The eBay virgin customer experience

The tech giant that is eBay (www.ebay.co.uk) has been with us now since 1995 and a success story of the dot com era outlasting many other tech start ups. In the UK there are over 10 million registered users with a peak level of 13 million reached in 2008 with around 178,000 of these being small businesses that would not have survived without the online auction site. For many the prospect of using eBay is too daunting a task requiring creation of profiles and corresponding PayPal accounts permitting linkages into bank accounts. Bidding, selling, feedback, dealing directly with people, nightmare!  eBay has a very loyal customer base and supports its multi billon annual revenues but does it do enough to open its doors to new customers, the less tech savvy and auction inquisitive?  eBay may well have a strong foothold with 10% of the UK population but that leaves opportunity for the remaining 90% and arguably in a market where it enjoys a monopoly position.  The customer experience for newbees needs to be the focus with corresponding promotion activities demonstrating the simplicity and safety of using the site.  More work on this untapped marketplace would really strengthen the companies position and deliver a broader epic experience.