A MINOR PROJECT REPORT

ON
Impact Of Social Media Marketing On Business Development With Special Reference
To E Bay.Com
SUBMITTED IN THE PARTIAL FULFILLMENT FOR THE AWARD OF
THE DEGREE OF BACHELOR IN BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF:

Ms. Sonam Goel
Assistant Professor, RDIAS
SUBMITTED BY:
Name of the Student: Tanya Kapoor
Enrollment No.: 05915901713
BBA, Semester 3rd
Batch 2013 - 2016

RUKMINI DEVI INSTITUTE OF ADVANCED STUDIES

An ISO 9001:2008 Certified Institute
(Approved by AICTE, HRD Ministry, Govt. of India)
Affiliated to Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, Delhi
2A & 2B, Madhuban Chowk, Outer Ring Road, Phase-1, Delhi-110085
1

Table of Contents
Student declaration
Certificate of the guide
Acknowledgment
Page no.
Chapter I
History

09

Theoretical links

13

Chapter II
Company Profile

19

Chapter III
Research Methodology

33

Purpose of the study

34

Method of data collection

34

Limitations

36

Chapter IV
Data Analysis and Interpretation

37
2

Chapter V
Findings & Conclusions

52

Chapter VI
Suggestion/ Recommendation

55

STUDENT sDECLARATION

This is to certify that I have completed the Project titled IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA
MARKETING ON BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO E
BAY.COM under the guidance of Ms. Sonam Goel in the partial fulfillment of the
requirement for the award of the degree of Bachelor in Business Administration from
Rukmini Devi Institute of Advanced Studies, New Delhi.

This is an original work and I have not submitted it earlier elsewhere.

Name of the Student: Tanya Kapoor

Enrollment No.: 05915901713
Class & Section: BBA 1nd Shift

CERTIFICATE OF GUIDE

This is to certify that the project titled IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING
ON BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO E BAY.COM is
an academic work done by Tanya Kapoor submitted in the partial fulfillment of the
requirement for the award of the degree of Bachelors in Business Administration from
Rukmini Devi Institute of Advanced Studies, New Delhi. under my guidance and
direction.

To the best of my knowledge and belief the data and information presented by him / her in
the project has not been submitted earlier elsewhere.

Name of the Faculty: Ms. Sonam Goel

Assistant Professor
RDIAS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I offer my sincere thanks and humble regards to Rukmini Devi Institute Of Advanced Studies,
GGSIP University, New Delhi for imparting us very valuable professional training in MBA.

I pay my gratitude and sincere regards to Ms. Sonam Goel., my project Guide for giving
me the cream of his knowledge. I am thankful to her as she has been a constant source of
advice, motivation and inspiration. I am also thankful to her for giving her suggestions and
encouragement throughout the project work.

I take the opportunity to express my gratitude and thanks to our computer Lab staff and
library staff for providing me opportunity to utilize their resources for the completion of the
project.

I am also thankful to my family and friends for constantly motivating me to complete the
project and providing me an environment which enhanced my knowledge.

Name of the Student: Tanya Kapoor

Enrollment No.: 05915901713
Class & Section: BBA III Semester, 1nd Shift

Chapter-1
Introduction

Social Network
A social network is a social structure made up of a set of social actors (such as individuals or
organizations) and a set of the dyadic ties between these actors. The social network
perspective provides a set of methods for analyzing the structure of whole social entities as
well as a variety of theories explaining the patterns observed in these structures. The study of
these structures uses social network analysis to identify local and global patterns, locate
influential entities, and examine network dynamics.
Social networks and the analysis of them is an inherently interdisciplinaryacademic field
which emerged from social psychology, sociology, statistics, and graph theory. Georg
Simmel authored early structural theories in sociology emphasizing the dynamics of triads
and "web of group affiliations ."Jacob Moreno is credited with developing the
first sociograms in the 1930s to study interpersonal relationships. These approaches were
mathematically formalized in the 1950s and theories and methods of social networks became
pervasive in the social and behavioral sciences by the 1980s. Social network analysis is now
one of the major paradigms in contemporary sociology, and is also employed in a number of
other social and formal sciences. Together with other complex networks, it forms part of the
nascent field of network science

Overview
The social network is a theoretical construct useful in the social sciences to study
relationships between individuals, groups , organizations, or even entire societies (social units,
see differentiation). The term is used to describe a social structure determined by
such interactions. The ties through which any given social unit connects represent the
convergence of the various social contacts of that unit. This theoretical approach is,
necessarily, relational. Anaxiom of the social network approach to understanding social
interaction is that social phenomena should be primarily conceived and investigated through
the properties of relations between and within units, instead of the properties of these units
8

themselves. Thus, one common criticism of social network theory is that individual agency is
often ignored although this may not be the case in practice (see agent-based modeling).
Precisely because many different types of relations, singular or in combination, form these
network configurations, network analytics are useful to a broad range of research enterprises.
In social science, these fields of study include, but are not limited
to anthropology, biology, communication studies, economics ,geography, information
science, organizational studies, social psychology , sociology, and sociolinguistics.

History
In the late 1890s, both mile Durkheim and Ferdinand Tnnies foreshadowed the idea of
social networks in their theories and research of social groups. Tnnies argued that social
groups can exist as personal and direct social ties that either link individuals who share values
and belief (Gemeinschaft, German, commonly translated as "community") or impersonal,
formal, and instrumental social links (Gesellschaft, German, commonly translated as "society"
]Durkheim gave a non-individualistic explanation of social facts, arguing that social
phenomena arise when interacting individuals constitute a reality that can no longer be
accounted for in terms of the properties of individual actors Georg Simmel, writing at the turn
of the twentieth century, pointed to the nature of networks and the effect of network size on
interaction and examined the likelihood of interaction in loosely knit networks rather than
groups.
Major developments in the field can be seen in the 1930s by several groups in psychology,
anthropology, and mathematics working independently. In psychology, in the 1930s, Jacob L.
Moreno began systematic recording and analysis of social interaction in small groups,
especially classrooms and work groups (see sociometry). In anthropology, the foundation for
social network theory is the theoretical and ethnographic work of Bronislaw Malinowski,
Alfred Radcliffe-Brown, and Claude Lvi-Strauss.[15] A group of social anthropologists
associated with Max Gluckman and the Manchester School, including John A. Barnes, J.
Clyde Mitchell and Elizabeth Bott Spillius,[17][18] often are credited with performing some
of the first fieldwork from which network analyses were performed, investigating community
networks in southern Africa, India and the United Kingdom.[6] Concomitantly, British
anthropologist S.F. Nadel codified a theory of social structure that was influential in later
network analysis. In sociology, the early (1930s) work of Talcott Parsons set the stage for
taking a relational approach to understanding social structure. Later, drawing upon Parsons'
theory, the work of sociologist Peter Blau provides a strong impetus for analyzing the
relational ties of social units with his work on social exchange theory. By the 1970s, a
9

growing number of scholars worked to combine the different tracks and traditions. One group
consisted of sociologist Harrison White and his students at the Harvard University
Department of Social Relations. Also independently active in the Harvard Social Relations
department at the time were Charles Tilly, who focused on networks in political and
community sociology and social movements, and Stanley Milgram, who developed the "six
degrees of separation" thesis ]Mark Granovetter] and Barry Wellman are among the former
students of White who elaborated and championed the analysis of social network

LEVELS OF ANALYSIS
In general, social networks are self-organizing, emergent, and complex, such that a globally
coherent pattern appears from the local interaction of the elements that make up the
system. These patterns become more apparent as network size increases. However, a global
network analysis of, for example, all interpersonal relationships in the world is not feasible
and is likely to contain so much informationas to be uninformative. Practical limitations of
computing power, ethics and participant recruitment and payment also limit the scope of a
social network analysis. The nuances of a local system may be lost in a large network
analysis, hence the quality of information may be more important than its scale for
understanding network properties. Thus, social networks are analyzed at the scale relevant to
the researcher's theoretical question. Although levels of analysis are not necessarily mutually
exclusive, there are three general levels into which networks may fall: micro-level, mesolevel, and macro-level.
Micro level
At the micro-level, social network research typically begins with an
individual, snowballing as social relationships are traced, or may begin with a small group of
individuals in a particular social context.

10

Dyadic level: A dyad is a social relationship between two individuals. Network research on
dyads may concentrate on structure of the relationship (e.g. multiplexity, strength), social
equality, and tendencies toward reciprocity/mutuality.
Triadic level: Add one individual to a dyad, and you have a triad. Research at this level may
concentrate on factors such as balance and transitivity, as well as social equality and
tendencies toward reciprocity/mutuality.
Actor level: The smallest unit of analysis in a social network is an individual in their social
setting, i.e., an "actor" or "ego". Egonetwork analysis focuses on network characteristics such
as size, relationship strength, density, centrality, prestige and roles such as isolates, liaisons,
and bridges. Such analyses, are most commonly used in the fields of psychology orsocial
psychology, ethnographic kinship analysis or other genealogical studies of relationships
between individuals.
Subset level: Subset levels of network research problems begin at the micro-level, but may
cross over into the meso-level of analysis. Subset level research may focus on distance and
reachability, cliques, cohesive subgroups, or other group actions or behavior.

Meso level:In general, meso-level theories begin with a population size that falls between
the micro- and macro-levels. However, meso-level may also refer to analyses that are
specifically designed to reveal connections between micro- and macro-levels. Meso-level
networks are low density and may exhibit causal processes distinct from interpersonal microlevel networks.

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Organizations
Formal organizations are social groups that distribute tasks for a collective goal.
Network research on organizations may focus on either intra-organizational or interorganizational ties in terms of formal or informal relationships. Intra-organizational networks
themselves often contain multiple levels of analysis, especially in larger organizations with
multiple branches, franchises or semi-autonomous departments. In these cases, research is
often conducted at a workgroup level and organization level, focusing on the interplay
between the two structures.

Randomly distributed networks:

Exponential random graph models of social networks became state-of-the-art methods of
social network analysis in the 1980s. This framework has the capacity to represent socialstructural effects commonly observed in many human social networks, including
general degree-based structural effects commonly observed in many human social networks
as well as reciprocity and transitivity, and at the node-level, homophily and attribute-based
activity and popularity effects, as derived from explicit hypotheses about dependencies among
network ties. Parameters are given in terms of the prevalence of
small subgraph configurations in the network and can be interpreted as describing the
combinations of local social processes from which a given network emerges. These
probability models for networks on a given set of actors allow generalization beyond the
restrictive dyadic independence assumption of micro-networks, allowing models to be built
from theoretical structural foundations of social behavior.

12

Examples of a random network and a scale-free network. Each graph has 32 nodes and 32 links. Note the "hubs" (shaded) in
the scale-free diagram (on the right).

Scale-free networks: A scale-free network is a network whose degree

distributionfollows a power law, at least asymptotically. In network theory a scale-free ideal
network is a random network with a degree distribution that unravels the size distribution of
social groups. Specific characteristics of scale-free networks vary with the theories and
analytical tools used to create them, however, in general, scale-free networks have some
common characteristics. One notable characteristic in a scale-free network is the relative
commonness of vertices with a degree that greatly exceeds the average. The highest-degree
nodes are often called "hubs", and may serve specific purposes in their networks, although
this depends greatly on the social context. Another general characteristic of scale-free
networks is theclustering coefficient distribution, which decreases as the node degree
increases. This distribution also follows a power law. The Barabsi model of network
evolution shown above is an example of a scale-free network.

Macro level
Rather than tracing interpersonal interactions, macro-level analyses generally trace the outcomes of
interactions, such aseconomic or other resource transfer interactions over a large population.

13

Large-scale networks: Large-scale network is a term somewhat synonymous with "macro-level" as used,
primarily, in social and behavioral sciences, in economics. Originally, the term was used extensively in
the computer sciences (see large-scale network mapping).
Complex networks:
Most larger social networks display features of social complexity, which involves substantial non-trivial
features of network topology, with patterns of complex connections between elements that are neither
purely regular nor purely random (see, complexity science, dynamical system and chaos theory), as
do biological, and technological networks. Such complex network features include a heavy tail in
the degree distribution, a high clustering coefficient,assortativity or disassortativity among
vertices, community structure, and hierarchical structure. In the case of agency-directed networks these
features also include reciprocity, triad significance profile (TSP, see network motif), and other features. In
contrast, many of the mathematical models of networks that have been studied in the past, such
as lattices and random graphs, do not show these features

THEORETICAL LINKS
Imported theories
Various theoretical frameworks have been imported for the use of social network analysis. The most
prominent of these are Graph theory, Balance theory, Social comparison theory, and more recently,
the Social identity approach.

Indigenous theories

Few complete theories have been produced from social network analysis. Two that have are Structural Role
Theory and Heterophily Theory.
The basis of Heterophily Theory was the finding in one study that more numerous weak ties can be
important in seeking information and innovation, as cliques have a tendency to have more homogeneous
opinions as well as share many common traits. This homophilic tendency was the reason for the members
of the cliques to be attracted together in the first place. However, being similar, each member of the clique
would also know more or less what the other members knew. To find new information or insights, members
of the clique will have to look beyond the clique to its other friends and acquaintances. This is what
Granovetter called "the strength of weak ties."

Structural holes
In the context of networks, social capital exists where people have an advantage because of their location in
a network. Contacts in a network provide information, opportunities and perspectives that can be beneficial
to the central player in the network. Most social structures tend to be characterized by dense clusters of
strong connections. Information within these clusters tends to be rather homogeneous and redundant. Nonredundant information is most often obtained through contacts in different clusters. When two separate
14

clusters possess non-redundant information, there is said to be a structural hole between them. Thus, a
network that bridges structural holes will provide network benefits that are in some degree additive, rather
than overlapping. An ideal network structure has a vine and cluster structure, providing access to many
different clusters and structural holes

Information benefits
Networks rich in structural holes are a form of social capital in that they offer information benefits. The
main player in a network that bridges structural holes is able to access information from diverse sources
and clusters. This is beneficial to an individuals career because he is more likely to hear of job openings
and opportunities if his network spans a wide range of contacts in different industries/sectors. This concept
is similar to Mark Granovetters theory of weak ties, which rests on the basis that having a broad range of
contacts is most effective for job attainment.

Social capital mobility benefits

In many organizations, members tend to focus their activities inside their own groups, which stifles
creativity and restricts opportunities. A player whose network bridges structural holes has an advantage in
detecting and developing rewarding opportunities.
Such a player can mobilize social capital by acting as a broker of information between two clusters that
otherwise would not have been in contact, thus providing access to new ideas, opinions and opportunities.
British philosopher and political economist John Stuart Mill, writes, it is hardly possible to overrate the
value...of placing human beings in contact with persons dissimilar to themselvesSuch communication
[is] one of the primary sources of progress. Thus, a player with a network rich in structural holes can add
value to an organization through new ideas and opportunities. This in turn, helps an individuals career
development and advancement.
A social capital broker also reaps control benefits of being the facilitator of information flow between
contacts. In the case of consulting firm Eden McCallum, the founders were able to advance their careers by
bridging their connections with former big 3 consulting firm consultants and mid-size industry firms. By
bridging structural holes and mobilizing social capital, players can advance their careers by executing new
opportunities between contacts.
There has been research that both substantiates and refutes the benefits of information brokerage. A study
of high tech Chinese firms by Zhixing Xiao found that the control benefits of structural holes are dissonant
to the dominant firm-wide spirit of cooperation and the information benefits cannot materialize due to the
communal sharing values of such organizations. However, this study only analyzed Chinese firms, which
tend to have strong communal sharing values. Information and control benefits of structural holes are still
valuable in firms that are not quite as inclusive and cooperative on the firm-wide level. In 2004, Ronald
Burt studied 673 managers who ran the supply chain for one of Americas largest electronics companies.
He found that managers who often discussed issues with other groups were better paid, received more
positive job evaluations and were more likely to be promoted. Thus, bridging structural holes can be
beneficial to an organization, and in turn, to an individuals career.

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COMMUNICATION
Communication Studies are often considered a part of both the social sciences and the humanities, drawing
heavily on fields such as sociology, psychology, anthropology, information science, biology, political
science, and economics as well asrhetoric, literary studies, and semiotics. Many communications concepts
describe the transfer of information from one source to another, and can thus be conceived of in terms of a
network.

Community
In J.A. Barnes' day, a "community" referred to a specific geographic location and studies of community ties
had to do with who talked, associated, traded, and attended church with whom. Today, however, there are
extended "online" communities developed through telecommunications devices and social network
services. Such devices and services require extensive and ongoing maintenance and analysis, often
using network science methods. Community development studies, today, also make extensive use of such
methods.

Complex networks
Complex networks require methods specific to modelling and interpreting social complexity and complex
adaptive systems, including techniques of dynamic network analysis.

Criminal networks
In criminology and urban sociology, much attention has been paid to the social networks among criminal
actors. For example, Andrew Papachristos has studied gang murders as a series of exchanges between
gangs. Murders can be seen to diffuse outwards from a single source, because weaker gangs cannot afford
to kill members of stronger gangs in retaliation, but must commit other violent acts to maintain their
reputation for strength

Diffusion of innovations
Diffusion of ideas and innovations studies focus on the spread and use of ideas from one actor to another
or one cultureand another. This line of research seeks to explain why some become "early adopters" of
ideas and innovations, and links social network structure with facilitating or impeding the spread of an
innovation.

Demography

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In demography, the study of social networks has led to new sampling methods for estimating and reaching
populations that are hard to enumerate (for example, homeless people or intravenous drug users.) For
example, respondent driven sampling is a network-based sampling technique that relies on respondents to a
survey recommending further respondents.

Economic sociology
The field of sociology focuses almost entirely on networks of outcomes of social interactions. More
narrowly, economic sociology considers behavioral interactions of individuals and groups through social
capital and social "markets". Sociologists, such as Mark Granovetter, have developed core principles about
the interactions of social structure, information, ability to punish or reward, and trust that frequently recur
in their analyses of political, economic and other institutions. Granovetter examines how social structures
and social networks can affect economic outcomes like hiring, price, productivity and innovation and
describes sociologists contributions to analyzing the impact of social structure and networks on the
economy.

Health care
Analysis of social networks is increasingly incorporated into health care analytics, not only
in epidemological studies but also in models of patient communication and education, disease prevention,
mental health diagnosis and treatment, and in the study of health care organizations and systems.

Human ecology
Human ecology is an interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary study of the relationship between humans and
their natural,social, and built environments. The scientific philosophy of human ecology has a diffuse
history with connections togeography, sociology, psychology, anthropology, zoology, and natural ecology.

Language and linguistics

Studies of language and linguistics, particularly evolutionary linguistics, focus on the development
of linguistic forms and transfer of changes, sounds or words, from one language system to another through
networks of social interaction. Social networks are also important in language shift, as groups of people add
and/or a andon languages to their repertoire.

Literary networks In the study of literary systems, network analysis has been applied by
Anheier, Gerhards and Romo De Nooy and Senekal, to study various aspects of how literature functions.
The basic premise is that polysystem theory, which has been around since the writings of Even-Zohar, can
be integrated with network theory and the relationships between different actors in the literary network, e.g.
writers, critics, publishers, literary histories, etc., can be mapped usingvisualization from SNA

Organizational studies
Research studies of formal or informal organizational relationships, organizational
communication, economics, economic sociology, and other resource transfers. Social networks have also
been used to examine how organizations interact with each other, characterizing the many informal

17

connections that link executives together, as well as associations and connections between individual
employees at different organizations. Intra-organizational networks have been found to
affect organizational commitment, organizational identification, interpersonal citizenship behaviour.

Social capital
Social capital is a sociological concept which refers to the value of social relations and the role of
cooperation and confidence to achieve positive outcomes. The term refers to the value one can get from
their social ties. For example, newly arrived immigrants can make use of their social ties to established
migrants to acquire jobs they may otherwise have trouble getting (e.g., because of unfamiliarity with the
local language). Studies show that a positive relationship exists between social capital and the intensity of
social network use.

Social media
Computer networks combined with social networking software produces a new medium for social
interaction. A relationship over a computerized social networking service can be characterized by context,
direction, and strength. The content of a relation refers to the resource that is exchanged. In a computer
mediated communication context, social pairs exchange different kinds of information, including sending a
data file or a computer program as well as providing emotional support or arranging a meeting. With the
rise of electronic commerce, information exchanged may also correspond to exchanges of money, goods or
services in the real
world. Social network analysis methods have become essential to examining these types of computer
mediated communication.

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CHAPTER- 2
COMPANY PROFILE

Ebay
Ebay Inc., (stylized as ebay), is an American multinational Internet consumer-toconsumer corporation, headquartered in San Jose, California. It was founded by Pierre
Omidyar in 1995, and it became a notable success story of the dot-com bubble; it is now a
multi-billion dollar business with operations localized in over thirty countries. The company
manages Ebay.com, an online auction and shopping website in which people and businesses
buy and sell a broad variety of goods and services worldwide. In addition to its auction-style
sellings, the website has since expanded to include "Buy It Now" standard shopping;
shopping by UPC, ISBN, or other kind of SKU (via Half.com); online classified
advertisements (via Kijiji or ebay Classifieds); online event ticket trading (via stubhub);
online money transfers (via paypal and other services.Contrary to popular belief, to sell on
ebay is not free, as the website invoices users monthly
History

20

Ebay headquarters in San Jose, California Early years Ebay was originally created by e-40 back in 92 as a way for Bay Area artists to sell their music
directly to consumers, pioneering not only the Indy rap scene but also leading the way in
online sales, which is why they call it e-commerce. He later expanded it to include nonrappers and eventually non-bay area residents to what it is now today known as ebay.
Auctionweb was founded in San Jose, California, on September 3, 1995, by Frenchborn Iranian-American computer programmer Pierre Omidyar (born June 21, 1967) as part of
a larger personal site that included, among other things, Omidyar's own tongue-in-cheek
tribute to the Ebola virus. One of the first items sold on auctionweb was a broken laser
pointer for $14.83. Astonished, Omidyar contacted the winning bidder to ask if he understood
that the laser pointer was broken. In his responding email, the buyer explained: "I'm a
collector of broken laser pointers. The frequently repeated story that ebay was founded to help
Omidyar's fiance trade Pez candy dispensers was fabricated by apublic relations manager in
1997 to interest the media, which were not interested in the company's previous explanation
about wanting to create a "perfect market". This was revealed in Adam Cohen's book, The
Perfect Store (2002), and confirmed by ebay.Reportedly, ebay was simply a side hobby for
Omidyar until his Internet service provider informed him he would need to upgrade to a
business account due to the high volume of traffic to his website. The resulting price increase
(from $30/month to $250) forced him to start charging those who used ebay, and was not met
with any animosity. In fact it resulted in the hiring of Chris Agarpao as ebay's first employee
to handle the number of cheques coming in fess.

Pierre Omidyar, founder and chairman of ebay

Jeffrey Skoll was hired as the first president of the company in early 1996. In November
1996, ebay entered into its first third-party licensing deal, with a company called Electronic
Travel Auction to use smartmarket Technology to sell plane tickets and other travel products.
Growth was phenomenal; in January 1997 the site hosted 2,000,000 auctions, compared with
250,000 during the whole of 1996. The company officially changed the name of its service
from auctionweb to ebay in September 1997. Originally, the site belonged to Echo Bay
21

Technology Group, Omidyar's consulting firm. Omidyar had tried to register the domain name
echobay.com, but found it already taken by the Echo Bay Mines, a gold mining company so
he shortened it to his second choice, ebay.com.
In 1997, the company received $6.7 million in funding from the venture capital
firmbenchmark Capital.
Meg Whitman was hired as ebay President and CEO in March 1998. At the time, the company
had 30 employees, half a million users and revenues of $4.7 million in the United
States. Ebay went public on September 21, 1998, and both Omidyar and Skoll became instant
billionaires. Ebay's target share price of $18 was all but ignored as the price went to $53.50 on
the first day of trading.
2000s
As the company expanded product categories beyond collectibles into almost any saleable
item, business grew quickly. In February 2002, the company purchased ibazar, a similar
European auction web site founded in 1998 and then boughtpaypal on October 14, 2002.
By early 2008, the company had expanded worldwide, counted hundreds of millions of
registered users, 15,000+ employees and revenues of almost $7.7 billion. After nearly ten
years at ebay, Whitman decided to enter politics. On January 23, 2008, the company
announced that Whitman would step down on March 31, 2008 and John Donahoe was
selected to become President and CEO. Whitman remained on the Board of Directors and
continued to advise Donahoe through 2008. In late 2009, ebay completed the sale
of Skype for $2.75 billion, but will still own 30% equity in the company. On July 18,
2014Sothebys announced a partnership with ecommerce website ebay.
Corporate affairs

Logo
In September 2012, ebay introduced a new logo set in Universe . The logo was introduced to
the main website on October 10, 2012.

19952012

22

2012present
Profit and transactions
Ebay generates revenue from various fees. The ebay fee system is quite complex; there are
fees to list a product and fees when the product sells (Final Value Fee), plus several optional
adornment fees, all based on various factors and scales. As of November 2012, the U.S.-based
ebay.com takes $0.10 to $2 (based on the opening or reserve price) as an insertion fee for a
basic auction-style listing without any adornments, and 10% of the total amount of the sale
(price of the item plus shipping charges) as a final value fee. Fixed-price listings have an
insertion fee of $0.30, and the final value fee varies based on category and total amount of the
sale (e.g., 13% for dvds & Movies up to $50). The UK based ebay.co.uk takes from 0.15 to a
maximum rate of 3 per 100 for an ordinary listing and from 0.75% to 10% (writing as of
June 2009) of the final price. Reduced Final Value Fees are available to business registered
customers. In addition, ebay owns thepaypal payment system that has fees of its own.
Under current U.S. law, a state cannot require sellers located outside the state to collect a sales
tax, making deals more attractive to buyers. Although some state laws require purchasers to
pay sales tax to their own states on out-of-state purchases, it is not a common practice.
However, most sellers that operate as a full-time business do follow state tax regulations on
their ebay transactions. However Value Added Tax (VAT), a form of sales tax in EU countries,
is different. Ebay requires sellers to include the VAT element in their listing price and not as
an add-on and thus profits by collecting fees based on what governments tax for VAT; it not
only receives fees as a percentage of the sale price "ex VAT" but also the same percentage on
the VAT itself.
The company's current business strategy includes increasing international trade. Ebay has
already expanded to over two dozen countries including China and India. Strategic
international expansion has failed in Taiwan and Japan, whereyahoo! Had a head start, and
New Zealand where trademe, owned by the Fairfax media group is the dominant online
auction website. Ebay also notably failed in China due to competition from local rival Taobao.
Ebay entered the Chinese market in 2002 and shut down its Chinese site in 2007.
In its Q1 2008 results, total payment volume via paypal increased 17%, but off the ebay
auction site it was up 61%.
For most listing categories, ebay sellers are permitted to offer a variety of payment systems
such as Escrow.com paypal, Paymate, propay, and Moneybookers.
Escrow.com is ebay's approved escrow site. The transactions processed through Escrow.com
largely are in relation to ebay Motors; they are not restricted to this type of listing however.

23

Ebay runs an affiliate program under the name ebay Partner Network. Ebay affiliate marketers
were originally paid a percentage of the ebay seller's transaction fees, with commissions
ranging from 50% to 75% of the fees paid for an item purchased. In October 2009, ebay
changed to an affiliate payout system that it calls Quality Click Pricing, in which affiliates are
paid an amount determined by an undisclosed algorithm. The total earnings amount is then
divided by the number of clicks the affiliate sent to ebay and is reported as Earnings Per
Click, or EPC. In October 2013, epn launched a new pricing model. The new model is more
transparent, and is based on category-level base commission rates with bonuses available for
referring new and reactivated buyers.
On April 18, 2012 ebay reported a 29% Q1 revenue increase to $3.3 billion compared to their
Q1 in 2011. Net income was reported to be at $570 million for the quarter

Environmental record
On May 8, 2008, ebay announced the opening of its newest building on the company's North
Campus in San Jose, which is the first structure in the city to be built from the ground up
to LEED Gold standards. The building, the first the company had built in its 13-year
existence, uses an array of 3,248 solar panels, spanning 60,000 square feet (5,600 m2), and
providing 650 kilowatts of power to ebay's campus. The array can supply 15%18% of the
company's total energy requirements, reducing the amount of greenhouse gases that would be
produced to create that energy by other means. Solarcity, the company responsible for
designing the array, estimates that the solar panels installed on ebay's campus will prevent 37
million pounds of carbon dioxide from being released into the environment as a result of
replaced power production over the next three decades. Creating an equivalent impact to
remove the same amount of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere would require planting 322
acres (1.30 km2) of trees The design of the building also incorporates other elements to
reduce its impact on the environment. The building is equipped with a lighting system that
detects natural ambient light sources and automatically dims artificial lighting to save 39% of
the power usually required to light an office building. Ebay's newest building also reduces
demand on local water supplies by incorporating an eco-friendly irrigation system, and lowflow shower heads and faucets. Even during construction, more than 75% of the waste from
construction was recycled. Ebay also runs buses between San Francisco and the San Jose
campus to reduce the number of commuting vehicles

Acquisition
Stubhub
Stubhub was acquired by ebay in January 2007 for a reported $310 million. According
to CNN Money, 2007 was a very successful year for the company, handling five million
individual transactions, more than in the previous six years combined of its history. Staffing at
stubhub had increased to 350 workers by the time of the sale Eight months after the
acquisition, stubhub reached an exclusive agreement with Major League Baseball (MLB).
They get a piece of the 25% in commissions stubhub earns on either end of a season ticket
buy and sell transaction. Ticketmaster filed a lawsuit against stubhub and ebay in 2007,
alleging "intentional interference" with Ticketmaster's contractual rights
24

Skype
Ebay Inc. Acquired Skype in 2005 and significantly expanded its customer base to more than
480 million registered users worldwide. To focus on its core e-commerce and payments
businesses, ebay Inc. Sold a majority stake in Skype in November 2009, retaining a minority
investment in the company.[citation needed] In May 2011, Microsoft announced that it had
acquired Skype for $8.5 billion.
Craigslist
In the summer of 2004, ebay acknowledged that it had acquired 25% of classified listings
website, Craigslist. Former Craigslist executive Phillip Knowlton was the seller, and he
insisted that his former employer was aware of his plans to divest his holdings. Initially, ebay
assured Craigslist that they would not ask the company to change the way it does business.
Ebay spokesman Hani Durzy stated that the "investment was really for learning purposes; it
gives us access to learn how the classified market online works".
In March 2005, ebay launched the classifieds service Kijiji. In April 2008, ebay sued
Craigslist to "safeguard its four-year financial investment", claiming that in January 2008,
Craigslist took actions that "unfairly diluted ebay's economic interest by more than
10%."Craigslist countersued in May 2008 "to remedy the substantial and ongoing harm to fair
competition" that Craigslist claims is constituted by ebay's actions as a Craigslist
shareholder.] In September 2010, Delaware Judge William Chandler ruled that the actions of
Craigslist were unlawful, and that the actions taken by Craigslist founders Jim Buckmaster
and Craig Newmark had "breached their fiduciary duty of loyalty", and restored ebay's stake
in the company to 28.4% from a diluted level of 24.85%.However, the judge dismissed ebay's
objection to a staggered board provision citing that Craigslist has the right to protect its own
trade secrets. Ebay spokesman Michael Jacobson stated "We are very pleased that the court
gave ebay what it sought from the lawsuit".

Paypal
On October 3, 2002, paypal became a wholly owned subsidiary of ebay Its corporate
headquarters are in San Jose, California, United States at ebay's North First Street satellite
office campus. The company also has significant operations
in Omaha, Scottsdale, Charlotte, Austin, and Boston in the United States; Chennai in
India; Dublin in Ireland; Kleinmachnowin Germany; and Tel Aviv in Israel. From July 2007,
paypal has operated across the European Union as a Luxembourg-based bank.
Use for data analysis
As ebay is a huge, publicly visible market, it has created a great deal of interest from
economists, who have used it to analyze many aspects of buying and selling behavior, auction
formats, etc., and compare these with previous theoretical and empirical findings.

25

Just as economists have shown interest in ebay's operations, computer information systems
researchers have also shown interest in ebay. Recently Michael Goul, Chairman of the
Computer Information Systems department of the W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona
State University, published an academic case based on ebays big data management and use.
In the case, Goul discusses how ebay is a data-driven company which processes 50 petabytes
of data a day.
Ebay uses a system that allows different departments in the company to check out data from
their data mart into sandboxes for analysis. According to Goul, ebay has already experienced
significant business successes through its data analytics. To continue improving the business
through data-driven decision making, ebay employs 5,000 data analysts.
Third party
The accounting software company Intuit launched in 2006 a service called its
deductible which is a free web-based donation tracking service. With regard to ebay, the
service uses data from the site to assist users in assigning a market value to the items they
donate
GCHQ
UK's GCHQ has a suit of tools for monitoring target use of ebay, named ELATE.
Ebay.com
Items
Millions of collectibles, decor, appliances, computers, furnishings, equipment, domain
names, vehicles, and other miscellaneous items are listed, bought, or sold daily on ebay. In
2006, ebay launched its Business & Industrial category, breaking into the industrial surplus
business. Generally, anything can be auctioned on the site as long as it is not illegal and does
not violate the ebay Prohibited and Restricted Items policy Services and intangibles can be
sold, too. Large international companies, such as IBM, sell their newest products and offer
services on ebay using competitive auctions and fixed-priced storefronts. Separate ebay sites
such as ebay US and ebay UK allow the users to trade using the local currency. Software
developers can create applications that integrate with ebay through the ebay API by joining
the ebay Developers Program.] In June 2005, there were more than 15,000 members in the
ebay Developers Program, comprising a broad range of companies creating software
applications to support ebay buyers and sellers as well as ebay Affiliates.
Controversy has arisen over certain items put up for bid. For instance, in late 1999, a man
offered one of his kidneys for auction on ebay, attempting to profit from the potentially
lucrative (and, in the United States, illegal) market fortransplantable human organs[citation
needed]. On other occasions, people and even entire towns have been listed, often as a joke or
to garner free publicity.[citation needed] In general, the company removes auctions that
violate its terms of serviceagreement.

26

Ebay North First Street satellite office campus (home to paypal)

Beginning in August 2007, ebay required listings in "Video Games" and "Health & Beauty" to
accept its payment system paypal and sellers could only accept paypal for payments in the
category "Video Games: Consoles". Starting January 10, 2008, ebay said sellers can only
accept paypal as payment for the categories "Computing > Software", "Consumer Electronics
> MP3 Players", "Wholesale & Job Lots > Mobile & Home Phones", and "Business, Office &
Industrial > Industrial Supply / MRO". Ebay announced that starting in March 2008, ebay had
added to this requirement that all sellers with fewer than 100 feedbacks must offer paypal and
no merchant account may be used as an alternative. This is in addition to the requirement that
all sellers from the United Kingdom have to offer paypal.
Further, and as noted below, it was a requirement to offer paypal on all listings in Australia
and the UK. In response to concerns expressed by the Australian Competition and Consumer
Commission, however, ebay has since removed the policy on the ebay.com.au website
requiring sellers to offer paypal as a payment option.

Ebay Express logo

27

Ebay Office in Toronto

In April 2006, ebay opened its new ebay Express site, which was designed to work like a
standard Internet shopping site for consumers with United States addresses. It closed in 2008.
Selected ebay items were mirrored on ebay Express, where buyers shopped using a shopping
cart to purchase from multiple sellers. The UK version was launched to ebay members in midOctober 2006 but on January 29, 2008 ebay announced its intention to close the site The
German version, ebay Express Germany, was also opened in 2006 and closed in 2008.
At the 2008 ebay Developer's Conference, ebay announced the Selling Manager Applications
program (SM Apps) The program allows approved developers to integrate their applications
directly into the ebay.com interface. The applications created by developers are available for
subscription by ebay members who also subscribe to Selling Manager.
Ebay maintains a number of specialty sites including the discussion boards, groups, answer
center, chat rooms, and reviews and guides. Ebay's mobile offerings include SMS alerts,
a WAP site, Java ME clients, and mobile applications for Windows Phone, Android OS and
Apple iphone.
The initiative Choice in ecommerce was founded on May 8, 2013 by several online retailers
in Berlin, Germany. The cause was, in the view of the initiative, sales bans and online
restrictions by individual manufacturers. The dealers felt cut off from their main sales channel
and thus deprived them the opportunity to use online platforms
like Amazon, ebay or Rakuten in a competitive market for the benefit of their customers.

Unusual items

28

Many unusual items have been placed for sale on ebay, including at least two previously
undiscovered species, including the Coelopleurus exquisitus searching.

Ebay Inc. Competition

"I got it on ebay" has barreled its way into the lexicon of the new millennium, placing a
cyber-grin on the corporate face of this online auctioneer. Trading about $2,000 worth of
goods every second, ebay offers an online forum for selling merchandise worldwide, from
fine antiques to the latest video games. Ebay generates revenue through listing and selling
fees and through advertising, and boasts more than 120 million users. Its online payments
assets consist of paypal and Bill Me Later; other e-commerce platforms
include stubhub and Half.com. Ebay also has a mobile version of its service, and owns ecommerce services provider GSI Commerce, as well as a minority stake in online classifieds
service craigslist

Top Competitors for ebay Inc.

Amazon.com, Inc. Company Profile
What began as Earth's biggest bookstore has become Earth's biggest everything store.
Expansion has propelled Amazon.com in innumerable directions. While the website still
offers millions of books, movies, games, and music, electronics and other general
merchandise categories, including apparel and accessories, auto parts, home furnishings,
health and beauty aids, toys, and groceries ring up more than 60% of sales. Shoppers can also
download e-books, games, MP3s, and films to their computers or handheld devices, including
Amazon's own portable e-reader, the Kindle. Amazon also offers products and services, such
as self-publishing, online advertising, e-commerce platform, hosting, and a co-branded credit
card.

Google Inc. Company Profile

If you don't know what the term Google means, there's a leading Internet search engine you
can use to find out. Taking its name from "googol" -- the mathematical term for the value
represented by a one followed by 100 zeros -- Google offers targeted search results from
billions of Web pages. Results are based on a proprietary algorithm; its technology for ranking
Web pages is called pagerank. The firm generates revenue through ad sales. Advertisers
deliver relevant ads targeted to search queries or Web content. The Google Network is
a network of third-party customers that use Google's ad programs to deliver relevant ads to
their own sites. Founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page each have nearly 30% voting control.

Overstock.com, Inc. Company Profile

Overstock.com allows you to shop a Persian bazaar of clothes, housewares, music, books, and
more. The online discount retailer hawks brand-name merchandise, including furniture,
electronics, jewelry, travel, and insurance. Most of its inventory comes from manufacturers
29

stuck with overproduction, older models, or some color that wasn't as popular as the designer
had envisioned. The company's products portfolio includes brands Bissell, HewlettPackard, Movado, and Steve Madden, among others. In addition to its main website,
Overstock.com manages an online auction site and provides car and real estate listings. The
retailer's Club O loyalty program offers discounts to members on selected items and shipping.

Ebay Inc
Ebay Inc., incorporated on March 13, 1998, is a global technology company. The Company
enables commerce through three reportable segments: Marketplaces, Payments, and GSI. The
Company by providing online platforms, tools and services to help individuals and small,
medium and merchants around the globe engage in online and mobile commerce and
payments, the Company can facilitate transactions. The Company also generates revenue
through marketing services, classifieds and advertising. The Company has also created an
open source platform that provides software developers and merchants access to its
applications programming interfaces (apis), to develop software and solutions for commerce.
Its developer community includes more than 800,000 members. In December 2013, the
Company announced that it has completed the acquisition of acquisition of Braintree.
Effective February 19, 2014, ebay Inc acquired phisix Inc.

Marketplaces
Marketplaces brings buyers and sellers together through online Websites and mobile
applications, which are available globally at any time, including through localized ebay.com
sites. Marketplaces segment includes its core e-commerce platform ebay.com, its vertical
shopping experiences such as stubhub, Fashion, Motors and Half.com, its classifieds websites
such as Marktplaats.nl and mobile.de, and advertising services. Marketplaces also include
redlaser to facilitate mobile commerce, Milo to enable search for goods at local retailers, and
Hunch for merchandising based on customers' needs and tastes. Ebay's Marketplaces
platforms are accessible from computers with Internet access and mobile devices. It offers
mobile applications for the iphone, the ipad and Android devices for ebay.com and some of its
other Websites and vertical shopping experiences, including stubhub, Fashion, Motors and
Half.com. It also maintains a mobile version of its ebay.com Website for use with other
Internet-enabled phones and devices.
Sellers can choose to list their products and services through fixed price listings on ebay.com,
its Marketplaces platform, and it classifieds Websites or through an auction-based format on
ebay.com. Its fixed price format allows buyers and sellers to close transactions at a predetermined price set by the seller, but also allows sellers to signal that they would be willing
to close the transaction at a lower price through the Offer feature. Its auction-style format
allows a seller to select a minimum price for opening bids. In addition, its ebay Stores format
enables sellers to exhibit all of their listings in a single place on one of its ebay Marketplaces
platforms and to describe their respective businesses through customized pages. Ebay Stores
also provides sellers with tools to build, manage, promote and track their businesses. Its
classified Websites are available in over 1,000 cities globally. Its classifieds Websites include
Den Bla Avis, bilbasen, ebay Classifieds (including ebay Anuncios, ebay Kleinanzeigen and
30

ebay Annunci), Gumtree, Kijiji, loquo, Marktplaats.nl, mobile.de and Alamaula. Its craigslist,
Inc. Operates the craigslist classifieds Websites.
The Company has built specialized experiences for certain vertical formats, such as Daily
Deals, Fashion, Motors (vehicles, parts and accessories), and Electronics. Its Daily Deals
vertical offers a variety of products in multiple categories at discounted prices with free
shipping. In its Fashion vertical the Company offers its Fashion Vault, Fashion Outlet and an
application for mobile devices enabled with social media and email sharing functions. In its
Motors vertical the Company offer users shopping tailored to their vehicles specifications,
including the Tire Center and Wheel Center, among others. In its Electronics vertical, the
Company offer user reviews, similar item listings, and instant sale feature to help users list
and find items more easily. As on December 31, 2012, stubhub's partners included more than
70 professional and collegiate sports teams, organizations and venues from the NBA, NHL,
MLB and NCAA.
The Companys redlaser and Milo is helping merchants offer their local inventory online or
through mobile devices and helping consumers find what they are looking for at local stores.
Redlaser allows consumers to scan bar codes in order to find the goods they are looking for in
a range of locations, both online and offline, while Milo enables local inventory to be viewed
online or on a mobile device.
Ebay Buyer Protection covers items purchased on its sites in the U.S., the U.K. and Germany
through a qualifying payment method and protects buyers with respect to items that are not
received or are received but not as described in the listing. Some purchases, including
vehicles, are not covered. Ebay Buyer Protection provides coverage for the purchase price of
the item, plus original shipping costs, for a limited period of time from the original date of
transaction, and includes a new, streamlined interface to help buyers and sellers navigate the
process.

Payments
The Companys Payments segment has three primary payments brands: paypal, which enables
individuals and businesses to securely, easily and quickly send and receive payments online
and through a broad range of mobile devices in approximately 190 markets worldwide; Bill
Me Later, which enables U.S. merchants to offer, and U.S. consumers to obtain, credit at the
point of sale for ecommerce and mobile transactions through Bill Me Later's relationship with
a chartered financial institution; and Zong, which enables users with a mobile phone to
purchase digital goods and have the transactions charged to their phone bill. The Companys
billsafe, a provider of payment services for online merchants in Germany that offer consumers
the ability to pay for purchases upon receipt of an invoice after the item is received.
The Company provides a credit offering through the Bill Me Later service, which allows
qualifying the United States buyers to obtain a revolving line of credit at the point of sale
from a third-party chartered financial institution, webbank. When a consumer makes a
purchase using a Bill Me Later credit product issued by a chartered financial institution, the
chartered financial institution extends credit to the consumer, funds the extension of credit at
the point of sale and remits funds to the merchant. Paypal has developed a number of trust and
31

safety programs, including paypal's Seller Protection and Purchase Protection Programs.
These programs provide additional protection to certain account holders who pay or receive
payment for their transactions through paypal on or off ebay.com in certain key geographies.
Paypal's Seller Protection Program covers sellers in certain key geographies who follow
specific shipping and handling practices against claims that a transaction was not authorized
by the buyer or that the item was not received. Paypal's Purchase Protection Program
reimburses the buyer, subject to specified limitations, for qualified purchases using paypal on
or off ebay.com in certain key geographies if the buyer does not receive the item or, in limited
markets, if the item is significantly not as described. In some non-U.S. markets, protection for
buyers is limited to a maximum amount per transaction.

GSI
GSI is a provider of e-commerce and interactive marketing services to enterprise clients,
which include brands and retailers. GSI offers a range of solutions designed to power
merchants' online businesses. GSI operates two business units: Global ecommerce Services
(gec), and Global Marketing Services (GMS). GSI sells its products and services on an
individual basis and also as bundled solutions. The gec business unit serves enterprise clients,
which operate in general merchandise categories, including apparel, sporting goods, toys &
baby, health & beauty and home. The gec ecommerce suite is consisted of three principal
services: Technology & Payments, Fulfillment & Freight and Customer Care.
GSI Technology & Payments uses shared sales, service, operations and administration teams
for its three areas of focus: webstore & mobile, commerce exchange & multi-channel and
payments. Webstore & mobile provides secure shopping cart and checkout offerings,
analytical tools, site management tools, including catalog, content and promotions
management and guided product discovery. Commerce exchange & multi-channel offerings
provide transactional capabilities, including order management, inventory management and
fulfillment integration. GSI's multi-channel offering is a range of software products, which
enables in-store pickup, ship-from-store, ship-to-store and drop ship capabilities.
GSI operates five ecommerce fulfillment centers in the U.S., one in Canada and one in the
U.K., together encompassing over 3.4 million square feet. Within these facilities, GSI utilizes
warehouse management systems and infrastructure to provide customized direct-to-consumer
fulfillment solutions, including order management, real-time order status updates and reverse
logistics services. Through scale and partnerships with freight providers, GSI offers clients
favorable shipping rates and freight programs, including its shipquik shipping program. Under
this program, packages are presorted by customer zip code, which helps to shorten the time
packages are in transit. Through three call centers in the U.S. and a network of customer
support agents, plus one call center in the U.K., GSI provides customer care services for
ecommerce via telephone, live chat and email. GSI combines and third-party technologies,
including automatic call distribution, computer telephony integration, interactive voice
response, email, workforce management, voice recording/monitoring and customer
relationship management systems in the customer care platform. The U.K. call center offers
customer care in multiple languages.

32

Ebay India Corporate Backgrounder

About ebay
Ebay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) is a global commerce and payments leader, providing a robust
platform where merchants of all sizes can compete and win. Founded in 1995 in San Jose,
Calif., ebay Inc. Connects millions of buyers and sellers and enabled $205 billion* of
commerce volume in 2013. We do so through ebay, one of the world's largest online
marketplaces, which allows users to buy and sell in nearly every country on earth; through
paypal, which enables individuals and businesses to securely, easily and quickly send and
receive digital payments; and through ebay Enterprise, which enables omnichannel
commerce, multichannel retailing and digital marketing for global enterprises in the U.S. and
internationally. We also reach millions through specialized marketplaces such as stubhub, the
world's largest ticket marketplace, and ebay classifieds sites, which together have a presence
in more than 1,000 cities around the world. For more information about the company and its
global portfolio of online brands, visit www.ebayinc.com
Ebay India
Ebay India (www.ebay.in ),Indias leading ecommerce marketplace, is Indias largest online
shopping website where thousands of Indian merchants list a wide range of products across
Electronics, Lifestyle, Media and Collectibles categories. Ebay India has 2.1 million active
users from 4,306 cities in India. Ebay India is a 100% subsidiary of ebay Inc.

33

CHAPTER- 3
RESEARCH
METHODOLOGY

34

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY:

WHAT IS RESEARCH?
Research is a logical and systematic search for new and useful information on a particular
topic. It is an investigation of nding solutions to scientic and social problems through
objective and systematic analysis. It is a search for knowledge, that is, a discovery of hidden
truths. Here knowledge means information about matters. The information might be collected
from dierent sources like experience, human beings, books, journals, nature, etc. A research
can lead to new contributions to the existing knowledge. Only through research is it possible
to make progress in a eld. Research is done with the help of study, experiment, observation,
analysis, comparison and reasoning. Research is in fact ubiquitous.

RESEARCH METHODOLGY
Research methodology is a systematic way to solve a problem. It is a science of studying how
research is to be carried out. Essentially, the procedures by which researchers go about their
work of describing, explaining and predicting phenomena are called research methodology. It
is also dened as the study of methods by which knowledge is gained. Its aim is to give the
work plan of research.

Research Design
The researcher has used descriptive methodology
Descriptive methodologyis also known as statistical research, describes data and
characteristics about the population or phenomenon being studied. However, it does not
answer questions about eg: how/when/why the characteristics occurred, which is done
under analytic research.
Although the data description is factual, accurate and systematic, the research cannot describe
what caused a situation. Thus, Descriptive research cannot be used to create acausal
relationship, where one variable affects another. In other words, descriptive research can be
said to have a low requirement for internal validity.
The description is used for frequencies, averages and other statistical calculations. Often the
best approach, prior to writing descriptive research, is to conduct a survey
investigation. Qualitative research often has the aim of description and researchers may
follow-up with examinations of why the observations exist and what the implications of the
findings are.

35

METHOD OF DATA COLLECTION:

There are two methods of data collection i.e.
Primary Method
Secondary Method

Primary Method:
In primary data collection, you collect the data yourself using methods such as interviews and
questionnaires. The key point here is that the data you collect is unique to you and your
research and, until you publish, no one else has access to it.
There are many methods of collecting primary data and the main methods include:
questionnaires
interviews
focus group interviews
observation
case-studies
diaries
critical incidents
portfolios.

The primary data, which is generated by the above methods, may be qualitative in nature
(usually in the form of words) or quantitative (usually in the form of numbers or where you
can make counts of words used). We briefly outline these methods but you should also read
around the various methods. A list of suggested research methodology texts is given in your
Module Study Guide but many texts on social or educational research may also be useful and
you can find them in your library.
Secondary Method:
All methods of data collection can supply quantitative data (numbers, statistics or financial) or
qualitative data (usually words or text). Quantitative data may often be presented in tabular or
graphical form.Secondary data is data that has already been collected by someone else for a
different purpose to yours. For example, this could mean using:
data collected by a hotel on its customers through its guest history system
data supplied by a marketing organisation
36

annual company reports

government statistics.
Secondary data can be used in different ways:
You can simply report the data in its original format. If so, then it is most likely that the place
for this data will be in your main introduction or literature review as support or evidence for
your argument.
You can do something with the data. If you use it (analyse it or re-interpret it) for a different
purpose to the original then the most likely place would be in the Analysis of findings
section of your dissertation. A good example of this usage was the work on suicide carried out
by Durkheim. He took the official suicide statistics of different countries (recorded by
coroners or their equivalent) and analysed them to see if he could identify variables that
would mean that some people are more likely to commit suicide than others. He found, for
example, that Catholics were less likely to commit suicide than Protestants. In this way, he
took data that had been collected for quite a different purpose and used it in his own study
but he had to do a lot of comparisons and statistical correlations himself in order to analyse
the data. (See Haralambos, 1995, for details of Durkheims work).
Secondary method of data collection has been used for this study.

LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

Lot of efforts have been undergone to improve the predication techniques like earlier there
was only fundamental analysis being used but now technical analysis has come into existence.

Once the people who are involved in it, they play it like gambling and they think that its same
it is difficult to change their mindset.

Its difficult to make people aware about the market knowledge it is very vast.

Last of technical thing are involved in it difficult for everyone to go through it.

37

CHAPTER-4
DATA ANALYSIS
&
INTERPRETATION

38

11 Sites Like eBay

eBay started in 1995 as a simple place to bring buyers and sellers together and is one of the
Internet bubble success stories. These days eBay has added a number of buy it now and store
options to make it the most popular online auction website available. On eBay you can find
anything from clothing and games to air guitars and love potions.
A common issue with eBay though is the associated selling fees cutting into your profit
margin. As such many of the sites like eBay focus on reducing your selling expenses (both
listing fees and selling fees).
Milllions of collectibles, decor, appliances, computers, furnishings, equipment, domain
names, vehicles, and other miscellaneous items are listed, bought, or sold daily on eBay. In
2006, eBay launched its Business & Industrial category, breaking into the industrial surplus
business. Generally, anything can be auctioned on the site as long as it is not illegal and does
not violate the eBay Prohibited and Restricted Items policy. Services and intangibles can be
sold, too. Large international companies, such as IBM, sell their newest products and offer
services on eBay using competitive auctions and fixed-priced storefronts. Separate eBay sites
such as eBay US and eBay UK allow the users to trade using the local currency. Software
developers can create applications that integrate with eBay through the eBay API by joining
the eBay Developers Program. In June 2005, there were more than 15,000 members in the
eBay Developers Program, comprising a broad range of companies creating software
applications to support eBay buyers and sellers as well as eBay Affiliates.

Check Out These 11 Sites

eBid
2 - Overstock
39

3 - CQuot
4 - Bidz
5 - BidMate
6 - Amazon
7 - iOffer
8 - Webstore
9 - Online Auction
10 uBid
11 - Etsy

1 - eBid
A Popular Auction Site Like eBay

eBid is another online auction site like eBay that allows you to easily buy and sell anything
and is definitely the best eBay alternative. eBid currently accepts sellers in over 20 countries
but allows buyers from over 100 different countries.
eBid offers its own PPPay payment method but does also support PayPal, Moneybookers and
Google Checkout. On eBid you can list any basic auction for free, meaning you are only
charged if you make a successful sale. eBid offers a number of membership levels; Buyer
(free), Seller (free but requires verification) and Seller Plus (annual fee) which allows you to
setup up to 5 stores and unlocks a number of other premium features to make selling easier.
If you are looking for another popular auction site like eBay to grow your online business
then try out eBid. eBid is also great for buyers with an average of over 5 million listed sales
40

live at any time.

eBid Official Website

2 - Overstock
A Bargain Site Like eBay

41

Overstock has grown into a successful online retailer since it began in 1999. Overstock
originally focused on selling surplus stock at less than wholesale prices but has recently added
their own merchandise to make them more of an Amazon style website.
Overstock no longer allows users to sell on their website (a feature retired in 2011) but is still
a great place to find a number of products at bargain prices
Overstock was ranked 2nd in the US for best customer service (2010), something they have
continued to strive towards meaning the support team behind Overstock is one of the best.
If you use eBay to find bargain products then this site like eBay is worth checking out.

3 - CQuot
Another Site Like eBay With Low Fees

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CQuot is a popular site like eBay that had a lot of success in the UK market and has now
started expanding out into the US, Australia, Canada and Ireland. If you call one of those
countries home then youre in luck thanks to the high traffic and competitive seller fees
CQuot is a good option for buying and selling.
Fraud prevention has always been at the top of the list for CQuot and outside of eBay is
definitely one of the top auction websites in this regard. Youre bound to encounter less issues
with CQuot then you would with most other websites which just generally makes the
experience more enjoyable. This is done mostly through the one time account setup fee to
help prevent verify your identity (but it is well worth it).
Sellers will particularly enjoy the ability to set a reserve prices for their auctions that very few
online auction sites are offering these days. High traffic parts of CQuot include arts,
electronics, books and home with all your standard categories also available.
CQuot Official Website

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4 - Bidz
An Alternative To eBay For Jewellery & Treasures

Bidz focuses on jewellery auctions and accessories, allowing you to get that perfect gift at a
really competitive price. Stocking all the well known brand names it wont be hard to choose
either as you click through countless collections of the quality products that you know and
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love.
In addition to the great prices that the website has to offer youll find very reasonable
shipping rates on Bidz for US and International buyers and these prices will even include the
necessary insurance to ensure that youre expensive gift arrives in one piece. First time buyers
can even score their first shipping for free to make the prices even more competitive.
In addition to Jewellery Bidz has begun expanding its collection in recent years to include art,
vintage accessories and even international treasures from old coins to pieces that speak of a
countries heritage.
Official Website

5 - BidMate
An Easy To Use Website Like eBay With No Listing Fees

BidMate is another site like eBay that focuses on reducing fees allowing you to keep more
profits from your online auction.
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BidMate has no listing fees or sales fees unlike eBay making it a great alternative for start up
a business. The fee for BidMate comes in after a successful sale and is extremely resonable in
comparison to the other auction websites out there.
BidMate also offers free store fronts allowing you to easily create a branded store to promote
and sell your products. One of the biggest strengths of BidMate is in its massive amount of
search options allowing buyers to easily find what they are looking for based on price,
location, keyword, brand or particular seller.
BidMate packs all the features that you would come to expect from an eBay alternative and
thanks to the low fees and strong website traffic starting your own online commerce business
couldnt be easier.
BidMate Official Website

6 - Amazon
One Of The Most Popular Sites Like eBay

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Amazon is one of the most popular and well known sites like eBay. Amazon is a great eBay
alternative for buyers or for businesses looking to grow their online presence.
Amazon started back in 1995 and has since expanded outside the United States to have
separate warehouses (and websites) for a number of countries (most
notablyCanada and United Kingdom).
Amazons product lines include toys, baby products, sporting goods, health, beauty, clothing,
groceries, DVDs, books and consumer electronics. Amazon now also offers e-book sales for
the Kindle, Instant Watch movies and MP3 downloads.
While Amazon has an extensive collection of products nearly 50% are served from third party
sellers. Amazons website also delivers reviews for each product from previous buyers
allowing you to easily make the right decision on your next purchase. Amazons popularity,
shipping options and product availability make it one of the best sites like eBay available.
Amazon Start Shopping Now
Search Amazon Products

$0.00

Blindsided (A Thriller)
Jay Giles

Kindle Fire Free Books

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Zero Friction Books

$0.00

A Cold and Broken Hall

Tyler Dilts

7 - iOffer
A Site Like eBay That Lets You Negotiate Price

iOffer is a unique website like eBay that

allows you to make offers to sellers, allowing you to get a bargain on your favourite items.
iOffer has no listing fees and allows you to setup your own free store front (unlike most other
sites like eBay which charge for the feature). Other features on iOffer include Google
Analytics tracking, import eBay auctions, store themes, customisable categories and rating
charts.
All of these iOffer features create a wonderful auction experience for both buyers and sellers.
The best feature for iOffer though is the ability to haggle with sellers to get a lower price on
items. If the product youve got your eye on is just to expensive on eBay consider searching
and making an offer on this site like eBay.

8 - Webstore
One Of The Best Online Auction Sites Like eBay For Sellers

Webstore tries to differentiate itself from the other sites like

eBay listed on this page by offering the lowest fees of all the online auction sites. Webstore
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does not charge sellers any fees and even allows you to setup your own online store front with
ease. Best of all Webstore does not impose a maximum number of listings allowing you to put
up 10, 100, 1000 auctions or more.
On Webstore buyers can get a great deal thanks to the zero selling fees, Webstore allows you
to bid on items, buy the item instantly or even place an offer on items. This flexibility has
made it a very popular eBay alternative for both buyers and sellers.
Webstore features the same feedback system to other online auction websites and also
supports a number of payment methods (including PayPal and Google Checkout).
Both sellers and buyers will find this website like eBay a great option, allowing everyone to
save money.
Webstore Official Website

9 - Online Auction
A Popular eBay Alternative For Regular Sellers

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Online Auction was started by Chris Fain a successful

auctioneer and regular online seller with a goal to improve the online auction industry. Thus
far Online Auction has not failed to meet this goal and offers one of the best online auction
websites like eBay
Online Auctions is different to other sites like eBay in that it doesnt charge any listing or
selling commissions and only charges a monthly fee. This means that if you sell a lot of items
on a regular basis you can save a large amount of money on listing/selling fees. On the flip
side this means that once-off or small scale sellers will end up paying more.
If you are a power online auction seller looking for new sites like eBay then you cant look
past Online Auction, it could save you a fortune in fees.
Online Auction Official Website

10 - uBid
A Site Like eBay With A Mixture Of Auction and Fixed Price Shopping

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uBid has many similarities to eBay making it a great eBay

alternative.
uBid doesnt allow individual sellers but does allow approved business sellers. These listings
from businesses are combined with uBids own products which you can bid on or purchase for
a buy it now price (just like eBay). Because uBid approves all sellers you can be sure that all
sellers are legitimate businesses, making uBid one of the safest sites like eBay.
uBid specialises in excess stock along with refurbished consumer electronics including home
appliances, phones, laptops and computers.
If you are looking to get some low price consumer electronics in a safe and reliable
environment then consider browsing the collection of products available on the uBid website.

11 - Etsy
Sell Your Handmade Products On This Site Like eBay

Etsy is one of the newest sites like eBay that focuses on

selling handmade products.
Items sold on Etsy are predominantly focused on art, clothing, jewelry, accessories, craft
supplies and toys.
Etsy allows you to easily create your own store front (which you can customise) and also
allows users to easily list their products for a small flat fee. One strength of Etsy is that Etsy
listings perform well in search results, helping drive more traffic to individual products or
stores.
If you are looking to buy/sell handmade or vintage products then Etsy should definitely be on
the top of your sites like eBay to try.

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Chapter-5
FINDINGS &
CONCLUSION

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FINDINGS:
It has been observed that:
The prospective segment is suitable for all the generations.
EBay should continue to maintain their standard of the service.
It is observed that all the online shoppers have been once used EBay.
Most of the buyers prefer to buy things from the feature Cash-On-Delivery.
This study shows that customers are highly satisfied with the services, thus helping EBay in
customer retention.
Company has created goodwill among the customers which is helping them to recommend
website to friends and relatives.
It is also observed that Internet is helping EBay the most in the promotions. Socialnetworking sites are also helping the site to grow.
Because of discounts, people are attracted more towards online shopping.
The convenience of shopping by sitting at home is also most preferred by the customers.
There are people who dont shop online because they love to shop outdoors.
People also claimed that they are insecure of paying online. So, these people are benefitted by
EBays COD service.
EBay provides customers with 24*7 call support.

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CONCLUSION:
It has been observed that most customers are satisfied with the services and the features that
the company provides.
The websites interface is putting the site out-of-the-box. It has been designed in such a way
that there exists an ease of searching the item and has become the USP of EBay.
But, company should provide customers with even better after sales service to stick in
competition with the other rulers of market, such as Amazon or eBay. High customer
satisfaction level helps the company to retain its existing customer as well as generate new
customer through word of mouth or social-networking publicity.
Customer satisfaction index is a good tool to make improvements in the products and services
of the company. And therefore should be utilized carefully & kept as confidential as possible.
When compared to the other competitors of e-commerce within the country, EBay seems to be
better than all. On comparison, more than 80% people rated other sites to be poor than
EBay.
Also, EBay should introduce various measures to deliver the product as soon as possible and
should make its delivery in wider areas so as to cope up with the growing market.
After summarizing up the data, it can be concluded that EBay is gaining popularity amongst
every class of people.
EBay need to introduce new techniques to convert the offline shoppers into online shoppers.
For example, they should give them exclusive sign up discounts.
Surveys should also be conducted time-to-time for why people are not shopping online. A
proper analysis should be done and the company should concentrate on their Strengths,
Weakness, Opportunities and Threats.

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CHAPTER-6

SUGGESTIONS/
RECOMMENDATION

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After conducting the survey and knowing the market, the researcher realized that:
The company should keep in mind the need of young generation.
Company should improve promotion strategy of their in-house products. E.g. By giving addon services.
It will be beneficial for the company to make the warehouse near to the various distribution
centers and there should be roof facility, adequate security facility in the warehouse.
The company should know its customers satisfaction level throughout doing periodic surveys.
Periodic surveys can treat customer satisfaction directly.
Company should improve/upgrades its competitors knowledge by giving proper training to
employee.
Company should improve their products.
The company should not only concentrate on the customer satisfaction but also the company
led to monitor their competitors performance in their areas of operations.
The company should make changes according to the other competitors & according to the
customers expectations.
The company should introduce more periodic offers so as to attract more and more customers.
The company should also focus on the after sales services, thus, better customer support.

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