Electronic commerce

2. eBay

• 2. eBay
• In 2021, eBay garnered 1.7 billion visits per month (mobile and desktop), making it one of the most visited ecommerce sites in the world. While eBay lets users buy and sell new products, this online retail marketplace is still considered as one of the world’s largest P2P online marketplace. 
• During the first quarter of 2021, eBay stock dropped but it managed to generate a revenue of USD 3 billion. In January 2022, the company had a market value of USD 41.517 billion, a huge leap from 2021’s USD 34.64 billion and 2020’s USD 29.61 billion. As of writing, eBay currently ranks 9th in terms of market cap, with USD 37.39 billion. 
• In recent years, eBay made changes to its platform, which now makes it resemble the way Amazon operates. It implemented a group listing scheme using structured data, which requires sellers to include product identifiers in their listings. This helps visitors find the best price for a certain product easily. 
• Furthermore, eBay’s Best Price Guarantee offers consumers a generous 110% rebate to make up for the price difference between a product they bought on eBay and an identical listing on a competing website. It also introduced the Guaranteed Delivery scheme in 2018, which offers consumers guaranteed shipping (currently only available in the US) within a period of three days or less.
• eBay has also enhanced its ad sales, encouraging sellers to use promoted listings to advertise their products. These first-party ads enable eBay to collect ad revenue, while helping users stay on the site instead of getting redirected to a different website. 
• In a bid to increase the company’s profit margin, eBay has severed ties with PayPal, an eBay company, in 2021. This move allowed eBay to handle payments in-house, enabling the company to offer more value to their sellers.
• Altogether, eBay’s strategic actions could help increase not only its profit margins but also its gross merchandise value.