Ebay

eBay Inc. is an American internet consumer-to-consumer corporation that manages eBay.com, an online auction and shopping website in which people and businesses buy and sell a broad variety of goods and services worldwide.The online auction website was founded as AuctionWeb in San Jose, California, on September 3, 1995, by American computer programmer Pierre Omidyar (born June 21, 1967) , eBay is one of the notable success stories of the dot-com bubble; it is now a multi-billion dollar business with operations localized in over thirty countries. eBay expanded from its original "set-time" auction format to include "Buy It Now" standard shopping; shopping by UPC, ISBN, or other kind of SKU; online classified advertisements; online event ticket trading; online money transfers and other services

PayPal-only categories

Beginning in August 2007, eBay required listings in "Video Games" and "Health & Beauty" to accept its payment system PayPal and sellers could only accept PayPal for payments in the category "Video Games: Consoles". eBay announced that starting in March 2008, eBay had added to this requirement that all sellers with fewer than 100 feedbacks must offer PayPal and no merchant account may be used as an alternative. This is in addition to the requirement that all sellers from the United Kingdom have to offer PayPal. Millions of collectibles, decor, appliances, computers, furnishings, equipment, domain names, vehicles, and other miscellaneous items are listed, bought, or sold daily on eBay.

Online shopping

The following chart shows trends in online shopping in the general adult population since 2000.

technology

What separates today’s e-commerce pricing strategies from past attempts to manage revenue is the increasing role played by new technology. As e-commerce continues to grow, technology is certain to play an increasing role in marketing and pricing practices.  E-commerce companies, however, have the potential to take price discrimination to a new level,...