What Can Retail Learn From eBay?

What's even more impressive is the fact that eBay is working hard to solve its biggest problem: Customers don't know what eBay is and what can be bought on the platform, Halzack said. Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, eBay was known as an auction site. Today, 87 percent of all transactions are not auction-style purchases.

Finally, eBay's ample cash gives it the necessary resources to continue fighting back against much larger rivals with the ultimate goal of gaining share over the longer-term instead of fading into irrelevancy — just like many retailers have in the past few years.