It’s a busy month for many of us as the peak Christmas season builds. Last weekend, we saw our busiest online shopping day for sellers on eBay in the UK. We predicted that eBay’s UK sellers would sell over 1,800 items every minute and while the final figures aren’t in, it seems that you beat this prediction comfortably. We expect next weekend to be big in the UK and across Europe too.
This weekend certainly won’t be a quiet one, but is still a good opportunity to reflect as we celebrate Small Business Saturday. At our recent PowerON seller webinar, I spoke about the importance of small businesses to eBay. The feedback was that we need to do more. We will.
200,000 British businesses rely on eBay. This is an awesome responsibility and one that is a top priority as we plan for 2015.
For new and less experienced sellers, we’ll be making improvements. We will make the process for registering new businesses on eBay simpler. The Global Shipping Programme will offer better access to more markets for sellers to take the first step in growing a cross-border business.
For more experienced sellers, we will be making improvements. This year we launched a PR programme to highlight the great items available from smaller sellers on eBay. So far we have secured 60 placements of products from 30 sellers, including the Evening Standard, the Guardian and the Independent.
Our deals programme is another way that we help experienced sellers to succeed. The programme is growing each year, and we will look for new ways to provide access to small- and medium-sized eBay sellers.
You will see more marketing from eBay next year, both online and offline. We know that building our brand will help our sellers succeed. We are committed to this investment to help connect with customers.
Small sellers remain the lifeblood of eBay in the UK and we have to do more to allow them to grow their businesses.
But what we do have at eBay, with the benefit of 19 million Brits visiting us each month, is some insight into the direction of the overall market and customer expectations as the e-commerce market becomes even more competitive. We know that customers want easy returns, delivery options such as click-and-collect, as well as top levels of service. We appreciate the steps you take to offer these services.
Quite simply, when small businesses on eBay succeed, everyone wins: buyers enjoy access to great inventory and value, businesses across the UK gain more sales, and eBay continues to grow as a marketplace connecting 200,00 British businesses with their customers.
Tanya Lawler is vice president, eBay UK
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