eBay’s Crowdsourcing Initiatives

•  Crowdsourcing has allowed eBay to offer millions of products to millions of customers.

•  They provide a platform for sellers with tools to promote and sell their products.

•  The millions of sellers that use this platform constitute an unmatchable sales force.

•  Their products attract customers that contribute by giving feedback (e.g. rating sellers) and improving the quality of the community.

•  By empowering sellers and buyers, eBay has created a unique marketplace that would not be possible without crowdsourcing.

How eBay takes Advantage of Crowdsourcing

•  Customers can rate sellers improving the quality of the community.

•  Sellers put their own prices, their own product descriptions, and their own terms. They do the marketing for eBay.

•  The market (literally) determines what is offered. eBay does not have to predict demand or look for trends.

Crowdsourcing of New Features •  “Sow the seeds of innovation” with community input on new products and features before

they go live on the site o  Users try out new features and tell ebay what they think o  Anyone can participate o  Unclear how they are motivating users to collaborate

•  Fashion designer Derek Lam partnered with eBay taking advantage of eBay's crowdsourcing platform allowing users to decide the next fashion collection to be sold on the site.

Collection available in eBay’s website where using the wisdom of crowds, Derek Lam fans had the chance to decide which 5 dresses will be put up for sale on eBay.

•  eBay created a Green Team program and website to tap into the wisdom of crowds. The program's mission is to "inspire the world to buy, sell and think green every day.“

The Results : •  To date, over 300,000 sellers --

individuals who sell goods on eBay's platform -- have signed up to share ideas and views aimed at making eBay a greener sales partner. The eBay Box a corrugated cardboard

box designed to be durable enough to be used by sellers over and over again, is among the ideas that came from this community and have been rolled out.

Crowd-sourcing sustainability ideas through social media is a low-risk, low-cost tactic to enhance sustainability performance.

eBay – Crowdsource Gift Buying •  Service designed to make it easier for consumers to collectively purchase gifts.

Voices - Focus Group Program •  Focus Group of around 75 users (Buyers &

Sellers of all kinds) •  Voices users report on problems that can

be happening on eBay (e.g. technical, distribution, user interaction, etc)

•  Their reports are internally distributed to over 700 different mailboxes (from managers to engineers) - Direct access to eBay staff.

•  Immediate response is given, problem acknowledgement and resolution.

•  Voices users represent all eBay users and are advocates of the eBay services brand.

•  Interaction with Voices users are made through email and weekly phone calls for feedback about community

Conclusions •  Crowdsourcing allow customers to engage with brands on a new level.

•  Crowdsourcing adds more value on :

o  Research: Crowdsourcing can be used as a research initiative to take a very broad ‘bottom-up’ view on a question in a relatively short space of time.

o  Innovation / Idea generation: Crowdsourcing is very powerful to bring ideas and inspiration to projects that will be very valuable for customers.

“If I asked my customers what they wanted they would have

asked for a faster horse.” Henry Ford

Sources Garden by eBay: -  http://venturebeat.com/2010/02/09/ebay-to-use-crowd-sourcing-to-test-new-features-starting-with-streamlined-search/ -  http://garden.ebay.com/

Derek Lam + eBay -  http://thisisenzo.posterous.com/ebay-does-crowdsourcing -  http://dereklam.ebay.com/ - http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/85206386-3563-11e0-aa6c-00144feabdc0.html#ixzz1RWa9XqSe eBay Green Team -  http://biznik.com/articles/3-rules-for-crowdsourcing-your-sustainability-projects - - http://www.greenbiz.com/news/2010/09/02/ebay-gives-away-100k-reusable-green-shipping-boxes-sellers

eBay Gift Buying -  http://www.retailwire.com/discussion/14874/ebay-launches-crowdsource-gift-buying

eBay Voices program - http://pages.ebay.com/community/chatter/2003Apr/InsideeBay.html