Ebay

E-Bay Business Models and Strategies

E-Business Models and Strategy

Has anyone ever been frustrated when trying to find merchandise that absolutely no one seems to have? Or how about looking for your favorite artists or professional player's autograph? How about looking for new/old Pez dispensers? Well I am sure that anyone who has needed or looked for any of these particular products online has stopped by E-bay to take a gander at what exactly they have to offer. E-bay is an online auction company which acts as an intermediary between buyers and sellers. It was started back in 1995 by a man named Pierre Omidyar, who had started the site as a hobby, originally being used by his girlfriend as a trading exchange in order to collect Pez Dispensers. Who would have thought that today, with what started off as a hobby, could have turned into a widely accepted and growing stock in the NASDAQ stock market. With how technologically advanced we are today, it is easy to see why E-Bay has been continuously growing over these past 12 years, on route to becoming the biggest, most popular online auction site in the world today. However, would E-bay be considered as successful as they are, have they had just introduced the site in today's common e-business world.

E-bay is regarded as the best online auction site in all of the world, and to think that if they would have been introducing this service into today's business world they wouldn't be as successful would be absolutely preposterous. Although, it is tough to consider how E-bays success would have been regarded had it been created in today's time. The introduction of the internet in the 1990's helped play a huge role in the success of e-bay, and has made it what it is today. Considering that in the interactive world of the internet where there are over 1500 online auction sites, e-bay has done a phenomenal job to stay atop of the leader board for such a long time. With the number of internet companies and internet sites growing by the day it is hard to say whether or not E-bay would be as successful as they have been introducing the site today. I personally have two different views on this subject.

When E-bay was first introduced in the on-line world, there was absolutely no competition, making it very easy for the company to gain mass amounts of publicity, and customer loyalty/business in order to launch them to stardom. With the internet being widely accepted among everyone who owns or has access to a computer, this has made E-bay a very widely accepted website for users to find what they are looking for in today's marketplace. I do not believe that E-bay's start-up, if it were to happen today would be as remarkable simply due to the fact that E-bay was introduced to the internet at relatively the same time as the internet was born. Since E-bay has been such a dominating auction website over the past decade and even gained stock market publicity, I think it would be very tough for E-bays success to be considered as remarkable in a world such as today where new websites and dot com companies are being established on a daily basis.

In all successful companies in today's day and age you must have some type of business model to follow in order to make sure that you are keeping up with all the factors that compose the main components of your business. E-bay has done a great job in taking care of this aspect of the company. We are now going to take a look at the 6 aspects of E-bay's business model as to what they have done in order to be as successful as they currently are.

External Factors

E-bay has been constantly changing its website in order to stay in line with the technological advances that have been happening at a very rapid pace. I would say that one of the main components that E-bay has done relatively well in is the aspect of security towards its customers. With the addition of Pay-Pal it is very easy for customers to exchange payments via the web. I know most people are going to say "Well what about the hackers out there, aren't they going to steal my information?" The answer to this question is absolutely not. E-bay is constantly changing how funds are to be transferred to stay ahead of the game. Pay-Pal was voted as the best, most easiest, secure way to make payments on-line via the internet. In addition, with the United States economy the way it currently is, this could make E-bay become a much more widely used auction site for people looking to get the best bang for their buck, or if they are looking to save a little bit of money. In turn increasing profits overall for E-bay itself.

Markets

E-bay has done a superb job in keeping its business as no more than an online intermediary. By having no actual brick and mortar stores that hold products in an inventory system and then ship them out using shipping services, they have definitely increased profits by playing the role of the "middle man". By simply catering to online clients they have been able to succeed in different market aspects while keeping the prices at a fair low rate.

Customers

E-bay does not have a specific target market in place for who they are going after. E-bay's target market could technically be considered as anyone who looking to purchase an item for which they cannot find anywhere else or for a cheaper price than retail. Usually when looking for any type of item you are able to find it on the website.

Core Business processes

E-bay does not produce any products itself, however, they do market there products almost everywhere on the internet, it seems that wherever you go E-bay as a web banner up at every site advertising certain products they have up currently on the website. E-bay uses the "clicks" model as opposed to the bricks model meaning that all of the business conducted on a day-to-day basis is done via the internet. They have also done an excellent done in eliminating geographic barriers. Everyone from around the world, if they have the internet capabilities can tap into e-bay on bid on products they would like to have.

Core Products and Services

E-bay would have to be considered in this area as a Brokerage Model. They would be considered