...Zac Palet October 14, 2013 eBay Partner Network (A) I. Executive Summary In March 2008, eBay severed their relationship with Commission Junction (CJ), because of fraud problems and a severe drop in their net income. They responded by creating their own affiliate marketing network (ePN). Now eBay has the choice of continuing to develop their ePN, go back to outsourcing their affiliate marketing network operations (either through CJ or another network) or drop their affiliate marketing program all together. Based on my analysis I feel that eBay should continue to develop their internal affiliate marketing network. They should go in this direction because the benefits offered by an outsourced network are not substantial, it eliminates the costs associated with outsourcing the network which will lead to lower transaction fees for sellers and lastly, they can eliminate the fraud that networks are notorious for. II. Problem, Opportunity, and Objectives eBay decided to discontinue the services of CJ in 2008, opting to run their affiliate marketing program internally because of the fraud issues with CJ as well as their declining net income (exhibit 1). Currently eBay is losing sellers to Amazon and Craigslist because of their higher transaction fees, which can be partially attributed to the fees imposed by CJ. Steve Hartman, eBay’s senior director in charge of global affiliate programs, believes that by handling their affiliate marketing program internally they will develop...
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...e-Marketing Project : Option 2 Marketing is the life blood of any organisation. Outline and describe the process of marketing with particular reference to services marketing and outline a marketing plan for a services organisation. Introduction There are many complex definitions and ideas of what marketing actually is, but a simple and concise one is: Marketing is “the commercial processes involved in promoting and selling and distributing a product or service” (Dictionary.com). In the context of services marketing, there is no “out of the box” product, which can be just purchased by a potential customer, so the marketing process is slightly different; however, the same rules apply. In this project I am going to address a general description of the marketing process, a brief look at how some services companies do their marketing, with particular focus on the software solutions division of the global multi-national Accenture, for whom I previously worked, so I will be talking largely from personal experience when referring to them and the online auction site eBay, of which I am an extremely regular user, buying on average 2 items per week from their site. Finally, I will outline a short marketing plan for a fictional software development services company. I will conclude just how important marketing is to any services organisation. Main Body The Process of Marketing Step 1 – Market Research In first step in any process is nearly always information gathering...
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...eBAY.COM A Case Report for Getting Tools Used NOTE: THIS IS ONLY A PORTION OF THE GETTING TOOLS USED RESEARCH REPORT. FOR THE FULL DOCUMENT AND OTHER INFORMATION VISIT WWW.CFAH.ORG. Getting Tools Used Table of Contents Foreword by Jessie Gruman ......................................................................................................................................... 1 Executive Summary ........................................................................................................................................................ 3 About CFAH ...................................................................................................................................................................... 7 Table of Contents ........................................................................................................................................................... 8 Introduction: 21st Century Marketplace .................................................................................................................. 9 Research Framework ................................................................................................................................................... 17 Case Studies.................................................................................................................................................................... 25 Consumer Reports: Car Buying Guide ....................................
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...eBay® Options One of the largest players in online shopping is eBay® and they have 200 million shoppers to prove it (www.ebay.com). What started out as an online garage-sale-style auction, has evolved into a global force in the retail industry. With its various formats for selling items and options for small and large businesses, as well as individuals, eBay® is “the place” to go when looking for every day discount items or unique collectables. Like any form of business, there are benefits and draw backs to this colossal online system, regardless of the business size. For the individual, the enormous popularity of eBay® has all but eliminated any ability to make a profit, unless the item is unique or a collectable. Small business owners have difficulty making a reasonable profit on eBay® because with so many people selling the same items, the prices are too cutthroat to profit. Likewise, the fees that eBay® charges for use of the web site make a deep cut into small business profits. However, the marketing angle is invaluable to small businesses. A small business can reach customers on a global scale for just the monthly eBay® fee, and then use that access to convert shoppers to their own websites. Once the buyer is on their own website, eBay® is out of the picture, along with the cutthroat competition and the eBay® fees. Anything a customer purchases directly from the small business web site has a better profit margin and aids in creating a direct customer base...
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...or sell can be facilitated through this online retail shop. According to the case study done by J.Gopalkrishnan and V.K Gupta EBay’s business model attractiveness is based on focusing two long term goals that is to become the largest consumer to consumer online auction house internationally and they build five core marketing strategies. Moreover, research revealed that on these five core strategies (Gopalkrishnan and Gupta 2000). The five core marketing strategies are listed below: 1. Creating Unbeatable customer base: To attract new customers and to create customer monopoly eBay established a business bond with more than 60 website. For example iBazar in Europe and establishing link with America online that have largest access to the largest user base on the internet and gave special competitive advantages over its rivalries such as AOL (Gopalkrishnan and Gupta 2000). 2. Targeting local and international trading: To have local presence EBay has locally 53 sites and to maintain global presence it has users in 150 countries (Gopalkrishnan and Gupta 2000). 3. Brand image: In the begging EBay use viral marketing strategy and ability of EBay to piggyback on competitors unending efforts to retain market recognition. But as the competitors increases its marketing strategy changed (Gopalkrishnan and Gupta 2000). 4. Increasing the trading platform: As the competition and competitors increased EBay extended its core business into other attractive product categories, for example...
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...management of customer expectations 7 * Inappropriate pricing 7 Part 3 Recommendations to the service provider 8 * Recommendation for Provider gap 1 8 * Recommendation for Provider gap 2 9 * Recommendation for Provider gap 4 9 * Conclusion 10 References 11 Critical Incident Report Part 1. Critical Incident Description: Service incident description * Name of firm/Organisation: EBay * Type of service: E-commerce * Date and time: 2/4/12, approximately 15.30 Circumstances Leading to the Incident I started selling products on EBay store and it was really successful, so I decided to start a second store to sell electronic products. I registered a new account on EBay, to activate the account I had to confirm my details through a telephone notification system that gave me the activation code for the account. After many attempts to activate the code I had not received a call from EBay, so I thought that there was an error with my account. I tried to call EBay customer support service in Australia however I...
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...Management of Marketing Channels Case Study: EBAY EXPANDS AROUND THE GLOBE BACKGROUND eBay (www.ebay,com) is an online auction and shopping website wherein people can buy or sell variety of goods and services such as electronics, cars, sporting goods, clothing and apparel and etc. The company originally started in 1995 in San Jose California, and it expanded internationally by 2005. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM How can eBay more improve its international expansion? ASSUMPTIONS OF THE STUDY There are several assumptions presented in the case: 1. eBay has succeeded in its global operations due to its playbook strategy, a “how-to” manual that included several topics such as category management, and online marketing. 2. eBay adapts to the culture of the country but retains its core elements of online business model. 3. eBay first expanded to Germany by buying an established firm. Other countries where eBay also expanded are Great briatain, Australia, Italy, Netherlands and Spain. ALTERNATIVE COURSES OF ACTIONS 1. Profile your customers and personalize the website according to the country it serves. Pro: Profiling can help you get data of your current customer and their behavior. It can also help you to have a more focus product offerings Con: Requires additional costing and research 2. Offer various modes of payments such as payment over the counter (banks, convenience stores), debit card, cash on delivery Pro: Offering...
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...eBay: “The world’s largest online marketplace”- A Case Study J.Gopalkrishnan* V.K Gupta** Abstract eBay, Inc. is the largest and most popular marketplace on the Internet, allowing members to buy and sell almost anything. Launched in 1995, about 147 million people now use eBay. An estimated 430,000 people in the United States make all or most of their living by selling on eBay. eBay’s online payment service, called PayPal, enables transactions nearly anywhere in the world. eBay proclaims “trust” between buyers and sellers as the key to the success of the marketplace. eBay is the “The world’s Online Marketplace”, which is its positioning statement, and it means many things about the company’s identity. It enables trade on local, national and international basis, with a diverse and passionate community of individuals and small businesses. eBay offers an online platform where millions of items are traded each day. The objective at eBay was to “to develop the work ethic and culture of eBay as a fun, open and trusting environment and to keep the organization focused on the big picture objectives and key priorities. The company market capitalization had surpassed that of even Amazon.com, making it the “world’s most valuable Internet retailer”. Pierre Omidyar, founder, is focused to achieve excellence in strategic management for improving the company’s strategy, sustaining the company’s growth and business performance, and potentially expanding from online auctions into general “etailing”...
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...yDiscussion Questions 1. What are the key success factors for eBay? eBay is an efficient way to reach consumers and other businesses. Some also sees it as an opportunity to sell bulk lots of unsold inventory by helping buyers get the best price for their items and letting customers decide the price they want to pay for products, it had created a pricing revolution. eBay itself also doesn’t buy any inventory or own the products on its site. It earns its money by collecting a fee for the auction listing, plus commission when the sale is completed. Although it started from the auction site, it has also evolved to offer a fixed-price “buy it now” option to buyers who didn’t want to wait for an auction and were willing to pay the price set by the seller. Now, eBay is positioning itself as a global giant: part international swap meet, part clearing house for the world’s manufacturers and retailers. 2. Where is eBay Vulnerable? What should it watch out for? Although eBay is the largest online shopping site, it stills has to be aware of the changes/problems in technology as it is growing fast everyday. It also has to be aware of the credibility of the sellers; are they trusted enough to be selling on the site? In case anything happens, the site is going to pay for the damage losses. Sometimes, the consumers could change their buying patterns and priorities, so this is another thing the site should watch out for. More tricky problem, the owner should be updated in the changes...
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...*Institute of Management, Nirma University of Science & Technology, Ahmedabad. E-mail: jaya_gopalkrishnan2000@yahoo.com **Indian Institute of Management, Indore eBay: “The world’s largest online marketplace”- A Case Study J.Gopalkrishnan* V.K Gupta** Abstract eBay, Inc. is the largest and most popular marketplace on the Internet, allowing members to buy and sell almost anything. Launched in 1995, about 147 million people now use eBay. An estimated 430,000 people in the United States make all or most of their living by selling on eBay. eBay’s online payment service, called PayPal, enables transactions nearly anywhere in the world. eBay proclaims “trust” between buyers and sellers as the key to the success of the marketplace. eBay is the “The world’s Online Marketplace”, which is its positioning statement, and it means many things about the company’s identity. It enables trade on local, national and international basis, with a diverse and passionate community of individuals and small businesses. eBay offers an online platform where millions of items are traded each day. The objective at eBay was to “to develop the work ethic and culture of eBay as a fun, open and trusting environment and to keep the organization focused on the big picture objectives and key priorities. The company market capitalization had surpassed that of even Amazon.com, making it the “world’s most valuable Internet retailer”. Pierre Omidyar, founder, is focused to achieve excellence in strategic...
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...Case Study II, Old Metamora Instructor: W.E. Simonpietri Course: Fundamentals of E-Business – BUS107 Date: February 26, 2011 Betty Shriver is the owner of Betty’s Crystal, a small shop that sells collectible glass figurines in Metamora, Indiana. She has hired me to be a consultant for her on building her ideas and to help her develop an expansion strategy for her online business activities using either Amazon.com or eBay and by using social networking sites. Before I can go into helping Betty decide if Amazon.com or eBay is better suited for her needs, I need to get some background information on the two companies. Amazon.com is a “US-based multinational electronic commerce company and it’s the largest online retailer in the US, with nearly three times the Internet sales revenue of the runner up, Staples, Inc., as of January 2010” (Wikipedia, 2011, para. 1). Amazon.com was founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994 and he launched it online in 1995. Although they mainly are a retail store, the company launched Amazon.com Auctions, a web auction service, in March 1999. Amazon.com has two different price points for selling items on their site. One is called “Sell your Stuff”, which is for individual sellers who expect to sell less than 40 items a month, which cost $0.99 per sale plus a referral fee and a variable closing fee for each media product sold. The other option is called “Sell Professionally”, which is for professional sellers who expect to sell more the 40 items...
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...Ebay Case Study Skill Building One Joyce W. Stevens Oklahoma Wesleyan University Ebay Case Study Skill Building One 1. How does eBay create value? eBay creates value by bringing together buyers and sellers. Although, eBay has created a virtual or online market place in an organized and safe way where people can buy and sell wide variety of goods. Thus, eBay has provided a kind of platform for all those people who hate to go out in the physical marketplace and love to shop in the convenience of their living rooms. eBay ensures that all transactions are carried out in a fair way and offers reasonable safety for both, the buyer as well as the seller. 2. What potential contracting problems exist on eBay? Potential contracting problems which exists on eBay are misuse of online marketplace in the form of trading on banned items, selling of damaged products, frauds in the form of non payment of goods after buying or non delivery of goods after selling etc. Also, since it is an online marketplace, it is difficult to judge the authenticity of buyers and sellers in advance. Another potential contracting problem is transport of goods from one place to another. eBay does not have in house transportation system and has to rely on the services which the sellers chose to deliver. 3. How does eBay address these problems? eBay addresses these problems by insuring the buyers for non delivery/ damaged delivery of products, establishment of in house fraud prevention and escrow services...
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...should be handled perfectly so that it would be available on demand and facilitate easy access. In this case, it is no doubt that Business Intelligence systems (BIS) are excellent for the modern business. There have many reasons that Business Intelligence systems play an essential role in the success of an organization. First of all, it has the capacity to ensure smooth, incessant flow of information without negotiating on security. Secondly the Business Intelligence Systems duty is to ensure that correct decision is taken with the available data at the appreciate time and this is done basically on the information provided. Business Intelligence systems are used to enrich the timeliness of information necessary for the company, to allow access to all the information wherever it is stored and offer the information in business terminologies. It reduces the distribution costs spent on the information as well as the handling time, helping planning and forecasting. Understanding of its important role, eBay – the largest and most popular marketplace on Internet has applied and used IS in their business and become very successful company. Launched in 1995, eBay started as a place to trade collectables and hard-to-find items, after just few years eBay become more and more popular, known as a global marketplace where business and individuals can buy and sell practically anything. eBay is a highly visible company that has been immensely successful in their implementation of a business strategy...
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...Cynthia Taylor Prepared by: Abu N Rahman In current online business marketing competition there are two companies competing each eBay and Amazon. That’s why I choose those companies for financial analysis. Considering availability of information analyzing year 2013 Profitability Ratios Gross Margin eBay Amazon. $3081, 000/$4530, 000 $6781, 000/$25587, 000 = 0.68 or 68% 0.2650 or 26.50% Because it shows company retains after incurring the direct costs associated with producing the goods and services sold by a company. Considering that eBay’s gross margin shows they are more efficient than the Amazon. Amazon have larger the cost than the eBay. They sale more than eBay but because of cost their gross profit is less than eBay. If we consider gross margin for an investment it shows eBay is safer than the Amazon for an investment. Operating Margin eBay Amazon. $1022, 000/$4530, 000 $510, 000/$25587, 000 = .2256 or 22.56% 0.0199 or 1.9% After operating margin analysis we can say that eBay has a large proportion of a company's revenue is left over after paying for variable costs of production such as wages, raw materials, etc. in this case company is going to left some portion of revenue after pay for debt, interest or other payments Net Profit Margin eBay Amazon. $850, 000/$4530, 000...
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... Thus, companies expanding internationally must consider the environment in their new country. There is no better way to explore said environment than by conducting marketing research in the area so as to formulate the most appropriate marketing strategies. Nevertheless, companies entering a new market still encounter difficulties even if they employ a marketing strategy because they make several critical mistakes in their marketing. Be it cultural misunderstandings, systemic political differences, or a poor understanding of the market conditions in a given country, marketing mistakes damage a company’s ability to enter (Ghauri and Cateora, 2010). While political differences or a poor understanding of the market strongly impact success in a foreign market, the slightly larger issue that multinational corporations encounter are due to cultural misunderstandings. However, the impact that cultural misunderstandings have on success in a foreign market is dependent on the industry in question. In some industries, international marketing mistakes can often be rooted in the lack of understanding of different cultures such as the aspects buying behavior and product preference. Take the retail industry for example, since the purchasing behavior of customers varies by region, foreign retailers might usually make marketing mistakes due to insufficient knowledge of a given region’s preferences. Tesco, one of the biggest supermarket brands in Europe, failed in the U.S due to their insufficient...
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