eBay Business Process
An Analysis on ebay’s Operations
OPIM 201
Arielle Elise CHUA
Stefanie Kaye SU
WANG Run Yu
Kimberly Klaire WONG
EBAY’S SERVICES
What services does eBay provide?
1.1- THE ONLINE AUCTION MARKETPLACE
Hailed as “The Customer Marketplace” by the Harvard Business Review authors, eBay provides an online auction platform for individual buyers and sellers, small businesses and larger corporations to get connected, trade and interact with each other. When Pierre Omidyar originally founded eBay in 1995, he was merely helping his wife sell her old Pez dispensers by connecting her to potential buyers. eBay remains true to providing this service of connecting buyers and sellers today. eBay’s original goal was to create an exciting, flea market feeling—being a market place for auctioning off unique and “collectible” items—for its individual buyers and sellers. On eBay, buyers get exposed to new online experiences—browsing through unique items, placing bids, waiting and finally getting connected to the sellers to settle the purchases. Sellers also get a taste of having something like an online shop, only that the potential revenues have no upper limit because bids could go as high as the buyers want them to. Sellers only need to place their items online, wait for bids and finally get connected to the buyers and settle the transactions.
Unlike newspaper ads and actual auction events, doing business on eBay is cheaper and more efficient. This is because sellers would not need to actively monitor the bids, and the minimal transaction fees that eBay charges sellers are cheaper than those of classified ads. The fees are only charged when a bid becomes successful, so sellers only “pay out” after being guaranteed a sale and need not take on so much risk.
1.2 OTHER SERVICES
As time went by, eBay started exploring additional services it can possibly provide. In 2000, eBay introduced the fixed-price trading and the “Buy-It-Now” features, as an
OPIM 201
Arielle Elise CHUA
Stefanie Kaye SU
WANG Run Yu
Kimberly Klaire WONG
EBAY’S SERVICES
What services does eBay provide?
1.1- THE ONLINE AUCTION MARKETPLACE
Hailed as “The Customer Marketplace” by the Harvard Business Review authors, eBay provides an online auction platform for individual buyers and sellers, small businesses and larger corporations to get connected, trade and interact with each other. When Pierre Omidyar originally founded eBay in 1995, he was merely helping his wife sell her old Pez dispensers by connecting her to potential buyers. eBay remains true to providing this service of connecting buyers and sellers today. eBay’s original goal was to create an exciting, flea market feeling—being a market place for auctioning off unique and “collectible” items—for its individual buyers and sellers. On eBay, buyers get exposed to new online experiences—browsing through unique items, placing bids, waiting and finally getting connected to the sellers to settle the purchases. Sellers also get a taste of having something like an online shop, only that the potential revenues have no upper limit because bids could go as high as the buyers want them to. Sellers only need to place their items online, wait for bids and finally get connected to the buyers and settle the transactions.
Unlike newspaper ads and actual auction events, doing business on eBay is cheaper and more efficient. This is because sellers would not need to actively monitor the bids, and the minimal transaction fees that eBay charges sellers are cheaper than those of classified ads. The fees are only charged when a bid becomes successful, so sellers only “pay out” after being guaranteed a sale and need not take on so much risk.
1.2 OTHER SERVICES
As time went by, eBay started exploring additional services it can possibly provide. In 2000, eBay introduced the fixed-price trading and the “Buy-It-Now” features, as an