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eBay's enterprise division has launched a new organization called eBay Enterprise Marketing Solutions (EEMS) in order to integrate the marketing services it offers to large retailers and brands. The move follows last month's rebranding of its GSI Commerce unit to eBay Enterprise, a sign that management is comfortable with "eBay" as a business brand as well as consumer brand.

eBay Enterprise provides three services: Commerce Technology, Omnichannel Operations, and eBay Enterprise Marketing Solutions, the latter "dedicated to driving Commerce Marketing for the world's leading brands."

EEMS has fully integrated the nine eBay Enterprise marketing product and agency services companies into one organization that is, it explains, "structured around our leading commerce marketing technology and media platform, and supported by integrated services."

What it's really all about is sales - being able to more easily offer clients the whole gamut of offerings eBay Enterprise offers, from email services to affiliate marketing and digital agency services.

"Our goal is to help our clients take consumers from that first interaction to a transaction - by aligning these services under the EEMS umbrella, we are ensuring that we are in an optimal position to help our clients do just that," an eBay Enterprise spokesperson explained. "This announcement realizes the full integration of the company's agency services and marketing product offerings, creating one holistic partner of choice for brands looking to engage today's sophisticated and demanding omnichannel consumer."

The nine services include: ClearSaleing (eBay Enterprise Attribution), e-Dialog (eBay Enterprise Email), FetchBack (eBay Enterprise Display & Retargeting), PepperJam Exchange (eBay Enterprise Affiliate Network), GSI Media, M3 Mobile, MBS, Silverlign and True Action.

While the spokesperson said all 9 companies that comprise EEMS are keeping their names and operating as their own entities, some appear to be rebranded. For example, typing Fetchback.com into a browser redirects to this page, where it says, "At eBay Enterprise Display & Retargeting (formerly Fetchback), ..."

The integration and launch of EEMS will not impact the account teams, and it won't have a big impact on existing clients, according to the eBay Enterprise spokesperson - clients will still work with the same account teams and leverage the same resources.

eBay Enterprise Marketing Solutions is thinking of customers differently, and the marketer/retailer must be ready to interact with consumers wherever they may be. "If you reach a consumer on a phone with a display ad - you want them to do something, to transact. Very few companies are thinking of the consumer in this new way," the spokesperson explained. "We call it "the commerce-enabled consumer. Fulfilling this promise and engaging this new consumer is the reason that we've brought these companies together to form EEMS."

It's impossible to understate the importance of eBay's acquisition of GSI Commerce 2 years ago - mostly for the access GSI gave eBay to large retailers and brands, but also the impact on eBay's corporate psyche. In 2009, it was pursuing the unsexy secondary market (a $500 billion opportunity), but by 2013, it sees itself as a partner to large retailers and brands to help them with their omnichannel challenges (a $10 trillion opportunity).

Rather than focusing solely on helping retailers liquidate their returns and excess inventory, eBay is working on mobile and offline initiatives that are much more cutting edge, such as building storefront displays that showcase brands, like the Kate Spade Saturday window shop.

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About the author:

Ina Steiner is co-founder and Editor of EcommerceBytes and has been reporting on ecommerce since 1999. She's a widely cited authority on marketplace selling and is author of "Turn eBay Data Into Dollars" (McGraw-Hill 2006). Her blog was featured in the book, "Blogging Heroes" (Wiley 2008). Follow her on Twitter at @ecommercebytes and send news tips to ina@ecommercebytes.com.

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