eBay generating interest for GM, not converting to sales

In the Web 2.0 era, anybody with the slightest bit of business acumen can make money on eBay. There is an exception however; Fritz Henderson. During the first nine days of GM’s foray into the world of eBay sales, 16,228 cars had been listed on the site, with 45 selling on the site.

“I’ve sold some vehicles to people that saw the vehicles on eBay, but they didn’t buy them on eBay,” Mark Borjan, owner of Paso Robles, Calif. based Golden Hills Auto Center, told Automotive News. “They called, came in and bought them.”

Leads and brand awareness are crucial to the retail auto-sales game, and if nothing else, the eBay arrangement is generating that. The GM arrangement is not run like a regular ebay auction. Actually, its not run like any auction, as dealers list a price where customers have the option to “Buy It Now”, or submit an offer which the dealer is free to reject.

According to research done by Edmunds, the number of car shoppers using ebay to research GM prices was 10% higher in California than any other state. This is undoubtedly a good thing as GM only has a 13% share of the California market, a rather weak position when compared to their 19.6% share of the national market.

You can check out http://gm.ebay.com/ for yourself.

– By: Stephen Calogera