ABSTRACT The online auction marketplace eBay.com is a microcosm of e-commerce. Here it consist brief overview of eBay.

This document describes how one can use eBay to et the fundamentals of ecommerce! usin the Rayport and "aworski #Cs framework of the online customer interface. The elements the #Cs framework are commerce! conte$t! content! community! customi%ation! communication! and connection. eBay (ebay.com) is the worlds largest auction site, and one of the most profitable e-businesses. The successful online auction house has its roots in a 50-years old no elty item!"e# candy dispensers. "amela $err, an a id collector of "e# dispensers, came up with the idea of trading them o er the %nternet. &hen she e'pressed this idea to her boyfriend (now her husband), "ierre (midyar, he was instantly struc) with the soon-to-be-famous e-business auction concept. %n *++5, the (midyars created a company called ,uction&eb. -ater renamed eBay, the company has since become the premier online auction house, with millions of uni.ue auctions in progress and o er 500,000 new items added each day. eBay is now much more than an auction house, as we will see. But its initial success was in electronic auctions. The business model of eBay was to pro ide an electronic infrastructure for conducting mostly /0/ auctions, although it caters to small businesses as well. Technology replaces the traditional auctioneer as the intermediary between buyers and sellers. On eBay, people can buy and sell just about anything. The company collects a submission fee upfront, plus a commission as a percentage of the sale amount. The submission fee is based on the amount of exposure you want your item to receive. For example, a higher fee is required if you would li e to be among the !featured auctions" in your specific product category, and an even higher fee if you want your item to be listed on the eBay home page under Featured #tems. The auction process begins when the seller fills in the registration information and posts a description of the item for sale. The seller must specify a minimum opening bid. $ellers might set the opening bid lower than the reserve price, a minimum acceptable bid price, to generate bidding activity. #f a successful bid is mad e, the seller and the buyer negotiate the payment 1method, shipping details, warranty, and other particulars. eBay ser es as a liaison between the parties2 it is the interface through which sellers and buyers can conduct business. eBay does not maintain a costly physical in entory or deal with shipping, handling or other ser ices that businesses such as ,ma#on and other retailers must pro ide. ,fter a few years of successful operations and tens of millions of loyal users, eBay started to do e-tailing, mostly in fi'ed prices. By 0003, eBay operated se eral specialty sites, such as eBay 4otors, and made wireless trading possible. eBay also operates a business e'change in which smalland medium-si#ed enterprises can buy and sell new and used merchandise, in B0B or B0/ modes. %n addition, half.com, the famous discount e-tailer, is now part of eBay and so is "ay"al.com, the "0" payment company. eBay operates globally, permitting international trades to ta)e place. /ountry-specific sites are located in o er 05 countries. Buyers from more than *50 other countries also participate. eBay also operates a business e'change in which small- and medium-si#ed enterprises can buy and sell new and used merchandise, in B0B or B0/ modes. 6inally, eBay operates locally7 %t has o er 50 local sites in the 8nited 9tates that enable users to easily find items located near them, to browse through items of local interest, and to meet face-to-face to conclude transactions.

The impact of eBay on e-business has been profound. %ts founders too) a limited-access off-line business model! auctions!and, by using the %nternet, brought it to the des)tops of consumers worldwide. This business model consistently generates a profit and promotes a sense of community!a near addiction that )eeps traders coming bac). ,s a matter of fact, the only place where people are doing more online business than off-line business (and considerably more, at that) is auctions. 6or comparison, e-tailing is less than 0 percent of the total retailing. The online auction mar)etplace eBay.com is a microcosm of e-commerce. ,nyone with a credit card can register to sell items on eBay, and thereby reach potentially millions of online buyers, and with no upfront in estment or technical e'pertise. ,n eBay seller encounters many basic features of e-commerce, such as choosing an appropriate product, creating an auction web page, setting an initial price, illustrating a product with a photo, communicating with bidders, accepting payment, and fulfilling the order. &ith recent .uarterly profit of :5* million on :0;+ million in re enue, eBay is the .uintessential dot.com success story (&ingfield, 0000). <Bays mainstay business is facilitating transactions between sellers and buyers of automobiles, collectibles, clothing and many other items, on which it collects commissions. ,bout :3.== billion in goods were sold through the companys site in the third .uarter of 0000. <Bay is the >worlds largest online trading community,? with @5.* million registered users in 0000 (eBay 0000). <Bay attracted o er 0+ million uni.ue isitors in ,pril 0000, putting it practically e en with ,ma#on.com as the most popular shopping site, and the eighth most popular &eb property on the %nternet, according to Aupiter 4edia 4etri' (0000). <B,B ,CD <-/(44<E/< B,9%/9 The Eayport and Aawors)i =/s framewor) of the online customer interface here illustrates the >basics? of e-commerce. The elements of the customer interface in the =/s framewor) are commerce, conte't, content, community, customi#ation, communication, and connection. The source of material .uoted in this section is Eayport and Aawors)i (0000, p. *;5-5). /(44<E/< /ommerce is defined as >the sale of goods, products, or ser ices on the site.? The )ey benefit pro ided by the eBay e'ercise is the opportunity for a student to sell an item online. By listing an auction on eBay, a student e'periences the basics of an e-commerce transaction, including choosing a product to sell, creating and presenting the offer, recei ing payment, and fulfilling the order. 9tudents begin by choosing a product to sell online. This tas) in ites discussion on what products are suitable for selling online and shipping!relati ely small (smaller than a breadbo'), durable products with a high alue-to-weight ratio, including collectables and sought-after commodities. 9tudents learn why one should a oid selling hea y, bul)y, low- alue items online. <Bay offers auction listing and payment processing ser ices on a per-transaction basis, based on a percentage of prices. <Bay has a program whereby >affiliates? can steer users to eBay and recei e a payment. <Bay also uses the >subscription? method to sell ongoing ser ices such as >9.uareTrade? seller certification. <Bay >partners? with companies that offer support ser ices,

such as with 8"9 for shipping and with F%9, for ban) card ser ice. <Bay does not rely on the >ad ertiser-supported? model as does many web sites. /(CT<GT >The conte't of the website captures its aesthetic and functional loo)-and-feel.? ,t the current state of the %nternet, the aesthetic and functional aspects of a sites conte't are seen as two sides of a tradeoff. , site that is aesthetically sophisticated (e.g. a design with rich media li)e fullmotion ideo) may be limited in function for many users (e.g. a site that loads slowly, or fails to load, due to a users low-bandwidth connection or underpowered "/). The goal in designing the conte't of a site is to present an image and e'perience to the user that is consistent with the companys core alues and brand image. The conte't of the eBay site leans toward the functional side of the tradeoff. <Bay certainly has the resources to produce an aesthetically impressi e site with cutting-edge technology. %nstead, eBay chooses to hone the loo)-and-feel of a site that is familiar to its millions of long-term users. The goal of eBay is to incrementally impro e a conte't that is easy to use for eBay sellers, who are eBays paying customers and who create the bul) of content, and easy to use for eBay buyers, who are the reason for the loyalty of the sellers. /(CT<CT /ontent is defined as >all digital subHect matter? on a web site. The content of eBay is contained in continuously updated databases. The databases ser e up the descriptions and photos on the auctions, reputation information a ailable to all users, secure transaction and account information, and reference information such as eBay help files. ,uction information is literally updated second by second, because the possibility of a user placing the winning bid on an auction depends on the sites ability to .uic)ly upload and download information. The eBay e'ercise features an e'cellent e'ample of an online company whose >customers? generate most of the web site content. 9ellers, at essentially no cost to eBay, upload descriptions and pictures of items to the eBay web site, which in turn attracts bidders. (ther e'amples of web sites with isitor-generated content are product re iews at <pinions.com (0000) and ,ma#on.com (0000). /(448C%TB /ommunity is defined as >the interaction that occurs between site users.? &eb sites encourage interaction by pro iding chat rooms, multi-user games, email capability, and other user-to-user communication tools. The eBay company encourages interaction among its users when eBay ma)es money on the acti ity, and discourages interaction otherwise. /ommunication between sellers and bidders (other than the auction winner) is discouraged to minimi#e opportunities for >side transactions? that a oid eBay fees. Discussion boards sometimes ser e as little more than public customer ser ice enues, where users can complain and eBay employees who monitor the postings can respond. That being said, fostering a community of buyers and sellers is eBays reason for being. The mission of eBay is >to help practically anyone trade practically anything on earth.? The company claims to be >the leading online mar)etplace for the sale of goods and ser ices by di erse

community of indi iduals and businesses,? and states, >eBay, simply, is the home of a uni.ue online community? (eBay, 0000). <Bay allows user-to-user communication ia discussion boards, chat rooms, and >neighborhood watch? groups that ensure members learn and follow community eti.uette and guidelines. <Bay also offers opportunities for members to interact offline at trade shows and e ents. <Bay )eeps the online mar)etplace running smoothly by disciplining and e entually remo ing buyers and sellers who do not perform on their auction contracts. The eBay reputation forum is a record of comments about a user by ones trading partners, and eBay >)eeps score? of a users reputation by reporting a feedbac) rating (the net number of positi e comments) alongside each users name. , seller may communicate with a bidder in a ariety of ways, including ia the auction web page, by email, by "ostal 9er ice mail, ia messages from third-party payment ser ices, and in some cases by telephone. 9ometimes a bidder will contact a seller by email while an auction is ongoing to be reassured that the seller is responsi e and to >get a feel? for the person as a trading partner. (ther times the bidder has a legitimate .uestion, which gi es the seller an opportunity to pro ide information that impro es the chances of recei ing bids on the item, and this information can be pro ided as a re ision to the auction for all bidders to see. %n all auctions that end with a winning bid, the seller will communicate with the bidder in order to accept payment and fulfill the order. This tas) underscores the intangible costs of customer contact that one must factor into online sales. /89T(4%I,T%(C /ustomi#ation is the ability of a site to be modified to display content, or an assortment of content, that reflects the preferences of the user. , company can automate the process of customi#ing a web site, such as when ,ma#on.com suggests boo)s based on a users pre ious purchases or searches. , user can customi#e his or her web site by inputting personal data and selecting a set of features or ser ices to meet his or her preferences, such as with the >my eBay? user web page. <Bay shows three important characteristics of customi#ed web sites7 (*) users will modify a web site to meet their needs, if gi en the opportunity, (0) customi#ed web sites are >stic)y?!attract and hold users!because they meet user needs well and because users ha e an in estment of effort in the site, and (3) customi#ation can be relati ely cheap when users do it themsel es. ,s mentioned pre iously, each auction web page is an offer to sell that is custom created by a seller, including the title, description, sale terms, photos, and lin)s to other sites. ,part from the auctions, sellers and buyers ha e opportunities to customi#e their eBay e'perience. 6irst, each user has a >my eBay? page. 6or bidders, the my eBay page shows the acti e and closed auctions on which one has bid, as well as auctions the user is >watching.? 8sers can also re.uest that he or she be sent an email alert when a new auction with desired )eywords is listed. 9ellers can use the my eBay page to trac) pending, acti e, and closed auctions as well as to manage the payment and fulfillment process with winning bidders. 8sers can create a personal profile web page if they want to re eal personal information to other users, and can modify their own interface with the eBay site with a ast array of preference settings.

/(448C%/,T%(C /ommunication is defined as >the dialogue that unfolds between a site and its users.? The ease of communicating with customers ia the %nternet is both a blessing and a curse for a business. %t is a blessing because the %nternet is a ery .uic) and low cost way for customers to communicate directly with a company, and companies are happy to recei e a sales order or a payment online. %t is curse because the %nternet enables a large number of people to contact a company easily and often, and a company can be o erwhelmed with the tas) of responding to a flood of contacts. -ands <nd is a catalog merchant that has e'panded into e-commerce, and hence has a history of communicating with customers from a distance. -ands <nd enables customers to communicate with the company by email, by li e online chat, by telephone (will recei e your toll-free call or call you), and by surface mail. -ands <nd also >spea)s? to customers with a print catalog and web site with many self-help features (-ands <nd, 0000). The costs of communicating and >training? a direct customer are outweighed by future low-cost re-orders or self-ser ice purchases. <Bay has an e'tensi e online self-help resource and 6,J (fre.uently as)ed .uestions) database. (ne must na igate through a multi-step process of self-help options before being presented with an option to contact eBay by email. <Bay clearly does not want phone calls from users!it is probably easier to find an eBay phone number from an 8.9. 9ecurities and <'change /ommission filing than from the eBay web site. /(CC</T%(C /onnection is defined as >the e'tent of formal lin)ages between the site and other sites.? 9tudents are familiar with portal web sites such as Bahoo.com that pro ide many connections to other web sites, and indeed they function as a >doorway? to online resources. The eBay web site is an effecti e showcase of a low connection approach to the %nternet. <Bay )eeps its users >in-house? by offering few lin)s to other web sites. <Bay acti ely fights web sites that try to e'tract data from the eBay site, and barred auction >aggregators? from letting people search multiple auction sites from one meta-site. ,s mentioned, eBay would prefer that its users not communicate by email unless through the eBay email system. 9e eral companies ha e de eloped products that compliment the eBay auction format, such as the aforementioned search capability, online payment ser ices, web page counters, and auction management software, to name a few. <Bay has either introduced the popular features into its own web site, has bought the company, or has partnered with companies (such as 8"9 for shipping) to control the mar)etplace and become as ertically integrated as possible. The eBay strategy of control and integration does not lend itself to complimentary >connections? with many other web sites. /(C/-89%(C &or)ing with the eBay web site gi es you two perspecti es on the =-/s of the e-commerce customer interface!the perspecti e of a seller creating an auction for a good, and the perspecti e of a buyer of selling ser ices from eBay.

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