Archive for December, 2009
December 1st, 2009
I was reviewing last year's Black Friday and CyberMonday results and trends and noticed some interesting differences in eBay's strategy between 2008 and 2009.
2008 – A Cornucopia of Online Promotions…
Last year, eBay's Holiday promotional mix was best described as heavy online promotion. They partnered with Microsoft to offer up to 30% off on Bing (Live back then) cashback. On top of that eBay flooded the marketplace with a ton of coupons (10% off $100, free ship, etc.)
2009 – Back to TV (Come to think of it….)
This year Bing bumped up from 8 to 10% cash back for CyberMonday which may seem decent, but compared to last year is paltry. Last year, eBay was one of the only merchants in Bing Cashback, this year the program is very robust with hundreds of merchants and many of them offering 15% or more, so eBay actually feels under funded in that environment.
eBay doesn't seem to be running any major coupons that I've seen either.
However, while eBay has pulled back from cashback and coupons, they are running TV spots and interactive media like nobody's business.
One idea of why they would change strategies is maybe they evaluated the Q408 strategy and found it to be more cannibalistic (giving discounts to folks already going to buy on eBay) vs. incremental (new buyers).
eBay is a no-show for CyberMonday 
I did a comprehensive survey this morning (CyberMonday morning) and pretty much every online retailer ran some great CyberMonday promos: Walmart.com, Amazon,com, target.com, toysrus.com, buy.com - you name it, they were running strong CyberMonday promotions, highlighting great gifts, etc. Here's what eBay was running this morning: (click to enlarge)
You can look at this page with a microscope and you won't find the words Cyber or Monday and certainly not CyberMonday anywhere. eBay is really missing the boat IMO by not joining with the rest of the online retail world and doing something special on this day.
Conclusion
We're watching the data closely from BF and CM to see what early holiday shopping trends we are seeing – eBay Strategies readers, what are you seeing? Do you think eBay's focus on TV vs. Online promos is the right strategy this year?
SeekingAlpha disclosure – I am long Google and Amazon, eBay is an investor in ChannelAdvisor where I am CEO.
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December 1st, 2009
I wanted to share a couple of videos that ran today on CNBC.
The first features eBay CEO, John Donahoe, discussing eBay’s take on Black Friday activity in the marketplace and PayPal’s role in that. He also talks about m-commerce, and the early successes of the eBay Mobile application…
The second features PayPal president, Scott Thompson, discussing the 20% growth in PayPal traffic on Black Friday when compared to one year ago. He also discusses mobile payments:
Cheers,
RBH
December 1st, 2009
One of the most popular pages on my website is my eBay Tools page at http://www.skipmcgrath.com/ebay-tools.shtml.
eBay Tools and Resources
I have just finished updating the eBay tools page and have added over a dozen new tools. Many of the eBay tools are free, some are low cost and a few are a bit pricy. But most of them will save you time and money if you use them.
I have broken down the list of tools in several categories:
eBay Product Research/Sourcing Tools
eBay Tools for Sellers
eBay Tools for Buyers
So when you get the time, go over to my eBay Tools page and see if there is anything there that interests you. If you know of some good tools that I missed, just post a comment to this post.
If you would like to learn how to make money on eBay, take a look at The Complete eBay Marketing System, by eBay Gold PowerSeller, Skip McGrath. This printed course costs about the same as a college textbook, but can earn you much more money.
