eBay Case Study: Marketing Strategy Innovation in Action

Initially beginning life as AuctionWeb back in the days of the dotcom bubble, eBay not only survived that tumultuous period in internet history but has continued to thrive and become the biggest customer to customer selling site in world.

According to the company’s latest financials, the first quarter of 2022 saw eBay generate revenue of $2.5 billion with a gross merchandise volume of $19.4 billion. eBay has performed better than expected in this period – perhaps due to an increased number of people selling items acquired during the pandemic when ecommerce shopping was at its zenith.

Most people don’t associate eBay with marketing campaigns and traditional marketing efforts, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. eBay has a solid and innovative marketing strategy which helps it hammer home its position as a service platform rather than a traditional ecommerce retailer.

With that in mind, let’s dive into this special eTail West case study to discover what’s under the hood of the eBay marketing machine – before we get outbid.

Historic Marketing

eBay has long had a reputation for out of the box marketing strategies and these go right back to its early days during the dotcom boom.

In 1997, when the company officially changed its name from AuctionWeb to eBay, there was a rumor that the site was conceived so that founder Pierre Omidyar’s fiancé could sell her collection of Pez candy dispensers. This human-interest element to the eBay story created enormous publicity for the nascent platform and helped it achieve explosive growth in the collectibles market – a sector it is still incredibly popular with today.

This in turn helped fuel the 1997 Beanie Baby craze and resulted in the hard-to-find toys accounting for 10% of all listings on eBay for the year.

However, the story was a complete fabrication, cooked up by then public relations manager, Mary Lou Song. The Pez dispenser myth could be the first example of this kind of storytelling in marketing and helps demonstrate how eBay was innovating in the digital marketing space from the word go – even if it weren’t the most authentic of strategies.

Legacy Media

While our focus is often drawn to modern digital channels when crafting our marketing strategies, eBay isn’t ready to turn its back on legacy media just yet. In fact, the online selling platform announced in 2021 its intention to pour marketing resources into that old living room stalwart – television.

With testing to begin in the UK, before global rollout is considered, eBay believes TV is still a powerful channel when it comes to brand building and will form a core thrust of its effort to communicate the idea that eBay is more than a second-hand seller.

"We don’t want to be defined by that online car boot sale reputation anymore,” said eBay in a press statement. "We need to get people to consider eBay in a completely different way. The UK is the petri dish for testing a new approach to rebuilding the brand globally. It is all about a shift away from the marketplace and over to being the ultimate shop. TV is still on fire and a wonderful medium to get neurons into people’s brands in order to rewire their perceptions. If you ask someone where they are shopping on Black Friday, then TV is the best place to put eBay at the front of their consideration set.”

Social Sharing

We all know how powerful social media can be when it comes to promoting products and eBay is no exception. This is why in 2021, the company announced it would be incentivizing sellers to promote their listing on their social media channels by offering a reduction in fees for those who do so.

"We all know that increasingly buyers are discovering products and getting validation of those products through their social channels. And so, first," said Vice President of eBay Stores, Tom Pinckney. "We're improving the basic capabilities of how you can go to the listing page and share your listing into these different channels.”

Sellers which promote their posts on social media will get a significant reduction in fees if a customer clicks through a social link, through to their seller page, and completes a purchase. If these conditions are met, the seller will only be charged 2.5% final value fees and a 30-cent transaction charge.

With free at point of use services such as Facebook Marketplace posing an existential threat to sites such as eBay, incentivizing sellers to promote both themselves and eBay as a platform on those very same social media platforms is a terrific way to try and drive traffic towards the site

The promotion has proved so successful that in April 2022, eBay announced it would be expanding the social sharing offer to other markets around the world, including a limited release in Australia. While the promotion may only be temporary to begin with, it seems likely eBay will extend the offer if it sees significant engagement during the promotional period in question.

Love Island

Love it or hate it, there’s no denying the television mega hot that is Love Island. The British reality/dating show has found a dedicated following across the world as millions tune in to watch the drama unfold among these attractive young people.

The final episode of the 2022 season pulled in a staggering 3.4 million viewers – up 100,000 on the previous year – with the consolidated series average currently stands at 4.6 million across devices once catch-up data and ITV Hub audiences are accounted for.

With influencer marketing being so popular right now, it was only natural that eBay would turn to one of the stars of the show to help drive its brand messaging to a wider demographic of highly engaged potential customers.

For this partnership, eBay selected on of the contestants from the 2022 season, Tasha Ghouri who it named its Pre-Loved Ambassador. This collaboration is the first to come out of the TV show which focusses on the joys of second-hand clothing and eschews the environmentally harmful fast-fashion space which is responsible for so much waste being dumped in landfills around the world.

"Prior to Love Island, I’ve always bought secondhand for my wardrobe, so partnering with eBay really is a dream come true,” wrote Ghouri in an Instagram post announcing the partnership with eBay. "I feel passionately that we can all make little swaps to our wardrobes and our lives for the better and so I’m excited to join eBay on their mission to put secondhand fashion at the front and center.”

The collaboration with Ghouri follows a partnership eBay established with Love Island during its 2022 season run where it provided the show’s contestants with collections of pre-loved clothing in an attempt to inspire viewers to engage in a circular clothing ecosystem. Convincing customers to embrace second-hand clothing is not only beneficial to a platform such as eBay, but also helps reduce our consumption levels and the environmental impact of the fashion industry.

In September 2022, Ghouri released her first collection on eBay – a special edit of 60 items of clothing which will be available for a limited time on the platform. All proceeds from the collection will go to Ghouri’s chosen charity – the Royal National Institute for Deaf People.

"I’ve always enjoyed being playful with clothes - mixing and matching existing pieces in my wardrobe with vintage designer finds - so partnering with eBay and being able to create my own pre-loved capsule is a dream come true,” said Ghouri at the announcement. "With this collection, I wanted to include the timeless staples I reach for most in my own wardrobe, from denim jackets to sparkly dresses and big blazers that can be dressed up or down. I’m passionate about showing how easy it is to make those little swaps so that we shop more sustainably, whilst still serving amazing looks!”

Final Thoughts

eBay survived the dotcom crash of the early 2000s and came back fighting to become one of the biggest and most widely recognized ecommerce brands on the market today. With a solid marketing strategy which has been ahead of its time from the very beginning of its life, eBay has proven on numerous occasions that it is here to stay and can still trade blows with the best in the business.

Innovative and exciting marketing strategies in the ecommerce space are sure to be part of the conversation at eTail West 2023, being held in February and March at the JW Marriott Desert Springs, Palm Springs, CA.

Download the agenda today for more information and insights.