To eBay Or Not To eBay - That is the Question!

Ebay is a relatively new phenomenon, but the company feels like it has been around for decades and has taken the web world by storm. Here are some brief stats:

·         eBay was founded in 1995

·         eBay has a global customer base of 181 million

·         eBay has a global presence in 33 markets including the UK and USA

·         eBay UK was Launched in 1999

·         eBay in the UK's number one ecommerce website

·         eBay UK has 3 million items listed at any given time

·         eBay UK accounts for 10% of all the time UK users spend on the internet

We could go on and on discussing the merits and stats of eBay, but the one that sticks out for me is number 5: eBay in the UK's number one ecommerce website!

All ecommerce websites endeavour to get customers through online marketing activity like search engine optimisation and paid for marketing without ever considering a mechanism that is already in place to help them - eBay!

There is a misconception within many businesses eBay is not for businesses (The term beggars has been used often). However, they should consider these startling statistics:

·         Profitable since its launch, eBay net revenues totalled $1.329 billion in Q4-05 and $4.552 billion in 2005.

·         eBay International achieved net revenues of $604.1 million in Q4-05 and $2.081 billion in 2005.

·         In Q4-05, gross merchandise volume (GMV), the total value of all successfully closed items on eBay's trading platforms, was $12.0 billion. In 2005, eBay's GMV totalled $44.3 billion.

·         eBay users worldwide trade more than $1,511 worth of goods on the site every second.

·         There were 546.4 million new listings added to eBay worldwide in Q4-05. At any given time, there are approximately 78 million listings worldwide, and approximately 6 million listings are added per day. eBay users trade in more than 50,000 categories

·         Based on Q4-05 GMV, the following categories delivered $1 billion or more in worldwide annualized GMV: eBay Motors at 13.0 billion; Consumer Electronics at $4.4 billion; Clothing & Accessories at $3.9 billion; Computers at $3.4 billion; Books / Music / Movies at $2.8 billion; Home & Garden at $2.7 billion; Collectibles at $2.6 billion; Sports at $2.2 billion; Toys at $2.1 billion; Jewellery & Watches at $1.9 billion; Business & Industrial at $1.6 billion; Cameras & Photo at $1.5 billion; and Antiques & Art at $1.2 billion.

·         While eBay is well-known for its auction format, users can also buy and sell in fixed-price formats, which accounted for 34% of total GMV during Q4-05.

·         At the end of Q4-05, eBay hosted approximately 383,000 stores worldwide, with approximately 212,000 stores hosted on the U.S. site and 171,000 stores hosted on eBay's international sites.

·         More than 724,000 professional sellers in the U.S. use eBay as a primary or secondary source of income. In addition, 1.5 million individuals sell on eBay to supplement their incomes. (Source: ACNielsen International Research, July 2005)

·         As of December 2005, eBay members worldwide have left more than four billion feedback comments for one another regarding their eBay transactions.

·         The most expensive item sold on eBay to date is a private business jet for $4.9 million.

Makes interesting reading doesn't it and begs the question are online product based businesses missing a trick? In our opinion the answer is yes and it about time businesses cottoned on to this fact and started embracing the eBay concept with open arms.

How do you take advantage of eBay? 
Millions of listings on eBay more or less look the same and say the same thing. However, by delving a little deeper, you start to unearth some gems that are excellent benchmarks for you or any business to follow. Listed below are 2 eBay considerations:

1. Selling Manager Pro

Selling Manager Pro is an online selling tool to help you create listings, manage post-sale activities and manage your inventory. If you are a volume seller who wants a robust, web-based eBay tool then this is the one for you. It's cost - £4.99 per month. It will.

·         Automatically list and re-list items for you

·         Inform buyers by auto notification

·         Let you know when payment has been received

·         Tell you what items you have shipped

·         Provide Auto feedback upon buyer payment

·         Allow the scheduling of items

·         Offer Reporting

·         Allows you to Design Professional Listings

·         Restock alerts

This is a fantastic eBay tool that automates much of the information for you and helps you engage and interact with your eBay clients. Everything is controlled from one area and is generally easy to use once you get the hang of it.

The best things about this facility is that it allows you to create professional and business like listings that when displayed on eBay provide a look and feel that can be similar to your company's website. For example, our client the Funky Group is currently using this facility to list all products with a branded and professional look and feel that mimics the company's actual website. This has resulted in the first month of going live in well over 4 figure sales with over 300 products sold!

Our tip for this facility is to brand it as your business and to produce something that uniquely reflects you and allows you to stand out from the crowd and at the same time maintain very professional image. Granted there are eBay fees and costs but these are reduced once you start to receive higher volumes of sales. The more you sell the less you pay!

2. EBay Shops

Creating a successful eBay Shop involves four basic steps: building and customising your shop; managing your listings and sales; promoting your Shop; and tracking your shop traffic and sales.

An eBay shop allows you to

·         Set up, brand, and customise your shop to maximise success.

·         Save time with powerful tools to manage your listings and sales.

·         Drive traffic to your shop and trigger repeat purchases from your customers.

·         Optimise your sales strategy with advanced reporting tools.

An excellent benchmark for a company that does this well and takes eBay shopping to a new level is online shoe retailer Schuh. This eBay shop is an excellent example of how to do it right and well and is worth a visit at Schuh eBay.

Why is Schuh such a good example? Well for starters, the eBay shop is branded with the Schuh logo and includes professional graphically designed images. Additionally, the eBay shop is very similar to the official Schuh retail website! EBay acts as a tool to promote the Schuh brand, even increasing sales activity on their own official website.

Each individual pair of shoes has 6 images of it from varying angles that help highlight and sell the shoes to potential consumers. The Schuh eBay shop works just like a well designed ecommerce website should- with simple navigation to the product of your choice with the main difference being you can bid on the product first before you buy it.

Consider

·         eBay hosts approximately 380,000 stores worldwide (2005), with approximately 212,000 stores hosted on the U.S. site and 171,000 stores hosted on eBay's international sites.

·         More than 724,000 professional sellers in the U.S. use eBay as a primary or secondary source of income. In addition, 1.5 million individuals sell on eBay to supplement their incomes. (Source: ACNielsen International Research, July 2005)

Still not convinced? I do agree that eBay has certain pitfalls for business and individuals to consider together with some expensive fees that can be off putting. However, in our opinion it does make sense to consider eBay. Put it this way, your target market may be already using eBay and you could use it to reach these customers that you have never engaged with before - increasing sales and turnover.

Additionally, having an eBay presence can lend itself to search engine optimisation because - eBay listings appear in Google and Yahoo for consumer searches! Consider Schuh - try a Google search for some of their products!

So to summarise - is eBay an opportunity or is it something to be dismissed? We think that it is something that every business that is selling online should consider as part of a range of online marketing activities.

Com.Motion would like to thank EBay, Nielsen/NetRatings and Econsultancy for the statistics in this article.

Com.Motion Consulting [http://www.com-motionuk.com] is in the business of internet marketing - ensuring that your website appears on the top search engines including Google, Yahoo, and MSN.

We provide effective internet marketing solutions to ensure that customers find you and the products you sell on the web, and work with you to increase your profit through your online sales.