The one thing that eluded Devin Wenig in his tenure as CEO was eBay growth. In came Jamie Iannone and growth exploded, although much of that was thanks to a global pandemic. Jamie’s job now is to continue eBay growth and make sure it’s not just a corona effect but a long term influx of buyers generating orders for eBay sellers and fees for eBay investors.
For too long, here at Tamebay we’ve looked at eBay’s two flagship innovations – eBay Promoted Listings and eBay payments – and dismissed them as two ways for eBay to make billion dollar revenues but neither as a way to directly generate new business.
If eBay growth isn’t clearly demonstrated by larger GMV numbers then it might be fair to say that all eBay Promoted Listings does is generate fees for moving a sale from one seller to another (promoted listings might surface a product a buyer hadn’t considered purchasing so that might be too simplistic, but is a reasonable viewpoint). eBay payments is the right thing to do but also doesn’t directly generate increased GMV (although eBay might argue removing payment friction does increase sales).
So two programs that generate fees but don’t move the needle on GMV leaves the problem of where to find eBay growth so we were pleased to spot that eBay have announced a new Global Chief Growth Officer (CGO). In a newly created role Julie Loeger will become eBay’s first CGO in January and will lead two critical, global teams that are focused on customer acquisition, retention and service — Global Marketing and Global Customer Experience. Together, these teams will form eBay’s Global Growth organization. Julie will report directly to Jamie Iannone.
“We are thrilled to welcome Julie to the team. I’m impressed by Julie’s approach to driving customer-focused innovation throughout her 30-year career. She has a demonstrated history of building strong ties between product and business teams. As we continue toward our vision of becoming the best global marketplace for buyers and sellers, Julie will join the leadership team in driving the overall company strategy focused specifically on attracting and retaining customers while identifying new pathways for growth.”
– Jamie Iannone, CEO, eBay
“I am excited to join the eBay team in January. eBay’s dedication to customer-centric thinking and commitment to its purpose of creating economic opportunity for all inspires me. I’m eager to join the leadership team in paving the path toward the transformational tech-led reimagination.”
– Julie Loeger, incoming Global Chief Growth Officer, eBay
In other news, Wendy Jones SVP Global Operations at eBay has announced on LinkedIn that she’s quitting after 17 years. Wendy’s role included Global Customer Service (GCX), Global Trust, and Global Security and Resiliency organizations and Workplace Resources (WPR) function – responsible for eBay’s facilities around the world. Yep, that’s right – if you’ve ever had superb help from GCX that was down to Wendy’s leadership. GSR and WPR are internal departments so you’re unlikely to ever run into them unless you physically visit an eBay office.
6 Responses
Gis a job!
Reduce costs and the beanstalk will turn into a rainforest
As has oft been mentioned, ebay needs to upgrade the delivery options section in the search filter, so buyers can specifically look for items that have next day delivery available, and see how much extra it would cost them.
Do that simple thing, get sales growth.
Don’t do it, and they’ll just keep using Amazon Prime for urgent purchases.
@ gav
had not considered it much in an ebay context
but your absolutely right
if we need anything urgently, we always use prime
Maybe someone at ebay needs to tackle all the private sellers who keep running a business on the site yet don’t offer returns or any retail standards that ebay keep pushing.
Very true…. Just look at the report item options for private sellers… Virtually none. Saying that i reported the same private, i mean covert business sellers for several months and nothing happened, gave up in end. The same for chinese sellers claiming to be in uk.
Ebay need to stop rubbing their hands together at increased growth at a time when most shops were shut, and start asking why they had stagnant growth for years before? The current growth is not of their doing!
When i look at ebay now I see masses of virtually identical listings by chinese sellers claiming to be in uk with rubbish service. Add a good splash of private sellers who should be businesses but enjoy masses of free listings and no returns. Add to this the fact that most of the things i have bought lately on ebay have arrived via Amazon!
She has her work cut out, but i fear that anything she identifies will be ignored unless it is super easy, puts the blame or responsibility on sellers….. Or changes a font on one of the pages!
She might have to re-label her job title “shrinkage officer in all quarters” when the post Covid impact on eBay sales hits home. No doubt EBay have benefited immensely this year from the huge problems we have all encountered. It won’t be so buoyant for them going forward that’s for sure.
A website that functions and customer service that helps sellers may be the way forward…….. but that’s all too obvious.