SHEIN is a global fashion and lifestyle e-retailer committed to making the beauty of fashion accessible to all. We use on-demand manufacturing technology to connect suppliers to our agile supply chain, reducing inventory waste and enabling us to deliver a variety of affordable products to customers around the world. From our global offices, we reach customers in more than 150 countries.

Consumers no longer follow a unified standard of what is considered “fashionable” or “beautiful”. We believe that the clothes we wear reflect our personalities and we want to empower everyone to explore and express their individuality. To do this, SHEIN creates a wide range of options to fit any mood or occasion.

SHEIN’s mission is to serve as a leader in the industry and bring fashion into the modern era. We employ cutting-edge technologies and processes in our design and sourcing to stay well-informed of what is in-demand by consumers, produce goods in a timely manner and deliver the products quickly to anywhere in the world. By developing proprietary logistics and ecommerce technology, we are disrupting the fashion space and improving outcomes for manufacturers, suppliers and consumers.

 

Digitally Empowered Agile Supply Chain

To meet demand, we have built a fully digital supply chain that seamlessly and quickly delivers products to our customers worldwide. We use proprietary software to track sales and communicate with our factories in real time to order in small batches. Our digital supply chain is the core of our business model and empowers us to offer a wide range of on-trend styles without creating excessive inventory waste or making customers wait weeks for their orders to be fulfilled.

Wish is operated by ContextLogic Inc. in San Francisco, United States. The platform personalizes the shopping experience visually for each customer, rather than relying only on a search bar format. It allows sellers to list their products on Wish and sell directly to consumers. Wish works with payment service providers to handle payments and does not stock the products themselves or manage returns.

History

Wish was started by Piotr Szulczewski, a former Google engineer, as a software company called ContextLogic. In September 2010, ContextLogic received $1.7 million in investments and involved Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman.

In May 2011, Szulczewski invited college friend Danny Zhang to relaunch the company as Wish. It was created as an application that allowed shoppers to create wish lists of their favorite products before matching them with merchants. They also earned revenue with a Pay-per-click model by advertising on Facebook.

In 2013, Szulczewski met with Hans Tung, an investor with GGV Capital in Menlo Park, California, and noted that a large number of sales were coming from Florida, Texas and the Midwest rather than New York or California. Wish became an e-commerce site after asking merchants to host their products directly on the Wish application, with Wish taking a portion of each sale.

The Wish marketplace is accessed by the Wish.com website or by a mobile application that is available for iOS and Android.

In 2017, Wish was the most downloaded e-commerce application in the United States. It signed a multi-year partnership with the NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers. Wish conducted a World Cup campaign in 2018, that featured Neymar, Paul Pogba, Tim Howard, Gareth Bale, Robin van Persie, Claudio Bravo and Gianluigi Buffon.

In 2018, Wish was the most-downloaded e-commerce application worldwide and the company doubled its revenue to $1.9 billion.

As of 2019, Wish was the third-biggest e-commerce marketplace in the United States by sales. In August 2019, ContextLogic received a Series H funding round, led by equity firm General Atlantic, taking the company’s valuation to $11.2 billion.JD.com is an investor in Wish. ContextLogic went public via an IPO in 2020.

In France in November 2021, the Wish e-commerce system, including the website and smartphone applications, were delisted from Google’s search results and from Google’s French app store, after French authorities claimed that many items sold on the platform do not comply with European regulations. The same authorities also accused the platform of selling counterfeit items In January 2022, Wish appointed Vijay Talwar as the new CEO.

Services

More than 1 million merchants list their products on Wish’s platform to sell directly to consumers. The bulk of the merchandise available through the app in the United States comes from China and other non-U.S. distributors. The products are usually smaller items that are cheaper to ship, aided by an agreement between China Post and the U.S. Postal Service that lowers costs of shipping for goods weighing less than 2 kg. Wish offers express shipping in 5 days, or 6–8 days in some cases, as well as standard shipping that takes 2–3 weeks, for customers who prioritize savings over speed of delivery.

Wish’s “Wheel of Fortune”-style game, Blitz Buy, integrates a layer of gamification to offer consumers additional discounts on top-selling items.

Criticism

Wish has been criticized for listing poor quality or counterfeit goods, a common concern among major e-commerce sites which feature independent sellers.^[22][23][24] Customers have complained about lack of communication from sellers and quality. In response to the criticism, Szulczewski hired an executive from Facebook to organize a community of about 10,000 Wish users to expose unsatisfactory dealers in exchange for free goods and discounts.

It is often possible to purchase items from Wish that are not legal in the purchaser’s country. In January 2020, a man from Nelson, Lancashire, United Kingdom, was sentenced to 11 months in prison for purchasing a stun gun using Wish.

Type of site	Public
Available in	English and other languages
Founded	July 4, 2010; 12 years ago
Headquarters	San Francisco , U.S.
Country of origin	United States
Area served	Worldwide
Founder(s)	Piotr Szulczewski Sheng Zhang
Key people	Vijay Talwar, CEO
Industry	Online shopping
Revenue	$2.1 Billion
Employees	1100
Parent	ContextLogic Inc. (Nasdaq: WISH)
Subsidiaries	Wish Outlet Wish Express Wish Local for Partner Stores
URL	www.wish.com
Advertising	Yes
Commercial	Yes
Registration	Required
Launched	May 2011
Current status	Active

The company also has some outlets in Ireland. Shops in China were unsuccessful, and closed down in 2015.

History

1969 to 1979: Early growth

B&Q was founded in March 1969 in Southampton, England, by Richard Block and David Quayle, following the purchase and fitting out of a former furniture warehouse in the Southampton suburb of Portswood. Originally called Block & Quayle, the duo soon shortened the brand to B&Q as stock delivery notes and invoices were already unofficially abbreviating the name.

By each working over sixty-hour, six-day weeks, they were able to repay their bank overdraft within six months of opening, with turnover reaching £1million within the first five years of operating. Following the departure of co founder Block in 1976, the chain quickly expanded, and by 1979, there were twenty six shops across the United Kingdom.

1980s: Buyout and further expansion

B&Q grew rapidly through a combination of mergers, acquisitions and expansions, such as the acquisition of Scottish based company Dodge City at the beginning of the 1980s. The chain was itself acquired by the F. W. Woolworth Company for £16.8m at the beginning of the 1980s, coinciding with David Quayle selling his share, who by that time had a personal wealth of £4 million.

Two years later, F. W. Woolworth’s United Kingdom subsidiary (Woolworth’s Ltd.) and B&Q were purchased by Paternoster, now known as Kingfisher plc and still B&Q’s parent company.

B&Q developed two new trading formats: HomeCentres, retailing furniture, bathrooms, soft furniture, flooring and lighting; and AutoCentres, being similar to a Halfords, the first launch taking place at Cribbs Causeway, Bristol, at the end of the 1980s. The concept being to have a HomeCentre, AutoCentre and DIY Superstore with one communal car park.

The forays into these new markets were relatively short lived, and the various sites were sold on a couple of years later. The AutoCentres becoming in the main ‘Charlie Browns’, the HomeCentres being sold off individually.

1990s to present

In the mid 1990s, B&Q opened a new format of shop known as the Depot (later changed to B&Q Depot), a forerunner of a new class of shop known as the B&Q Warehouse. The company also began to expand outside the United Kingdom. In 1995, the retailer opened their first overseas subsidiary in Taiwan, and in January 1996, the first overseas large home improvement centre in Taoyuan City, Taiwan.

In September 1998, it acquired NOMI, Poland’s leading chain of DIY shops, and later that year, merged with France’s Castorama.

The following year, B&Q opened a shop in Shanghai. In December 2000, Kingfisher plc acquired twenty eight development sites, intended to house future shops of rival chain Homebase from Sainsbury’s, who sold the chain. The development sites instead housed shops of B&Q. In August 2001, B&Q opened its first shop in Shanghai, when it hoped to increase outlets from four to 58 by 2005.

B&Q opened its first shop in Hong Kong on 1 June 2007, but was scheduled to close it on 13 September 2009. In December 2007, Kingfisher sold its 50 per cent stake in B&Q Taiwan to its joint venture partner. The $106.5 million (£51.6 million) sale, producing a profit of £25m was used to reduce debt.

In March 2009, B&Q closed twenty two of its then sixty three shops in China, blaming the housing slump. In May 2011, B&Q agreed to acquire thirty one shops in the United Kingdom, from the administrators of Focus DIY for £23 million. During 2011, B&Q opened a new regional distribution centre, at G.Park in Swindon.

In 2020, B&Q announced a sales increase of 17.6pc to £3.5bn for the quarter to October 31, caused by the COVID-19 pandemic during which people spent money on home improvements.

In March 2021, B&Q said that it is expected to open in Saudi Arabia by fall introducing home improvement products.

Customers

B&Q were reported to have a customer base of seven million in July 2016, of which it was estimated 75% use the retailer’s website to research their desired products, prior to purchasing in shop. B&Q have customer loyalty schemes, such as the Diamond Club scheme which entitles members over the age of 60 to a 10% discount on Wednesdays on many garden products. However, no new customers are able to join the scheme, after changes were announced on 2 August 2018.

Corporate affairs

The retail chain offers over 40,000 products across their three hundred shops and through their online presence. Reports in May 2007 suggested it was the second largest in Europe, and the fourth largest in the world (behind the Home Depot, Lowe’s and OBI).

Shops

By 2000, B&Q had fifty one large warehouse shops; this had doubled by 2003. By May 2014, B&Q in the United Kingdom had 359 shops, and 20,887 employees; and eight shops in Ireland.

In March 2015, Kingfisher said it would close sixty shops of B&Q in the United Kingdom and Ireland over the next two years. It would also close a few loss making shops in Europe. It also said that B&Q UK and Ireland could adequately meet local customer needs, from fewer shops, and some shops should be smaller.

Financial performance

B&Q account for around a third of their parent company’s revenues, seeing like for like sales increase by 5.6% in August 2016. In the year ending 31 January 2007, sales were £3.9 billion despite overall sales falling by 1.7% compared to the previous year, whilst profit was £162.9 million, a fall from £208.5m during the previous year. Profit fell further in the year ending 31 January 2008, to £131million.

ASOS originally stood for AsSeenOnScreen with the tagline “Buy what you see on film and TV” because it exclusively sold imitations of clothing from those mediums (for example, Brad Pitt’s red leather jacket from the 1999 film Fight Club). However, it no longer has that meaning and is generally stylised as an uppercase acronym, although the company’s logo represents it in lower case.

ASOS’ headquarters are in Camden Town, at Greater London House, with additional offices in Berlin and Birmingham. As of 2013, their main fulfilment centre is in Barnsley, South Yorkshire, where they employ 3,500 workers. The customer care department is based in Leavesden. The Danish company Bestseller A/S, owned by the business magnate Anders Holch Povlsen, is ASOS’ largest stakeholder, with a 26% share.

History

2000–2004: Founding and listing

ASOS was established on 3 June 2000, by Nick Robertson, Andrew Regan, Quentin Griffiths, and Deborah Thorpe. In 2001, ASOS was admitted to the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) on the London Stock Exchange. In 2003, ASOS shareholders agreed to change the names of AsSeenOnScreen Holdings PLC and AsSeenOnScreen Limited to ASOS plc and ASOS.com Limited. In 2004, the company reported a maiden profit, with sales almost doubling in its first half. In 2004, ASOS introduced their own label for women’s clothing.

2005–2012: Development

In 2005, the Buncefield Fuel Depot explosion led to the closure of the business for six weeks and £5m of stock was lost. In 2008, ASOS debuted kidswear on its site, however the branded market subsequently suffered declines at the expense of fast-growing own-label kidswear offers. In 2010, ASOS announced it would no longer offer kidswear, to concentrate on its core young adult fashion market.

In the final quarter of 2010, ASOS launched three international online shops in Germany, France and the US. In November 2010, ASOS launched its marketplace platform for boutiques, vintage collectors, individuals and designers to trade from virtual market stalls to customers globally.

In September 2011, ASOS launched three more sites in Australia, Italy and Spain. In 2012, ASOS opened its first international office in Sydney, Australia, followed by an office in New York.Later on, the company launched its first drama-game show series, called #DIGIDATING, starring AJ Odudu. It was billed as an Internet dating show with backstage drama.

2013–present: Global expansion

In 2013, ASOS opened its first office outside the South East, in Birmingham. Later in 2013, ASOS recalled belts contaminated with radioactive cobalt-60. ASOS Russia and China were launched in the same year. In 2014, a fire in the Barnsley warehouse prevented them from taking orders for almost three days. During the 2014 Formula One season, ASOS was a sponsor of the McLaren Formula One team. In 2015, ASOS had over 4,000 employees and was the UK’s largest independent online and fashion beauty retailer.

In September 2016, an investigative report from Buzzfeed News alleged poor working conditions at ASOS’ warehouse. However, company spokespersons contended that the isolated complaints reported in the Buzzfeed article were not reflective of the general working conditions there.^[25][26]

In April 2019, ASOS informed its clients through email that the company is looking into ways of changing its easy returns policy, after research showed customers were manipulating the easy return process. The company also admitted that the previous return policy was environmentally costly.

In April 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, ASOS was accused by some staff and workers unions of “playing Russian roulette with people’s lives” by failing to adequately enforce preventative measures in their Grimethorpe, Barnsley site. It was claimed that warehouse staff could not safely operate whilst maintaining social distancing, that the staff felt unsafe and that ASOS’s product was not actually essential, thus not meeting the UK Government’s recommendation that only essential workplaces remain open. The company refuted these claims, claiming they had sufficiently changed their operation to comply, Barnsley Council also inspected the site and found that the company was complying.

In October 2020, ASOS Marketplace announced that it would not be charging commission rates on small business transactions to provide support through the COVID-19 pandemic for sellers.

In April 2021, ASOS has partnered with delivery company DPD of DPDgroup to allow shoppers the option to donate unwanted clothing to charity.^[34] In June 2021, ASOS launched a partnership with Lush Fresh Handmade Cosmetics.

In February 2021, it was announced that ASOS was to acquire the Topshop, Topman, Miss Selfridge, and HIIT brands from collapsed Philip Green’s Arcadia Group. On 4 February, the three former Arcadia Group brands became wholly owned subsidiaries of ASOS with 300 head-office staff members from Arcadia and Topshop/Topman Limited.

In November 2021, Ian Dyson became Chair.

Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, ASOS suspended operations in Russia.

Digital marketing

In November 2009, ASOS claimed a ratio of one Twitter follower to eight Facebook fans to 100 active e-mail subscribers. Their 2008 report pointed out that nearly 10% of sales could be directly attributed to email marketing.

In 2017, ASOS launched a campaign intended to take full advantage of the Instagram Stories feature, encouraging users to upload videos of purchased ASOS products. 3 million people interacted with the video in the UK. ASOS uses the #AsSeenOnMe hashtag and any use of the hashtag adds the photos to an ASOS online database.

Best Decathlon Voucher Codes, Offers & Coupons to Save on Online Orders

How do Decathlon Voucher codes help in your online shopping?

Getting a coupon code is not challenging. It is pretty easy to obtain online. You can get it on the website. Besides, you can also get it on coupon sites like that. You need to copy the code and use it during checkout or the final payment.

Decathlon S.A. (French pronunciation: ​[dekatlɔ̃]) is a French sporting goods retailer. With over 1,697 stores in 60 countries and regions (2020), it is the largest sporting goods retailer in the world.

The company manages the research, design, production, logistics and distribution of its products in house; partners with global suppliers; and markets their own brands directly to consumers in Decathlon-branded big-box stores.

Decathlon is a family-owned company, founded in 1976, and inspired by the belief that the best sports products should be accessible to everyone.

Ever-evolving and high performance design, the best quality at the lowest possible price, and expert advice that customers of all ages, backgrounds and skill levels can access in-store or online, from anywhere, at any time, is what makes us who we are. And we’re pretty proud of that.

Sports in India have reached new heights. The sporting industry has seen a drastic shift in terms of being a one-sport nation. With the upsurge in multi-sport viewing nations, the sports business has also thrived visibly. Sports as a business is going through a grinding cycle of change. One of the major wheels of this cycle is the Decathlon Group. Let us dive deep into their history, business, and various other things.

History of Decathlon Group

Founded by Michel Leclercq in 1976, Decathlon started with a store in Lille, France.^[7] Its holding company was formerly known as Oxylane.

Later on, the company expanded abroad a decade later to Germany, Spain, Italy, South Korea, Australia, and Canada, etc.

Business

Decathlon fairly dominates the sporting market worldwide. Additionally, the brand has seen steady growth in various countries including India. Similarly, the business is vertically integrated. They design and develop their own products. Marketing is under more than 20 brands. Following are a few examples:

• Aptonia
• B’Twin
• Caperlan
• Inesis
• Kuikma
• Nabaiji
• Rockrider
• Sandever
• Tribord
• Urball

• Values

  Decathlon’s main mission is to make sport accessible to every person in the world. Similarly, they believe that sport has the power to change the globe. Therefore, as a company, they anticipate helping, inspire and guiding through varied sporting experiences.

  Locations

As of May 2021, Decathlon operated 1,655 Decathlon stores worldwide in nearly 1,000 cities and 65 countries.

Online delivery has been introduced in Australia, Bangladesh, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Chile, Colombia, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong SAR, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mainland China, Mexico, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Philippines, Romania, Singapore, Spain, Taiwan, Turkey, United Kingdom, and recently, Egypt, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, and parts of Canada (Ontario & Quebec).

In India, Decathlon products may be purchased directly through their stores, subsequent to change in India’s FDi policy and approval for Decathlon in February 2013. In addition to this, Decathlon products are also available online through their online resellers.

In late 2016, an online only delivery service was introduced in Tunisia in preparation of the opening in Tunis of its first store. The first store opened in November 2017 in Tunis City commercial center in Tunis. A second location opened in April 2018 in the country situated in La Marsa.

In February 2017, they opened the first store in Bogota, Colombia in the mall Parque La Colina.

In July 2017, Decathlon entered the Philippine market with a location at Festival Mall in Filinvest Corporate City, Alabang, Muntinlupa, and in Tiendesitas, Pasig. In August 2017, the company announced it would open its first Canadian store in Brossard, Quebec during the spring of 2018.

In November 2017, Decathlon entered the Indonesia market.

Economic review

Its success has greatly contributed to the decline of independent retailers in France, while the spread of its own brands has caused great difficulties for traditional manufacturers. 2008 was a record year for the company as the brand Decathlon had beaten all its competitors on three key points: margin, market share, and highest turnover per square meter of retail space. It is arguably the third at a global level. A 2008 survey of 774 catchment areas at the request of the Ministry of Economy and Finance shows that “for sporting goods, Decathlon is dominant in 92.8% of zones”. This dominant position has the effect of marginalizing its commercial competitors, including independent retailers.

Social standards

Decathlon claims to follow a strict policy when it comes to employee welfare and that all contractors working with Decathlon follow the Human Responsibility in Production (HRP) process in all activities. The HRP designates the management system and resources implemented by Decathlon relative to workplace conditions at production sites and with suppliers.

Since 2003, Decathlon has adopted a social charter of the Social and Environmental Responsibility World Forum regarding human rights, health and safety, respect for the environment, corruption and management and communication.

Decathlon has, however, declined to disclose the names of their suppliers, and has been under scrutiny after reports indicate that the company’s suppliers in Sri Lanka’s free trade zones violate the country’s labor laws.

Competition

In 2009, Decathlon’s sector rivals, Go Sport [fr] and Sport 2000 [fr], joined forces to set up a common purchasing centre in Switzerland, intended to “pressurize most of the major international suppliers”, according to François Neukirsh, Managing Director of Go Sport, in the newspaper Les Échos. Otherwise, the company does not have significant competition due to their specific target audience in mass-market retail. Intersport is also a major competitor mainly in European market.

About Decathlon – For all those passionate about sports

Decathlon is an e-retailer for sports equipment and goods; accessible globally. First launched in 1976, France and founded by Michel Leclercq, the brand started expanding to other countries from the 80s. At present, with a presence in 22 countries, they have more than 850 stores worldwide. However, they launched their online retail site to make their products even more accessible to people from all corners of the world. They have some of the best brands under their wing, with Kappa, Adidas, Nike, Nabaiji, Kipsta, Artengo, Solognac. Other brands include Puma, GoPro, Merrell, Speedo, Casio, Reebok, Elite, Asics, Umbro, Vittoria, Mitchell, Atomic, Kempa, Flasher, Powerslide, and more. Get the Decathlon coupons to make the most of their products.

Decathlon Store Locations

Decathlon has stores in nearly all central states in India. In Karnataka, it has 13, whereas, in Maharashtra, it has 9. In India, it has almost 65 stores. Some of the major cities where it has stores are –

• Mumbai
• Hyderabad
• Ahmedabad
• Bangalore
• Thane
• Bannerghatta
• Pune

You can shop at the stores or online on their e-commerce website. Shopping online is beneficial as you can use coupons and special price offers and save on your purchase.

How Decathlon is relative to innovation

Their main aim to bring in innovative products, which are not the only state of the art, but accessible to one and all as well. So, while working hard to bring in some of the best innovative products, they make sure that these are rightfully priced so that most people can afford to buy the same. One of such ingenious products discovered and retailed by them is the 2 seconds tent meant for mountain sports enthusiasts and mountaineers. It is easy to use the pop-up tent that opens up, and what you need to do is peg it in.

Decathlon is a sportsperson’s heaven. Among the other brands so thoroughly dedicated to sports are Adidas and Nike. The premium sports brands create groundbreaking sport innovations with their collections of shoes, clothing, and high-technology sports gear. Nike and Adidas’ logos are today equivalent to a hallmark of quality and comfort. Save on your next favorite pair of running shoes using Nike coupons. Find great Adidas deals on shoes and clothing!

Why it is the place to be?

Decathlon is the space to be because you get all you need for sports at great prices. You need to name the product you need, and they will get it for you. And with all the Decathlon offers, you are sure to get only the best. So, get all of what you need from this site at the best prices. Some of the categories that they have are Sports, Accessories, Men, women, and Kids. They also have a community where you can interact with other sports enthusiasts, learn more about sports and events to be held on various kinds of sports. You can discuss every game-related topic here, share your ideas or participate in ongoing discussions.

Decathlon FAQ’s

How do you get Decathlon coupons?

Decathlon coupons are up for grabs at GrabOn. Login now to get the latest Decathlon coupons including flat discounts, cashback offers and more.

How do I use the promo codes on Decathlon?

Copy the promo code from GrabOn, proceed with your order at the Decathlon website and while checking out, paste the copied code. Viola! The applicable discounts will reflect in your order.

How do you get free delivery on Decathlon?

Your first order will get you free shipping along with 50% off. For returning customers, all orders above Rs 999 would get free shipping, except for heavy products.

Are there any Decathlon coupons on sportswear?

Decathlon has sportswear at the Best Price starting at Rs 99, sports bras with Rs 200 off, and many other attractive offers on sportswear. Sports shoes can be bought for Rs 499 by using the Decathlon promo code.

Taobao Marketplace facilitates consumer-to-consumer (C2C) retail by providing a platform for small businesses and individual entrepreneurs to open online stores that mainly cater to consumers in Chinese-speaking regions (Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan) and abroad,^] which is made payable by online accounts. Its stores usually offer an express delivery service.

Sellers are able to post goods for sale either through a fixed price or an auction. Auctions make up a small percentage of transactions, whereas the majority of the products are new merchandise sold at fixed prices. Buyers can assess seller backgrounds on the site, using ratings, comments, and complaints. Taobao’s popular payment platform is Alibaba’s Alipay.

History

Taobao Marketplace (formerly “Taobao”) was launched in May 2003 by Alibaba after eBay acquired Eachnet, China’s online auction leader at the time, for US$180 million. It became a major contender in the Chinese consumer e-commerce market. To counter eBay’s expansion, Taobao offered free listings to sellers. It introduced instant messaging for facilitating buyer-seller communication and an escrow-based payment tool: Alipay. Taobao became mainland China’s market leader within two years. Its market share grew from 8% to 59% between 2003 and 2005, while eBay China dropped from 79% to 36%. eBay shut down its Chinese site in 2006.

In April 2008, Taobao introduced a newly dedicated B2C platform called Taobao Mall to complement its C2C marketplace. Taobao Mall established itself as the destination for quality brand-name goods for Chinese consumers. Taobao Mall launched an independent web domain, Tmall.com, and enhanced its focus on product verticals and improvements in the shopping experience in November 2010. It became an independent business in June 2011 and changed its Chinese name to Tian Mao (Tmall) in January 2012.

In 2008, Taobao fueled the overall growth of the Chinese online shopping industry through the execution of its “Big Taobao” strategy with the aim of becoming a provider of e-commerce infrastructure services for all e-commerce market participants.

In October 2010, Taobao beta-launched eTao as an independent search engine for online shopping to provide and merchant information from a number of major consumer e-commerce websites in China. Online shoppers would be able to use the site to compare prices across sellers. According to the Alibaba Group web site, eTao offers products from Amazon China, Dangdang, Gome, Yihaodian, Nike China and Vancl, as well as Taobao and Tmall.

In May 2011, Alibaba Group opened a retail store in Beijing under the Taobao Mall brand. The five-story 25,000sqm Taobao Mall iFengChao Furniture Showroom served as a complement to their online stores.

In June 2011, Alibaba Group Executive Chairman and former CEO Jack Ma announced that Taobao would split into three different companies: Taobao Marketplace (a C2C platform), Tmall.com (a B2C platform; then called Taobao Mall), and eTao (a search engine for online shopping). The move was said to be necessary for Taobao to “meet competitive threats that emerged in the past two years during which the Internet and e-commerce landscape has changed dramatically.”

In 2012 Taobao began to accept international Visa and MasterCard credit and debit cards.

On 29 April 2013, Alibaba announced an investment of US$586 million in Sina Weibo. According to Reuters, the deal “should drive more web traffic to Alibaba’s Taobao Marketplace”. On August 1, 2013, Alibaba launched Weibo for Taobao, which allows users to link Sina Weibo accounts with Taobao accounts.

Technology

Adaptive Agent

Taobao applies a search tool named ‘adaptive agents’. An adaptive agent picks up signals from consumers’ purchase records, including categories, brands, functions and colors etc.; The search engine involves the scanning of a particular bar code. Taobao tracks customers’ purchasing history and reorganizes it into selections that the buyer is likely to be attracted to.

An adaptive agent works by updating prior models using new data via Bayes’ theorem (Laplace’s method). The possibility of the occurrence of a certain event can be estimated through the frequency of its occurrence in the past. The ranking of a product or a page can be determined by the combination of its prior information plus its posterior data of click transaction.

The popularity of Taobao’s searching model is based on the calculation of correlation rate and quality scores:

• Static score of a product’s title (correlation rate).
• Matching score of the title and query of a product (correlation rate).
• Category model of a product (correlation rate).
• Transaction model of the commodity (quality score).
• Sellers model (quality score).
• Feedback (quality score).

Semantic Search

Taobao automatically classifies product text and images and uses tags to match. Semantic search solves the correlation problem that keyword texts cannot solve, such as images, complex texts, and ambiguous texts. Semantic search is a recommendation system that presents customers with similar items that consumers might not find when searching one keyword. Entity tagging and other classifications are used.

More about Taobao:

Everything under one roof

Are you tired of visiting countless numbers of stores when you need to do some shopping? You’re forced to buy fashion in one place and toys for your kids at another, while your new kitchen utensils are available in yet another store. Wouldn’t it be better to find everything under one roof, pay only once for the delivery and not worry about anything? Yes, it would and it is possible with Taobao, Asia’s most popular online store.

This is all about convenience so instead of looking for deals elsewhere, just come  and grab what’s yours. Subscribe to be sure you get everything you need, from free delivery to massive discount vouchers. All you need is your email address and a minute to subscribe!

About

Taobao offers you a wealth of products from many categories. You can furnish your house and fill your wardrobe with incredibly low priced items that are of fantastic quality. What’s more? It’s incredibly easy because the categories at the store are intuitive and easy to navigate. Need some clothing? No problem – there’s popular women’s clothes and fashion men’s clothes. When you scroll on one of those you will see more sub-categories to choose from which makes the whole process much easier and faster.

Women who are expecting or have small children can go for maternal and child supplies, including clothing, toys and some baby essentials. You will not have to spend a fortune on things that normally cost a lot of money, which is a great start in your baby’s life.

Home life will be a much more pleasant one with furnishings and appliances available at Taobao. What exactly is available there? Tableware/kitchenware will make dinners and all the other meals much more pleasant. Bedding will help you get more rest when you sleep. And if you’re in need of some other decorations for your home, you can check wall stickers, towel sets and photo frames.

But that’s not all. Prices at Taobao are already affordable but more can be achieved with amazing sales available on the website. You will find them easily by clicking on a cost-effective tab on the top of the page. The products listed on this web page are just as good in quality, but they are discounted due to the introduction of newer models or warehouse restocking. This is your best opportunity to save even more.

If you completely lack the ideas on what to buy, simply scroll down to the bottom of the page and you will see inspirations regarding each category. Perhaps you will get some ideas on how to mix and match certain products or you will find a true gem of a bargain. For example, there is always good time to start practicing outdoor sport. If you don’t have any proper clothing and you want to be active, Taobao has got you covered with its large catalog of garments, accessories, small exercise objects and accessories. So easy and fun!

People, who run their own businesses, know well that every cent counts in a company. For this reason, you should strive to always find the best opportunities to save money. Office supplies and appliances can get very costly if you’re not responsible with your spending. To avoid this, you should check the range carried by the online store.

Taobao discount codes

Saving online is not a difficult thing but it requires a bit time to learn the skill.  it’s easier than ever and you will always find the best possible deals for yourself, your family members and friends. Just:

• Check which promotions are available on the website. There are different kinds: free delivery, codes, vouchers, Black Friday promos, Cyber Monday offers, and newsletter deals. Pick whichever you like the most and click on it. If there is a discount code, it will need to be copied but if there isn’t, you will be transferred to the store’s own website.
• Start shopping by first browsing around the site. Use the categories and sub-categories to help you find the right product. If you have found it, click on it to learn more.
• Choose its size, color and properties as appropriate. When you have done it, add it to your basket. Continue shopping if you want.
• When you’re finished with shopping on the site, go to your basket and review your order. Add any discount code you may have. Confirm with your payment by leaving your card details, name and delivery address.

Lojas Americanas in Recife.

Lojas Americanas in Ipatinga.

Lojas Americanas (Portuguese for American Stores) has its headquarters in Rio de Janeiro and has 4 distribution centers, in Nova Iguaçu (Rio de Janeiro), Barueri (São Paulo), Recife (Pernambuco) and Uberlandia (Minas Gerais).

It is controlled by three Brazilian billionaires: Jorge Paulo Lemann, Marcel Herrmann Telles and Carlos Alberto Sicupira, the same trio that drives the Anheuser-Busch InBev, 3G Capital, São Carlos S.A. and other groups. The network sells over 80 thousand items of four thousand different companies.

In January 2007, Lojas Americanas acquired the Brazilian operations of the network of video rental Blockbuster for R$186.2 million and adapted to store the model Americanas Express.

History of Lojas Americanas S.A.

The company was founded in 1929 by Americans John Lee, Glen Matson, James Marshall and Batson Borger. They left the United States and went to Buenos Aires with the objective of opening a Five and Dime store. The idea was to launch a store that featured low prices, modelled after stores in the United States and Europe that became popular at the beginning of the 20th century. While on their trip to South America, they met Brazilians Aquino Sales and Max Landesman, who convinced them to change their plans and head to Rio de Janeiro.

After spending time in Rio de Janeiro, the Americans saw that there were many public employees and military personnel with stable but modest salaries. The majority of the stores in the city were not financially accessible to the general public. The existing stores were expensive and sold specialized merchandise. Consumers had to go to several different establishments to do their shopping. As a result, the Americans decided that Rio de Janeiro was the perfect city in which to launch their new concept store. They built a store that had low prices—to attend to the “forgotten” consumer populations—and sold the widest variety of products possible.

In 1929 they inaugurated the first Lojas Americanas store in Niteroi. The store slogan was “Nothing over $2”. During the first hour the store was open, no one came. Failure appeared imminent. However, one girl, after spending a few minutes looking at the window display, entered and bought a doll. And just like that, Lojas Americanas had completed its first of many sales. At the end of the first year, they had already opened four stores—three in Rio de Janeiro and one in São Paulo. By 1940, Lojas Americanas had become a corporation.

In 1982, the board members of the Grupo Garantia came on board with Lojas Americanas as shareholders. By the first quarter of 1994, they solidified the formation of a joint venture company under the name Walmart Brasil S/A with Lojas Americanas as a 40% stakeholder and Walmart as a 60% stakeholder. In 1997, by the decision of the administrative council of the company, approval was given for sale of 40% of the company to Walmart, Inc. The council approved the participation of Lojas Americanas in a deal in 1998 which detailed their actionary control of 23 stores with the French supermarket company Comptoirs Modernes, connected to Grupo Carrefour). Lojas Americanas later decided to end the association and focus on their primary business of discount stores.

Store in Tangará da Serra, Mato Grosso, inaugurated in November 2011.

In 1999, the company began selling merchandise over the internet, through the site Americanas.com. By 2000, Americanas.com and a new partnership with Chase Capital, The Flatiron Fund, Next International. Global Bridge Ventures, Mercosul Internet S/A, and AIG had significantly augmented their capital. All together, these ventures translated into an additional US $40 million and the sale of 33% of the company. The early 2000s were characterized by the company’s rapid expansion. The goal was to open new stores across the Southeast and South of Brazil to increase the presence of the brand and to reformulate some existing stores to improve customer service. It was also during this period that Lojas Americanas acquired a television station called Shoptime, a joint venture with Banco Itaú that created the Financeira Americanas Itaú (FAI), or Americanas Taií.

Americanas.com announced in November 2006 its merger with Submarino, creating an absolute leading company in the online sales segment in Brazil. The new company, B2W, must compete with the traditional trade chains.

In January 2007, Lojas Americanas announced their acquisition of BWU, the corporation responsible for Blockbuster in Brazil, and integrated them into over 127 stores. Most recently, in 2013, the Lojas Americanas network was forced to pay R$250 thousand in reparations to Bolivian sweatshop workers making clothing for the company’s BASIC+ brand. They were judged to be working in “slave-like” conditions.Lojas Americanas S.A., or Lasa for short, is one of the largest retailers in Brazil, operating almost 200 discount department stores and selling more than 80,000 items from 4,000 different companies. The company’s stores guarantee major brand products at competitive prices and have a major share of the Brazilian trade in toys, chocolates and candies, lingerie, and compact discs. Other areas are household goods, small household appliances, basic clothing lines, convenience foods, and perfumes and cosmetics. Its subsidiaries include the Internet sales company Americanas.com S.A. Comércio Electrônico for shopping online, and the financial services provider Facilita Serviços e Propaganda S.A., which offers such products as personal loans, cellular telephones, and its own credit card.

Principal Subsidiaries

Americanas.com (80%); Americanas.com S.A. Comércio Electrónico (80%); Cheyney Financial S.A.; Facilita Serviços e Propaganda S.A.; Klanin Services Ltd.; Lojas Americanas da Amazonia S.A.; Lojas Americanas Home Shopping Ltda.

Principal Competitors

Arthur Lundgren Tecidos S.A. – Casas Pernambucanas; Casas Bahia Comercial Ltda.; Globex Utilidades S.A.; Sonae Distribuição Brasil S.A..

Chronology

• Key Dates
• 1929 The first Lojas Americanas opens, in Rio de Janeiro.
• 1982 The Garantia group buys a controlling share of the enterprise.
• 1988 The chain, Brazil’s fourth largest, has 63 stores selling 40,000 different items.
• 1994 Lojas Americanas enters an ill-fated joint venture with Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
• 1998 The company restructures its operations and sells its supermarket division.
• 1999 Lasa unveils its e-commerce affiliate, Americanas.com.
• 2003 Americanas.com has become Brazil’s leading e-commerce site.
• 2004 Lojas Americanas adds 36 stores to bring the total to 156.

Additional Details

• Public Company
• Incorporated: 1940
• Employees: 8,491
• Sales: BRL 2.28 billion ($948.81 million) (2004)
• Stock Exchanges: São Paulo OTC (for ADRs)
• Ticker Symbol: LAME3
• NAIC: 452112 Discount Department Stores; 454111 Electronic Shopping

Americanas FAQ’s

1. How Much Can I save from Americanas with coupon codes?

The Average savings from Americanas with through our deals with coupons are 30%.

2. How Can I Find Americanas Deals And Coupons?

3. Does Americanas Offer Free Shipping?

Yes, Americanas offers free shipping on entire orders.

4. Can I Submit Americanas coupon codes?

History

Boohoo was founded in 2006 by Mahmud Kamani and Carol Kane, who respectively serve as group executive chairman and an executive director, and who previously supplied high street chains such as Primark and New Look. The company completed its initial public offering (IPO) in March 2014, with its shares trading considerably above the 50p float price on the company’s debut in the AIM sub-market of the London Stock Exchange. Valuing Boohoo at almost £600 million, the floatation saw Kamani net £135 million and Kane £25 million.

Boohoo has been criticised for promoting fast-fashion which critics claim comes at a cost to those making the clothes and the environment. More than half of Boohoo’s garments are produced in the UK, especially Leicester, London, and Manchester. Boohoo buys 75%–80% of the clothing produced in Leicester. This was made possible when other retailers such as ASOS reduced the amount they sourced from Leicester over concerns about working conditions. In 2017, the Channel 4 television documentary series Dispatches found that factories in Leicester supplying Boohoo (along with New Look, River Island and Missguided) were paying workers less than the national minimum wage. Boohoo stated that the work had been subcontracted without their knowledge.

In August 2019, the online businesses of Karen Millen and Coast were bought out of administration by Boohoo for £18 million. Only the online employees were taken on by Boohoo and the standalone retail stores eventually closed.^[9] Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, Boohoo reported an increase in sales.^[10] In June 2020, Boohoo announced that it was to acquire the brands and websites of high street chains Oasis Stores and Warehouse for £5.25 million.

In late June 2020, workers’ rights group Labour Behind the Label produced a report that stated factories supplying Boohoo were not following to social distancing and forcing employees to work even if sick, claims that Boohoo denied. This was followed by an investigative report by The Sunday Times which claimed to have found that workers producing clothes for Boohoo at a Leicester-based company were paid £3.50 an hour, less than half the UK minimum wage for over 25s. Boohoo again distanced themselves from the company, a representative stating “We are taking immediate action to thoroughly investigate how our garments were in their hands, will ensure that our suppliers immediately cease working with this company, and we will urgently review our relationship with any suppliers who have sub-contracted work to the manufacturer in question.” Standard Life Aberdeen, an asset manager and a top 10 shareholder in the group, announced that it had sold most of its stake in the company a few days after the Sunday Times revelations. SLA said that after engaging with Boohoo’s management team a number of times during the week, it found the online retailer’s response to the allegations was “inadequate in scope, timeliness and gravity”. On 15 July 2020 a Conservative Party MP said that it was ‘shameful’ that it took a pandemic for Boohoo to finally be taken to task for its workplace practices. Philip Dunne, chairman of the Environmental Audit committee, also said that the company had not met a pledge to join the Ethical Trading Initiative organisation which brings together retailers, unions and campaign groups to improve practice in supply chains.

In September the company accepted the findings of a report by Allison Levitt QC, which found that the allegations of poor working practices in the company’s supply chain were “substantially true”, that its monitoring of the factories was “inadequate” due to “weak corporate governance”, and that its failure to assess the risk to workers during the coronavirus pandemic were “inexcusable”. In November 2020 it appointed former judge Sir Brian Leveson to provide independent ethical oversight. An investigation by The Guardian newspaper in December 2020 traced Boohoo’s supply chain to factories in Pakistan where workers claimed to be paid as low as £47 a month, less than the legal minimum wage, and ordered to work to shifts as long as 24 hours without receiving full overtime pay.

In January 2021, following the collapse of the UK department store chain Debenhams, Boohoo bought the brand and online business for £55 million. The deal did not include the firm’s stores or workforce, leading to a predicted loss of 12,000 jobs. In February, Boohoo announced it was buying the former Arcadia Group brands: Burton, Wallis and Dorothy Perkins for £25.2 million, confirming the loss of around 2,450 jobs.

In December 2021, Boohoo has announced the expansion of operations into five new markets within the Asian region including Japan, Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Business operations

According to Chief executive Carol Kane, Boohoo can differentiate itself from its closest rivals, as all their clothing ranges are own-branded with average prices of £17 as of March 2014, comprising 9,000 clothing lines. With a primary focus on the 16–24 year old age group, it sells clothing to over 100 countries and as of June 2014 had seven major markets, including the UK, the US, and France. Stock is purchased in small quantities of between 300 and 500 items at a time, with repeat orders typically of 25% on those that sell well. Customers can order items up to midnight for next-day delivery, including on Sunday. Customer numbers increased by 29% throughout 2016–17, up to 5.8 million.

Distribution centre

Since 2010 the company’s main distribution centre has been located on the Heasandford Industrial Estate in Burnley, Lancashire. From an initial 40 employees, the site has rapidly expanded into Burnley’s largest employer, with workforce exceeding 3,500 in 2021. The company has acquired more buildings on the estate, formerly occupied by manufacturers such as TRW Automotive, and plans to continue to grow in the town. Boohoo’s head of logistics said in 2021, “Ease of distribution is key and the borough sits in the heart of the UK, whilst it also provides a skilled and varied workforce.

Corporate affairs

Boohoo also owns boohooMAN, PrettyLittleThing, Nasty Gal and MissPap, all targeted at 16–35 year olds. PrettyLittleThing was acquired in December 2016, with the retailer purchasing a 66% stake in the business at a cost of £3.3m, with the existing management team retaining the remaining shares.

During the year up to April 2017, customer browsing from mobile devices accounted for 70% of total sessions, an increase of 4% from the previous year, with downloads of its mobile app across the United Kingdom, United States and Australia totalling around 2.2 million.

Lidl is the chief competitor of the similar German discount chain Aldi in several markets. There are Lidl stores in every member state of the European Union as well as in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States. Lidl also announced that it will open its first store in Ukraine in the future in October 2021, but due to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine there was no progress.\

History

In 1932, Josef Schwarz became a partner in Südfrüchte Großhandlung Lidl & Co., a fruit wholesaler, and he developed the company into a general food wholesaler.

In 1977, under his son Dieter Schwarz, the Schwarz-Gruppe began to focus on discount markets, larger supermarkets, and cash and carry wholesale markets. He did not want to use the name Schwarz-Markt (Schwarzmarkt means “black market”) and wanted to use the name of his father’s former business partner, A. Lidl, but legal reasons prevented him from using that name for his discount stores. When he discovered a newspaper article about a painter and retired schoolteacher Ludwig Lidl, he bought the rights to the name from him for 1,000 German marks.

Lidl is part of the Schwarz Group, the fifth-largest retailer in the world with sales of €104.3 billion (2018).

The first Lidl discount store was opened in 1973, copying the Aldi concept. Schwarz rigorously removed merchandise that did not sell from the shelves, and cut costs by keeping the size of the retail outlets as small as possible. By 1977, the Lidl chain comprised 33 discount stores.

Lidl opened its first UK store in 1994. Its grocery market share in the UK was 5.9% in 2019.

Sven Seidel was appointed CEO of the company in March 2014, after the previous CEO Karl-Heinz Holland stepped down.^[10] Holland had served as chief executive since 2008 but left due to undisclosed “unbridgeable” differences over future strategy. Seidel stepped down from his position in February 2017 after Manager Magazin reported he had fallen out of favour with Klaus Gehrig, who has headed the Schwarz Group since 2004. Seidel was succeeded as CEO by Dane Jesper Højer, previously head of Lidl’s international buying operation.^[11]

In June 2015, the company announced it would establish a United States headquarters in Arlington, Virginia.^[12] Lidl has major distribution centers in Mebane, North Carolina, and Spotsylvania County, Virginia. The company initially focused on opening locations in East Coast states, between Pennsylvania and Georgia, and as far west as Ohio. In June 2017, Lidl opened its first stores in the United States in Virginia Beach, Virginia and other mid-Atlantic cities. The company planned to open a total of one hundred U.S. stores by the summer of 2018. In November 2018, Lidl announced plans to acquire 27 Best Market stores in New York and New Jersey. In December 2018, Lidl opened its first location in New York City, in the Staten Island Mall. The company has continued to expand throughout the eastern U.S., with over 100 stores by the end of 2020. In August 2020, Lidl announced that it planned to open up another 50 stores in the U.S. by the end of 2021.

Business model

Like fellow German supermarket Aldi, Lidl has a zero waste,no-frills, “pass-the-savings-to-the-consumer” approach of displaying most products in their original delivery cartons, allowing the customers to take the product directly from the carton. When the carton is empty, it is simply replaced with a full one. Staffing is minimal

In contrast to Aldi, there are generally more branded products offered. Lidl distributes many low-priced gourmet foods by producing each of them in a single European Union country for its whole worldwide chain, but it also sources many local products from the country where the store is located. Like Aldi, Lidl has special weekly offers, and its stock of non-food items often changes with time. In contrast to Aldi, Lidl advertises extensively in its homeland of Germany.

Just as Aldi, Lidl does not play mood music in most countries, including Germany. Exceptions include stores in the United States, Croatia, Spain (not all), Poland and Lithuania. Additionally, in two stores in Denmark music is played as a test. Lidl stores have PA systems for important announcements but do not broadcast commercials.

The Lidl operation in the United Kingdom took a different approach than in Germany, with a focus on marketing and public relations, and providing employee benefits not required by law, including paying the independently verified living wage and offering a staff discount.^[21] Upmarket products were introduced, especially in the lead-up to Christmas. This required significant investment in marketing to produce sales growth but had an effect on Lidl’s logistical operation and pressure on profits. Ronny Gottschlich, who had run Lidl GB for the six years to 2016, was responsible for this approach, which led to friction with head office, due to the cost involved. In September 2016, Gottschlich unexpectedly left and was replaced by the Austrian sales and operations director, German-national Christian Härtnagel.^[22] Lidl continued to have ambitious investment plans in the United Kingdom, ultimately doubling the number of stores to 1,500. In the financial year of 2015, Lidl Great Britain’s revenue from its over 630 stores throughout Britain was £4.7 billion.

Criticism

In 2008, Lidl was accused by journalists of spying on their workers, listening to private phone calls, and sometimes even following them home or to doctor’s appointments.In one instance, an employee’s file was supposedly annotated to note that most of her friends were “drug users”. In another instance, a female worker at a Lidl store in the Czech Republic was allegedly forbidden from using the toilet during working hours. An internal company memo from the incident was made public as part of a court case, in which the company is alleged to have advised management “Female workers who have their periods may go to the toilet now and again, but to enjoy this privilege they should wear a visible headband”. Some trade union activists have compared this behavior to that of American companies which engage in union busting, drawing the comparison to surveillance techniques used to proactively detect and stop union organizing activity within a place of business. Lidl responded to these claims, stating that the surveillance was intended to prevent shoplifting, and to detect “abnormal behavior”.

Other services

In October 2009, Lidl Movies was launched in the United Kingdom, undercutting Tesco DVD Rental, which had previously been the United Kingdom’s cheapest online rental service for DVDs. The service was powered by OutNow DVD Rental. OutNow went into liquidation in October 2011, taking Lidl Movies with it.

In January 2012, Lidl launched bakeries in their stores across Europe. They consist of a small baking area with a number of ovens, together with an area where bread and pastries, such as croissants, are displayed for sale. The bakeries were initially trialed in a limited number of stores, to determine whether there was a demand for freshly baked products in-store.

eBay Inc.

is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that facilitates consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales through its website. eBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995, and became a notable success story of the dot-com bubble. eBay is a multibillion-dollar business with operations in about 32 countries, as of 2019. The company manages the eBay website, an online auction and shopping website in which people and businesses buy and sell a wide variety of goods and services worldwide. The website is free to use for buyers, but sellers are charged fees for listing items after a limited number of free listings, and an additional or separate fee when those items are sold.

In addition to eBay’s original auction-style sales, the website has evolved and expanded to include: instant “Buy It Now” shopping; shopping by Universal Product Code, ISBN, or other kind of SKU number (via Half.com, which was shut down in 2017); and other services. eBay previously offered online money transfers as part of its services (via PayPal, which was a wholly owned subsidiary of eBay from 2002 to 2015); online classified advertisements (via Kijiji, or eBay Classifieds Group); and online event ticket trading (via StubHub).

eBay has built an online person-to-person trading community on the Internet, using the World Wide Web. Buyers and sellers are brought together in a manner where sellers are permitted to list items for sale, buyers to bid on items of interest and all eBay users to browse through listed items in a fully automated way. The items are arranged by topics, where each type of auction has its own category.

eBay has both streamlined and globalized traditional person-to-person trading, which has traditionally been conducted through such forms as garage sales, collectibles shows, flea markets and more, with their web interface. This facilitates easy exploration for buyers and enables the sellers to immediately list an item for sale within minutes of registering.

Browsing and bidding on auctions is free of charge, but sellers are charged two kinds of charges:

• When an item is listed on eBay a nonrefundable Insertion Fee is charged, which ranges between 30 cents and $3.30, depending on the seller’s opening bid on the item.
• A fee is charged for additional listing options to promote the item, such as highlighted or bold listing.
• A Final Value (final sale price) fee is charged at the end of the seller’s auction. This fee generally ranges from 1.25% to 5% of the final sale price.

eBay notifies the buyer and seller via e-mail at the end of the auction if a bid exceeds the seller’s minimum price, and the seller and buyer finish the transaction independently of eBay. The binding contract of the auction is between the winning bidder and the seller only. At eBay, we create pathways to connect millions of sellers and buyers in more than 190 markets around the world. Our technology empowers our customers, providing everyone the opportunity to grow and thrive — no matter who they are or where they are in the world. And the ripple effect of our work creates waves of change for our customers, our company, our communities and our planet.

The History of eBay

eBay was founded in Pierre Omidyar’s San Jose living room back in September 1995. It was from the start meant to be a marketplace for the sale of goods and services for individuals.

In 1998, Pierre and his cofounder Jeff Skoll brought in Meg Whitman to sustain the success. Meg had studied at the Harvard Business School and had learned the importance of branding at companies such as Hasbro.

Meg culled her senior staff from companies such as Pepsico and Disney, created an experienced management team with an average of 20 years of business experience and built a strong vision for the company — that eBay is a company that’s in the business of connecting people, not selling them things.

They quickly shed the image of only auctioning collectibles and moved into an array of upscale markets where the average sale price (ASP) is higher. ASP is a key metric in determining eBay’s transaction fees, so increasing the ASP became an important item. By forging partnerships with namebrands such as GM, Disney and Sun, eBay has managed to do exactly that. Sun has sold
$10 million worth of equipment and it now lists between 20 and 150 items per day.

The leader in the toy category quickly became Beanie Babies manufactured by Ty, Inc., the most difficult toys to find in retail stores. As collectors internationally were trying to complete their collection of Beanie Babies, Ty set up the first business-to-consumer Web site, a secondary-market online trading post where people could trade their Beanie Babies. However, it was overwhelmed with unsortable listings, creating an urgent demand for a more efficient online trading system. Beanie Babies quickly became the dominant product on eBay, accounting for 10% of all listings in 1997, as collectors thronged eBay’s user-friendly interface to search for specific Beanie Babies.

Meg Whitman was hired by the board as eBay president and CEO in March 1998. At the time, the company had 30 employees,half a million users and revenues of $4.7 million in the United States.

On September 21, 1998, eBay went public. In the risk factors section of the annual report filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission in 1998, Omidyar notes eBay’s dependence on the continued strength of the Beanie Babies market. After eBay went public, both Omidyar and Skoll became instant billionaires: eBay’s target of $18 per share was all but ignored as the price went to $53.50 on the first day of trading.

2000s

As the company expanded product categories beyond collectibles into almost any saleable item, business grew quickly. In 2000, eBay had 12 million registered users and a cyberinventory of more than 4.5 million items on sale on any given day. In 2001, eBay had the largest userbase of any e-commerce site. In February 2002 the company purchased iBazar, a similar European auction web site founded in 1998, and then bought PayPal on October 3, 2002.

By early 2008 the company had expanded worldwide, counting hundreds of millions of registered users as well as 15,000 employees and revenues of almost $7.7 billion. After nearly ten years at eBay, Whitman decided to enter politics. On January 23, 2008, the company announced that Whitman would step down on March 31, 2008, and John Donahoe was selected to become president and CEO. Whitman remained on the board of directors and continued to advise Donahoe through 2008. In late 2009 eBay completed the sale of Skype for $2.75 billion, but still owned 30% equity in the company.

2010s

In 2012, eBay was charged by the United States Department of Justice with entering into non-solicitation agreements with other technology companies involving their highly skilled employees.

On September 30, 2014, eBay announced it would spin off PayPal into a separate publicly traded company, a demand made nine months prior by activist hedge fund magnate Carl Icahn. The spinoff completed on July 18, 2015. eBay’s then chief executive, John Donahoe, stepped down from that role. Flipkart and eBay entered into a strategic partnership in 2017 under which eBay Inc acquired a 5.44% stake in Flipkart in exchange for its eBay India business for $211 Mn and a $514 Mn cash investment. As part of the partnership, Flipkart decided to use the eBay platform for global outsourcing.

On January 31, 2018, eBay announced that they would replace PayPal as its primary payments provider with Netherlands-based start-up Adyen. The transition was set to be completed by 2021, but PayPal would remain an acceptable payment option on the site until further notice.

On September 21, 2018, it was reported that eBay would install a security fence around the perimeter of its San Jose headquarters in response to the YouTube headquarters shooting earlier that year.

On July 31, 2019, the company acquired a 5.59 percent stake in Paytm Mall.

On September 25, 2019, it was announced that Devin Wenig would be stepping down as eBay’s CEO, and that Scott Schenkel, senior vice president and chief financial officer since 2015, had been appointed as the interim CEO.

2020s

On April 13, 2020, it was announced that Jamie Iannone would become the CEO on April 27. On June 15, 2020, eBay stated that five employees were terminated in September after a law enforcement notification in August because of a possibly criminal case of harassment of journalists perpetrated by some of the terminated employees. Six former employees were charged with Aggressive Cyberstalking.

In July 2020, Adevinta announced to acquire eBay Classifieds Group.The deal closed on June 25. In May of 2022, eBay announced the launch of its first collection of NFTs, in partnership with the NFT platform OneOf. Following this, in June 2022, eBay announced the acquisition of the Manchester-based NFT Marketplace KnownOrigin for an undisclosed sum.

Profit and transactions

eBay generates revenue by a complex system of fees for services, listing product features, and a final value fee for sales proceeds by sellers. As of 2019 the US-based eBay.com charges $0.35 as an insertion fee for a basic listing without any adornments. The final value fee is 10-12% of the total amount of the sale, which is the price of the item plus shipping charges.Reduced final value fees are available to business registered customers. Other eBay websites follow a similar fee structure, but with different cost charges.

Under US law before 2018, a state could not require sellers located outside the state to collect a sales tax, which made making purchases on eBay more attractive to US buyers. Sellers that operate as a business do follow state tax regulations on eBay transactions. Since 2018, changes to tax law in the United States force eBay (and other large marketplaces) to collect sales tax on any eBay purchase shipped to certain states.

The company’s business strategy includes increasing international trade. eBay has already expanded to over two dozen countries, including China and India. Strategic international expansion has failed in Taiwan and Japan, where Yahoo! had a head start, and New Zealand, where Trade Me is the dominant online auction website. eBay also notably failed in China due to competition from local rival Taobao. eBay entered the Chinese market in 2002 and shut down its Chinese site in 2007. In India, eBay’s operations came to a halt after it sold off its India operations to country’s largest ecommerce company Flipkart, in the latter’s $1.4Bn fundraise, where eBay was a participant.

In its Q1 2008 results, total payment volume via PayPal increased 17%, but of the eBay auction site it was up 61%.

For most listing categories, eBay sellers are permitted to offer a variety of payment systems such as Escrow.com,PayPal, Paymate, Propay, and Skrill. Propay and Skrill were banned effective September 27, 2015, citing low usage.

Escrow.com is eBay’s approved escrow site. The transactions processed through Escrow.com largely are in relation to eBay Motors; however, they are not restricted to this type of listing.

eBay runs an affiliate program under the name eBay Partner Network. eBay affiliate marketers were originally paid a percentage of the eBay seller’s transaction fees, with commissions ranging from 50% to 75% of the fees paid for an item purchased. In October 2009, eBay changed to an affiliate payout system that it calls Quality Click Pricing, in which affiliates are paid an amount determined by an undisclosed algorithm. The total earnings amount is then divided by the number of clicks the affiliate sent to eBay and is reported as Earnings Per Click, or EPC. In October 2013, ePN launched a new pricing model. The new model is more transparent and is based on category-level base commission rates with bonuses available for referring new and reactivated buyers.

On April 18, 2012, eBay reported a 29% Q1 revenue increase to $3.3 billion compared to their Q1 in 2011. Net income was reported to be at $570 million for the quarter.

For the fiscal year 2017, eBay reported losses of US$1.016 billion, with annual revenue of US$9.567 billion, an increase of 6.6% over the previous fiscal cycle. eBay’s shares traded at over $35 per share, and its market capitalization was valued at over US$27.2 billion in October 2018.

FAQs from eBay

Can I buy used cars on eBay Motors?

Yes! eBay Motors is a marketplace that allows you to buy and sell used vehicles, tires, parts, and accessories. Download the eBay Motors app to have everything right at your fingertips.

How do I contact eBay Customer Service?

Use eBay’s Help page to contact customer service and get answers to frequently asked questions.

What is the eBay customer service number?

The eBay customer service number is no longer in service, but you can report any fraud on your account to this dedicated number: 1-866-961-9523.

How do I redeem an eBay gift card?

To redeem your eBay gift card, simply log into your account and enter the redemption code at checkout.

Where can I find eBay coupons?

You can bookmark this page to stay up to date with eBay coupons and offers, or head over to eBay’s homepage where they frequently list sitewide promo codes.

How do I sign up for the eBay Credit Card?

Log into your account and click ‘eBay Mastercard’ to sign up for the eBay Credit Card. This card earns you points every time you shop. In order to be approved, you’ll need a credit score of about 700 or above.

Where can I find eBay tracking information?

When you log into your account, you can find the status and any tracking information for your orders in your order history.

What is the eBay return policy?

That depends! If you’re buying from eBay’s Certified Refurbished shop, everything is covered with a 90-Day Warranty, 30-Day Return Policy, and 100% Money-Back Guarantee. If you’re buying from a seller, it’s completely up to their discretion.

Does eBay have a student discount?

There is no eBay student discount. However, eBay curates collections specifically for students—including textbooks and laptops—so be sure to check there to save on back-to-school shopping.

How to Use an eBay Coupon

CHECKING OUT AS A GUEST

1. Click on the eBay promo code you want and hit “Copy”
2. Click “Shop Now” or return to your shopping cart
3. Click the “Go to checkout” button and select Continue as guest
4. Type in your shipping information
5. Enter your eBay promo code in the Add Coupons box at the bottom of the page
6. Click Apply
7. If you see “Promotional code applied”, your code works!

CHECKING OUT WITH YOUR ACCOUNT

1. Click on the eBay promo code you want and hit “Copy”
2. Click “Shop Now” or return to your shopping cart
3. Click the Go to checkout button and select Continue to sign in
4. Enter your eBay promo code in the Gift cards, coupons, eBay Bucks field on the Checkout page
5. Click Apply
6. If you see “Promotional code applied”, your code works!

Why We Love eBay

Before 1995, auctions were mostly reserved for art collectors and uncles looking for dirt-cheap prices on impounded cars. eBay set up shop somewhere in the middle, letting average folks toss literally anything into the open waters of the free market to see what they could reel in (like, literally, anything). Overnight, buying something in an auction became nearly as easy as grabbing a frozen pizza from the corner store.

Today, eBay is transforming the way folks think about buying high-end electronics with its innovative Certified Refurbished Shop. If the auction side of the site is the world’s largest garage sale, the Refurbished Shop is a relaxing, well-stocked department store. There you’ll find deep discounts and deals on everything from Dyson and Bose to KitchenAid Stand Mixers and Microsoft Surface Pro tablets.

eBay Auctions

eBay offers its customers the opportunity to bid on certain items for a chance to purchase them at a lower price. Not only that, but you also have the option to buy the item now if you don’t want to wait for the auction to end. As a bonus, you can set up automatic bidding on the item you wish to purchase. Just specify the maximum amount you’d like to pay and eBay will place bids in increments for you. That way, you won’t have to live on the website to outbid the competition. Because of the massive savings potential, we definitely recommend checking out more information and tips on bidding from eBay’s website before you get started.

eBay Daily Deals

If you’re a person who likes to search online every day for the best deals, then you’ll definitely want to check out eBay’s daily deals. Here, you will find massive savings—sometimes up to 80%—on items in categories such as electronics, jewelry, health and beauty, fashion, kitchen, home, tools, and more.

eBay Black Friday Promo Codes

When Black Friday lands on November 25, 2022, you won’t find many eBay Black Friday promo codes to use across the site. What will you find, however, are enticing deals on apparel, toys, electronics, kitchen appliances, vacuums, and more. Check out the eBay homepage on Black Friday to see all the latest offers.

More eBay Savings Tips

Email Signup: If you shop at eBay all the time, then don’t forget to sign up for their email list. Whenever they have coupons and discounts available, they’ll send out an email to let you know about it.

eBay Coupons: Don’t want to wait for an email about available coupon codes? Then head over to their coupon page to find codes and shop items for which the codes apply.

eBay Sales: eBay’s homepage will always greet you with tons of sales that are happening at the moment. Make sure to check out any holiday sales available as well as sales in the Brand Outlet.

eBay Best Price Guarantee: Did you purchase an item on eBay in the last 48 hours but found a better price? eBay will let you turn that loss into a shiny new promo code! Just let their customer service team know (you can do that here!). Once they verify that your item qualifies for the Best Price Guarantee, you’ll receive a coupon for the difference to use on future eBay.com purchases.

eBay Shipping Options, Delivery & Return Policy

• eBay free shipping: free shipping is available on thousands of items in the online marketplace. Some items even have a delivery time within 3 – 4 days with “Fast ‘N Free” shipping.
• eBay free local pickup: many sellers offer free local pickup on items, especially items that are large and difficult to ship. Click here to learn more.
• International shipping: depending on the seller’s location, they might ship orders using regular international shipping services or use eBay’s Global Shipping Program (GSP). Read more about international shipping.
• Where’s My Order?: eBay offers the option to track your order via your purchase history or order details if the seller uses a tracked shipping service. Find out more information about tracking your eBay orders here.
• Return Policy: eBay always encourages customers to contact the seller if an item didn’t arrive, the item received doesn’t match the listing, or the item is damaged or faulty. In the event that a solution cannot be agreed upon between seller and buyer, eBay has a Money Back Guarantee policy that kicks in for these types of situations.