Sunday, 18 May 2014

Topic:8 Online Auctions



The company eBay Inc. is an American multinational corporation; headquartered in San Jose, California whose business model is CONSUMER TO CONNSUMER. The company manages eBay.com, an online auction and shopping website in which people and businesses buy and sell a broad variety of goods and services worldwide. The latest earnings figures for eBay are, as usual, good and getting better. Even more impressive is the fact that eBay's share price has resolutely defied the dotcom downturn. Such an across-the-board success cries out for an explanation. Reasons of eBay’s success IS eBay has always fed off the enthusiasms - some would say obsessions - of its users, further reason eBay is so successful is because it offers something quite amazing.
Apart from its grand success in auction business, it has also outwitted all the other competitor sites in terms of its consistent rise in revenue generation from the business. It stands as the only website that solely deals in auctions and in this way makes the best out of its enterprise. Below is the list of 10 key reasons of eBay’s success.
·         One: Commitment 
·         Two: Sufficient Start-up Funding, Well Spent 
·         Three: Effective, Persistent Marketing and PR 
·         Four: Find Great Stuff to Sell 
·         Five: Never Sell Junk 
·         Six: Give Great Customer Service 
·         Seven: Create an Efficient, Pleasant Facility 
·         Eight: Create Polished Listings & Photos 
·         Nine: Pay Attention to the Details 
·         Ten: Do Good Recordkeeping





Q2: Other major web sites, like Amazon.com and Yahoo!, have entered the auction marketplace with far less success than eBay. How has eBay been able to maintain its dominant position?

eBay’s popularity and ability to reach a large numbers of consumers anytime, day or night, places it far above other major web sites, like Amazon.com and Yahoo! Internet businesses require a URL that is easy to remember, a shopping cart so that customers can select items and continue shopping on your site and a service that allows them to accept credit card for instance PayPal or other account companies. eBay has been able to maintain its dominant position on online auction. The Amazon sells products by itself but eBay does not sell goods by itself. The seller registers and sells through eBay. Everyone can sell and buy on the eBay, it is more freedom.  It delivers good service at lower price, it offers free to bid and has its own safe payment method which provides security to its customers. eBay ticks all of these boxes and continues to lead its competitor market with new innovations and thus remains atop of the online auction marketplace


Q3: What method does eBay use to reduce the potential for fraud among traders on its site? What kinds of fraud, if any, are eBay users most susceptible?

As in any website or a general rule eBay always reminds its users to never reply to emails that ask for your personal information, get a safe browser, update your anti-virus software, check your messages in My eBay, report suspicious emails and choose a strong password but the most significant method which eBay is using to reduce fraud is the feedback system. Feedback is made up of comments and ratings left by other eBay members you've bought from and sold to. These comments and ratings are valuable indicators of user’s reputation as a buyer or seller on eBay. They are included, along with an overall feedback score, in a member profile.
      Commerce can attract fraudsters, and online commerce is no different. The most common attempt of fraud may occur when a seller lists an item they don’t intend to send but accepts money for it. There are so many kinds of fraud such as Fake products or not as described, the second chance offer, feedback scams, lost in the post, to good to be true deals, doubtful payment methods, charge backs ( Buyers can buy items via Paypal, claim that the item was never received, and receive a PayPal refund).



Q4: eBay makes every effort to conceptualize its users as a community (as opposed to, say "customers" or "clients"). What is the purpose of this conceptual twist and does eBay gain something by doing it?

The disadvantage of online auction is that the user cannot check the items physically. The transaction is totally based on trust. The purpose of the conceptual twist of conceptualizing its users as a community is that the members are more likely to feel like they are part of something. Members won’t just see other members as ‘other members’ but as people in the same community as them, who want the same things and have the same goals and objectives. This means that members of the community see each other as their own potential customers or retailers and eBay is simply the method in which they do business with each other. Yes, eBay goes gain from this conceptual twist as it should make the members more reliable, more trustworthy of each other and less likely to participate in fraud against another member

Q5: eBay has long been a marketplace for used goods and collectibles. Today, it is increasingly a place where major businesses come to auction their wares. Why would a brand name vendor set-up shop on eBay?

The concept of marketing and selling has been changed by the recent concepts totally. E-bay is the place which has gained market repute and share. It is the single portal which helps vendor to reach worldwide customers with a single click. Now the branded stores have been establishing their stores one-bay for the auction of their wares.


By setting shop on E-bay a brand vendor can approach billions of clients at the same time; it is the one of the best source of marketing. Currently many brands are en-cashing this advantage like Dell, Acer, Samsung and Orange.

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