Tapping Into US Online Auction Buyers

By year-end 2007, 21% of US online consumers had purchased from an online auction in the past 12 months, representing a hefty slice of the eCommerce pie. Young, affluent, and tech-savvy, online auction purchasers are an attractive segment of the Web buyer population. Despite ongoing fraud concerns, most online auction buyers report being satisfied with their most recent purchase and are likely to return for future purchases. This enthusiast crowd has reached a point of limited growth, though, as evidenced by eBay's slowing sales of merchandise in the US. Most eBusiness professionals at retail organizations will stay out of direct sales via eBay and capitalize on the audience by using eBay as a marketing platform.