EBay's Corporate Social Responsibility - Case Study Example

eBay School Table of Contents Page No. Introduction 3 History of eBay 3 eBay’s corporate social responsibility 4 Global operations of eBay 5 Marketing strategies of eBay 6 Finances and profitability of eBay 7 Conclusion 8 Works Cited 10 eBay Introduction eBay is the online marketplace of the world that facilitates trade on a national, local as well as international basis. eBay has a passionate and diverse community of small businesses and individuals using which the company provides an online platform over which millions of products get traded on every single day. In this way, eBay serves as a place where sellers and buyers get to know each other and are able to trade almost everything with convenience. The eBay works through listing of an item by the seller. All sorts of things ranging from antiques to goods and books are traded on eBay. The sellers have the choice of accepting bids for their products. They can also use the Buy It Now option that provides the buyers with the opportunity to buy the product at a fixed price right away. Bidding in the online auction system starts at a price established by the seller and remains on the eBay for some days so that the buyers can place their bids. At the end of the listing, the buyer who has the maximum number of bids wins. On the other hand, when the Buy It Now option is used, the first buyer who is volunteering to pay the price established by the seller receives the item. History of eBay The online auction website was established in the year 1995 as the AuctionWeb. Pierre Omidyar, an Iranian computer programmer born in France founded AuctionWeb on 3 September 1995 in San Jose, California (“The history of”). The first employee was recruited by eBay in the year 1996. eBay entered its first deal of third-party licensing in November 1996 with Electronic Travel Auction. It made use of the SmartMarket Technology to sell travel products and tickets of planes. In January 1997, over 2000000 auctions were hosted by eBay in comparison to 250000 that were hosted during the year 1996. In September 1997, the company’s name was officially changed from AuctionWeb to eBay after it received $6.7m from Benchmark Capital. “To save money, Omidyar linked the new Web site with an existing site he had created for his consulting and technology business, Echo Bay Technology Group. The Web address for that business was ebay.com” (Gitlin). The number of eBay’s employees increased to 20 by March 1998 along with a population of half a million users. Its revenues in the US reached $4.7m (“The history of”). In 21 September 1998, eBay went floated over the stock exchange that resulted in the making of the founders of the company, billionaires. On the very first day of trading, the price of target shares of eBay increased from $18 to $53.50. eBay purchased a European auction web site named IBazar who was doing similar business in February 2002. On 14 October 2002, eBay also purchased PayPal. In the start of the year 2008, eBay expanded all over the world with the registration of several hundred millions users, over 15000 employees, and with the collective revenues of roughly $7.7bn (“The history of”). By the end of the year 2009, eBay retained a 30pc stake after having Skype sold for about $2.75 bn. XPRT Ventures sued eBay in July 2010 for $3.8bn accusing the company of having stolen information allegedly that the inventors of the own patents of XPRT had shared with eBay in confidence. eBay planned purchasing the brand4friends, a German online shopping club for €150m by the end of the year 2011. eBay’s corporate social responsibility eBay is one such company that has always shown a strong sense of purpose. eBay is very much committed to social responsibility. eBay’s commitment to corporate social responsibility has been recognized and admired numerous times. An international think tank, the Ethisphere Institute has listed eBay among 138 most ethical companies all over the world in the year 2013 (“eBay Inc. named”). The Ethisphere Institute’s Executive Director Alex Brigham said, “As companies strive to maintain a competitive advantage, good ethics translate into better business, and better business means better bottom lines. ebay recognizes the important role that principled practices play in brand reputation, which ultimately is the most valuable asset for a corporation” (Brigham cited in “eBay Inc. honored”). This has not been the first time eBay has received this honor from the Ethisphere Institute as it has been placed in this list two times before also. The Ethisphere Institute considers nominations and rates them from thousands of companies on the basis of their histories of regulation and litigation, and sustainable practices in business. This recognition serves as a proof of the status of eBay as an organization that is socially and ethically responsible. eBay is the leading company of payments platform and global commerce in the world. Its global businesses’ portfolio allows millions of people across the world to purchase, pay, and sell things online. In this way, eBay creates opportunities of powerful charitable giving, economic opportunities, and runs commerce in the greener forms. The Ethisphere Institute is not the only organization that has admired eBay’s corporate social responsibility; The Public Counsel Law Center also honored eBay for showing outstanding corporate social responsibility at an awards dinner organized in the Beverly Hills California on 16 June 2010 (“eBay Wins”). The reason eBay was given this award was its commitment to charitable giving, responsibility toward environment, ethical conduct in business, taking measures to fight poverty, and show the volunteerism toward employees. Global operations of eBay The global operations of customer service at eBay comprise numerous key teams that work in mutual harmony with each other to provide their customers with the best possible experience with their businesses and brands. People involved in the global operations at eBay serve as agents that represent the starting point of interaction between the customers and the brand’s human representatives. This provides them with unmatched power to resolve the issues, establish the foundation of trust, and develop links with customers that strengthen the business’s foundations. The customer solutions agents at eBay are the main contact point for the customers. They listen to the inquiries of the customers with compassion and address their concerns. They have access to the most advanced tools of technology and communication using which they provide the customers with quick, helpful, and accurate information that the customers need. The primary responsibilities of the compliance agents involved in the financial services are to ensure that the customers comply with the terms of use of the company and the relevant policies. They review the accounts of the customers as well as the applications about the products of high risk and other features. They report the unfair practices and frauds so that they can be avoided in the future. The fraud operations agents at eBay protect the leading commerce company. They identify the fraudulent behaviors, carry out the necessary investigations, and provide the customers with information about ways to maintain their safety and the security of their transactions and accounts. Fraud operations is a very important function required to develop trust and plays a very important role in the success of the company. eBay’s global operations have helped the economies of numerous countries, groups, and people grow. An example of this is the statement by eBay’s PayPal that it would make the employees in Asia Pacific two-fold in number by increasing their number to 2000 by the end of 2010 (Dignan). In addition to that, eBay’s PayPal would create more jobs in China, India, Japan, Australia, Hong Kong, and Singapore. Marketing strategies of eBay eBay has always maintained and benefited from a strong campaign run over the social media. The main reason of its strength is understanding of some rules that apply in social media by eBay. When social media is used as a platform, the return on investment generally happens to be very good, though some effort, resources, and time has to be invested in order to ensure that things keep working well. eBay understands that it is very important to reach out to the customers over the internet in a variety of ways. Few places to take a start from include guest blogging, social media, and blogging. People mention the brands of others on different platforms of the Internet, so all customers need to do is to be present to make their voices heard. “If you want to make an impression on your audience you need to interact with them via social media on a consistent basis. eBay makes 3-4 posts a week on its blog and about 6 tweets per day to stay consistent” (Fournier). Different kinds of marketing strategies can be used to market the eBay items. Customers of eBay use these marketing strategies to increase their exposure. Ways that can achieve this include but are not limited to utilizing the community links of eBay, groups, discussion boards, email, business cards, and coupons. At eBay, there are groups for almost everything. Customers can join the groups they want depending upon what their interests and hobbies are and what they want to sell. Customers find valuable information in these groups and threads which they can use to showcase their items. Discussion boards at eBay’s website help address the queries of the customers with respect to their products. Marketing tips are also shared in these discussion boards. Since the IDs of the customers gets known in these discussion boards, there are fair chances of sales of few items. Customers can add a line of signature to their outgoing email. They can include a hyper link to their listings at eBay to suggest others to check out their eBay listings. eBay has created store malls to help the customers attain exposure. List My Store and Avid Cat are two of such malls that have been designed for the stores of eBay. Finances and profitability of eBay eBay has greatly benefited from the PayPal service as it has helped eBay’s profits increase by more than double. The e-commerce websites and online payments made through PayPal have increased eBay’s profitability. The chief executive of eBay, John Donahoe said, “We now expect eBay and PayPal mobile to each transact $10 billion in volume in 2012 - thats more than double 2011, a staggering surge in mobile shopping and payments on devices that did not exist just a few years ago. Retail is at an inflection point, and we are helping to reshape how people around the world shop and pay” (Donahoe cited in “PayPal helps”). eBay increased its forecasts of 2012 that helped increase the shares of the online company by more than 6 pc higher to the trading of $38 in the after-hours. This growth of profitability can be attributed to the healthy performance of Marketplace as well as PayPal businesses of eBay over the past few years. Conclusion eBay is an online market giant whose age is nearing two decades now. eBay started as a home business and expanded beyond expectations in a matter of few years. eBay provides both buyers and sellers with an opportunity to unite at a platform and do trade for the things of interest. eBay has followed the standards of corporate social responsibility and its efforts on the protection and well-being of the environment and the society have been appreciated at different platforms at different points in time. eBay does business using the Internet. So its consumer base is spread all over the world. The marketing strategies of eBay are centered around the use of social media which is very popular these days and is a very convenient means of doing business and marketing products for people all over the world. eBay has shown increase in its profit and quarterly sales even more than was expected by the economists. This increase in profitability of eBay is driven by the growth of its PayPal and Marketplace businesses. eBay is a very useful and beneficial service for people belonging to all sorts of professions and trades. Because of its successful marketing strategies, it is expected to grow further in its popularity and use in the future. Works Cited: Dignan, Larry. “eBays PayPal beefs up Asia Pacific operations; Aims for global growth.” 17 Mar. 2010. Web. 19 May 2013. . “EBAY INC. NAMED ONE OF WORLD’S MOST ETHICAL COMPANIES.” 11 Mar. 2013. Web. 19 May 2013. . “EBAY INC. HONORED AS ONE OF THE WORLD’S MOST ETHICAL COMPANIES.” 16 Mar. 2011. Web. 19 May 2013. . “eBay Wins Award for Outstanding Corporate Social Responsibility.” 25 June 2010. Web. 19 May 2013. . Fournier, Kevin. “eBay’s Marketing Strategy Online.” 2013. Web. 19 May 2013. . Gitlin, Marty. Ebay: The Company and Its Founder. ABDO Publishing Company, 2011. Print. “PayPal helps eBay profits more than double.” The Telegraph. 18 July 2012. Web. 19 May 2013. . “The history of eBay.” The Telegraph. 15 Apr. 2011. Web. 19 May 2013. . Read More