Ebay Case

After eBay's new CEO John Donahoe came to work in 2008, eBay started to adopt a more innovative strategy. In line with its past experiences and culture, company still aims to protect its core business, but being well aware of the competition in the market, it also aims to extend its business by increasing system capacity, personnel management and marketing strategy. (slides)

Around its core platform, eBay is now trying to bridge its online and offline communities by providing "tailored shopping experiences" to its customers through increased local and global coverage, technological innovation and new formats. (slides)

In the last 3 years eBay performed several company acquisitions. Some of them are: Magento, RedLaser, Milo, GSI Commerce, Zong Mobile and Where Inc..Ebay is planning to create a competitive advantage over other shopping platforms by using the technological support of these companies combined with its giant payments system Paypal. Every product, every shelf and every local store will be included in eBay's coverage.

Most small business owners in the US think of eBay as an auxiliary sales platform, secondary to their brick-and-mortar. http://ebay.about.com/od/ebaylifestyle/a/el_offlinesales.htm

eBay's goal is to make it seem as the offline store is also a place a bidder/customer might want to visit or call--it should seem inviting and appear to offer additional products and services that aren't necessarily easily available through eBay site. A customer can now search local listings through Milo and also can scan barcodes of different products to find out the best price. By the end 2011 eBay's PayPal will be testing point-of-sale innovation with a major U.S. retailer, and during 2012, it will be rolling out new point-of-sale experiences with up to 20 national retailers which will enable customers to pay with PayPal besides traditional payment methods like cash, credit card, debit card etc. Customers will also be able to make mobile payments both online and offline with Zong Mobile, in which payments will be charged to customer's invoice.It will also create potentially a more secure environment for making payments.