Make your business visible on Google: Use SEO trends 2018

Owners of all types of business invest huge amounts of time and money in ensuring that their sites appear in those crucial first few SERP entries. And It is really good when their investments are returned and multiplied.

The hardest thing in SEO is to understand how people think and what way exactly they search for. Therefore, accepting current SEO trends is an essential part of promotion strategy leading to the successful business.

Let’s look at SEO tendencies in 2018 applied to the e-commerce business.

Google’s Mobile First Index, which prioritizes the mobile version of websites when compiling search rankings, was scheduled for rollout last year, but by December 2017 it had still only been applied to a few sites. However, this does not mean that it will not be! And entrepreneurs should keep abreast these Google plans, and they still have time to bring their mobile websites to the required kind.

Many saw 2017 as a year in which search engines took forward strides in their ability to recognize unique high-quality written content, and by 2018 this trend continues.

Sharing the unique content with the target audience brings business (in particular to small business) a great chance to show their competitive advantage stems from the deep knowledge of the field where they operate.

And of course, in 2018 we came with new technologies. Recognition of voice commands has long been a popular alternative to typing manually which cannot but influence SEO, where the main emphasis has always been on understanding the behavior of the audience. The voice-based searches this year should be given special attention.

As it may have been possible to suppose from the trends we’ve discussed so far, 2018 will also see a notable uptick in the importance of structured data within web pages. Gone are the days when it was good enough for your search results to feature randomly-combined blobs of text search engines’ growing ability to focus on high-quality written content means that Internet users are also losing their tolerance for garbled text, and increasingly expect search results to feature rich snippets of succinctly-expressed, relevant information.

And the security remains the main issue by this year. Important than in the online marketplace sector, where website owners handle the confidential data of both buyers and vendors and we expect 2018 to see Google marking sites that don’t have an SSL certificate as ‘insecure’ on search engine results pages.

As we’ve seen from the increasing emergence of e-commerce, buying and selling online is becoming more visual. So, as mentioned above, it’s very important for marketplace business owners to work more closely than ever with sellers for making the visual content of top-quality.

Another one working tip for SEO in 2018 applied for small business is focusing on location. Given the place in which your business is located and its residents, you can create a really profitable SEO company.

In the end, I would like to say that as ever, reaching first positions among Google requests requires the deep technical understanding of the SEO landscape. But the main is that the search becomes smarter and more ‘human-like’. So to successfully involve your target audience to your business you shouldn’t give up with improving your website following all latest SEO trends.

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What is Marketplace Comparison Tool?

Designed by the Roobykon Software team Marketplace Platform Advisor is already a well-known tool among entrepreneurs. This free tool is really useful for anyone who plans to start an online business related to the sell and buy transactions. Marketplace Platform Advisor helps you to solve a series of issues and make the right decision in choosing the platform for the future successful marketplace.

It’s a great way to start!

Regardless of your technical knowledge, with Marketplace Platform Advisor you can run the business in the right direction bypassing the long and tedious search through untrusted or advertising sources.

But at the beginning, young entrepreneurs may face a fairly common problem which is rather difficult to solve when using only Marketplace Advisor. I mean, the problem of choosing between several proper platforms. Of course, it’s the best to ask the help of the experts, but you can also try to solve this yourself, using a free tool created specifically for comparison platforms for marketplaces!

It’s called Marketplace Comparison Tool, and it is very easy to use.

To compare two platforms you just need to type the name of each platform in the boxes 1 and 2. The tool also has dropdown menu (0) from which you are asked to choose which types of platforms you would like to compare (e-commerce, service, project, or all three). Once you’ve made your selection of platforms, you’ll see all the key variables related to each of your choices, arranged side-by-side for easy comparison.

You can analyze two platforms according to the next thirty parameters:

1. Advertising Management
2. Affiliates Management
3. Catalog Mode
4. Coupons Support
5. Custom Content Pages
6. Custom Product Fields
7. Demo Link
8. Documentation URL
9. Individual Vendor Storefront
10. Language
11. Localization
12. Order Moderation Type
13. Marketplace Type
14. Mobile Optimazed
15. Multivendor Shopping Cart
16. Payments Escrow
17. Payments
18. Pricing Model
19. Product Bulk Export
20. Product Bulk Import
21. Provider Geolocation
22. Provider Name
23. Provider Site
24. Revenue Generation Model
25. Site Map Generation
26. Robots.txt Files Supported
27. Time Units Support
28. Time Unit Type Settable Per Listing
29. Type
30. Wish Lists

The set of variables presented in this tool allows you to make a choice in favor of the platform that is most suitable for your marketplace type and purposes.

In conclusion, I want to summarize all of the above in 2 consecutive actions that can be done absolutely free of charge and which lead to the proper choice of a platform for the marketplace:

1. Use the Marketplace Advisor tool to pass the survey and find the most suitable platform for your marketplace. Do this several times, changing some parameters to increase the chance of hitting the target.

2. Go to Marketplace Comparison to compare the detected platforms and determine the best option for your future profitable online marketplace!

How do I start a successful online business in 2018?

In 2018 for creating the successful business you just need have an idea and passion to realize it. If you are seriously thinking about running the business, you should know that choosing the right business model is a major factor affecting your profit in the future. So, let’s talk about such an easy-to-implement but very cost-effective model as a collaborative marketplace.

There are two issues have to be solved before opening the collaborative marketplace. First one is choosing a nice for your future marketplace.

And the second issue is to decide: who should you try to convince first the supplier, or the customer?

1. Tips for choosing the right niche for the marketplace you can find here: Julia Kush’s answer to How do I create an online marketplace?
2. And about the second issue, I would like to tell more here:

This is a classic chicken-and-egg conundrum: drawing the attention of customers means offering a varied range of service providers but those are hard to come by when you don’t yet have an established customer base to offer them.

There’s no single, universal answer to this question. But looking at different types of cases, and understanding the user groups involved, there are some pieces of advice to deal with this problem.

Consider the example of a home-service barber marketplace The Haircut, a solution created with Cocolabs and uses the Cocorico platform to let people find independent hairdressers who can visit them at home.

Obviously enough, nobody will agree to become any platform’s ‘user zero’ by definition, a platform with almost no sellers will attract almost no buyers. Customers want something now, not the vague possibility of something in the future. So, launching a marketplace without users is a bad idea.

The same is true of providers. Anyone from them won’t commit to a new marketplace unless they can be convinced it offers tangible benefits.

In the case of The Haircut, customers looking for a home hair master are spontaneous, only registering at the very moment they wish to use the service. Good hair experts are usually not short of work. And they have had bad past experiences with worthless online platforms. All this means they take a lot of convincing to get involved in the new online service platforms.

What is important: Identify target customers, then look for their needs.

This is definitely the most complicated solution for implementing when you have simultaneous growth of your clients and provider databases.

In the beginning, the first two weeks, The Haircut did 75% of its business away from its online platform. This recognized that home hairdressers weren’t interested in the platform in and of itself, they simply wanted to get new customers. But as a community of motivated and experienced professionals grew together with its new-found client base, the platform offered by The Haircut seamlessly became the natural way for them to continue doing business. Source

Online Marketplaces: What You Need to Know

Online marketplaces are extremely useful modern web tools for retailers and customers. These eCommerce solutions make it possible to choose and buy different goods from different sellers in just a few clicks without the necessity to leave one’s home or workplace. The most prominent online marketplaces out there right now are Amazon, eBay, AliExpress, etc. Besides these, there are lots of online platforms dedicated not only to sales purposes. Airbnb and similar services, for instance.

Types And Features Of Online Marketplaces

All in all, an online marketplace is a website full of different products from various entrepreneurs. All of these products can be bought within seconds without wasting much time on shipping, delivery or other issues. As for the sellers, these platforms provide them with assistance in solving the following questions:

• How to create a product page or catalog?
• How to organize the communication with potential customers?
• How to perform financial operations and what tools to use for that?
• How to contact a support team in case of emergency?

And this is not a full list of questions you can easily resolve with the help of online marketplaces. At the same time, these sales channels are not about answering significant business questions only. They are about fulfilling eCommerce tasks and getting a real profit.

Coordinated efforts of web service providers, sellers, logistic and delivery specialists are aimed at catering to the customer’s needs perfectly. What is crucial, all of the web marketplaces are integrated with payment gateways.
As it was mentioned above, eCommerce marketplaces are not limited to trading only. These platforms have strong capabilities to satisfy various needs. According to this, main types of online marketplaces are defined as follows:

• Product Marketplaces which are the most popular ones, like Amazon.
• Job Marketplaces which provide the access to plenty of job openings and resumes, like UpWork.
• Service Marketplaces providing other services, like Airbnb.

Nowadays, the global market is full of complex eCommerce platforms that provide several various services at once. For example, OLX platform offers a wide range of services. Besides that, the market gains more specified services like platforms for price comparison or grouping the announcements.
One of the integral things users are interested in is what profit the marketplaces get. Well, it is all quite transparent. The marketplace’s income consists of three main parts:

Service Fee
Each purchase, each payment requires an additional service fee. This is the basic component of platform’s profit.

Advertisement benefits
The advertisement is the engine of progress. Also, this is a source of income marketplace can get by posting third-party information on its web pages.

Commissions
Cooperation with other service providers requires commissions for every financial operation.

Considerable Advantages Of Online Marketplaces: Two Points Of View

Did you know that 96% of the USA citizens have already made online purchases at least once in their life? Did you know that most of them would prefer to start looking for a product via an online marketplace initially? This kind of service is really convenient and such an accessibility is the main cause of high level of online marketplaces’ popularity. However, this question is deeper than that, so let’s define more constructive reasons why shoppers prefer surfing online marketplaces:

Possibility to save time
Traditional shopping requires visiting the mall. Alternatively, web marketplaces provide the customers with the convenient opportunities to buy things from any location where there’s an access to the Internet.

Choice of a better product
One of the most useful online marketplace features is its filters. With the help of a Filter option, one can easily choose the most suitable type of product out of dozens that are offered.

Access to the bottomless ocean of goods
Unlike web stores, marketplaces provide online users with a unique opportunity to view and compare products of different types, quality, and vendors. One click opens the doors to the digital mall where one would certainly find the desired product.

Living in a never-ending rush mode, consumers find peace and satisfaction in online marketplace shopping.

But this kind of business relations may be risky. First of all, it includes the third party, which may be not reliable. Second of all, buying things online excludes the possibility to try it on physically or check its quality in real life.

Short tip for a consumer: pay enormous attention to feedback and ratings.

But what does it all mean to sellers? Is it really as profitable as it is believed to be?

Let’s just highlight one significant point in this question.

The aim all the entrepreneurs chase after is a bigger profit. And it is only reachable by attracting more customers. Briefly, the more people visit your website, the more would make a purchase. By opening a web store on an eCommerce platform, one gets the opportunity to access a wider audience. Additionally, online marketplaces eliminate boundaries. International trading enables cooperation with customers worldwide.

But along with all of the advantages, there’s always a fly in the ointment. Lots and lots of competitors all around the web fight for customers by offering better terms, lower prices, and higher quality. It’s a challenge to keep up with them and to keep your head above the water.

Short tip for the sellers: always provide your potential customers with accurate information and high-quality attractive photos in order to win their attention. 

Development Of Online Marketplaces: What Is Crucial

Online marketplaces demonstrate huge potential and amazing capabilities to impact the eCommerce industry and gain marvelous popularity. The decision to develop a marketplace platform can be extremely profitable for your business. Before commencing to the implementation of your idea, however, take a look at the following valuable expert tips:

Technical aspects
Depending on what kind of service you’ve decided to build, choose the development technologies that are really capable of bringing your idea to life. If it’s a simple software product, use one of the ready-made solutions and enhance its functionality with unique features. Otherwise, if you would like to get a large-scale project, hire a skilled development team.

Security matters
Online marketplace requires dealing with lots of financial operations daily. Your payment system needs to handle the process and deal with every issue possible. It has to be able to provide seamless interaction between customer and retailer and be a cornerstone of all the processes. So make sure it meets all of the expectations. Use modern approaches and cutting-edge technologies to take care of your customers’ future confidence and convenience.

Quality rules the show
Deliver the solution of the highest quality possible at every stage of the process. Marketplace development, cooperation with brands, and interaction with customers must meet the vital quality requirements.

Final Thoughts On The Web Marketplace Topic

Online marketplaces play a significant role in the modern eCommerce world. They provide amazing opportunities for entrepreneurs and create an amazing shopping experience for consumers. What is crucial, they are responsible not only for a service itself but also for every single vendor that runs a web store on the defined platform. In the long run, a winning approach is pretty simple (yet still pretty difficult to achieve) – by providing the highest level of quality, one can reach ultimate online marketplace success.
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How to choose a payment tool for your Chicago marketplace focused on people working on-demand

I want to start by saying that work on-demand is really a great solution for many people. Research conducted in the United States for over the past year has shown incredible figures of people for whom work on-demand acted as a sort of “airbag” and became a necessary measure for a comfortable existence. Here are some statistics by software provider Intuit for February 2017:

Forty-one percent of respondents said they had experienced a financial hardship during the prior year, compared to 18% of all Americans in a recent study by the U.S. Federal Reserve. Half of the 41% said their financial hardship was the reason they work in the on-demand economy. The survey was conducted from Sept. 20 and Nov. 18, 2016.
The hardships included an unexpected major expense (36%), job loss (31%), health emergency (29%) or reduction in their hours at work (26%). Almost one-third of those with full-time jobs said they see their on-demand work as a backup, in case something goes wrong with their main job.

More information about this study can be found in this Forbes article.

And such popularity of this working type brings with it a number of issues in which pay for work is probably the most important. So how to choose the right payment tool for your online marketplace for on-demand work?

To choose a payment system, you need to start by answering the following question: What is a type of your marketplace? In the case of on-demand workers, it’s a service marketplace. The choice of the payment system is also directly related to the marketplace platform used. Service marketplaces can be successfully created on such platforms as Sharetribe, Cocorico, Market WordPress Theme, etc. For finding a good platform for your marketplace, use this free marketplace comparison tool. It provides important information about pricing models, localization, demo, supported languages and others parameters of platforms including supported payment methods.

For example, if you select Sharetribe for your marketplace aimed at on-demand work, you will have access to 2 payment tools: PayPal and Stripe Connect. And in this case, you need to compare these two systems. At this time, Cocorico offers the possibility of connecting MangoPay payment tool.

In brief, each of these three payment methods the following can be underlined:

Stripe provides high fraud-prevention. It is very convenient, giving customers the opportunity to pay without signing in and without being diverted to a separate site.

Stripe accepts currencies from more than 139 countries and converts them automatically for international transactions. Each transaction with a European Blue Card is charged at 1.4% or €0.25 (whichever is greater).

Many people heard about PayPal. But if we talk about service marketplaces, PayPal is not always preferred, if only because it’s more expensive than Stripe. PayPal fees are far more complex and nuanced. For example, they only charge extra for American Express when you’re on one of the paid plans, which seems a bit counterintuitive.

MangoPay is flexible and simple to integrate, this tool naturally allows sites to accept online payments, as well as to take payments on behalf of third parties, and manage cash flow. Mangopay was designed especially for marketplaces and crowdfunding, so it allows multi-currency processing.

A big plus is the transparency and competitiveness of its pricing: 1.8% or €0.18 (whichever is greater) of commission per transaction, with no hidden fees for installation, subscription, or transfers to your bank account.

More information on payment tools for marketplaces can be found here.

And as mentioned above, choosing a payment system for of your marketplace requires considering many factors, such as marketplace type, platform, support of countries. But if you take this process seriously, the probability of finding the right online payment tool for your marketplace of any type is possible by 100%

How do smart contracts work in e-commerce?

Let’s start with the definition of Blockchain. As we can find out in Wikipedia:

A blockchain is a continuously growing list of records, called blocks, which are linked and secured using cryptography. Each block typically contains a cryptographic hash of the previous block, a timestamp and transaction data. By design, a blockchain is inherently resistant to modification of the data. It is “an open, distributed ledger that can record transactions between two parties efficiently and in a verifiable and permanent way”. For use as a distributed ledger, a blockchain is typically managed by a peer-to-peer network collectively adhering to a protocol for validating new blocks. Once recorded, the data in any given block cannot be altered retroactively without the alteration of all subsequent blocks, which requires collusion of the network majority.

So taking into account all of the above, we can conclude that by itself, blockchain only provides a means of creating a secure, shared record of a transaction between two parties. We can imagine it as a room where a security camera is permanently rolling: if two people step inside that room, they will both automatically get access to the record from camera, but neither will have the ability to turn the camera off or to interfere with it in any way.

But this room will become really useful if its cameras do more than just record. Cameras must be able to understand the agreement being made between the two parties and take action to ensure that both stick to their side of the bargain.

Enter so-called smart contracts

If we talk about traditional contracts, these are written agreements between two or more parties. Each party has a copy and it also requires an external body to act as an enforcer if any disagreement occurs. But if we choose a smart contract, implemented using the power of blockchain, as a deal confirmation, we got the agreement possessing the power to exist in a space that is secure from interference by any of its signatories and it comes with mechanisms to check whether each party is keeping their side of the bargain, and to automatically trigger mutually agreed upon outcomes depending upon what it sees.

As a result, in theory, we have the ability for two parties to trade securely with each other without the help of any third entity standing between them.

The 21st century is an era of the blockchain. And all industries are constantly updated under the influence of these technologies. Owners of any type of business can’t be relaxed, and especially online marketplace business owners. The next wave of online commerce transformation is coming with the introduction of Blockchain Tech.

What will bring Blockchain and smart contracts to online marketplaces? Here you can find out the answer.

How to use influencer marketing and video in promoting marketplaces

Creating a good online marketplace with professional help can be faster than you can imagine, but to involve sellers and buyers there is not an easy challenge.

Many e-commerce marketplace owners concentrate on the standard methods of promoting (SMM, SEO, Adwords) their business while skipping the not so traditional, but very effective methods. I’m not in any way not saying that the widely used promotion channels do not work, but why not try to look a little more abstract about it. Let’s imagine that you get 200 new users to your trading platform every month from SEO, 400 users — from social media and over 1,000 new (buyers + sellers) reach your marketplace with Adwords. This can be enough to get the profit, and you stably adhere to the strategy used. I have only one question: “Do not you want more?”

If you tell me — No, I don’t, I will not believe it. I believe everyone who decides to start a business, and especially if this is e-commerce business, always wants to develop and grow.

So below I added some methods which are not so often used, but quite effective for promoting your online marketplace.

1 Influencer marketing

It is super effective in generating sales! And if you don’t start experimenting with it, you’re losing quite a big money.

So the first thing you should do is to find the right influencer.

The challenge is that finding an influencer to work with your brand isn’t as straightforward as it seems. But it is possible.

First, determine who your target audience. If you’ve already used any advertising in your promotion campaigns, it won’t be difficult.

In another case, I would recommend starting with Facebook Ads. It is really easy to customize and allows selecting the audience automatically.

You must select the influencer according to your target audience.

Try also the following services to find the influencers: influence.co, Openslate, Grapevine and Famebit.

• Do not hesitate to ask the potential leader for the full statistics on his/her profile, depending on where you want to promote your marketplace (Instagram, Facebook, Youtube etc.). It is also will be useful to do some research on your influencer using such services like Social Blade, to be sure on the true of this influencer popularity.
• Do not hesitate to bargain! Of course, before you write to your potential leader, you need to review forums and other resources where the information about approximate prices for bloggers services of this category. Try to lower the price, presenting your store in the best light. It is possible that the blogger will become your buyer or seller in the future.

Offer the blogger some benefits on your trading platform. This proposal can also reduce the price.

It also should be noted that when addressing the influencers for the promotion of your online marketplace, you must be assured of marketplace quality (convenience for buyers and sellers, security, relevance, etc.). That’s why it is best to use expert help to create your online trading platform.

Using the power of influencer marketing for your marketplace, you can run a strong grapevine among your potential sellers and buyers. So think carefully before you skip this idea and go back to your old strategy.

2 Video Marketing

Create Your Own Promotional Videos!

With adding a qualitative video about your marketplace on your promotion channels you can increase the number of new users by 80%. And it has been already proven that video works well regardless of the category in which you deploy it.

But when you use video marketing to promote anything and even truer for business, the video content provided must be perfect! I don’t advise you to create a video for promotion your marketplace by yourself (of course, not when you’re experienced video maker). Video creation like any other content creation it is a work for professionals. In this case, you can suggest with an idea for the future video clip if you have something interesting.

Vision is our most dominant sense. Think about something really exciting for your potential clients, your video must hit on its visitors.

Moreover, coming back to the marketing, Google loves videos! Videos allow you to increase the time spent by visitors on your marketplace website. And this, of course, will affect them progress in the search results for your marketplace.

e-Commerce secrets: How to successfully start an online marketplace in 2018

2018 is undoubtedly a year of e-commerce!

There are lots of marketplaces which provide people the opportunity to easily solve everyday, domestic, transport, and many other issues. And in turn for entrepreneurs, marketplaces allow combining their work. But even with all advantages given from online marketplaces, not every e-commerce business owner can be unsuccessful.

What could be causing this?

The most common problem for aspiring businessmen is the uncertainty in choosing a niche for the future trading platform. That is an important stage, we could even say that the niche is the basis for creating the successful online marketplace.

Look through this article to find out some key factors that could be valuable to use to find an appropriate niche:

1 Define your passions

Think of what you are really interested in, what you are best at. The comprehensive knowledge of your hobby is the best foundation for any business. It is self-evident that a successful project must be based on your passion.

2 Think of the usefulness of your Marketplace!

Your online trading platform should provide a solution to the common users problems. Lots of businesses fail because the entrepreneurs don’t analyze the market and as the result, they offer completely unnecessary things and services for the target audience. Eg., before starting online marketplace with clothes just ask yourself: “What can I provide that compete in this field with already known e-commerce giants or other clothes provider? Will my marketplace able to offer more comfortable conditions for people than AliExpress or eBay? etc.”

3 Clearly identify your target audience

Don’t try to create a website for everyone to sell everything! You should be focused on something definite.

4 Competitive analysis

When you find a perfect niche to develop the marketplace, it’s time to make the analysis of the area and competitors. Make some researches about your most successful competitors — how they organize the whole process. It will give you lots of helpful things to think about, such as how they started, how they organize their team workflow, etc. Use their experience to make your business strategy stronger.

Let’s sum up:

Summing everything up, to reach your main goal, namely, to create a profitable online marketplace, you should have a clear understanding of what exactly you want to sell through your online commerce platform and in which niche you want to grow.

Read the original article: https://roobykon.com/blog/posts/83-key-factors-in-choosing-an-appropriate-niche-for-your-marketplace

What Will Blockchain Do To e-Marketplaces?

Ask yourself: “What is the most popular topic today, if we are talking about new technologies?” Of course, it is Blockchain. Blockchain technology has burst into our reality and led to irreversible changes in many business directions including online commerce.

So far this century, the efficiency savings online marketplaces have produced, and the value they’ve been able to extract from them, have made those businesses an unbeatable proposition within the retail space. No other system could sell so much with so relatively slim an infrastructure. But what is expected from the future life of online marketplaces under the influence of Blockchain?

In February 2017, Marco Iansiti and Karim R. Lakhani in their “The Truth About Blockchain” introduce Blockchain Technology as “an open, distributed ledger that can record transactions between two parties efficiently and in a verifiable and permanent way.” This leads one to conclude that through Blockchain and smart contracts two sides (the seller and the buyer) will be able to rid themselves of any risks associated with the payment processes and get the fully transparent data of money transactions.

Get more info about future transformations in the online commerce business due to the effects of Blockchain technology here.

Amazon has affected the collapse of relationships between eBay and PayPal

The constant competition of famous marketplace leaders – Amazon and eBay, will probably never stop. The decisive measures taken by both sides in the struggle for leadership are becoming more visible. This year, eBay shows its determination by changing the main marketplace payment option and rejecting PayPal, which has been its partner since 2002.

eBay and PayPal worked closely for 15 years. PayPal was the main payment method of this e-commerce giant that provided PayPal with the opportunity to remain the leader of financial transactions (more than 13% of all payments processed by PayPal are payments from eBay)

Analysts predict significant damage to PayPal with this breakup. There is already data indicating PayPal shares fell by more than 8 percent after giving publicity news about the break with eBay in 2020.

In turn, eBay’s shares showed an incredible result yesterday, they rose by 15%, and this is the biggest profit per day since eBay’s debut on the market (1998). In addition, the company said it would add $500 million to operating profit after the end cooperation with PayPal.

It is already known that the place of PayPal, as the main payment processor, will be taken by the Dutch fintech company Adyen. This change is expected to attract more transactions in eBay in-house marketplace platform.

Moreover, according to analysts, eBay is moving in the right direction. And, after passing all the planned steps, it’s quite possible that eBay will be able to defeat its main competitor.

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