Booming eBay aims at offline stores

Almost
twenty procent of growth in all areas

eBay
is booming in recent years: its turnover rose from 2.495 billion
dollar in the fourth quarter of 2010 to 3.380 billion dollar a year
later and 3.992 billion dollar (+18 %) in the last three months of
2012. The growth is significantly bigger than analysts had expected
and helps eBay to a net profit of 751 million dollar (560 million
euro).

For
the full year 2012, the online trading platform reached a turnover of
14.1 billion dollar (almost 11 billion euro), an increase of 21%
compared to 2011. 175 billion dollar (131 billion euro) worth of
transactions were facilitated by eBay last year, a growth of 18 %.
Almost ten billion euro passed through mobile devices, more than
double the amount of 2011.

The
increase in sales on eBay is partly due to a better search
functionality, but also to the promotion of free delivery as well as
smooth return policies. Another boost was the option to shop via
mobile devices, which attracted four million new clients.

Net
profits go down

eBay’s
performance in the fourth quarter of 2012 resulted in a net profit of
751 million dollar (560 million euro). This means a decrease of 62%
in profits compared to the same period a year ago, but last year’s
result was exceptional because of the sale of Skype,
which boosted the income with an extra 2.1 billion euro. eBay ended
2012 with a net gain of 2.609 billion dollar (1.95 billion euro), 19% less than the year before.

For
the first quarter of 2013, eBay expects a turnover of between 3.65
and 3.75 billion dollar (2.73 and 2.79 billion euro) and forecasts a
turnover of around 16 billion dollar (12 billion euro) for the whole
year.

Paypal
in physical shops

To
keep growing, the online giant has built an offline strategy around
its payment branch PayPal: the concern has reached an agreement with
cash register producer NCR to integrate PayPal into its physical
store cash registers. This way, millions of shops will soon offer
PayPal as a payment method as well.

Moreover,agreements with American retail giants Home Depot and Toys “R”
Us enable consumers to pay with PayPal in these shops as well.
Another reminder that the future belongs to the companies who are best
able to combine all channels…