The next big green wave

eBay wanted to set the pace in sustainable e-tailing. To create a strong innovation pipeline, they needed to know what kinds of initiative would motivate and involve the mainstream user. They asked us, working with Forum for the Future, to define and shape the opportunity and size of the prize in three crucial European markets, identifying the best approaches for short, medium and long term.

Unpacking the opportunities

Our goal was to evaluate a basket of ideas that could be brought to market quickly and to drill down deep into the motivators, habits and needs of buyers and sellers to determine the trends and set the direction for a longer term strategy. We designed a research programme across the UK, France and Germany to find out how different ideas added value to current users and enhanced their potential to recruit new ones. We created stimulus to make the ideas live for respondents and encouraged them to explore, unpack and build on what they were shown to give the initial concepts value to the ordinary customer, rather than just the enthusiast or early adopter.

Changing the game

The in-depth discussions with consumers were crystallised into a map of a three-year sustainable strategy for eBay – the ideas and directions that were real game changers for the business and its customers. And the first is already in market!