Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN), Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (WMT) & eBay Inc (EBAY): What Do They Have In Common?

E-commerce sales have exploded in recent years and have grown exponentially with consumers’ widespread adoption of smartphones and tablets. Online shopping is a 24/7 global enterprise and has become easier with the increased usage of mobile and mobile shopping apps with convenient digital payment systems such as PayPal enhancing the consumer experience.

eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY) has set aggressive e-commerce and mobile commerce growth targets. The company expects to clock $300 billion in global gross commerce volumes in 2015, up over 70% from the $175 billion for 2012, achieving this across its e-marketplace, online payments, and e-commerce technology and services businesses. In an April interview on CNBC’s Power lunch, eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY) CEO John Donahue discussed eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY)’s mobile strategy to achieve this aggressive target. Here are some of the highlights from this interview:

• Retailers are in the early stages of mobile transition, and customers on multiple devices(phone, tablet, computer, TV) spend significantly more.
• eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY) will do over $20 billion in mobile payment volume in 2013.
• If consumers do not close a transaction online, they are still doing searches or checking prices as the mobile device is becoming the central device of people’s lives.
• eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY) will use buyer data to enrich user experience by engaging in social media such as referencing what friends are buying.

eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY) Now is one of eBay’s initiatives that will take advantage of the growing consumer trends towards mobile, aimed at shortening same day delivery time to its customers.

What is eBay Now?

eBay Now is a local shopping service from eBay, powered by a mobile application only on Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s iOS platform. Currently, eBay Now is only available in San Francisco, San Jose, and in New York City’s Manhattan. A customer can order from local retailers, which include big names such as Target Corporation (NYSE:TGT), The Home Depot, Inc. (NYSE:HD), Macy’s, Inc. (NYSE:M), Walgreen Company (NYSE:WAG), Best Buy Co., Inc. (NYSE:BBY), and RadioShack Corporation (NYSE:RSH). The eBay Now delivery charge is $5.

How does eBay Now work?

A customer logs into the eBay Now application on his/her iPhone or iPad (not yet available on Android systems), and fills an online shopping cart with the available local items from local stores that are participating in eBay Now. The completed order gets assigned to an eBay “valet” who travels to the retailers to initiate the purchasing transaction. The eBay valets can deliver to the customer anywhere within eBay Now’s local range — to home, to the office, or even to a local coffee shop like Starbucks; anywhere a customer can be setup for the day to receive the items.