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Tag: GSI Commerce

  • eBay Announces Enterprise Commerce Marketing Platform

    eBay Announces Enterprise Commerce Marketing Platform

    eBay is readying a product called the eBay Enterprise Commerce Marketing Platform, which will reportedly combine various other platforms, including those it picked up in its 2011 acquisition of GSI Commerce.

    That deal was for $2.4 billion, and was a play by the company to cement itself as a leading strategic global commerce partner of choice for retailers and brands of all sizes.

    eBay Enterprise President Craig Hayman writes on the company’s enterprise blog, “We evaluated our existing demand-generation technologies to see how we could make them more efficient, more effective and easier to use. And we found a brilliant strategic partner in FICO, a leading predictive analytics and decision-management company.”

    “Together, we designed and built the eBay Enterprise Commerce Marketing Platform,” he adds. “This omnichannel demand-generation suite includes a robust mix of planning, management and analytical tools, fully integrated with best-in-class demand-generation solutions.”

    According to a report from AdAge, eBay intends to have clients migrated over to the new platform by the end of March after making it available in the first quarter. The report says:

    The platform, which sits on a DMP, will allow clients to combine their own proprietary data with third-party data and information from eBay itself, and could be used for things like website optimization and social- media ad retargeting based on previous product views. For example, a retailer could match its email list to eBay registration data, then connect that matched ID to a mobile device or online cookie to aim display ads at customers who don’t open emails.

    Mr. Denton [Steve Denton, VP of marketing solutions for eBay Enterprise] said eBay would not tap into any data flowing through the enterprise commerce platform for its own purposes. “Your data as a client is your data,” he said.

    According to eBay, the new platform will enable you to optimize offers and spend across all channels, act on knowledge of value/timing of “each step of the customer journey,” and utilize eBay’s own insights.

    I’m sure we’ll be hearing plenty more about this in the coming months.

    Image via eBay

  • eBay and GSI Commerce Make it Official (For $2.4 Billion)

    eBay and GSI Commerce Make it Official (For $2.4 Billion)

    eBay announced today that it has completed its acquisition of GSI Commerce, which was announced back in March. The deal was approved by stockholders on the 17th.

    eBay acquired all outstanding shares of GSI at $29.25 pher share in cash, adding up to about $2.4 billion.

    GSI Commerce will continue to operate as a separate business from eBay, and will be led by Chris Saridakis as its newly appointed president. He will report directly to John Donahoe, eBay’s President and CEO.

    “We intend to lead the next generation of commerce innovation,” Donahoe said when the deal was first announced. “The acquisition of GSI, which offers the most comprehensive integrated suite of online commerce and interactive marketing services available, will significantly strengthen our ability to connect buyers and sellers worldwide. Combined with eBay Marketplaces and PayPal, we believe GSI will enhance our position as the leading strategic global commerce partner of choice for retailers and brands of all sizes.”

    “While those are longer range goals that the combined companies are fast at work on – coming in today there was a noticeable difference already,” GSI’s Jose Mallabo said today on the GSI Commerce blog (also providing the following pictures. ” For the people sitting at the King of Prussia headquarters of GSI you didn’t have to read the release or this post to know the deal closed – you just needed to look up as you walked in.”

    GSI, eBay join forces

    Some think the deal is key in eBay’s competition with Amazon in e-commerce, as GSI powers an impressive list of clients‘ e-commerce offerings. Clients include major brand like Adidas, Calvin Klein, Nautica, Levi’s, Toys “R” Us, HP, NFL, NBA, MLB, NASCAR, ESPN, Dick’s Sporting Goods, and many more.

    In March, we ran an article from Rob Diana, who said, “This is the easiest way for eBay to get into ecommerce for larger brands without affecting their auction business. They get a known name in ecommerce and an excellent client list. In addition, they also get the warehouses and distribution facilities that GSI  manages for some of their clients. Yes, they have warehouses which contain either merchandise for their clients or merchandise that they own and sell through their clients stores.”

    “This combination of things could make a huge business for eBay,” he continued. “In order to see why this is a good idea, you have to think of the possibilities. There is the obvious ability to start hosting major ecommerce brands. However, the other parts of the deal really make it interesting. eBay has its own auction site. Match auctions with “discount” items from the merchandise their clients sell and warehouses to distribute from. Very quickly, eBay could become an even larger player in the discount and used merchandise niche because they would own some of the product. Or they could enable the client stores to hook into the eBay auctions so that they can have their own outlet store and auctions.”

    eBay completed the divesture of GSI’s licensed sports merchandise business and 70% of its ShopRunner and Rue La La businesses to a newly formed holding company led by GSI founder and former CEO Michael Rubin.

  • eBay To Compete With Amazon With GSI Commerce Acquisition

    I had always wondered when someone would buy GSI Commerce (GSIC). eBay made the announcement that they have decided to purchase them in a very interesting move. Like many people, you may be wondering who is GSI Commerce? Well, they are one of the biggest ecommerce powerhouses that you have never heard of. Their client list is enough of an explanation. Now, this is not your typical list of clients they have simply created a marketing campaign or some short term engagement. GSI Commerce hosts ecommerce sites, including the development of the sites themselves. They have big name brands like Polo, Adidas and Timberland, almost every major sporting goods site and one of the most popular ecommerce sites in the world, Toys R Us.

    Why is this such a big deal? Part of the answer is in the eBay announcement itself:

    Combined with eBay Marketplaces and PayPal, we believe GSI will enhance our position as the leading strategic global commerce partner of choice for retailers and brands of all sizes.

    This is the easiest way for eBay to get into ecommerce for larger brands without affecting their auction business. They get a known name in ecommerce and an excellent client list. In addition, they also get the warehouses and distribution facilities that GSI  manages for some of their clients. Yes, they have warehouses which contain either merchandise for their clients or merchandise that they own and sell through their clients stores.

    This combination of things could make a huge business for eBay. In order to see why this is a good idea, you have to think of the possibilities. There is the obvious ability to start hosting major ecommerce brands. However, the other parts of the deal really make it interesting. eBay has its own auction site. Match auctions with “discount” items from the merchandise their clients sell and warehouses to distribute from. Very quickly, eBay could become an even larger player in the discount and used merchandise niche because they would own some of the product. Or they could enable the client stores to hook into the eBay auctions so that they can have their own outlet store and auctions.

    There is another route that eBay could take as well. They could start moving into hosting smaller stores for small businesses. Granted, the GSI Commerce platform is built to host Toys R Us, but the same technology could be slimmed down to start hosting small business ecommerce sites. This gives eBay a very nice premium option that could put them in even greater competition with Amazon.

    Based on the information in the press release, it also looks like the marketing and consulting services companies are also part of the deal. The companies involved are eDialog and TrueAction. These companies really round out the abilities of an ecommerce provider by offering various internet marketing services and a full service agency complete with a photo studio. Yes, there are a lot of pieces to GSI Commerce and eBay will soon own most of them.

    Overall, this looks like an excellent deal for eBay as long as they take advantage of the assets they are buying.

    Originally published at Regular Geek