E-commerce Strategy Report: eBay's Customer Journey and Marketing

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of eBay's e-commerce strategy. It begins with an introduction to e-commerce and then examines eBay's customer interaction, including customer journeys, expectations, and how the website meets those expectations. The report further explores eBay's selling and marketing strategies, specifically focusing on the sale of female clothing. It delves into the design of eBay's e-commerce strategy, highlighting its emphasis on service differentiation, communication strategies, and applications used to support its business. The report also addresses security measures, trustworthiness, and the importance of maintaining trust in the workplace. Finally, the report concludes by summarizing the key strategies applied to support eBay's business ventures and attract customers, emphasizing the significance of trust and confidence in achieving success. The report uses different research papers and books for the analysis.

E-commerce Strategy

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1 ........................................................................................................................................1
1.1, 3.4 Present customer interaction..........................................................................................1
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................3
Selling and marketing strategy....................................................................................................3
TASK 3 (part 1) ...........................................................................................................................4
2.1 Design e-commerce strategy.................................................................................................4
TASK 4 ( part 2)..............................................................................................................................4
e-commerce strategy...................................................................................................................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES ...............................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Electronic commerce is transaction of buying and selling of goods and services online. It
draws on technologies like electronic fund transfer, inventory management system, online
transaction processing, supply chain management, mobile commerce, internet marketing,
electronic data interchange & automated data collection method. Modern e-commerce use world
wide web for transaction life cycle and other technologies are also used such as electronic mail.
E-commerce strategies are formulated for online transactions. In the present assignment, given
company is eBay which is a multinational electronic commerce organisation. The firm is
operated in around 30 countries (Asiabugwa and Munyoki, 2012). The report covers selling and
marketing strategies, customer interaction, development of electronic commerce strategy etc. It
includes the journey of customers and their expectations and strategies formulated by the firm in
order to do successful transactions online.
TASK 1
1.1, 3.4 Present customer interaction
Customer Journey:
It is defines as the complete addition of experiences that buyers go through when they
are interacting with the firm and brand. Rather then just a transaction, customer journey
documents complete experience of being a consumer. It is like a roadmap that describes about
the way to aware customer about brand and their interaction with trade name and beyond. It is
about nurturing the experience of customer. When consumer buy any product or service, they
are evaluating that a pleasurable feeling will come with the purchase. Customers enjoying if
they feel satisfied with what they bought (Chang and Graham, 2012). So it is necessary for eBay
to understand the mindset of customer and provide them good services so that they feel happy.
Way by which goods and services are delivered to customers:
Products and services are delivered to customers through distribution channels. eBay
deliver their goods and services through eBay courier service. They provide free shipping to their
potential customers. eBay also offers cash on delivery services to their buyers.
Target customers:
Target customers are defined as the individuals who are most likely to buy products.
Certain aspects need to be identified such as age, income level etc. eBay, as an electronic
1

commerce corporation, divide their services into 3 categories on the basis of that segmentation,
targeting & positioning patterns are vary. The concept of target customers for e-commerce is not
clear. They target all those customers who are most likely to buy their products. It is easy for
them to target customers but, the competition in electronic commerce business is fierce (Chen,
Pan and Ouyang, 2014). The types of services that eBay offers are:
 Online market place.
 Stub Hub, that is a platform to buy tickets to concerts, games etc.
 Classified platform, that includes brand collection.
Expectations of customers:
Every firm needs to understand that what its customers want. Expectations of customers
are high. They want excellent services and higher satisfaction. Customer expectation are the
perceived benefits and value that consumer seek when availing a service or buying a product. It
sets a bar for satisfaction of customer. It is necessary for eBay to understand the expectations of
customers and try to satisfied them so that they can experience the feeling satisfaction.
Does the web site meet the expectations of customers?:
Yes, the website of eBay meets the expectations of customers as they provide them all
the products and services they want and offer delivery on desired time. All types of products are
available on their website and they are able to buy and sell any good on eBay website. Its use is
free for buyers but, sellers have to pay some charge (Huang and Benyoucef, 2013).
Issue:
As an electronic commerce corporation, eBay face fierce competition as there are many
competitors present in the market which restricts the growth and sustainability of the firm. Its
main competitors are eBid, google, amazon etc.
Risks in deploying business on internet:
Electronic commerce business exposes significant risk such as sales tax law, internet
fraud, privacy law, improper advertising and marketing etc. All these factors highly influence the
e-commerce business of eBay. Impact of these factors can be reduced by applying appropriate
strategy.
Applications used by eBay:
Some applications used by eBay are:
 Automated online assistance
2

 International and domestic payment system
 Order tracking and online shopping
 Enterprise content management
 Document automation in logistics and supply chain
All these applications helps eBay in smooth and effective transaction of selling and
buying process. Review process is a good idea in order to increase the effectiveness of the
services provided by eBay and make corrections as needed (Kourouthanassis and Giaglis, 2012).
Problems of using websites for promotion:
There are some problems which a firm face when promoting its business on website.
Sometimes wrong information is which puts negative impact of firm on customers. The chances
of misuse of websites by hackers are high.
TASK 2
Selling and marketing strategy
According to this project, the selected business is eBay on which products and services
are sale. It is a multinational electronic commerce organisation that facilitates business to
consumer and customer to customer sales by its websites. Firm is operates in various countries
successfully. The firm manages its website, i.e., eBay.com which is a shopping and online
auction website through which businesses and people can buy and sell different types of products
and services all over the world. Buyers can use these websites for free whereas sellers have to
pay fees after some free listings.
As per the given assignment, chosen product to sell on eBay is female clothing. Different
varieties of clothes are includes in it at best prices. Clothes varies on the basis of ethnicity,
geography, traditions, culture, climate, age etc. Products of female are categorised into many
categories and sub categories includes jackets, saris, sports clothing, skirts, tops, jeans, jeggings,
outer wear, one piece suits, gowns, baby girl clothes, suits, neckwear, wedding clothes, trousers ,
shorts etc. All these enhance the beauty of women and get them elegant look (Li and Xie, 2012).
The target audience of chosen products are females of all the areas of world. Clothes are
designed as per the tradition and culture of different places. In this modern era, girls are more
conscious towards its dressing sense and emphasize on wearing branded clothes. The chosen
product is of good quality as well as its prices are low. So, due to this reason females attracts
3

more towards the product as the get high quality branded product in low prices. Selling and
marketing strategies helps the firm in attracting large number of customers and earn high high
profits and revenues so that business can attain growth and success.
TASK 3 (part 1)
2.1 Design e-commerce strategy
The company has been constantly has been reinventing itself and its strategy put
emphasis on first mover advantage. The business strategy of eBay is defined as service
differentiation which emphasize on buyers and sellers user experience. The firm has 3 major
areas of business, that is, marketplace, GSI, paypal.
It is a good market place for bringing buyers and sellers by auction or fixed price basis
administering an opportunity to purchasers to either buy or bid as is listed. Assistance tools and
software are administered for the traders such as, selling manager, turbo lister which assists in
shipping calculator, process automating & reporting tools. eBay, purely adheres and emphasize
on values of firm, which is a communication strategy (Liang and et. al., 2011). It provides
effective results. For purchasers, it focuses on selection, trust, convenience and value.
The communication strategy for sellers is:
 Opportunity to enhance sales.
 Access to large global markets
 Efficient distribution and marketing practices.
As the variety of products are increased, number of customers of eBay also increases.
The firm offer its goods and services worldwide now. Initially, they have less variety of
products, but now as the firm expand its business and its goods are also increases. They start
with small amount of investment and now the firm invest huge amount on advertisement. High
revenues are earned by the company by its expansion and growth (Mohapatra, 2013). The
applications used by eBay assist the process of customer journey as the use highly innovative
technology in its process.
TASK 4 ( part 2)
e-commerce strategy
Applications to support business
4

Applications that can be used in both retail and wholesale in e-commerce where customer
can directly buy products through online stores. Where ebay is a company that offers different
products which attracts the customers. Marketing is also an another application of e-commerce
this helps companies like ebay to fix the price of the product and for the customers negotiation
helps to build up the relation and trust with the company and for the promotional purpose
facebook and twitter applications are there as most of the people uses them.
Security measures
Most of the companies do not know about how to secure the data from hackers. This
issue can be resolved by complete check up of the data that what flaws are there and what things
are at risk (Mohapatra, 2013). This can be resolved by keeping recruiting highly specialised IT
department which can keep the important data safely and the customers information as well like
Bank Account #, etc.
Trustworthiness of company
There are effective ways which is used by the ebay to invite large number of customers
towards its products and services. With the help of this customers easily understand that is trust
worthy. It can be understood by some points are as follows:
 Show competence
 Keep promises
 Speak confidently in front of customers
 Show empathy
 Be vulnerable
 Be truthful
All these elements helps in proving that company is more trusty in customers mind so
that they easily use its products and services and satisfy their needs.
Nature of trust:
Trust is described as the positive relationship between two persons. If persons are trusting
one another they can easily develop effective relations which are valuable for them in order to
achieve growth and success in their operations which are performed by them. The nature of trust
are always positive and it reflects the bounding between employees at E bay. Trust is the most
5

vital factors which helps business to achieve growth and success in their overall business and
they can easily sustain their images at market places for long time durations.
Importance of maintaining trust at work place
Trust is most essential factor and it should be maintained at work place so that employees
can develop strong relations among them in order to achieve trust of employers at work place. If
there is trust then employees will work effectively in order to achieve their aims and objectives.
Trust should be maintained at work place in order to know what is exactly happening at work
places as these are most essentials in order to evaluate that working in carried out in right
direction or not (Turban and et. al., 2017).
Strategies applied to support business ventures
The strategies which are applied to support business ventures are linked with building
trust among employees at work place so they can develop new and innovative ideas and carry out
their operations in effective and planned ways. Trust can help organisation to develop strong
relations among all individuals thus they will attain growth and success in their overall business
operations.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it is concluded that Managers should develop trust and confidence
among all the members in order to achieve growth and success in their operations. Different
strategies are used in order to attract customers so they can enhance their sales and profitability
ratios. Different strategies assists in attracting large number of customers and increases the
profitability of the firm.
6

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Asiabugwa, M. A. and Munyoki, J., 2012. E-Commerce strategy and performance of commercial
banks in Kenya. In AIBUMA International Business and Management conference
paper.
Chang, K. P. and Graham, G., 2012. E-business strategy in supply chain collaboration: An
empirical study of B2B e-commerce project in Taiwan. International Journal of
Electronic Business Management. 10(2). p.101.
Chen, J. E., Pan, S. L. and Ouyang, T. H., 2014. Routine reconfiguration in traditional
companies’e-commerce strategy implementation: A trajectory perspective. Information
& Management. 51(2). pp.270-282.
Huang, Z. and Benyoucef, M., 2013. From e-commerce to social commerce: A close look at
design features. Electronic Commerce Research and Applications. 12(4). pp.246-259.
Kourouthanassis, P. E. and Giaglis, G. M., 2012. Introduction to the special issue mobile
commerce: the past, present, and future of mobile commerce research. International
Journal of Electronic Commerce. 16(4). pp.5-18.
Li, P. and Xie, W., 2012. A strategic framework for determining e-commerce adoption. Journal
of Technology Management in China. 7(1). pp.22-35.
Liang, T. P. and et. al., 2011. What drives social commerce: The role of social support and
relationship quality. International Journal of Electronic Commerce. 16(2). pp.69-90.
Mohapatra, S., 2013. E-commerce Strategy. In E-Commerce Strategy (pp. 155-171). Springer
US.
Mohapatra, S., 2013. Technologies for E-commerce. In E-Commerce Strategy (pp. 27-43).
Springer US.
Turban, E. and et. al., 2017. Electronic Commerce 2018: A Managerial and Social Networks
Perspective. Springer.
7

8