eBay CEO and president John Donahoe said this week at the Web 2.0 Summit that while customers are hankering for as much mobile technology in the shopping experience as possible, retailers are lagging behind on providing that which is seeing greater demand from shoppers.
As highlighted by coverage of the speech from ZDnet, Donahoe argues that the standard methods of e-commerce and retail are “crumbling stunningly fast,” stressing that “retailers actually want to bring customers in stores, but a mobile element needs to be considered.”
Donahoe helped make his case via numbers, reiterating that e-commerce is a $325 billion market, while retail is closer to $10 trillion.
“What we see happening in the world of shopping and payments is somewhat analogous to what has happened to digital media,” Donahoe says. “Consumers are driving enormous change in how they shop and pay.”
Donahoe cited large retailers, in particular, as merchants who are trying to figure out how to take advantage of mobile technology. Offering Image-based search as one example of a tool that will allow shopping to go further, Donahoe said there will be “multiple winners” in this movement as eBay does “not compete” with merchants (even Amazon) using the X.commerce platform.
“This boundary between online and offline is blurring,” Donahoe added. “Consumers are embracing this, and retailers need help.”
