Was eBay swimming naked?
- 8.7% growth in revenue for eBay marketplace to $5.7 billion in 2010
- 94.5 million active users in 2010
- Global Ecommerce grew by 18.7% in 2010
- Amazon grew by 40% to $32.4 billion
- Why is eBay growing at less than 50% of the market and losing marketshare to rivals?
- In the good times, it ignored or abused the customer experience for both buyers and sellers
- The New York Times outlines 3 problems:
- Annoying sellers "It managed to annoy many of the people who sold goods on eBay"
- Frustrating buyers: "Buyers complained of clutter, irrelevant search results and fraud."
- Fees and favoritism: "Sellers grumbled about what they saw as excessive fees and eBay’s favoritism of big retailers over small merchants."
Phil's take: Starting more than a decade ago, I and others on my team at Creative Good warned eBay executives that their then red hot growth was masking serious problems in the customer experience that would, if ignored, hurt the company. As Warren Buffett likes to say, "It's only when the tide goes out that you learn who's been swimming naked."
Link to Creative Good
EBay Bids on a New Path to Growth
The New York Times
