E-Sourcing Forum » Source from Ebay…the new strategic sourcing option

Source from Ebay…the new strategic sourcing option

August 1st, 2007 at 02:36am Sean Delaney - Iasta UK

In a recent survey carried out by Supply Management 61% of the respondents were not against the idea of sourcing from Ebay.

The benefits listed were:
• Speed of Service
• Diversity of product
• Good market research capability

I can just visualise the Corporate Head of Purchasing waiting until just before 8pm with 30 seconds to go to place a killer bid on some obscure bit of IT kit. Oh please!

However, after reading through the article I was glad to see that there were more balanced views represented. Some of the following concerns were then raised:

• Lack of warranty
• Limited information about the vendor
• Absence of prequalification criteria
• The possibility of purchasing stolen goods.

That’s just the tip of the iceberg, as Ebay was designed for rapid transaction of simple goods. Corporate procurement is strongly controlled for quality and visibility and Ebay will not exactly address those issues. What was most surprising was that none of those interviewed questioned whether this was a good use of Management time or what checks were in place to stop employees purchasing items for personal use.

I think Ebay is a great B2C/C2C site. It is sometimes a good source of revenue for some organisations selling excess stock, however what it is not, is a sourcing tool.

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Entry Filed under: General, Supply Management Best Practices, Technology, e-Sourcing Marketplace

1 Comment Add your own

1. Mini Seal | August 1st, 2007 at 7:53 am

eBay serves a great purpose when explaining some of the finer points of Sourcing and eSourcing for the first time - particularly to non-procurement stakeholders. I love to use it demonstrate some fundamental tenets behind sourcing - particularly how global sourcing is approriate for those items with a high price/delivery cost ratio - and vice versa. I use it to illustrate some of the bidding dynamics and strategies that go on, to explain the influence of event design upon outcome etc. - and the fact that you can log on and start using it right away, without any need to host it yourself!

I agree Sean, the large corporate buyer will be frustrated by the lack of functionality and control inside about 10 minutes - but I do wonder what we will all do when the tables are turned, and one of our niche suppliers tells us “you know what, we think your eSourcing seems really efficient - so we are going to sell to you like that this year. See you on eBay!” If only eBay revised its pricing models a little, I think it has some scope for B2B selling

Its not a sourcing suite, - but I think it is a tool (says the guy who wires plugs with a cutlery knife) - and I do know that Meccano sets inspired a lot of people to be engineers.

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