A key factor of booming online auction company eBay’s success relies on trust of sellers.  The reason trust is so important is that those who are transacting business are dealing with strangers.  Although eBay lives by their culture of good faith, buyers have found that there is reason to beware.

In “eBay: An E-Titan Success Story”, an article from the upcoming release of Cases on Managing E-Services (edited by Dr. Ada Scupola, Roskilde University, Denmark), researchers Dr. Zhongxian Wang and Dr. James Yao (Montclair State University, USA) along with Dr. Ruiliang Yan (Virginia State University, USA) and Dr. Jeffrey Hsu (Fairleigh Dickinson University, USA) explain how issues of fake or knock-off products being sold on the streets is also occurring on eBay through dishonest sellers.  They argue that consumers should be cautious and companies need to be warned to protect their image from those who are selling deceitfully online.

“eBay is different than retailers and auctioneers who write their own catalog,” write Wang, Yao, Yan, and Hsu.  “It is the sellers who write the descriptions, price set-up, terms, and collections.  eBay’s success has been built on trust; therefore it may be wise to make better efforts to prevent such deceit from happening.”

To make their users more comfortable in dealing with online strangers and transacting over the Internet, certain platforms have been implemented such as eBay’s “Feedback Forum” and “SafeHarbor Program”.  With growing efforts in place to report dishonest sellers, customers can feel safer about purchase decisions and online transactions through e-companies like eBay.

(Portions of this article are excerpted from Cases on Managing E-Services by Ada Scupola.)

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