eBay’s Goal With Its New Baby Where

20 Apr eBay’s Goal With Its New Baby Where

Toddy

Recap of a recent PayPal blog post:

Brick and mortar stores and those online are definitely overlapping with enterprises like WHERE. A customer gets a lot of choices standing in a retail store accessing information with internet capability and QR codes on their mobile phone, and at the same time the local business wins too.

In order for PayPal customers to use the service for local transactions, it sees the need to make itself available in the WHERE mobile application. Analyst Day’s John Donahue points out that eBay is evolving into a leader in the retail arena by becoming more accommodating in every way possible to the customer. It is so important to focus on local and mobile. Added onto acquiring Milo in 2010, this will enhance the overall worth to all potential customers. Consumers can shop with any method from any location, and at the same time any type of retail outlet, big or small, benefits since we are an asset, not a competitor, with the businesses themselves.

It looks like PayPal has found its way into the local market by making itself available with in-store shopping. However, I foresee somewhat mild achievements unless the actual flow of it works flawlessly. It will be intriguing though to witness the combo of mobile generated payments along with offers and inquiries that accompany this method of doing business.

As a recap, here are actual statistics for WHERE:

Revenue for 2010 = $17 M, and the 2011 projection hits $40 M.

CityGrid, Zvents and AT&T top the list as the main sources for WHERE advertisers. Direct advertiser connections are not common.

If this concept of overlapping local shopping with online transaction completion does achieve its intended target, both the business and the customer will enjoy the benefits of a very streamlined point of sale.