E-commerce, ebay and online auction - Essay Example

The transfer of goods is mediated via computer network. The value of transactions being carried out online has increased tremendously and many organizations such as E-bay are fully operating based on e-commerce while others have taken it as a partial means for distributing and marketing their goods. There are many forms of e-commerce networks and these include Business-to-Business, Business-to-Government, Mobile-Commerce, Business-to-Consumer, and Consumer-to-Consumer. This paper looks at E-bay as a model for companies which have taken up e-commerce and successfully implemented it in their operations (Cronin, 2000; Tapscott, et al., 2000). E-bay and E-commerce This is an internet based company from US and operates on a Consumer-to-Consumer e-commerce platform.

Its main mode of operation is based on online auction and website for shopping where sellers advertise and sell their products and customers get to shop and buy products online. Its origin is based on a dot.com bubble of the 90s and has developed into a multi-billion company with international operations, some of which have been localized in many countries (eBay, n.d). The company deals in many categories of products, which are vividly displayed on its website at www.ebay.com. These product categories include fashion stores; motors; electronics; collectibles and art; interior designs and outdoors and decor; entertainment; deals and gifts; brands; and has the classified section.

An interesting phenomenon about this company is how it has managed to bring its suppliers on board in that the suppliers have their products advertised on the e-bay website where customers and potential clients can shop and buy. When it comes to its operations as far as e-commerce is concerned, this company has employed some of the most sophisticated means of doing business online. The ‘set-time’ auction process was restructured and expanded to include ‘Buy It Now’ standard shopping; has used shopping via SKU through the half.

com; classifieds advertisements such as kijiji; online ticketing for events through the StubHub; electronic money transfers with companies such as PayPal; and small seller options where a seller with a single product can still be linked and sell via eBay to the customer in need of the product (eBay, n.d). The company has gone further to bring on board IT software experts or the applications developers. This has been done through the selling manager applications (SM Apps) option where approved developers are able to fully integrate the applications they have developed to interface with e-bay.

These applications are then subscribed to by willing buyers by eBay members that need selling managers. It also does manage specialty sites. One of its prominent specialty sites is eBay pulse which gives consumers information on the searches listed as popular, gives trends in shopping, and lists the items that are most watched. It also has chat rooms, reviews, discussion boards, answer center and guides for consumers. Some more exciting feature is the most-unusual items specialty where people who use are able to cast their votes and could also nominate items that they could include on the list.

Online auctions offered by eBay take different forms and customers choose depending on their interest. These include auction-style listing where a seller places items for sale and selects a given number of