Reading:

Ebay, as E-commerce demand has risen; more customers are purchasing online instead of physically going to the stores to pick up their products. Ebays growth is based on the correlation to the fact that if more people are purchasing online, the products should be there as well.

Given the fact that E-commerce's success relies on offering competitive prices, Ebay keeps prices at a rational range guaranteeing customer's loyalty. Furthermore, Ebay keeps continously reviewing data to make sure that they match retailer's prices this way customer's won't dare to buy elsewhere.

Ebay has a big advantage and is the fact that they don't have to spend set-up costsor real brick and mortar setupin order for them to retail products they offer. Another advantage they have is delivery time frame. Ebay has strategic distribution centers that enable them to deliver within a maximum of three business days, and at some places even within the same day for an additional charge. Furthermore, they can actually provide you an expected delivery date, something that not that many retailers count with. In addition to this, they provide replacement if something was wrong with the customer's orders. This of course, assures customer satisfaction

Ebaydrops margins to give discounts to customers and sellers, Ebay is known to penetrate the market better and faster and thereby leave less margin for competition to survive.

Questions:

• Is there a participant in the product's production that the reading identified as most important?
• What reasons did the reading give for the choice of Ebay?
• In what ways does the reading feel fluctuations of supply affect the market?