Ebay To Shed 2nd Hand Image
Ebay will soon begin work on an extensive campaign to change its public face, ditching the old image of a cut-price online auction site to push the idea that it offers a mix of new and used goods, many of them at fixed prices.
EBay Australia spokesman Daniel Feiler said while the website was known for second-hand goods by auction, more than half of all sales were fixed price, with most of these new items.
”We need to change people’s perceptions. That’s not to say we want to move away from auctions but the reality of what we do is quite different. We want to shift that [perception], which is not a challenge to be underestimated,” he said.
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EBay had been in Australia for 11 years and over that time the business had evolved and changed, Mr Feiler said. He said auctions had been a good way to get people onto eBay but online shopping was no longer a novelty and people’s expectations had changed.
”As Australians have matured in their online shopping habits, they don’t want to wait for an auction to end, they want to get things at a good, fair price and delivered as soon as possible,” he said.
Several big-name retailers have set up ‘’shops” on eBay, including Cellarmasters and ABC Shops, selling fixed-priced goods. One of the biggest names in online retailing, DealsDirect, has recently returned to eBay.
Mr Feiler said many retailers with a strong online presence believed that having their own website was not enough, and it was more effective also to sell through other sites such as eBay.
He said many people selling new goods on eBay had started out selling second-hand things from around their homes and moved onto setting up a business selling goods imported in bulk or distressed stock bought from other retailers.
”Many of our clients started working out of their garages and have moved onto having a warehouse close to an airport for shipping,” Mr Feiler said.
EBay hired Leo Burnett this week, after a pitching campaign that ran for about five months.