The power of crowdsourcing: eBay

EBay is the world largest online marketplace, where people can almost buy and sell anything. The company serves as an intermediary and lets the buyer and seller interact freely. It gives Customers the benefit to easily search for products with its streamlined search interface, and find exactly the item that they are looking for – such as a vintage toy from the 1950’s-. The real value of the company stands in their wide customer base: the more sellers (more choice for buyers) & the more buyers (the higher the bids for sellers). In other words crowdsourcing increases the overall welfare for the buyers, sellers and eBay itself. Therefore it makes sense that the company improves its search tool continuously to ease these transactions and improve customer experiences.

The consolidation of eBay as a top online auction and shopping website and their worldwide success has come directly from crowdsourcing. Allowing the company to easily track how users respond to new ideas, giving them the tools to freely play around with. Users can also rate the sellers after the hole buying experience, and vice versa; making the next auction more reliable and secure for the next buyer or seller, in order to make the right choice whether or not to engage with another user. Crowdsourcing creates the engagement that wouldn’t be possible otherwise. And who used to be skeptical online shoppers and sellers are starting to recognize the power of new technologies like eBay to provide access to many niche markets at convenient prices.

As an example, eBay has announced the introduction of original designer collections to be sold exclusively on fashion.ebay.com. Now consumers collectively can have a vote on influencing the final collection that comes out for the next season for these exclusive designers. Giving them a unique opportunity to have an instant communication with customers and not only get exposure, but having the chance of anticipating their needs and being more accurate to create the fashion products that people want. The company’s worldwide reach has allowed them to increase the speed of trade and it’s community to become the real key to their success.