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International Marketing assignment
[Name of the Writer]
[Name of the Institution]
Table of Contents
Introduction3
Marketing mix3
Macro-environmental factors influencing the marketing mix decisions7
References10
International Marketing assignment
Introduction
eBay is an international online sale and exchange corporation that was launched by Pierre Omidyar, an American entrepreneur, in 1995. eBay was among the first corporations to construct and market an Internet Web page to match consumers and vendors of various services and goods. eBay caters to single vendors and small companies and is a marketplace leader in e-commerce globally (Gillespie, Riddle, 2015). eBay headquarter is located in San Jose, California. The products of eBay are online facilities, for example online selling amenities. eBay as a business relies on its customers to self-regulate the trade-off community through an opinion or feedback system. Consumers can partake in the web store of eBay located or operational in their region or use one of the organizations international websites.
Marketing Mix
Marketing mix or 4P necessitates that the organization correctly define market demand and prospects. These facets of the transnational business setting form strategic management.
eBay’s 4P
Product
Products or services are the outputs offered or vended by the organizational to its target market. The products of eBay are online facilities, for example online selling of poducts etc. amenities. eBay as a business relies on its customers to self-regulate the trade-off community through an opinion or feedback system that permits the customers to rate sellers on trades or transactions. Sellers were also allowed to leave negative comments on their purchasers, but then the feature was taken out in 2008(Cabral, Li, 2015). Following are the key products/services offered by the company:
Ticket exchange facilities
Classifieds facilities
Marketplace facilities
The product mix of eBay reveals that eBay's marketing mix comprises of online transaction platform facilities. eBay marketplace amenities are the fundamental of the worldwide business. These facilities or services are presented at the central website of the company (ebay.com) as well as local websites for numerous marketplaces. For instance, for the Australian marketplace, ebay.com.au offers its services. These marketplace services permit the customers and sellers to make and complete transactions on their own. This part of the 4Ps of the company also embraces ticket exchange facility via a website named StubHub.com and also many of localized webpages. These online services allow users to buy and sell tickets to various events (Chaffey, Ellis, 2019). Moreover, eBay offers classified listings webpages, for example, Kijiji.
Place
In this feature of the marketing mix, the scrutiny is focused on the networks or places where the company dispenses its services or merchandises in the market and handles the target clients. These locations or places may consist of virtual and physical whereabouts. For instance, online podiums are considered amongst the networks or places. In this scenario, the places applicable in this part of eBay’s marketing mix are:
API (Application programming interface)
Certified websites
Mobile applications
Certified webstores and mobile applications are the key places for consumers to have admission to eBay's digital facilities. For instance, wholesalers and buyers can use eBay's market webstores and mobile applications. In this fragment of the 4P, the organization also dispenses its merchandises through its Application programming interface (API). The Application programming interface permits third parties, for example, other applications and websites to have admission to the organization's products and services and its catalog of stuff for sale. Therefore, these places enhance efforts to grasp the target markets and upkeep eBay's standard approach for economical benefit and rigorous policies for progression. This marketing mix reveals that the eBay strategic management targets to offer several alternatives for retrieving the services or products of the company.
Promotion
This feature of the marketing mix concentrates on how the organization sponsors its products and services in its target marketplaces. eBay's conforming approaches and strategies define the interaction between the services or products and the target customers and dealers. For instance, public association undertakings are persuasive in satiating the goals in this segment of the 4P. Effective promotional activities are keys to the management of customers' anticipations and growing the organizations market share in the worldwide e-commerce business. The promotional mix strategies applied by eBay's marketing mix are
Public affairs/relations
Sales promotion
Advertising
Sales campaigns are amid the most important strategies of the eBay promotional mix. These activities are designed to intensify the sales in the short-run; these promotional activates concerning sales includes in discount vouchers and other special offers for merchants. The promotional mix of eBay also includes in advertising, which is intermittently used in drawing more customers to eBay's online trade-off podiums. Moreover, public affairs or relations aids in promoting the organization's brands and business. For instance, the eBay Foundation upholds CSR (corporate social responsibility) packages that grow the organization's visibility in numerous marketplaces around the globe. Generally, this characteristic of the marketing mix highlights management emphasis on short-run promotional campaigns.
Pricing
This feature defines the pricing strategies for eBay's services and products. Pricing is directly related to the corporation's revenue margins and transnational market segment. For instance, inferior prices can draw more vendors and, subsequently, more customers to the corporation's online trade-off websites or web stores. The appropriateness of pricing tactics impacts management objectives and organizational performance as well. A fragment of the marketing mix of eBay Inc, the Management of the company device the following pricing policies:
Dynamic pricing policy
Market-oriented pricing policy
The corporation's 4P also includes dynamic pricing approaches, which permits suppleness in setting charges for their services. For example, charges contain fixed bills per item vended or sold, also charges as a proportion of the final sale aggregate. Sellers can pick between selling plans and conforming charges. By means of this dynamic pricing policy, the corporation manages consumers' anticipations on sales plan suppleness. This feature of eBay marketing mix aids in optimizing incomes as the worldwide trade grows its sales profits. The market-oriented pricing policy encompasses prices based on present or prevalent marketplace rates. For instance, eBay's present seller charges are similar to rivals' charges in proposing e-commerce amenities.
Macro-environmental factors influencing the marketing mix decisions
Political factors
eBay is packing an enormous amount of data. Every login and trade-off is preserved on the eBay system. Though it is not supposed to use consumer data, many e-commerce companies are having an inflow of confidentiality disputes. Like most of their businesses, eBay also supplies a privacy policy on their website that every customer or user can read, but it does not promise 100% confidentiality. The government is gradually involving privacy policy pacts and data breaches. This government attention will force companies like eBay to alter their data protection policies and measures.
Economic factors
eBay vendors are to be found around the world. Their offerings are extended across the world. If the customer is not able to find a product at the local web store, it can most certainly to be found on the international website of eBay (Shang et al., 2017). Consumers everywhere prefer a vast range of products or services. And vendors like the facility for vending to anybody around the world. This means that the consumer's base is not restricted by locations and therefore, eBay has to deal with consumers from around the globe simultaneously.
Social factors
Rising online activity around the world is an important social factor that is a great opportunity for online businesses to increase their market share and revenues. Also, people are continuously changing buying and selling preferences in accordance with their conveniences which is also an opportunity to attract such customers. Lastly, the rising demand for high-quality services and products is a major social factor for business such as eBay. This demand can be an opportunity or a threat to eBay. If eBay is able to meet these needs of the customers, it can be more successful, if not, it can seriously damage the business in the long and short run.
Technological factors
eBay being an e-commerce business persists on technology. It needs servers, virtual payment structures, and room for storing digital data. If a server goes down for even a very short amount of time, the company can lose a lot of revenues. Not only the company has to be available 24/7, but it must also to be user-friendly as well, or many people will give up on the website. Therefore, eBay has to keep up with contemporarily designed interfaces and continuously look for new technological interventions and additions to their business processes.
Legal factors
It is easier to hide one's identity online whether it is a vendor or a buyer. If someone sells out a prohibited product, it is hard to find such a culprit. That is why like many other online businesses, eBay has had a many of such mishaps. Such mishaps can heavily penalize the company per transaction. Therefore, it is very crucial to avoid such transactions. Moreover, some scammers can pretend to be the representative of the company to steal consumer data such as credit card information. Such scams seriously hurt the company's image if the company is not able to protect its customers and guide them (Edelman & Brandi, 2015).
Environmental factors
Online shopping has no harmful impacts on the environment, but it is better for the environment. For online shopping, people do not need to drive a car and spend on fuel or add to pollution. Customers only have to click, type and agree to buy or sell their products. You're also able to buy previously owned items. eBay has also permitted the public to purchase and offer green or sustainable products to wide-reaching audiences. These products are now greatly appreciated and in demand that can positively impact the business and the environment as a whole (Hui et al., 2016).
All the above external environmental factors have greatly influenced the marketing mix decisions of eBay, and so far the company has dealt with most of these factors in a constructive way. However, a competitor like Amazon is also taking on opportunities to attract customers.
References
Cabral, L., & Li, L. (2015). A dollar for your thoughts: Feedback-conditional rebates on eBay. Management Science, 61(9), 2052-2063.
Chaffey, D., & Ellis-Chadwick, F. (2019). Digital marketing. Pearson UK.
Edelman, B., & Brandi, W. (2015). Risk, information, and incentives in online affiliate marketing. Journal of Marketing Research, 52(1), 1-12.
Gillespie, K., & Riddle, L. (2015). Global marketing. Routledge.
Hui, X., Saeedi, M., Shen, Z., & Sundaresan, N. (2016). Reputation and regulations: evidence from eBay. Management Science, 62(12), 3604-3616.
Shang, G., Pekgün, P., Ferguson, M., & Galbreth, M. (2017). How much do online consumers really value free product returns? Evidence from eBay. Journal of Operations Management, 53, 45-62.
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