1. eBay’s Crowdsourcing Initiatives

2. • Crowdsourcing has allowed eBay to offer millions of products to
millions of customers.
• They provide a platform for sellers with tools to promote and sell
their products.
• The millions of sellers that use this platform constitute an
unmatchable sales force.
• Their products attract customers that contribute by giving feedback
(e.g. rating sellers) and improving the quality of the community.
• By empowering sellers and buyers, eBay has created a unique
marketplace that would not be possible without crowdsourcing.

3. How eBay takes Advantage of Crowdsourcing
• Customers can rate sellers
improving the quality of the
community.
• Sellers put their own prices, their
own product descriptions, and
their own terms. They do the
marketing for eBay.
• The market (literally) determines
what is offered. eBay does not
have to predict demand or look
for trends.

4. Crowdsourcing of New Features
• “Sow the seeds of innovation” with community input on new products and features before
they go live on the site
o Users try out new features and tell ebay what they think
o Anyone can participate
o Unclear how they are motivating users to collaborate

5. • Fashion designer Derek Lam partnered with eBay taking advantage of eBay's
crowdsourcing platform allowing users to decide the next fashion collection to be
sold on the site.
Collection available in
eBay’s website where
using the wisdom of
crowds, Derek Lam fans
had the chance to
decide which 5 dresses
will be put up for sale on
eBay.

6. Crowd-sourcing sustainability ideas through social media is a low-risk,
low-cost tactic to enhance sustainability performance.
• eBay created a Green Team program
and website to tap into the wisdom of
crowds. The program's mission is to
"inspire the world to buy, sell and think
green every day.“
The Results :
• To date, over 300,000 sellers --
individuals who sell goods on eBay's
platform -- have signed up to share
ideas and views aimed at making eBay
The eBay Box a corrugated cardboard
a greener sales partner. box designed to be durable enough to
be used by sellers over and over again,
is among the ideas that came from this
community and have been rolled out.

7. eBay – Crowdsource Gift Buying
• Service designed to make it easier for consumers to collectively purchase gifts.

8. Voices - Focus Group
Program
• Focus Group of around 75 users (Buyers &
Sellers of all kinds)
• Voices users report on problems that can
be happening on eBay (e.g. technical,
distribution, user interaction, etc)
• Their reports are internally distributed to
over 700 different mailboxes (from
managers to engineers) - Direct access to
eBay staff.
• Immediate response is given, problem
acknowledgement and resolution.
• Voices users represent all eBay users and
are advocates of the eBay services brand.
• Interaction with Voices users are made
through email and weekly phone calls for
feedback about community

9. Conclusions
• Crowdsourcing allow customers to engage with brands on a new level.
• Crowdsourcing adds more value on :
o Research: Crowdsourcing can be used as a research initiative to take a
very broad ‘bottom-up’ view on a question in a relatively short space of
time.
o Innovation / Idea generation: Crowdsourcing is very powerful to bring
ideas and inspiration to projects that will be very valuable for customers.
“If I asked my customers what
they wanted they would have
asked for a faster horse.”
Henry Ford

10. Sources
Garden by eBay:
- http://venturebeat.com/2010/02/09/ebay-to-use-crowd-sourcing-to-test-new-features-starting-with-
streamlined-search/
- http://garden.ebay.com/
Derek Lam + eBay
- http://thisisenzo.posterous.com/ebay-does-crowdsourcing
- http://dereklam.ebay.com/
- http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/85206386-3563-11e0-aa6c-00144feabdc0.html#ixzz1RWa9XqSe
eBay Green Team
- http://biznik.com/articles/3-rules-for-crowdsourcing-your-sustainability-projects
- - http://www.greenbiz.com/news/2010/09/02/ebay-gives-away-100k-reusable-green-shipping-boxes-
sellers
eBay Gift Buying
- http://www.retailwire.com/discussion/14874/ebay-launches-crowdsource-gift-buying
eBay Voices program
- http://pages.ebay.com/community/chatter/2003Apr/InsideeBay.html