More Than a Company: a Community
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More Than a Company: a Community

THE GOAL OF EBAY IS TO GET NEW USERS JOIN THE PLATFORM AND PERSUADE SMALL AND MEDIUM FIRMS INTEGRATE ONLINE AND OFFLINE SALES: ALICE ACCIARRI, GENERAL MANAGER FOR ITALY AND SPAIN AND BOCCONI ALUMNA, TELLS THE CHALLENGE OF A WORLD INCREASINGLY TURNING TO ECOMMERCE

For the whole world of e-commerce, the last few months have been a whirlwind accelerator of opportunities that have quickened the pace of transition towards digital purchases, a step that would have probably happened naturally but, especially in Italy, with altogether different rhythms and approaches. Not all operators came out of this centrifuge with the advantage they expected, but eBay did. The e-commerce platform that gives access to many private users and SMEs was able to capitalize the moment. In the first half of 2020, it registered a marked increase in First Time Users and 53% additional new sellers compared to 2019.
 
"In our DNA we remain a marketplace, so we do not sell directly but enable buyers to find the products they are looking for and companies find new buyers for their products", summarizes Alice Acciarri, former CLEACC graduate, General Manager of eBay for Italy and Spain since July. "In recent weeks, therefore, we have focused on our mission by working on both fronts: reassuring, on the one hand, less digital-savvy users that they could safely enter world of e-commerce, digital payments, customer feedback, return policies, and on the other by raising awareness among SMEs so that they open digital sales channels and to access an audience of 6.5 million active buyers in Italy and over 183 million worldwide”. Among the initiatives implemented by eBay, there is the agreement signed with Confcommercio and Unioncamere, which bring together Italian retailers and chambers of commerce, for a mass awareness-raising operation targeting the members of two organizations and offer them  a package of tools to manage digital sales channels at subsidized cost. "The involvement of large institutions in promoting e-commerce is one of the novel elements of the period", Acciarri remarks. "The other is the positive response we get from most companies when we explain to them that there is no conflict between online and offline, that eBay does not replace traditional sales channels but works in synergy with them, and that the willingness to be there is enough to start selling because ours is a ready-made environment, in which there is room for everyone".
 
In fact, the incredibly rich assortment of goods remains one of the strengths of the platform. "About 80% of what is sold on eBay is new and is a form of B2C commerce," concludes the general manager. "Second-hand is sold in the form of C2C, which jointly with refurbished items sold by professional sellers represents about 20% of the goods sold on the portal; however, this remains the side of our business that characterizes us the most and that contributes significantly to making the platform a community of users linked by relationships of trust, common passion, and attention to the value of the product. Elements that are all the more attractive in the eyes of those who approach electronic commerce for the first time because of the pandemic.”
 
 
Short Bio
From Pesaro, 39 years old, Alice Acciarri is eBay's General Manager for Italy and Spain. She entered Bocconi as a student in the early 2000s, attracted by the degree in Management of Arts, Culture and Communication (CLEACC) and by the desire to combine her education in the humanities with the pragmatic approach of business studies. "The stimuli and possibilities that I felt I was receiving from the university in those years were boundless, or at least I perceived them as such", says Acciarri, "and they have left me in the habit of letting curiosities guide me towards new lands and solutions ". It was the same for digital and e-commerce, an area in which she has developed her entire career, from RCS to Yoox, from Bottega Veneta to eBay. “As a student I think I have followed all the courses on the net economy offered by the university. They were the first ones, but Bocconi was already talking about digital in terms of business opportunities and not just communication."

by Emanuele Elli
Translated by Alex Foti


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