eBay Inc. is an American multinational e-commerce corporation based in San Jose, California, that facilitates consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales through its website.

1. Title: eBay Inc.

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Table of Contents
Executive Summary __________________________________________________________ 3
1- Introduction _____________________________________________________________ 4
1.1 Background __________________________________________________________ 4
1.2 Business Model________________________________________________________ 4
1.3 Purpose______________________________________________________________ 5
Strategy and Objectives of eBay ______________________________________________ 5
Vision: __________________________________________________________________ 5
Mission: _________________________________________________________________ 5
1.4 Methodology__________________________________________________________ 5
2 Analysis_________________________________________________________________ 5
2.1 eBay Strategy _________________________________________________________ 6
2.1.1 Set up a bigger user-base ______________________________________________ 6
2.1.2 Focused on worldwide trading __________________________________________ 6
2.1.3 Building a good brand image ___________________________________________ 6
2.1.4 Growing the trading platform ___________________________________________ 6
2.1.5 Sustaining a strong relationship _________________________________________ 7
2.2 eBay's Growth ________________________________________________________ 7
2.3 SWOT Analysis________________________________________________________ 8
2.4 Value Chain __________________________________________________________ 9
2.5 The Problems Faced by eBay____________________________________________ 10
2.6 Solutions____________________________________________________________ 10
2.7 Limitation of the Study_________________________________________________ 11
3 Conclusion _____________________________________________________________ 11
4 Recommendations _______________________________________________________ 12
References _________________________________________________________________ 13
Appendix __________________________________________________________________ 14

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Executive Summary
This report will provide you with eBay background and knowledge that
describe the business market and study the company's strategy. Focusing on
customer’s fashion and discover the company's development in such a global
market. eBay Inc. is the biggest as well as famous market on the Internet
which allows members to sell and buy nearly everything. Since it’s opening in
1995, roughly 147 mil. users are using it. eBay claims that trust between
sellers and buyers is the key to win a market. eBay has established an
innovative business that truly matches the Internet. The company recognized
the uniqueness of the Internet and has made remarkable achievements in both
online purchases and sales.

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1- Introduction
E-commerce largely incorporates the distribution, buy, sale, service(s) and
marketing of products via electronic systems. It may entails electronic funds
transfer, on-line business processing, on-line marketing, electronic data
interchange. It usually uses electronic communication technologies such as the
Internet, e-books, databases, e-mail and mobile phones. eBay is a US based e-
commerce company and global company that provides business-to-consumer
(B2C) and consumer-to-consumer (C2C) online auction platforms. In 1995,
eBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar and today, eBay has nearly 12,000
employees worldwide, including 6,200 employees in the United States. More
than 165 million people buy goods from eBay each year, and in 2019 alone,
the company generated more than $10.93 billion in revenue.
1.1 Background
Back in 1995, eBay was established by Pierre Omydiar in his urban residence
in San-Jose and its head office is also placed at same place. The first item sold
was a damaged laser spot, priced at $ 14.83. eBay began charging fees to
people who use the site, charging bidders a portion of the most recent sales
price, and paying sellers demand when listing new products. It went public in
1998 and in 1999, the company had 5.6 mil. registered clients and listed more
than 3.1 mil. products for sale. It was expected, by 2004, that registered clients
from over 150 regions reached 65 million and provide users with PayPal Inc.,
its own online payment service.
1.2 Business Model
e-Bay is enormous and popular international online shopping market. Sellers
and Buyers meet to trade commodities which are diverse in nature and can be
acquired instantly at a mentioned price or by an auction. The auction starts at a
some predetermined price by the seller and is kept on website for a certain
days. The buyer bid the product and when auction time period ends, the buyer
with the maximum bid wins. The company has also launched features such as
verified rights owner program, feedback mechanism, full money back

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assurance and loyalty programs for buyers and sellers to feel secure hen
dealing with unknown associates.
1.3 Purpose
Key principle of this research is to authenticate a successful e-commerce
business model. Therefore, eBay Inc. has been selected to meet the
requirements of research, sufficient research work and the most important
unique business model.
Strategy and Objectives of eBay
The eBay goal is to boost its entire sales and net income from the eBay
market. The focus of the strategy is:
 Acquisition – Raise the quantity of new registered clients on eBay market.
 Activation – Raise the quantity of subscribed clients who can be active
bidders, consumers or vendors on eBay market.
 Activity – Raise the number and amount of transactions made by every active
client on eBay market.
Vision:
“Our vision for commerce is one that is enabled by people,
powered by technology, and open to everyone”.
Mission:
“Our mission is to provide a global trading platform
where practically anyone can trade practically anything”
1.4 Methodology
Case study methods is the most frequently used qualitative method in the
information system. The purpose of this research is to study the business
model and growth strategy of e-commerce in eBay organizations.
2 Analysis
eBay has been entered in other markets with a higher selling value. The
transaction charges are proportional to a percentage of sales, more the ASP,

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the more profit eBay will obtain. eBay, now-a-days has turned into among the
most successful international auction and online purchasing website in the
world. Online market forum help and enables the sellers in categorizing the
products and helps buyers in finding the suitable products among many
competitive products.
2.1 eBay Strategy
eBay foundation stands on the idea that the internet retailer can actually
promote anything that can be sold and bought and the auction forum supplier
is providing the idea of electronic commerce more efficiently.
2.1.1 Set up a bigger user-base
eBay has been established relationships with more than 60 sites to draw new
consumers, e.g. America Online, which allows eBay to maximize its reach to
the largest user base platform for its business goals.
2.1.2 Focused on worldwide trading
eBay local sites in the United States offer exclusive regional support and
provide client with the comfortable shopping because there are products which
are complicated in transportation like cars or antique furniture. eBay has also
been recognized a global company with influence on clients in more than 150
countries.
2.1.3 Building a good brand image
In the first few years, eBay’s didn’t use its resources in-terms of money on
marketing but instead it focused on advertisement and promotion of its
business. With the arrival of new top professionals, the company's brand image
has changed.
2.1.4 Growing the trading platform
Many competitors had entered the online auction market by 1999 but eBay had
the benefit of being pioneers. eBay’s competitors were not the small business
startups including Amazon and Yahoo. In response, eBay increased its prime
focus to other eye-catching areas as the company launched expensive product
categories that would enhance its revenue with least operating cost. eBay made
several startup such as the auction house etc.

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2.1.5 Sustaining a strong relationship
eBay has a belief that direct communication between sellers and buyers with
interest similar to each other enables them to build faithful and energetic user
communities. The importance of community building has always first priority
since the establishment of eBay.
2.2 eBay's Growth
eBay is very concerned for its business growth as a service provider. The main
change to this strategy is to purchase Half.com, a fixed-price retail business.
Consumers can buy new goods from here. eBay also has many other processes
like
 eBay Worldwide. eBay tries to form a worldwide market. Customers from
other regions can also bid for US auctions. In other regions, eBay has many
including Australia, Austria, Canada, Germany, France, Japan, Ireland, South
Korea, Italy, Switzerland, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.
 eBay Motors. eBay’s site has also offered the used auto parts for automotives.
The company provides online services thus created an exclusive trading
environment for its customers.
 eBay Stores. The eBay allow sellers to create customized products to sell
goods on eBay, so for this expanding the seller's market. eBay stores are an
easy way for buyers to contact with a sellers products and services. The Buyer
shopping at eBay stores can immediately purchase items at fixed cost.
 eBay Professional Services. eBay platform also helps users to find
professionals and freelancers to meet versatile business requirements such as
web design, writing etc.
 eBay Local Dealing. eBay sites are located nearby. So buyers pay lower
delivery fees-especially for objects that are difficult to transport, such as
furniture, cars etc.
 eBay Premier. eBay also displays commodities such as fine art, antiques and
unique collectibles from primary auction houses and dealers across the globe.
 eBay Live Auctions. This appealing aspect of eBay let its clients to join in
auctions arranged by the international top auction houses.

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2.3 SWOT Analysis
eBay not only renders businesses as being an online shopping and auction
forum, but also provide platforms for online payment communication services
for individuals and small businesses. While keeping itself safe from soaring
risk of internet fraud, strong market position and brand value are primary
aspects for eBay's success.
Strengths
 The most imperative attribute of this business model is zero inventory.
 eBay is the foremost international brand with exceeding 100 million
customers using it to sell and buy various items. French entrepreneur Pierre
Omidyar was only 28 when he made the computer code that ultimately became
the Internet giant.
 eBay extends the profit of customer relationship management. The seller and
buyer are registered with eBay and the information is collected by the
company and making it their business-to-consumer (B2C) aspect. Though, a
strong customer relationship is based on the consumer-to-consumer (C2C)
business model, which has a strong affiliation.
Weaknesses
 eBay works massively hard to triumph over the frauds such as selling fake
goods to innocent eBay customers. Other forms of fraud may comprise
reselling of stolen items. It should be noted that theft and fraud are personal
liability and not on eBay's account.
 The disadvantage is that untruthful clients can take advantage of the consumer-
to-consumer business model. Such as database and software providing
companies, failure of system may interfere with eBay's trading activities. EBay
and Pay pal have faced problems due to hackers.
 eBay is yet unable to check the processes to manage the sale of fake products.
The lack of necessary and proper check and balance puts the company at risk
of detrimental public interest. As a result, the image of the eBay marketing
will be spoiled and affect revenue.

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Opportunities
 eBay's latest investment was an agreement to acquire online phone company
Skype, which was apparently worth $2.6 billion. Skype application allows
users to communicate with each other free of cost. eBay has been acquiring
companies such as PayPal, a payment system company, to increase its services
quantitatively to its customers and maintain profit growth.
 Online advertising is expanding swiftly and is expected to produce US$147
billion. eBay has made considerable revenues from advertising and classified
advertisements, mainly after initiating its own advertising service.
Threats
 International opponents who compete in their local market may have enriching
cultural and traditional experience, which can give them a good benefit over
eBay. In reality, eBay has discovered that it had met with other online
companies in overseas transactions. Such as, Yahoo dominate the Japanese
marketplace.
 The Internet market faces various frauds, including fake goods and credit card
fraud. About 64% of the loss was recorded as auction fraud. The cost of
efficient monitoring is high because companies must spend a lot of money to
eliminate fraud.
 Harassment by illegal practices is a risk. Such as, an email is sent to eBay user
pretending from a person pretending to be from eBay. The logo and webpage
look very real. Though, it allows you to enter personal information that thieves
can use to obtain passwords and logos.
2.4 Value Chain
The value chain of an eBay’s is essential as it doesn't really process any goods
or items sold on its website, and hardly requires any supervision. This is why
eBay can maximize operations, reducing large expenditures and making
profits. Business activities not only take place within the company, but eBay
has created an ecosystem through which solid items can be dealt by users.

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i- Buyers and sellers do not need to know each other, but only based on the
assessment point after each transaction.
ii- eBay has established an independent "police force" to control the ability of
online scams to reduce the listing of goods to a minimum.
iii- Payment can be made through PayPal, which is also a virtual bank, so
customers do not need to have an account on the bank or credit card.
2.5 The Problems Faced by eBay
 For electronic commerce companies such as eBay, it is good to accept a high
scale of international incorporation and local awareness.The foreign market
strategy was an international strategy that was best for high overall
incorporation but insufficient local responded. As it is essential to succeed in
their extension, they needed to go to the local society to earn more revenue and
this transformed eBay into a "multi-domestic plan” that focuses only on local
response.
 eBay tried to dominate in the international market. But with the rapid growth
of the electronic commerce marketplace, it faced extra opponents which
became the target of eBay acquisitions. For example, eBay failed to penetrate
the Chinese market due to the wrong strategy. First, eBay sent a German
supervisor to lead the Chinese business. They did not speak Chinese, nor did
they have a good knowledge of Chinese traditions. It causes to the failure of
their promotion activities, and the opponent China’s Taobao, took 67% of the
Chinese marketplace. Jack Ma, CEO and the founder of Alibaba Group,
having knowledge that television ads were better than billboards ads. The
disadvantaged eBay finally withdrew from the Chinese market.
2.6 Solutions
i. eBay requires advancement, improvement and innovation and this
improvement will not affect with its core capabilities and its vision. Offering
new services does not mean varying its transaction system from auction to
usual sales. This new eBay penetrate can increase their brand awareness. The
focus here is on building and innovating about their main capabilities, rather
than being more earned for achievement and success.

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ii. eBay needs to avoid expanding and develop new marketing plan. Particularly
in a internet world, a very valuable advertising method is mouth to mouth
advertising. If people chat about eBay on social networks such as facebook or
instagram do affects eBay on a positive way. This is a valuable means of low
priced promotion.
iii. Of course, there may be some television or commercial ads, but this is not a
best method for eBay advertising, since eBay does not have a definite product.
Increase brand name awareness through non-advertizing actions such as
contributions or funding. If eBay can continue what it announces through
exceptional service, people will obviously have positive awareness that will
direct to overall development. eBay needs a lot of rush on its website to make
more dealings. eBay ought to encouraged people to "follow" their company’s
website due to its dominance.
2.7 Limitation of the Study
 It is a time taking process
The qualitative research is time consuming and time taking method. The key
disadvantage is that personal understanding and information can manipulate
the original facts and perspective.
 It’s hard to examine authenticity
Qualitative data can’t be analyzed mathematically. So that’s why this type of
qualitative research is based on personal opinions more than actual facts and
figures
3 Conclusion
In conclusion, eBay Inc., which has been emerged in the virtual shopping
market about 10 years ago, should consider adopting a new strategy to achieve
the company’s ambition. The aim of this report is to learn business model of
eBay through a strategic background. eBay users can use their website,
anywhere from the world as long as they have internet facilities. eBay needs
to develop and support thousands of unknown sellers and buyers to continue
cooperating in the site.

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4 Recommendations
eBay must start its own brand building based on core competitiveness.
Stopping expansion and product development may take time, and may cause
opponents to take shares in market in the short term. Innovating and attracting
new methods of eBay users and non-eBay users is the key to success. eBay
should not focus on profits, but also focus on successfully gaining brand
recognition worldwide. eBay must adopt extra careful checks and measures in
order to avoid public humiliation in case of fraud. Effective supervision costs
are high because companies must spend a lot of money to eliminate fraud,
even though innovative safety actions seem to be crucial. Moreover, eBay
must take security actions to ensure that its business no longer involves any
lawsuits.

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References
i. https://www.ukessays.com/essays/marketing/ebay-marketing-strategies-and-values-
marketing-essay.php
ii. https://www.ukessays.com/essays/marketing/ebay-marketing-strategies-and-values-
marketing-essay.php
iii. http://dspace.iimk.ac.in/bitstream/handle/2259/42/543-
549.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
iv. https://www.academia.edu/13420277/Case_Study_EBAY
v. http://www.ecommerce-digest.com/ebay-case-study.html
vi. https://catalogimages.wiley.com/images/db/pdf/0764559427.excerpt.pdf
vii. https://studylib.net/doc/9496003/ebay-inc.-case-study
viii. https://www.academia.edu/13420277/Case_Study_EBAY
ix. https://www.slideshare.net/KaushikPanta/case-study-on-ebaycom
x. https://www.slideshare.net/KaushikPanta/case-study-on-ebaycom

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Appendix
Company’s logo
eBay’s Revenue

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eBay’s SWOT Analysis
eBay- The Market Space

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