eBay’s corporate goals for 2010

eBay’s top goals for 2010 have been revealed in a tweet by their corporate blogger, Richard Brewer Hay. Having seen a poster in a stair well in San Jose he posted an image of it on yfrog. The goals are:

1) Increase eBay’s Net Promoter score by 10 percentage points
2) Increase sales by 6 percentage points
3) Maintain market share.

The Net Promoter score is a rating between 0 and 10 based on a very simple question – “How likely is it that you would recommend eBay to a friend or colleague?”. 9 and 10 ratings are promoters, 7 and 8 ratings are neutral, and 0 to 6 ratings are detractors (or in eBay speak negatives). eBay’s methods to achieve this in the UK include the Fashion Outlet and big brand retailers who they hope will deliver superb products and service to entice current detractors to shop on the site.

Interestingly the second two points are to increase sales and maintain market share. In recent years eBay has grown more slowly than ecommerce in general and this goal appears to acknowledge this slow growth. If Amazon continues to accelerate and Rakutan enters the US and European marketplaces simply standing still in comparison to the competition might actually be a noteworthy achievement.

eBay also list their top priorities to achieve their three goals. “Retail” is something that eBay still struggle to achieve. In retail (whether online or offline) buyers can browse, add and subtract items from a shopping cart, returns, especially in CSA (Clothes, Shoes and Accessories) are the norm and in general a retail experience is based on a new product.

Much of eBay’s uniqueness is based on used items and antiques and eBay still need to figure out how not to disadvantage small sellers with fantastic inventory whilst pushing their retail partners. It is heartening to see that eBay want to defend their C2C (Private Seller) business, but doubtless eBay’s way to achieve this will be with auctions and not fixed price listings. What’s also needed is a focus on the B2C professional seller who isn’t a large retailer and possibly trades in used or antique goods and that’s an area eBay have yet to understand.

Finally eBay want to build their advertising business. Expect to see expansion of AdCommerce, initiatives such as the Delivery Services Hub and more adverts on listings and across the site as a whole.

So how do eBay’s goals align themselves with your own eBay business? Do you feel that their goals will benefit your business or are eBay working in areas which are neutral or will detract from your future profits?