E-commerce

EBay is an online shopping and auction website that allows people and websites to trade, buy and sell variety of goods and services worldwide. Majority of sales takes place through a set time auction format. eBay has established localized websites as Paypal, Kijiji, and Stubhub in various countries to facilitate easier trading. eBay auctions provide a convenient, efficient, and entertaining market place in which to sell and shop (David and Richard, 2 000).eBay is a phenomenon in the expanding universe of e-commerce. Many people have made eBay an important part of their live and businesses, where they out bargain or find items for their personal collections(David and Richard,2000).The use of Internet allows eBay to offer its customers something distinctive. According to David and Richard (2000) when Shirley Bryant began listing her more expensive books on eBay auctions, items that would normally stay for months in her store catalog sold quickly at eBay and at good prices and better still, her local business took on global proportions (p.1).She soon started dealing with customers all over the world saying that eBay provided her customers she would never have found on catalogs or store. Internet can also allow eBay to solve a new set of problems for customers. At a given time web surfer can find over 4 million different sites in over 2,000 different product categories on eBay. Internet site is the world largest market for person to person trading (David and Richard, 2000).The person to person trading forums on the internet allows interaction, collectible shows, auction houses and classified ads, therefore expanding geographical reach of sellers enormously and increasing buyers profitability.

eBay reaches a very wide range of customers through the internet. It is one of the most important aspects in expanding the e commerce industry. Considering the number of people who browse the internet daily, approximetaly 500 million consumers are reached every day (David and Richard, 2000).With such an intense growth in internet connection and usage it means that the amount of business being carried by an average user is also growing significantly meaning there is more to be purchased over the net. The  consumers that can use eBay  include those who want airline tickets, home morgages,drugs,auotomobiles and even groceries through web house. Accordingly David (2000) says that a research has shown an increase in online retail sales by 108 billion (p.7).However the society of advancement of education (2006) says that a growing number of users are buying less online, approximately 41, due to growing worries about identity theft, which include mishandling of data by credit card processing company card systems (p.1). eBay practices the dynamic pricing where transaction prices are determined by buyers. The internet has enabled to lift commercial activities directly from offline model thus providing no greater value. The only thing that online auction has done is to minimize risk and maintain business, by valuing the cost of goods as the cost of transferring them electronically. From a consumers perspective theres no difference in purchasing the same good or service on a retailers catalog and purchasing it on the internet. However since the introduction of price line in 1995 the buyer gets a low price on a good or service on the net, and the seller unloads something that might otherwise expire as worthless (David and Richard, 2000).

e Bay makes a growing company to engage in different mechanisms called site policing for communication of the companys values to millions of active users  which is limited to e-mails and various bulletin boards, newsletters and announcements it places on its site. In the early years, when the community was small eBay values were passed to new users by veteran buyers and sellers (David and Richard, 2000).The rate of growth of eBay makes it impossible for an organization to manage its infrastructure efficiently. Constant increase in human traffic in eBay web site requires constant upgrading of technology and expansion of network infrastructure, engineer staff and transaction processing systems e.g. installation of web servers with the company hosting supplier. Lack of implementation may result in slower response by users. Managing of a dot com company requires new and unique management that will scale the organization and identify opportunities, come up with a vision and organize improvisers. Growing internet companies require personnel with in depth knowledge in managing processes and people. The launch of online stock trading meant that companies had to employ personnel with knowledge in online forex trading so as to keep the company in touch with the market trends.

The power of internet has helped eBay to perform existing transactions at a faster pace since most of the people in the world have access to the internet. In a magazine e business, internet has helped to boost investment in eBay. There has been a major increase in previous years market performance and reinforcing of the development agencys to be at the top of technology. John de Kanter a chief executive of In Staffs said that since the start of use of internet to market the institution, a new feel and look  on the institution  site has been created  with even modern design that provide in depth information thus making it easier for people to browse through the site. Since its launch In Staffs has seen significant leadership in technology innovation and internal investments.Tomtom (2007) has also linked with Google to meet the growing demands of its customers through the internet (p.22).Tomtom said that its users were able to transfer their data into Tomtom devices through the net. Without the internet then such data would be outdated therefore internet plays a major role in Tomtom .When an award winning  Stockton e-tail specialists Visual soft launched its ground breaking designer clothing as on line sale, shoppers spent a massive on their clothing, it was  named the winner of the Design of the Year Award. The director of Visual soft said that the approach to web development was the key success factor (Gale, 2009). Internet is unleashing a wave of change in eBay and its clearly seen in various companies. As the Cisco, Chris Sionton says since the launch of internet in his company it has been easier to transact business within the company.

Internet has a number effect to the people, environment, systems and strategy structure of eBay. Internet creates thousand of employment opportunities ranging from programmers, managers and software engineers. Stock markets in the world are currently trading online. It has also made companies to emerge faster and compete with higher ranking companies in the world. It also creates a conducive environment where every employee has the freedom of speech. According to David and Richard (2000), Pierre said that he looked upon his employees to speak out if the company management was doing something that was not right.

Actually he said that he had empowered everyone to be the guardian of culture (p.98).The internet helps in continual learning, Systems thinking and open information flow in the organization thus helping the organization in better decision making, resource mobilization and environment understanding. Dot com companies run into unanticipated problems and opportunities with startling regularity making them more efficient and effective (David and Richard, 2000).When a company has a mission, like to be the worlds largest online auction company, the management will make its decisions in regard to its mission .Thus through the internet eBay has facilitated making key decisions quickly and effectively. Through the internet eBay facilitates continued new programs in the company, new sites and major initiatives. This reveals the companys involvement in problems and opportunities. Internet has helped the companies to grow very quickly. Accordingly e-commerce environment is growing at a very high rate and changing quickly. The companies have to build substantial excess capacity systems that can hold excess growth human traffic in their eBay websites (David and Richard, 2000).