eBay – if you can't beat it, join it : Online giant goes on creating marketplaces

Purpose – To study the strategies of eBay as it moves on from its now “traditional” online market for the masses to extend its expertise into areas such as business to business. The paper also considers online trading in general. Design/methodology/approach – This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context. Findings – Amanda Aldridge notes that, as well as being an online auction, eBay is increasingly acting as a shop‐front for new goods sold by professional retailers at fixed prices. She recommends that retailers start selling small batches of goods on eBay and to consider how to integrate this with their existing multi‐channel strategies. Glenn Baker warns that, with the fragmentation of traditional marketing media and the rise of the Internet, any company without an e‐marketing strategy may fall by the wayside. Dhruv Grewal et al. suggest that although online retailing started out as a separate retail format, it has now become part of a multi‐channel strategy. They list, and explain, various limiters and enablers to Internet retailing growth. Ralph A. Oliva says that some of the benefits and innovations being brought to individual customers by eBay are now available to small businesses, and that eBay is creating a new marketplace for the sort of things small businesses need. Growth to service bigger industries is a distinct possibility. Originality/value – Offers advice to businesses which have not yet taken the “online plunge” that they might be wise to test the water, accepting it as just another channel for their goods.