Ebay



Example of the home page for eBay




Major Purposes:

            To sell/buy items.

Target audience:
            Anyone, who has access to a computer and an Internet connection and a eBay account.

How the auction process works:

The auction process by:

1.      Find the project/object/item you would like or are interested in by using the search bar at the top of the e bay page.

2.      Scroll through the found listings of your item until you find the one that you are most interested in purchasing/bidding on. ( Not all items are up for auction)

3.      You will be competing against other buyers and the one with the highest price wins the item, if you win you are obligated to purchase the item at the winning price, so don’t go too over the top with your bids.

4.      When you first go to bid on an item you are asked to confirm your User ID and password, so that no one other then you (unless you have given them permission) can bid on any items or create false bids.

5.      An auction normally takes a week or so to finish, depending on how long the seller wants it up for, meaning that once you have placed a bid you have to keep track of all the other bids that are being placed.

6.      There is a tool within eBay that allows you to place limit (maximum bid) by using this it means that you can place a first bid then go away and forget about it as eBay set up an interval between your first bid and maximum i.e. If you first bid £10 for something and your limit is £15 then eBay automatically set up a bid of each time you bid it goes up by only £0.50 or a £1. As soon as it hits your maximum- it will stop adding bids for you, so you will never pay anymore then you are happy to.

7.      Automatic bids have an automatic response to any other type of bid, so if you bid £10 and then straight after someone else bids £12 its most likely that they have set up a higher maximum bid then what you have just placed.

8.      The eBay system knows the limits of all the bids, automatic, that are being placed on any one item so in theory already knows who will win, before the buyer or bidders know.

9.      EBay also keeps track of all the items you are bidding on, which you can find at the top of the page in the tab titled My Ebay, it will show you all the items you have been bidding on, with colour coding to show you with ease who is winning and losing. It can also display the current bid, your bid and your maximum bid. It also track completed auctions, showing the ones you have won and lost and at which price.

10.  Easy steps to keep track of your purchases, with a click on the item you can view the item screen and view all the seller information.

How well does it fulfil these purposes?

The purpose of eBay is to sell and buy items at a cheaper price then you could in a supermarket, shop, outlet or on another on line store like http://www.play.com/, the items are to the quality that the sellers portray, mostly, each seller has a rating out of one hundred and they get rated from the buyers of their other items, rating them on delivery, price, communication, quality of the product and if there were any problems with the transaction.

Benefits and limitations of the eBay service

Benefits

You can view hundreds of the same item within a quick search, using the top search bar, (Print screen). You can check out where you can find the best price and see what ratings the sellers have on the different areas to insure that you gain the best quality for the price and item. You can join an auction on the product you are interested on to see if you can get it for an even lower price. Any of the items can be sent anywhere in the world apart from if the seller rules out certain areas.

The Search bar and My Ebay Tab Highlighted.

Limitations

The limitations to this service are that you have to be able to know how to look for the things you want, using the correct sort in categorises, know how to use the auction and to set up an automatic bidding system. You would also need an Internet connection and an eBay or a buy it now account to be able to purchase any of the items.

Why is it so successful as a shopping model?

It is a very successful shopping model as people from all over the world can view any of the items no restrictions are in place, unless needed. They can purchase the item at a price lower than the RRP (Recommended Retail Price) and it can be posted/ shipped to the buyer, all with the (sometimes) tiny postage price.