Consumers continue to shop later in the online holiday season as their trust in on-time delivery grows. While 2005 holiday sales appear to be at the high end of expectations, continued heightened competition could hurt profitability. |
Consumers end up getting more products with better prices and greater value. |
Continued heightened competition could hurt profitability. |
especially without organic growth. |
George Reyes' comments were implied to be longer term in nature, in our view, and were not intended to signal a near-term trend in business. |
It is important to keep in mind that typically eBay's initial next year's guidance is extremely conservative. In fact, over the past 4 years, eBay has outperformed its original next year's revenue and earnings-per-share guidance by 13% and 23%, respectively. |
market performer. |
Our survey results reinforce our outlook for a continued slowdown in e-commerce sales. At this early juncture of the holiday season, consumers are not shifting a significant share of spending online from offline. |
The company has made three gaffes in the past five weeks that individually and collectively do not result in a material change in our view on growth or valuation of the company. |
The data show that online consumers are more educated, are spending more, and are more satisfied than they were last year. |
The important fact is they're a first mover in a high-margin business that will have increased adoption rates as we move forward. |
The intensifying competitive landscape from larger, better- funded competitors creates some uncertainty. |
The shortfall in revenue is a transitory concern, I don't think it is a secular concern, ... I was actually very happy with the progress in profitability metrics. So, the revenue shortfall is somewhat disappointing, but I don't think it's a long-term issue. |
This is the best we have felt about the (business) in a year. We see entirely new dimensions of growth. |
This is the worst it should get. |