E-Business Background of eBay - Research Paper Example

Ebay – Business Report Table of Contents Introduction and E-Business Background 3 E-Marketing Analysis 3 Webdesign Analysis 4 Business-to-Business (B2B) Analysis 5 Analysis of the Topic of Sales and Customer Service Relevant to eBay 6 Conclusions and Recommendations 7 References 9 Introduction and E-Business Background EBay Inc. is regarded as an American based multinational business corporation, which started its business in the year 1995 as a site of online auction. With the growth of the business, the company today performs varied functions that include buying as well as selling wide assortment of goods to the retailers along with the customers worldwide. The prime intents of this multinational business firm include enlarging customer or user base, concentrating more upon international as well as national trading, generating a strong brand and forming, developing as well as preserving the direct association persisting amid the buyers and the sellers (Gopalkrishnan & Gupta, 2000). With the varying market conditions and the preferences of the customers, the business of eBay developed significantly in recent times. This can be acceptable with reference to the fact that the company reported a profit of $4.4 billion in the year 2014, which was beyond its expectation (BBC, 2014). From the perspective of providing an e-business background of eBay, it must be mentioned that the company utilises a service of online payment named PayPal, which facilitates and eases in making transactions on behalf of the sellers as well as the buyers (Bensinger, 2012). In relation to the above context, the research paper intends to provide a business report on the examination of the present along with the future exercise of internet technologies of eBay. E-Marketing Analysis Prior to conducting a detailed e-marketing study on eBay, it is essential to obtain a brief idea about the external setting of the company. With this concern, the theoretical structure of Porter’s five forces is taken into concern for analysing the external situation of the company. From the analysis, it is evident that eBay faces a moderate level of threat relating to the entrance of new market players in the industry, as there persists lower levels of entry requirement. Apart from this, the buyers’ and suppliers’ bargaining power are deemed to be high and moderate respectively owing to the reason that different e-commerce companies offer parallel products and/or services as that of eBay and the suppliers remain much eager to sell by making effective use of well-established online sites. Finally, eBay faces low level of threat of alternatives or substitutes, as the company offers certain attractive features to the potential customers that entail auctions and buyer protection among others. Apart from the above discussed aspects, the company also faces high level of threat from the existing business market competition in the similar industry due to the presence of already existing companies like Alibaba and Amazon among others (Hao, 2013). E-marketing analysis of eBay clearly depicts the potentiality of the company in performing effective marketing functions and activities that aid in attaining its predetermined business or operational targets. In this similar context, one of such marketing functions or actions could be reckoned as the introduction of an online payment based service named PayPal, which emphasised easing transactions for the involved partied throughout the globe. Apart from this, e-marketing analysis of the company could also be determined in the form of exploiting several advantages that can be derived from following the strategy of Customer Relationship Management (CRM). This particular strategy relating to e-marketing is adopted by eBay for forming, developing and preserving direct association with the potential customers. Under this particular approach, it can be apparently observed that the involved parties i.e. the buyers along with the sellers get registered within the company and their valuable data are stored on databases generated by the company (Gopalkrishnan & Gupta, 2000). Webdesign Analysis With regard to the preparation of a business report about the current and future use of internet technologies, the webdesign analysis of eBay could not also be ignored. It has been earlier mentioned that the company started its business from the year 1995 by acting as an online portal relevant to buying along with selling varied collectibles. It is worth mentioning that in the year 2002, eBay invested huge sum of money for funding and buying software with the intention of managing different contents throughout its local online websites and languages. Evidently, the company selected and used Idiom’s WorldServer (www.idiominc.com) package for streamlining the contents and effectively managing the inputs and the outputs of the same. eBay made deliberate efforts in enhancing its web design for reaping several significant benefits. In this regard, such efforts could be reckoned as eradicating the prevalent needless graphics and also modifying such web pages that display valuable and relevant information in a steady manner (Byte Level Research, 2005). While conducting a comprehensive webdesign analysis of eBay, it must be mentioned that the navigation procedure of the links depicted in the online website of the company is much easy, which facilitated in browsing different product categories in a favourable manner. This is mainly made through working upon the daily deals along with the suggestions and also by searching relevant material with appropriate keywords. Apart from the navigation procedure of the different links, the registration as well as the sign-in processes of the online websites of the company is also found to be simple that enables the users to access every kind of information that they require (Byte Level Research, 2005). Thus, overall, it can be affirmed that the online websites of the company are well designed and the users can browse whatever they require at any point of time. Business-to-Business (B2B) Analysis The Business-to-Business (B2B) model typically denotes the transactions that are generally made for purchasing as well as ordering and any other administrative task. This particular model mainly emphasises trading several goods that include wholesale dealings, business subscriptions and professional services among others. In the background of analysing the B2B model of eBay, it must be mentioned that the company has utilised the e-commerce method of online auctions, as one of the effective B2B models in the respective industry. It can be elaborated that the company has certainly became a premier online auction house with adding in excess of 4 million exclusive auctions and 450,000 new items every day (Catedra Inginerie Software, n.d.). A pictorial representation has been portrayed below for better comprehension of the above stated context. Source: (Catedra Inginerie Software, n.d.) In terms of conducting an in-depth B2B analysis of eBay, it is to be affirmed that the company could buy as well as sell different objects through online auctions and trade goods in an efficient way. It can be apparently observed in this similar context that the company i.e. eBay utilises or maintains a database for the purpose of managing number of auctions that are made through its online websites and also keeping track of the customers. The B2B approach of the company could also be analysed in the form of carrying out business subscriptions and professional services by providing detailed information to the users regarding a product, its price and storing valuable customer data in the database. The auction process, which is used by the company, generally commences when it posts detailed information about a specific product for sale in the respective online sites and gets involved in filling the suitable registration information (Catedra Inginerie Software, n.d.). Analysis of the Topic of Sales and Customer Service Relevant to eBay The analysis of sales and customer service within eBay could be better understood by acquiring a brief idea about varied features of this context. Thus, with this concern, the potential attributes of sales and customer service relevant to eBay could be ascertained as interaction analytics, social media and chat. In this regard, the above stated facet of interaction analytics signifies reviewing as well as analysing the recorded interactions made by the company with its potential customers worldwide and more vitally offering valuable business ideas along with suggestions to them. On the other hand, the characteristic of social media represents managing customer relations by accessing major social networks including Twitter and Facebook among others. It is worth mentioning that by wider access to the aforesaid sites, the posts made by the customers could be responded effectively and likewise, their respective preferences or choices towards a specific product and/or service could be monitored in an easy way. Finally, the feature of chat denotes checking the order status of the clients and fulfilling the requests made by them regarding any extra product information (Ebay Enterprise, n.d.). While analysing the sales and customer service persistent within eBay, it can be apparently recognised that the company provides extensive level of quality training to different staff members who remain dedicated towards improvising the experiences of the users as per the desired level. Specially mentioning, the incorporation of various pioneering technologies in the operational procedures eventually supported eBay to comply with the requirements of the customers and make close observations in their respective preferences or choices. In this similar concern, such technologies are reckoned to be desktop automation, IVR and systems of learning management among others. Apart from imparting quality education of training to the staff members, the company also get involved into establishing partners of customer service, so that the needs of the potential users could be met any point of time and at any location. It is projected that the conduct of the above stated practices would certainly aid eBay to enlarge its customer base by a considerable level (Ebay Enterprise, n.d.). Conclusions and Recommendations From the analysis and discussion made above, it can be ascertained that the e-business of eBay has developed extensively in this modern day context as compared to the previous years. This could be clearly understood from the revenue obtained by the company in the year 2014, which was beyond its expectation. Throughout the analysis, it was found that the company has refurbished its e-marketing as well as webdesign in such a way that the requirements of the potential users could be met on an immediate basis within a definite time. Apart from this, the company incessantly strived to develop its sales along with customer service segment by incorporating certain innovative technologies like desktop automation in its operational procedures. Thus, based on the above discussion, eBay needs to perform certain significant activities for enlarging its customer base and also improving profitability level at large. Such activities could be reckoned as making the mails received from the users much personal along with important and executing effective techniques of direct marketing. Apart from these, the company could also simplify as well as document its existing B2B sales procedure, ensuring that marketing and sales get aligned to suffice the needs of the customers and developing the CRM method that reflect the current sales procedure (Catedra Inginerie Software, n.d.). References Bensinger, G., 2012. EBay to Target Under-18 Set. The Wall Street Journal. [Online] Available at: http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10000872396390443295404577547263826717138 [Accessed May 02, 2015]. BBC, 2014. eBay Profits Rise Despite Challenging Quarter. News. [Online] Available at: http://www.bbc.com/news/business-28337785 [Accessed May 02, 2015]. Byte Level Research, 2005. Web Site Analysis: Room for Improvement. A Global Analysis of eBay. [Online] Available at: http://s3.amazonaws.com/zanran_storage/www.bytelevel.com/ContentPages/2442952164.pdf [Accessed May 02, 2015]. Catedra Inginerie Software, No Date. Auction Model. e-Business Models. [Online] Available at: http://software.ucv.ro/~cbadica/didactic/ce/documente/ModeleEBusiness.pdf [Accessed May 02, 2015]. Ebay Enterprise, No Date. Customer Service. Operations. [Online] Available at: http://www.ebayenterprise.com/operations/customer-service#features [Accessed May 02, 2015]. Gopalkrishnan, J. & Gupta, V. K., 2000. Introduction. eBay: “The World’s Largest Online Marketplace”- A Case Study, pp. 543-549. Hao, K., 2013. E-Commerce and the Global Battle for Internet Economics. News. [Online] Available at: http://fortune.com/2013/06/21/e-commerce-and-the-global-battle-for-internet-economics/ [Accessed May 02, 2015]. Read More