Conducting International Business at eBay: The Determinants of Success of e‐Stores

Abstract

Many small businesses have started to use eBay as their electronic commerce platform. Such a strategy increases their reach to global customers without high financial and technical costs in building their own e‐commerce infrastructure or in intense advertising. How can these e‐stores conduct successful international business on eBay? This paper addresses this complex issue by discussing how online customers' perceptions of an e‐store's culture, size, and history affect the e‐store's feedback rating and successful sales. We analyze data of the completed transactions of 400+ e‐stores on eBay across twenty‐two countries. The results suggest that feedback rating is a significant determinant of the success of an e‐store, and that an e‐store's culture, size, and history significantly affect the e‐store's feedback rating.

Keywords:

• electronic commerce
• international business
• culture
• feedback rating
• trust