One of those things that so many brands want is scale: eBay is enormous. It has 171 million users, with 1.1 billion listed items at any given time. But it’s also no longer the only game in town. There’s competition from all over, most notably from eBay's great rival to the north, Amazon; Brooklyn-based crafts giant Etsy; and venture-backed consignment sites like The Real Real and Poshmark. Deering may talk of the company’s advancements, but the truth is, eBay has fallen far behind.
It’s dedicated to remaining an online marketplace — nothing more than a platform on which buyers and sellers can interact — a position that’s hard to justify as it’s become less enticing to both kinds of users. It hasn’t invested in warehouses or inventory; it hasn’t introduced competitive shipping programs. It now needs to both differentiate and elevate itself, and then it must communicate all of that to the customer.
These days, 88 percent of postings are “Buy It Now” items, not at all tied to the auction function eBay is known for, and 81 percent of what’s available for sale is new. To eBay, new means unopened, never-used items; this claim is murky, though, as most items are still coming from third-party sellers and not from brands themselves. In fact, eBay has become a haven for flipping, a practice in which users sell in-demand merchandise at exponentially higher prices, further adding to eBay’s sometimes-dubious reputation.
eBay also thinks it’s positioned to acquire Millennial and Gen Z customers who have largely ignored the site. “Younger customers don’t have misperceptions of eBay — they don't have any perceptions,” says Deering. “We’re not even in their awareness at all.”
The company’s research has found that a younger audience wants unique products and “is searching for items that push against conformity.” In this way, Deering believes eBay can be something of a foil to Amazon: “People felt like they were becoming anti-human because Amazon is so habitual, but that isn’t us. If you love Converse, you come to our site because there’s every color, every graffiti-ed version, vintage. You’re not going to get that if you go onto Amazon or into a department store.”
The goal, as eBay’s vice president of merchandising Jay Hanson puts it, is to get customers to think of eBay as the first shopping site they should visit, no matter what they’re looking to buy. But can the once-dominant company actually take that crown from Amazon? Or compete with much nimbler startups that offer white-glove services and more curated and easily navigated shopping experiences? It seems wildly unlikely, but eBay’s determined to try. (...)
In the shadow of competitors big and small, eBay has remained stagnant. Its 2016 net revenue hovered just under $9 billion — a significant figure, but one that's only marginally risen over the last for five years. Analysts attribute eBay’s shortcomings to outdated technology and a confounding user experience.
“The eBay site hasn’t really gone through dramatic levels of change since the beginning, and if there was any change, it was subtle and not slick enough,” says Sean Maharaj, a director at global management consulting firm AArete. “The customer interface, the website, it is not on par with some other companies that are coming at this with a new digital strategy. It’s unfriendly and it’s not easy to navigate.”
One of eBay’s main bragging points — that it has 1.1 billion listings — has also become a source of weakness for the company. Organizing that many items is a herculean task, particularly when the bones of the site are now decades old. Greg Portell, a retail partner at global strategy and management consulting firm A.T. Kearney, understands why eBay positioned itself for so long as a marketplace for everything and anything, as opposed to offering a more edited selection of products.
“If you think of successful retailers like T.J. Maxx or Marshall’s, you can justify it,” says Portell. “They aren’t known to be very neat and tidy, and they do extremely well. My guess is eBay was emphasizing this attitude, as opposed to a clean, personalized experience you’d expect from a well-curated store. eBay’s problem now, though, is they are stuck in a middle space where it’s hard to differentiate. You have smaller, niche sites that can curate and provide a less cluttered environment, which is what’s growing right now.”
It’s dedicated to remaining an online marketplace — nothing more than a platform on which buyers and sellers can interact — a position that’s hard to justify as it’s become less enticing to both kinds of users. It hasn’t invested in warehouses or inventory; it hasn’t introduced competitive shipping programs. It now needs to both differentiate and elevate itself, and then it must communicate all of that to the customer.
These days, 88 percent of postings are “Buy It Now” items, not at all tied to the auction function eBay is known for, and 81 percent of what’s available for sale is new. To eBay, new means unopened, never-used items; this claim is murky, though, as most items are still coming from third-party sellers and not from brands themselves. In fact, eBay has become a haven for flipping, a practice in which users sell in-demand merchandise at exponentially higher prices, further adding to eBay’s sometimes-dubious reputation.eBay also thinks it’s positioned to acquire Millennial and Gen Z customers who have largely ignored the site. “Younger customers don’t have misperceptions of eBay — they don't have any perceptions,” says Deering. “We’re not even in their awareness at all.”
The company’s research has found that a younger audience wants unique products and “is searching for items that push against conformity.” In this way, Deering believes eBay can be something of a foil to Amazon: “People felt like they were becoming anti-human because Amazon is so habitual, but that isn’t us. If you love Converse, you come to our site because there’s every color, every graffiti-ed version, vintage. You’re not going to get that if you go onto Amazon or into a department store.”
The goal, as eBay’s vice president of merchandising Jay Hanson puts it, is to get customers to think of eBay as the first shopping site they should visit, no matter what they’re looking to buy. But can the once-dominant company actually take that crown from Amazon? Or compete with much nimbler startups that offer white-glove services and more curated and easily navigated shopping experiences? It seems wildly unlikely, but eBay’s determined to try. (...)
In the shadow of competitors big and small, eBay has remained stagnant. Its 2016 net revenue hovered just under $9 billion — a significant figure, but one that's only marginally risen over the last for five years. Analysts attribute eBay’s shortcomings to outdated technology and a confounding user experience.
“The eBay site hasn’t really gone through dramatic levels of change since the beginning, and if there was any change, it was subtle and not slick enough,” says Sean Maharaj, a director at global management consulting firm AArete. “The customer interface, the website, it is not on par with some other companies that are coming at this with a new digital strategy. It’s unfriendly and it’s not easy to navigate.”
One of eBay’s main bragging points — that it has 1.1 billion listings — has also become a source of weakness for the company. Organizing that many items is a herculean task, particularly when the bones of the site are now decades old. Greg Portell, a retail partner at global strategy and management consulting firm A.T. Kearney, understands why eBay positioned itself for so long as a marketplace for everything and anything, as opposed to offering a more edited selection of products.
“If you think of successful retailers like T.J. Maxx or Marshall’s, you can justify it,” says Portell. “They aren’t known to be very neat and tidy, and they do extremely well. My guess is eBay was emphasizing this attitude, as opposed to a clean, personalized experience you’d expect from a well-curated store. eBay’s problem now, though, is they are stuck in a middle space where it’s hard to differentiate. You have smaller, niche sites that can curate and provide a less cluttered environment, which is what’s growing right now.”
by Chavie Lieber, Racked | Read more:
Image: Christie Hemm Klok
