What Is Topic This All About?

So what is #digitalmarketing? It is defined by (Chaffey and Ellis-Chadwick, 2019) as the process of achieving set marketing objectives by integrating digital technologies and digital mediums into the marketing process. Yeah…cool.. But what does that actually mean? Think about social media platforms, digital billboards, mobile phones, tablets, and virtual audiences; digital marketing is the process of not only reaching a general target market, but specifically targeting people with digitally accessible interactive and engaging content via these channels to promote a brand and ultimately influence a purchase decision that contributes to the core business function of earning a profit. Still curious? Check out a couple of examples of Spotify using sneaking ads into Facebook Newsfeed and Google search results below – That’s digital marketing in the works!

How has eBay had to evolve its online brand proposition and communicate it to achieve continued growth.

Content and theory has been adapted from the source: Chaffey, D. and Ellis-Chadwick, F. (2019). Digital marketing. Harlow: Pearson.

As society and technology evolve, the need for brands to evolve with modern trends in is critical for success, thus eBay has recently evolved its online brand proposition.

Perhaps the most annoying factors of online bargain hunting are hidden costs and the risk of being scammed.  Aware of this, eBay has evolved to promise users on the purchasing side of the site, full transparency when it comes to product pricing, clearly showing the total price upfront when engaging with the ‘buy it now function’. This has evolved from traditional models of marketing where seemingly low prices lured in unsuspecting buyers before being shocked by disproportionate shipping costs.  

Image Source: me.me.com, Availableat; https://me.me/i/me-spends-200-plus-online-shopping-shipping-5-99-me-shipping-3500259

Shoppers are also said to experience minimised risk when shopping with the site, thanks to the ‘trust and safety programs’ that incorporate user feedback to determine trusted buyers and ease your mind. This has evolved to gain the trust back from consumers that has been lost from dealings with false or misleading listings, commonly resulting in a financial loss.

What’s more, buyers are able to quickly find items with ease due to eBay placing a high priority on mobile friendly e-commerce, even incorporating artificial intelligence ‘shopbot’ features on platforms like Facebook Messenger and Google Assistant to help filter through listings. This demonstrates that eBay is committed to actively improve the experience of shoppers, by providing modern-day solutions to modern-day ‘problems’.

On the sellers side, eBay proposes a fast, easy, intuitive approach to listing items by developing automatic posting software. This is most effectively used by frequent sellers, retiring the tedious task of posting multiple listings. Here, eBay hopes to keep sellers loyal to the site, by ensuring its service is simple, yet effective and competitive.

Despite modern society living in a ‘digital-age’, eBay has found that digital channels have had little effect in influencing perceptions about the site, however traditional platforms such as TV have been successful. eBay will therefore be placing a large focus on traditional platforms to communicate the benefits of their new brand proposition to their audience. This strategy hopes to achieve continued growth of the brand, allowing it to dominate the online marketplace scene.

You might think that eBay’s revenue model revolves around advertising, however advertising doesn’t actually account for much of eBay’s revenue stream. Traditionally revenue is generated from commission from completed sales, however, in recent times this model has been expanded. eBay has gone down the path of strategic acquisitions and alliances, expanding its infrastructure footprint to cover a large proportion of merchandise categories. This model has allowed eBay to successfully minimise competition and strengthen its brand image to ultimately achieve continued growth in the market.