eBay Transforms Shopping across the World
eBay started in 1995 and the online auction and shopping site now has over 100 million active users across the globe who buy and sell just about everything you can think of. Today, it isn’t just collectibles and cast offs that are sold on eBay. Rare antiques, cars, houses, boats and even aeroplanes have been sold in the online auction.
Sales are increasing at around 40% annually, with close to 1.5 billion items listed and auction revenues of over $30 billion in 2004. Perhaps the most striking fact of all is that eBay is the site on which people spend more time than any other site on the Internet.
But it’s not just on occasional buyers and sellers that eBay has an effect. More than 400,000 people now make a part-time or full-time living selling on eBay with some making large amounts of money by auctioning items online.
For entrepreneurs, eBay offers a way to get a business off the ground without having to invest in infrastructure, software and systems that would be required for a stand-alone online sales operation. And the eBay brand name provides the mechanism to drive interested visitors to the items for sale, so overcoming the main problem of establishing an internet business – how to get people to visit your site in the first place.
In August 2004, eBay bought the India-based auction site BaaZee and is now close to fully integrating its’ operations into global eBay. With prices of goods in India so much lower that the US and Western Europe, many India-based sellers are now channelling their items for sale through eBay.com and eBay.co.uk so that even with shipping costs added, some remarkable bargains are available.
What does this globalisation and continuing growth of eBay mean for existing eBay shops and stores? Well, certainly, more access to world markets, but also increasing competition within the internal eBay marketplace. Many eBay shops and stores have now started to join externally promoted directories so they can gain added visibility and steal a lead over their competition who continue to rely solely on the eBay brand to bring in their business.
Sales are increasing at around 40% annually, with close to 1.5 billion items listed and auction revenues of over $30 billion in 2004. Perhaps the most striking fact of all is that eBay is the site on which people spend more time than any other site on the Internet.
But it’s not just on occasional buyers and sellers that eBay has an effect. More than 400,000 people now make a part-time or full-time living selling on eBay with some making large amounts of money by auctioning items online.
For entrepreneurs, eBay offers a way to get a business off the ground without having to invest in infrastructure, software and systems that would be required for a stand-alone online sales operation. And the eBay brand name provides the mechanism to drive interested visitors to the items for sale, so overcoming the main problem of establishing an internet business – how to get people to visit your site in the first place.
In August 2004, eBay bought the India-based auction site BaaZee and is now close to fully integrating its’ operations into global eBay. With prices of goods in India so much lower that the US and Western Europe, many India-based sellers are now channelling their items for sale through eBay.com and eBay.co.uk so that even with shipping costs added, some remarkable bargains are available.
What does this globalisation and continuing growth of eBay mean for existing eBay shops and stores? Well, certainly, more access to world markets, but also increasing competition within the internal eBay marketplace. Many eBay shops and stores have now started to join externally promoted directories so they can gain added visibility and steal a lead over their competition who continue to rely solely on the eBay brand to bring in their business.
