The Present Situation and the Trend of Development of eBay of the E—commerce

Abstract：Purpose-the purpose of this essay is to review the literature on the present situation and the trend of development of eBay of the E-commerce. It also analysis the current state of the process and point out some areas which need to improve in the eBay.

Keywords：eBay， Taobao， E-commerce， process

Current state of the process

1.Find an item. Enter keywords into the search box located at the top of any page， or browse through our list of categories on the home page.

2.Learn about the item. Read the item description carefully. If there are any questions about the item， ask the seller by clicking the “Ask seller a question” link.

3.Wait for the answer from the seller. After asking the seller some questions， buyer should check the webpage to find out if the seller has provided an expectative answer.

4.Review the seller’s Feedback. View the seller’s business reputation by looking at his or her Feedback Score， and read the comments left by previous buyers to be sure that this is a seller that can be trusted.

5.Bid or Buy It Now. Check the item page to see what purchase options are available. One can either place a bid on an item or purchase it instantly using Buy It Now. All bids are active until the auction ends. If the buyer wins a listing， they are obligated to complete the transaction.

6.Pay for the items （pay PayPal）. After win or purchase the item， send the payment to the seller. If the seller offers PayPal， click the Pay Now button on the items page to pay. If the seller doesn’t offer PayPal， he or she will send an email with information on how to pay and where to send the payment.

7.Repeat the steps above for other items. Repeat steps 2 to 6 for other items.

8.Wait for the items. Wait for the post office to send the items from the seller.

9.Pay for the item （pay the seller）. After receiving the items， buyer should teller PayPal to pay the seller.（eBay， 2008）

Areas which need improvements

The eBay does not have a convenient way to communicate the buyers and the sellers. This problem usually happens on step 2 and 3. With the “Ask seller a question” link buyers cannot easily ask the sellers the information they want to know and the sellers cannot answer the questions immediately. Normally it will take the buyers several hours to wait for the answers from sellers. If the buyers are in a hurry， they may not have time to make sure if the item is suit for them and the seller can be trusted.

Another problem is if buyer buys many items from one seller at one time， there is no method for buyers and sellers to discuss about the questions like shipping fee， price discount etc. Buyers have to repeat step 2 to 6 without any more convenient methods.

Reengineer the process

Consider about the communication problem with eBay， there is an excellent example in Chinese C2C market which deals with this problem very well： Taobao. Taobao is a completely free online C2C platform， establish in China in 2003， founded by Alibaba.com （Kathy， 2008）. According to 2008 China Online Shopping Report， Taobao own 70.4 percent of Chinese online customers while only 8 percent of customers chose eBay in 2007 （China IntelliConsulting， 2008）. There are several reasons for the success of Taobao， such as completely free of using， the different target groups and the different webpage designing. Taobao also has a very important aspect to make it grow so soon， the high satisfaction of communication.

Taobao provide a online instant massager caller Aliwangwang， which is widely used among the customers of Taobao. With this tool， the buyers and the sellers can communicate very easily and conveniently. They can get know about the product in a short time and negotiate it before purchase （Kathy， 2008）. Although some sellers from eBay began to use Skype as a communication tool since 2006， not every seller will provide this method. Most of the seller will still follow the original way of trading and almost no direct communication happened between the sellers and the buyers （Chen et al.， 2007）.

To deal with the communication problem， eBay should also provide a useful and acceptable instant massager for all eBay users. With this tool， the whole buying process will be shortened， especially the time when the buyers need to wait for the answer of the sellers. According to figure 1 the average waiting time is 12 hours， because sellers may only check their webpage one or two times a day. But with an instant massager tool， buyers can easily find the sellers they want and communicate with them directly. The asking and answering time will be quite shorter compare with now. According to personal experience， the average time will be 10 to 30 minutes. Besides， buyers can have another method to understand the sellers better and to make sure that the sellers can be trust， not just review the seller’s Feedback.

With the directly communication， buyers can also discuss many other problems with sellers， such as buying extra items， shipping fee. This will also shorten the whole process.

With the instant massager， the whole buying process will change in several places：

1.Learn about the item. Read the item description carefully. If there are any questions about the item， ask the seller by instant massager.

2.Discuss about the item. Buyers can discuss the questions about the items and the fee with the sellers by using the instant massager.

Reference：

[1]Chen， J.， Zhang， C.， Yuan， Y.， Huang， L. （2007）. Understanding the emerging C2C electronic market in China： an experience-seeking social marketplace. Electronic Markets. 17（2）， pp. 86-100.

[2]China IntelliConsulting. （2008）. 2008 China Online Shopping Report. [Accessed Jun 2， 2008] （In Chinese）