ebay buyer - post3 (final for this session)

(Post 3 of the Meg Sloan talk)

Given this information, who is NOT a great target buyer for eBay?

• buyers that see online as last resort
• don't like shopping
• want speed above all else

What kind of opportunity does focusing on these four segments leave?

• Majority of frequent shoppers
• Shopping online 160m times/month
• Buy 60m items/month
• They shop 2X more than other shoppers

(showed video of some of these segments from their on-site/in-home visits to buyers and comments)

One weird guy Chad that spends all day looking for typos to get a deal

The current eBay buyer experience (October 06 dataset referenced)

• eBay comes to mind first (good news)
  • 25% - first choice, 80% in the set of first brands to shop online
  • eBay's preference is 10 points above the next best competitor
• The brand is unique and well loved (good news)
  • 70% - eBay is among my favorite shopping sites
  • 1.3 times more likely to be considered a favorite than other online shopping sites
  • Buyers give eBay high ratings on price, selection and entertainment
  • eBay's brand dna (compared to goog/amzn) is shopping+entertainment+tech+inet.
• Buying on eBay comes with issues. (bad news)
• Some of them have significant implications (real bad news)

Why buyers love eBay?

• High ratings on price, selection and entertainment

Top buyer issues

• Entertainment/fun factor has worn off to some degree
  • Buyers that think eBay is fun bid 2x of those that don't
• Shipping/deals
  • 2/4 segments are price driven - most sensitive to this
  • Most buyer attrition is due to 'too high' shipping
  • Total price matters! (could have told you that in 2004 :) )
  • Shipping costs kills word of mouth
• Based on buyer survey here are the top bad things:
  • Item was late
  • S+H too expensive
  • Not as described
  • Seller unresponsive
• Secondary issues:
  • Never received
  • Item was damaged
  • Poorly packaged
  • Unddeserved negative feedback
  • sold as genuine, but was not

Some data was presented showing that when these bad experiences happen, the buyers leave (worst case) or start buying less/take a breather.

Who does the buyer blame? Overwhelmingly they blame the seller. Buyers want eBay to focus on:

• Shipping (sense a theme here?)
• Feedback
• Ease of use
• Safety
• Buyer/seller conflict resolution

eBay Strategies