On-Line Auction Sites Take Enterprise And Commerce To The People In The Street, And Enable Small Family Businesses To Vie Worldwide.
posted in Bricks and Mortar Business |In 1995 a new company was set up under the name of AuctionWeb. In January 1997 it hosted two million online auctions and by the finish of that year the company changed its name to EBay. A new Internet Business was underway, enabling the general public to sell used objects on the World Wide Web. The company was so profitable that it went public in 1998 and made the two founders instant billionaires. EBay has allowed millions of people to reach out from their homes and advertise just about any used object they want to put up for sale selling or distributing goods and services employing the internet. Just about anything can be sold on EBay, but there are legal and moral codes of practice in place, and an comprehensive list of prohibited items that cannot be listed for evident reasons i.e. military hardware, Alcohol, tobacco etc.
Blue Chip companies also became conscious that they could employ this new channel to shift products as well. IBM was one of the first companies to sell new products and services on EBay, utilising competitive auctions and creating the idea of an online storefront. For IBM this was incremental business and online sales were probably facilitated by their well established brand name and marketing budget. On the other hand it was obvious to many smaller businesses that EBay could be an effective approach to develop their own clientele, from a small region, into a countrywide or possibly an international marketplace. With little or no resources for advertising, small companies could even Work From Home and compete in the same market, solely on price and customer service.
Developments in EBay to allow set price sales, has in effect opened the site up to just about every sort of commercial business. With the site split into two fundamentally different types of sales, it caters for second hand and unused items side by side. Auctions are chiefly, but not exclusively for second hand items and “Buy it now” listings tend to focussed on unused products. You might have just started up your own Internet Business and Work From Home, or you might be an well-known distributor for branded goods. Whatever the case, EBay has set up a virtual shop front for millions of small businesses, where they get appraised on their customer service, and in the majority of cases enjoy a positive cash flow by using PayPal to collect monies from customers.
A complete Internet Business has been created to distribute “EBay Seller Tools” to small to medium size companies. These online tools aid the smaller businesses, a number of which Work From Home, to keep track of their sales, their unpaid bills and the transmitting of feedback to multiple customers. Ebay had in fact made possible the creation of these novel Online Jobs, across immense geographical areas. The company realized that communication was a key factor in the whole EBay experience. So, in order to keep the costs low on telephone calls, EBay purchased a company called Skype in 2005. This acquisition has allowed EBay sellers and buyers to speak to each other utilising the internet for free, thus lowering the cost of following up or querying the millions of transactions done every day. Ebay has reformed how people search for, buy and sell goods across the world. It has helped in the recycling of millions of second-hand items, saving prized natural resources. EBay has also created thousands of Online Jobs supporting this new way of commerce. I for one take pleasure in this virtual emporium selling every conceivable form of new and used merchandise.
