Introduction
eBay has been one of the front runners when it comes to e-commerce and web-based businesses systems. The company launched itself in the 90s in the face of the dot com growth and the unique online auction-based business formula triggered the success of the company enabling it to survive the crash that followed. The company brought about a virtual marketplace for businesses and customers to interact with each other.
Thesis Statement
The main thesis of this paper is that eBay has had an impact on the environment surrounding the company, the stakeholders, and the eCommerce industry in a manner of the Tetrad Effect.
eBay
eBay has established itself by taking the role of the middle man and serving as a facilitator to the sellers and buyers online. The company has provided a virtual marketplace for the sellers and the customers to convene and interact through. This has allowed the company to make profits even though the heavy legwork is done by its users, therefore, keeping the cost of its operations very low.
The eBay way has been to invest the very little capital that is available into technology and to outlast the competitors in the market by acquiring their operations to expand on one’s operations. eBay focuses on customer service to keep its customers and users loyal to the products and services that the company provides. The company also focused on customer loyalty by building a forum or a user community that encourages the users to make use of the company’s products and services. The eBay way has been to organize its product and service offering around the individual businesses so that each unit can be managed as a whole. The company has also kept the interface for the web-based operations simple and clean making way for easy maintenance at controlled costs.
Impact on Communication and Media
eBay has had a significant impact on the communication and media elements in the retail industry. Before eBay, most of the transactions specifically about auctions took place in real markets based on the regions of operations. eBay however brought new technology, the virtual market[pace for the sellers and the buyers allowing them to come together in the virtual environment and conduct their transaction activities online. This increases eCommerce in general while putting online auctions at the forefront. As a result of eBay, the medium of communication changed from telephone and direct physical presence at the auctions to virtual presence at the online marketplaces.
Impact on People
The impact of the business and service proposition provide by eBay to the sellers and the customers has been significant as well. The sellers have been able to reduce their cost of getting the products to the customers as well as reduce their costs of viewership and creating awareness of their product by selling through eBay. Almost anybody can access eBay and post an object or item to be auctioned. Similarly, the customers also find it much feasible and convenient to log on to the internet and check for the products that they want on eBay through the search engine. This reduces the costs as well as the time associated with conducting purchases for both the sellers and the buyers.
Tetrad Theory & eBay
eBay has made it possible to enhance ecommerce activity and increase the number of transaction that are conducted on the internet. In the wake of the eBay company ecommerce along with online trading has flourished. Small businesses as well as large corporations find it much easier to build their business and reach their customers through eBay.
The reverses however that have been made due to eBay have included the increase in organized crime online with identity theft and credit card fraud. Online transactions have always been prone to identity theft as the medium is relatively insecure. However the vats volume of transactions and the initial low level of security online along with the developed resources available to criminals have increased the number of identity thefts online as a result of increase online transactions.
The retrieval that has been made possible by the eBay company has been the retrieval of the concept of auctioning. Previously auctions were thought of a patient old man’s source of business where one had the time to attend an auction and place bids. With eBay every one above the age of 187 is able to transact online and place bids on the portal. The concept of auction has been re-launched as an e-auction through eBay.
The success of eBay and the dramatic growth of ecommerce have led to decrease in traffic to local business that are not conducting their trading and transactions online. This is because other regional businesses and international accompanies have made use of eBay to capture the market that is available to them through the internet. This matched with the low costs of operations online has reduced the success of small business not trading online making them relatively obsolete.
Conclusion
The growth and the success of eBay combined with the increase in ecommerce that has been triggered by the company clearly depicts that the Tetrad effect is in play here with significant apparent enhances, retrievals, reverses and obsolensce.
References
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