eBay has always been careful to cultivate its image as an enabler of entrepreneurs and small businesses, and as Amazon faces scrutiny from many corners, eBay has launched new programs to foster that perception.
This year, it launched a program called Retail Revival in Ohio, and in France, it recently hosted a conference dedicated to local entrepreneurs called, “How to grow your business online and internationally.”
eBay said French Member of Parliament Jean-François Cesarini invited it to Avignon where the local Chamber of Commerce helped publicize the event to local stores, trade associations and business students.
Fifty people attended the conference, which focused on providing participants with tools they need to start selling on eBay, and the head of the eBay France Professional Seller team François Bourgoin fielded questions from attendees.
Two owners of a business that sellers on eBay spoke at the event – Johan Renaud and Olivier Dierckx of GPA:
“On stage, Johan told the story of his third-generation family business in car recycling, which he brought into the 21st century by selling on eBay. eBay now represents 16% of his turnover and enabled him to expand his geographical reach while maintaining their historic and valued location in the small town of Livron-sur-Drôme. GPA employs 170 people and will soon build new infrastructure to store their more than 90,000 offerings, all the while making a significant contribution to sustainable development by processing, cleaning and certifying parts from more than a hundred out-of-order vehicles each day.”
eBay said its Government relations team was open to partnering with the French government to, in its words, “tackle the country’s second-to-last European rank in SMB sales online.”
