the western resource with its acquisition in the Chinese online business market. However, the company maintained its centralized management system from the Silicon Valley. Besides, the company used international resources such as the management team and system support.
The ideal strategy for performance measurement should be aligned to communication channel in the company. For implementation of the strategy, the management of the eBay Company does not balance the short term and long term consideration towards decision making since the resource allocation and use is centralized. Management that ensures long term obligations are fulfilled and considers mostly the role played by resources invested in technology, continued innovations in the production of new products, and conducting intensive researchers in the market to identify fresh market niches.
In order be able to carry out organizational psychology assessment on the basis of centrality, research and statistics are needed to understand the various behavioral patterns that exist within the scope of an organization for this role. This self guided approach is based on collaborative procedures that involve designing specific learning experiences to teach organization on how to monitor automatic behavior; recognize the relationship between these behaviors and cognition, ways to test the validity of the relationships, and measures to apply to substitute the distorted thoughts with more realistic cognitions. The decentralized system of communication and decision making at the Toabao is less limiting, in terms of information flow, since a lot of talent is noticed in the company as employee are given the opportunity to proactively participate in the business process at the local level.
Cost paradigm
The Taobao Company rolled out an interesting entry into the Chinese market by concentrating in the affordable traditional methods of advertising. This strategy ensured that the company was sustainable even when it offered free services within the first three years of operations. The affordable but very visible traditional methods of advertisement ensured that the targeted market was in a position to distinguish the business from its rival. Besides, the company introduced very low charges for its services that could not be matched by its rivals. The administrative costs of the Taobao Company are less costly as compared to the eBay Company which is managed from the Silicon Valley and uses very sophisticated and mature technological platform. Unlike the costing system of the Taobao Company, which is internalized within the local Chinese market, the payment system of the eBay Company is externalized within the confusing platforms such as PayPal. Such platform proved difficult to use among the Chinese customers. On the other hand, Taobao’s internalized system proved flexible and friendly between businesses and customers.
Institutional and population ecology paradigm
Institutional paradigm
The Taobao Company has three building blocks of learning such as a supportive learning environment, concrete learning processes, and practices leadership that reinforce innovation. The managers play a significant role in setting up the learning environment for their employees. This culture has created an ideal climate for innovation and communication among the employees. This culture is meant to create an ideal climate for innovation and communication among the employees. The company’s team work culture spells the rules of engagement and expected results. These rules appreciate diversity and uphold integrity in judgment as enshrined in the company’s vision and mission statement.
Since the Taobao Company is localized, it has very minimal challenges in surviving the regulatory pressures from the Chinese government. Besides, it has earned legitimacy from the local market that prefers to create an identity with the company perceived as adhering to the Chinese culture. On the other hand, the eBay Company has to deal with the coercive and regulatory pressures from the Chinese government since it uses the international business platform in the unique Chinese market. As a result, the company has faced difficulty in reaffirming its legitimacy, especially between its conflicting online payment systems.
Population ecology paradigm
Other factors associated with inhibiting learning in organizations are inappropriate organizational structures, entrenched attitudes towards learning, and emphasis on meeting targets. Fear and resistance to change in organizations that are characterized by high levels of bureaucracy and inter-functional rivalry are the main reasons that impeded the eBay’s strategy to penetrate the Chinese market. In comparison, the cultural structure of the Toabao Company has spurred a continuous growth in the competitive Chinese online business market. The Toabao organization exhibits flexibility in its organizational structure that enables jobs to be redesigned thus, facilitating work based innovations. The company has diversified its operations to merchant service and small business segments to ensure long term sustainability. Generally, when all other factors are held constant, the Taobao Company is better positioned to sustain its business within the Chinese market due to its unique services, wide appeal to customers, and relatively flexible management model.
Recommendations
Operation efficiency
Operational efficiency and market niche provide an indication of how well the company manages its resources, that is, how well it employs its assets to generate sales and income. It also shows the level of activity of the corporation as indicated by the turnover ratios. The level of activity for the eBay and has remained relatively stable despite threat of competition, and constant change of taste and preference. In order to stay afloat, the company should streamline their operational costs and introduce freelance marketers paid on a commission. The marketers will operate from their homes to save the company daily expenses of running its business in China. Through implementing this proposal, the company will reduce its wage bill and seal cost loop holes.
Consumer centricity
Properly designed online marketing and product distribution management facilitate the success and sustainability in online marketing. To increase credibility and maintain professionalism, the current channels of reaching the consumers at the Taobao should be tailored to encompass processes and features that flawlessly facilitate a healthy and lifetime relationship between the business and its clients. Among the new development elements that the company should incorporate include trust, liability acceptance, distribution, fair retribution process, and passing accurate information to target audience to restore confidence within these networks. This strategy will ensure that the business is sustainable.
Functional team
Essentially, the success of e-marketing depends on proper alignment of a functional team that is responsible for the creation of flexible and quantifiable measurement tracking tools for reviewing results periodically. Reflectively, the eBay and Taobao companies should introduce a functional team with the essential knowledge in social media and tools used in marketing via the Internet. The two companies should realize that promotion of their products is not merely an advertising function. They should come up with both advertising campaigns and promotional strategy that are defined by the nature of the market, the size of the market, and the preferences of their customers.
The paper addresses a case study carried out on a multinational e-business company called eBay. French entrepreneur Pierre Omiya started the company in the United States in March the year 1998. The company had a successive growth and within 10 years, it had close to 40 countries. Similarly, it had a tremendous growth with the number of employees rising from 50 employees to more than 15,000 employees. As the company looked for more expansion rooms, it moved to Asia particularly Japan and China. However, in Japan and china, the company failed to sustain itself in those countries and pulled out. This paper therefore seeks to find the reasons why eBay failed in Japan as well as china, what the company could have done differently in order to fit in the Asian market, and why it was not able to compete with its competitors such as Alibaba. Moreover, the paper discusses the management practices that eBay could have acquired whether local or global and the suggestions to the eBay leadership.
The failure of eBay
During the establishment of any form of business, a critical analysis of the market as well as the competitors is essential. This gives the business the insight of what to find in the market as well as giving the business ideas to use in order to have competitive advantage. A good market research would have given eBay potential analysis on the targets depending on various factors such as market characteristic, competitors’ conditions and products, financial and economic conditions, cultural, political, social factors and market prioritization. According to the case study, it is evident that research analysis of EBay Company was not good enough to help them penetrate the Asian market or the company failed to do the market research. The use of self-reliance criterion in Japan was a major blow to the establishment of eBay.
Self- reliance criterion is a method of a multinational corporation assuming that the product, services and ways used to enter in the domestic market or another market in operation is applicable to any other market. The company used the previous approaches to other international markets in Japan. In addition, eBay failed to carry out a good analysis on how to counter its competitor in Japan that had already penetrated in the Japanese market very well. The company failed to do product analysis to help them produce products and services that are easier to penetrate and able to compete in the market.
The company had learned about its failure in Japan and was faced with other challenges in China. However, the company approached the partnership method in the Chinese market and failed to sustain the fees charged by EachNet on its products and services. The company in China was unable to counter the competitors unlike in Japan where the competitor was a well-established firm. The company in Japan used the website that was used in other countries that lacked local and cultural practices of the place of operations. Moreover, eBay failed in maintaining EachNet management as well as modes of operations that made it to reestablish itself in China. This caused the people to loose confidence and trust of dealing with it.
Solutions to the failures
The most crucial thing the company could have done first was an extensive market research. As the company did in the other parts of Asia as well as China, instead of the company establishing itself from the start in Japan, it could have entered the market through partnership. They could have identified a major competitor with the Yahoo and partner with it. This could have given them an advantage to penetrate the market as well as an opportunity to learn and study the market and local/cultural practices.
In addition, partnership would have enabled the company to know the competitors products and services well, learn the economic and financial aspects of Japanese market, known the methods used in Japan to advertise and promote products and services and any factor related to their business. Similarly, instead of eBay using self-reliance criterion to enter the market they could have established a market approach for the Japanese market.
Financial/economic analysis was essential to help them address the fees to charge for their products and services in Japan that would also apply in China, where they could have sustained or lower the charges charged by EachNet. On competitors, the competitor analysis is the initial step. It helps in analyzing the competitors’ products and services, charges or prices, the means they apply to penetrate the market, the means of advertising and promotion and their strategies to counter other competitors. All this information was necessary for eBay during their company analysis. The change of website to favor the local market is also a solution to the failures.
There are societies that hold and find their local and cultural practices superior and of great importance. They therefore hold them more than any other practices. Moreover, in China, eBay could have sustained the managements and operations of EachNet that could have helped sustain and gain more trust from the customers (Dlabay, Scott & Scott, 2011). Similarly, instead of outsourcing employees from outside China they could have sourced their labor in China.
EBay failure to compete with Alibaba
Jack Ma who is the owner of the Alibaba started his own e-Commerce that offered the same products and services to eBay. Furthermore, this company offered products and services with no charge as well as quality services that helped the company gain more trust from the Chinese market. Moreover, Jack Ma being a Chinese had enough knowledge of what the Chinese market needed than eBay management. They therefore incorporated social and cultural practice in their website unlike eBay whose website was global. In addition, Alibaba being a business-to-business profitable business could compensate any losses made by Taobao.
Thus, Taobao was generally used to interfere with eBay markets. The specialization of eBay in customer-to-customers business only made it difficult to compete with Alibaba that had diverse specialization.
The people management practices should be local or global, but the factors to influence these practices should depend on the nature of the market. There are those markets that will favor the local practices while others will favor the global practices. For instance, the European market will favor global practices more than local. Therefore, the key determiner of the practices to use is the market research, which will dictate what practices to use.
Conclusion
Remarks to the eBay leadership are on the significance of comprehensive research as well as their management. They need to have comprehensive market research before entering any market. In addition, they need to improve their management skills, knowledge and competence through hiring specialists to deal with certain issues.
Reference
Dlabay, L., Scott, J., & Scott, J.S. (2011). International business 4th edition. Mason: Southern Cengage Learning. Web.
As the number of online retailers grows, eBay struggles to preserve its customers and to stay relevant and competitive in the contemporary marketplace. The company chose to pursue a mass marketing strategy, attempting to tailor to both individual sellers and large corporations. Meanwhile, eBay is also losing its distinct brand identity and customer loyalty. The present memo recommends the following actions for the company to survive in the e-commerce business: market segmentation, diversification of complementary services, and community-centered marketing.
Initially, eBay was designed as an online selling platform for small sellers, typically individuals buying and selling collectible items. The company was thus built around the sense of a close-knit community, human interaction, and customer engagement (Frei and Farrar 2). In 2001, however, the company decided to extend its services to large companies by allowing them to sell discounted items on eBay (Frei and Farrar 5).
While this strategy resulted in an immediate short-term growth, eBay’s marketplace business has been experiencing a steady decline in recent years, as the largest contribution to the company’s revenue came from PayPal, now an independent company (Rosoff par. 3). EBay’s small sellers, dissatisfied with the growing presence of large corporations, turn to other online platforms (Thomas par. 7-8). At the same time, the company is unable to provide the same high quality of services as its competitors, such as Amazon (Soper par. 22). As the company lost sight of its customers, eBay’s very survival is now threatened.
Nevertheless, it does not mean that the company cannot maintain both groups of sellers – rather, it implies that eBay should recognize the two distinct segments of its suppliers and approach them differently. Thus, the company should pursue a market segmentation strategy that allows it to satisfy the needs of both small sellers and corporations (Wedel and Kamakura 4). As far as individual sellers are concerned, eBay needs to revive its community-centered approach to marketing. The company should provide more favorable conditions to small sellers: for instance, create a separate part on its website dedicated exclusively to small sellers and allow buyers to filter their search results based on the seller. At the same time, eBay should diversify its complementary services, such as payment and delivery.
The outlined strategy will help the company achieve the following goals. A market segmentation strategy would allow eBay to maintain both groups of suppliers while also addressing their specific needs and concerns. It is especially important for the small sellers who would be able to compete on eBay thanks to the favorable conditions created for them, which is their main concern (Frei and Farrar 6).
Community-centered marketing will allow the company to capitalize on its reputation as a customer marketplace, as well as make sure that it is not losing customers to other platforms such as Etsy and Bonanza (Thomas par. 7-8). Abandoning the small seller segment would not be a strategically viable solution as the company would lose its competitive advantage and brand identity (Hassan 104). Diversification and improvement of payment and delivery services will ensure the reliability and predictability of purchases made on eBay. Currently, the company misses out on the holiday shopping as its customers are not sure whether they will get their purchase on time (Soper par. 9).
Thus, the company needs to take the following steps. The IT department needs to incorporate the small-seller division and filters into the website. The external relations department has to contact potential partners to research payment and delivery options. The marketing department needs to create a new marketing strategy built around a sense of community and belonging.
Works Cited
Frei, Frances X., and Hanna Rodriguez-Farrar. eBay (A): The Customer Marketplace. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School, 2005. Print.
Hassan, Seyed M., Amir Jahanshahi Sistani and Satya R. Raju. “Top Online Shopping E-companies and their Strength and Weakness (SWOT).” Research Journal of Recent Sciences 3.9 (2014): 102-107. Print.
Rosoff, Matt. eBay Just Lost the Part of Its Company That Was Driving All Its Growth. 2015. Web.
The different approach that Bidder’s Edge used as compared to eBay’s normal customers
To begin with, it is very important to know that every profession no matter what it is has a code of ethics. This is a crucial aspect since it helps in compromising the differences between the individuals as well as organizations in a particular industry. Therefore, it is important that you intensely research on the code of ethics from other website owners in order for you to be credible and succeed in this profession.
In this case, you may notice that Bidder’s edge concentrated on website and webpage linking in order to be prosperous in its business. This attracted many customers to its site since it made it easier for them to take on comparison-shopping. When it comes to comparison-shopping, most if not all shoppers want items at the lowest price possible Hence, the emergence of bidder’s edge was like an answered prayer. On the other hand, eBay’s main business is to provide items online to make it easier for shoppers’ This basically means that it only put up items for buyers to buy with no further services hence the big difference.
How linking and other Bidder’s edge acts were a main concern to eBay
It is however important to note that Bidder’s edge had another underlying business alongside linking websites, which was of course very beneficial to the linked websites as it increase the number of customers tremendously. In addition to this business, it went ahead and searched for on – auction items from other websites and posted them on its very own website. This as explained by Desjardins and Heartman (2008), is also known as white collar crime which basically means that it is professionals who are involved in this crime (p.12).
The means used here is that of deception: in which bidder’s edge pretends to be so philanthropic that it just offers the linking service to other organizations but in the process uses its server to search for auction products and goes ahead to place them on its own website. This is unethical because fewer customers will see the need to go to the other websites when they already have all the items in one hence the concern by eBay.
The traditional trespass to personal property
It is also evident that eBay had allowed Bidder’s edge to gain access to some of its products but it definitely did not allow for the “copy and pasting” of items from its site to the Bidder’s site. However, you realize that Bidder’s still went ahead and crossed the line which can be termed as trespassing the personal property of eBay’s site. Therefore, with its determination to stop this given the irreversible losses and damage it would experience, EBay had to go to court and filed a petition against Biddy’s edge. The damage that this would impose on eBay’s site is that of slowing down its servers as well as leading to the loss of important data from its system. These servers being the most important components of the entire system are the property of eBay (Cheeseman 2006, p.9)
The difference between the text’s definition of trespass to personal property and the Californian definition
The state of California has defined personal property trespassing in almost the same way that the traditional theory has (Ferrel et al, 2006, p. 2 ).The servers being the property of eBay need to be protected from such illegal yet professional hooligans.
References
Cheeseman,H. (2006). Contemporary Business and Online Commerce Law (5th ed.). New Jersey: Irwin publishers.
DesJardins,J. & Hartman,L. (2008). Business Ethics: Decision- Making for personal Integrity & Social Responsibility (2nd ed.). U.S: McGraw Hill.
Ferrel, L., Fraedrich,J. & Ferrell, O. (2009). Business Ethics: Decision making and cases. Ohio. Nd: Nelson Education.
E-bay can be defined as a worldwide online market place where both sellers and buyers trade almost all types of goods and services. It is an auction website, started by Pierre Omidya in the year 1995. Recent statistics show that eBay holds ninety-six million users and two hundred and thirty-three customers. A seller lists his available items on eBay at a specified price. He only accepts bids for the items the same way auction takes place. He can also choose to offer the item on the “Buy It Now” option. This is where buyers buy the item at the stated, fixed price. When it comes to auction, bidding opens at a specified price by the seller. This price remains for a few days. At this time, buyers are allowed to place bids. Finally, the listing ends, and the buyer with the highest bid buys the item. Intermediaries include organizations such as banks. Banks process payments, electronic receipts, and payment of bills possible. Banks also provide electronic money services such as electronic banking. Other involved parties are guarantors who guarantee transactions. eBay comprises several components, which include the government, investors, suppliers, intermediaries, employees, and customers (Cohen, 2003).
E-Bay internal organization
Several organization functions take place in the eBay system. Sales and marketing is a significant activity that takes place within eBay. This happens online because everything regarding buying and selling takes place online. The seller will advertise his product on the internet, at a cost, which is relatively low. This enables the buyers to reach several people, potential buyers, who use the internet. Other internal organization functions include engineering, operations, among others. Several firms sell their products on eBay. One can get almost everything at eBay. It is the largest online market place across the world. The organization applies supply chain management. In this case, it uses Information Technology development. It must, therefore, work hand in hand with IT firms. This helps reduce transportation costs and freight charges. The other supply chain is that of manufacturers, distributors, dealers, service providers, among others, who facilitate e-business. The internet helps save on telephone, transport, and warehousing costs (Miller, 2008).
Customers at eBay get a chance to customize their shopping in that they can purchase products of different attributes, going up to fifteen categories. The system contains trust providers. These are third parties who verify the sellers on eBay. This helps meet the required standards, both environmental and ethical. eBay also has a labeling system responsible for putting nutritional labels on the products. Customers can, therefore, identify the product easily, and can also know the product’s environmental effects. They can assess whether the item meets their expectations. This market place helps bring people, products, and organizations together. In addition to that, dialogue on the products becomes facilitated between people, trust providers, and organizations through blogs, articles, and forums (Adams, 2006).
Possible technologies
The software helps facilitate e-commerce. These include software for interactive TV, multimedia content, video on demand, internet information retrieval, webcasting development, among others. Operating system software and Administrative Support Software include also necessary software in eBay. eBay also maintains an intranet to facilitate communication with employees. This leads to greater productivity in eBay. Important tools to agents, buyers, and consumers also are maintained. Intranets use the Web based interface; hence, they are different from internal emails.
Extranets exist as well in eBay. These help people outside the organization to access the organization’s information by use of systems protocol called TCP/ IP. The information is, however, protected because only legitimate users can access it by use of passwords. Selected customers only can access the organization’s specialized data. These customers can also access the organization’s intranet to obtain product specifications. The internet plays a crucial role to facilitate information transmission. Security systems must be provided to ensure that only legitimate users access the organization’s information (Schepp & Schepp, 2004).
Recently, eBay started using web 2.0 applications by announcing eBay Wiki by Jot Spot as the host. It is intended to enable members to offer expert information on eBay topics. This also intended to help people, the public, to get answers to questions they frequently ask about eBay. Members also create eBay Blogs, which help business people promote their businesses. The organization also uses leased lines. These are business internet connections, which are reliable due to their high speed, and have different speeds ranging from 256kbps to 1Gbps (Spencer, 2006).
Payment and privacy systems
People use PayPal to shop online at eBay. PayPal can be found almost everywhere, and this method of payment grows steadily. This payment method does not require an individual to have a computer next to him to make the payment. Mobile phones can also be used at eBay and this method is fast in making and receiving payment. PayPal is secure since an individual’s financial details are not shared through the internet. It safeguards details regarding a client’s bank, debit, or credit card. Detailed references can be found online to help one manage his PayPal account. One can as well change the password if he wishes to change (Botha, 2004).
According to Shipman, eBay follows “privacy by Design” principles. These principles advocate for openness, privacy, user-centric, and avoiding risk to prevent a breach from occurring. Pal Pay provides more privacy than credit cards. PayPal merchants do not receive buyers’ full details. Instead, they receive the username only, which solely cannot be used fraudulently. eBay auction site monitors browsing history, user behavior, sales, failed bids, and purchases. It, however, promises that it will not share personal information with other parties. This information helps eBay to advise merchants on products’ demand and their prices across the world to assist them in making informed decisions. It also helps to make customized advertisements. Information regarding people’s behavior helps in detecting illegal activities that could be going on at eBay. Such activities could include, among others, fraud and money laundering. This happens the same way banks monitor clients’ bank accounts. eBay ensures trust between buyers and sellers by obtaining this information (Kalakota & Robinson, 2001).
Benefits of the e-business system
E-business helps individuals to sell and purchase items without facing time or distance barriers. People do not travel long distances to sell or acquire an item. A person needs to log in to the internet at whichever time, whether during the day or at night. This is a significant benefit because it enables people to save time, which could be spent traveling to other countries to acquire something or to sell something. In today’s modern world, we all know that a person cannot recover a wasted second. Time-saving is, therefore, an important benefit, which cannot be overlooked. Another benefit includes the lowered cost of sale because there is no human interaction. Again buying on the internet eliminates errors and is faster. The method is also convenient for the buyer. E-business becomes beneficial when dealing with niche products, which have few customers (Papazoglou & Ribbers, 2006).
When such products are traded over the internet, the market widens, and more volumes could be sold rather than if e-commerce did not exist. E-business is a cheap means of transacting business activities. Several costs get eliminated such as transport costs to reach a product. By the end of it all, an individual spends less money than transacting using other means. E-business offers an opportunity to purchase alternative products. E-commerce is also beneficial in that it helps reduce the time for delivery of products, costs regarding documentation, error correction, mail preparation, reconciliation, data entry, telephone calls, overtime, and supervision expenses. E-business also helps reduce personnel required to perform the transactions. It also reduces the strain on other resources. All the above benefits show us the power of e-business (Prince, 2003).
Possible e-business issues
Security and privacy issues
Doing business on the internet gives some privacy and security issues, different from carrying business elsewhere. It is, therefore, necessary to institute privacy and security measures in e-businesses. This would help ensure that customers have confidence in the business while shopping online. A businessperson, operating online, need to understand the intruders who may affect his business. Viruses are a key threat to e-commerce. They can come to somebody’s computer, and they come from a variety of sources. Downloading information from the internet and opening affected emails can bring viruses into a computer. A business computer, affected by viruses, could send spam emails to customers. It can as well shut down the computer completely. Antivirus needs to be installed into a business computer so that the computer is prevented from virus attack. Antiviruses such as MacAfee and Nod32 exist, which offer protection to the computer? The antivirus must also be updated (Pugh, 2009).
Hackers and unauthorized users may end up accessing the personal information of customers. This information may include financial information, which can create problems including theft. Accessing personal information can be dangerous because a person can end up losing all his money to hackers and other thieves. Firewalls should be installed so that they do not access information on a business computer to block unauthorized users. Failing to install a firewall means anyone can access information on your computer, which could be risky. The firewall also needs to be updated regularly as it would further protect your computer. It would also be necessary to install an automatic firewall, which updates itself regularly. This ensures the protection of the computer throughout (Kidd, 2000).
Loss of business data may also occur as a result of virus attacks and another computer malfunctioning. Important data may end up getting lost, which could lead to losses in the business. To prevent data loss, the business owner should ensure that his computer has a backup protocol. The backup ensures that recent data and programs in the computer have a copy, which can be used, in case the original data gets lost. The backup, therefore, ensures that the computer does not suffer a loss due to virus infection. The back also helps to retrieve data in case theft or fire affects the business website (Turban, King, Lee & Liang, 2010).
E-business marketing issues
Research conducted by eBay revealed that consumer behavior could be determined by consumer demographics. Old people, who grew up in an era when computers did not exist, rarely use eBay. Younger people, who are familiar with computers, use eBay services since they have the opportunity to use computers. Familiarity with computers determines whether a person will use eBay services. Gender also affects consumer behavior in that females utilize e-business than males. Women believe that business is a social activity. Internet being a social site, they do online purchasing. Most eBay consumers are, therefore, women. Income also affects consumer behavior. Consumers with high income have chances of coming across the internet, and can, therefore, purchase and sell items online. Other factors affecting consumer behavior include family size and consumer attitude (Weber, 2008).
eBay practices market segmentation, targeting, and positioning. The organization first determines the customers who exist and their needs. The organization then decides the customers who are the best fit for a product, and finally, the segmentation strategy gets implemented. Channel conflict occurs at eBay when manufacturers disintermediate retailers, distributors, sales representatives, and dealers. In this case, they sell products directly to consumers. Channel conflict also occurs whenever there is overproduction, resulting in a product surplus. It becomes, therefore, necessary for the business organization to have a clearance strategy to avoid this problem. eBay operates in an environment where there are fewer barriers to entry because anyone can join the market provided he has the relevant requirements, usually a computer and the internet. This leads to perfect competition at eBay (Li, 2007).
Conclusion
A seller lists his available items on eBay at a specified price. He only accepts bids for the items the same way auction takes place. He can also choose to offer the item on the “Buy It Now” option. This is where buyers buy the item at the stated, fixed price. When it comes to auction, bidding opens at a specified price by the seller. This price remains for a few days. At this time, buyers are allowed to place bids. Finally, the listing ends, and the buyer with the highest bid buys the item.
References
Adams, A. C. (2006). The eBay Success Chronicles: Secrets and Techniques Ebay Powersellers Use Every Day to Make Millions. New York: Atlantic Publishing Company.
Botha, J. (2004). E-Commerce. New York: Juta and Company Ltd.
Cohen, A. (2003). The Perfect Store: Inside EBay. New York: Little, Brown and Company. Kalakota, R., & Robinson, M. (2001). E-business 2.0: roadmap for success. New York: Addison-Wesley Professional.
Kidd, P. T. (2000). E-business: key issues, applications and technologies. New York: IOS Press.
Li, F. (2007). What is e-business? How the Internet transforms organizations. New York: Wiley-Blackwell.
Miller, M. (2008). Absolute Beginner’s Guide to EBay. New York: Que Publishing, 2008.
Papazoglou, M., & Ribbers, P. (2006). E-business: organizational and technical foundations. New York: John Wiley.
Prince, D. L. (2003). How to sell anything on eBay– and make a fortune. New York: McGraw-Hill Professional.
Pugh, R. (2009). The EBay Business Handbook: How Anyone Can Build a Business and Make Money on EBay. New York: Harriman House Limited.
Schepp, D., & Schepp, B. (2004). EBay Powerseller Secrets. New York: McGraw-Hill Professional.
Spencer, C. (2006). The Ebay Entrepreneur: The Definitive Guide to Starting Your Own Ebay Trading Assistant Business. London: Christopher Matthew Spencer..
Turban, E., King, D., Lee, J., & Liang, T.P. (2010). Electronic Commerce: A Managerial Perspective. New York: Pearson.
Weber, S. (2008). Selling on Ebay for Part-Time rr Full-Time Income, Beginner to Powerseller in 90 Days. New York: Stephen Weber.