Analyze the Marketing environment and the forces shaping eBay's business over the years.
Since it's online birth in 1995, the marketing environment and subsequent forces shaping eBay's multi billion dollar e-commerce corporation have undoubtedly shifted. In eBay's earlier years, the online flea market focused primarily on specialized products including used, vintage, antique and homemade items in an online auction-type fashion. As nothing like this had ever been successful prior to eBay's entrance to the global online market scene, the phenomenon spread like wild fire. Consumers competing through LCD screens for a "mom-and-pop " bargain couldn't have have been a bigger hit. eBay dominated the online marketplace for over a decade as it's total income and revenue skyrocketed propelling it to the number one e-commerce site in the world by the year 2000. The online powerhouse continued to flourish throughout the new millennium as over 52 billion dollars worth of merchandise was sold through eBay in 2006. However, as new competitors entered the market the newness eBay once possessed was quickly fading. As more suppliers, competitors and product differentiation entered the market, the complex and dynamic marketing environment shifted and eBay experienced its first loss in over a decade in 2008. New CEO John Donahoe knew something drastic needed to be done in order to not only keep up ever changing consumer behavior, but also with competitors such as Amazon.com and Walmart.com who had quietly been out producing eBay. As online shopping began to go mainstream, consumers began to turn more towards reputable online retailers for newer merchandise at the same type of bargain, leaving eBay Donahoe with a simple decision: change or watch your company get ran over by its competitors. Donahoe chose the innovative approach as he publicly stated that eBay needed to "redo their playbook " in order to keep up with the forces driving eBay's business.
