GM cancels eBay program trial
September 30, 2009 by Matt Brogan
General Motors has officially pulled the plug on its experimental eBay sales program after too few deals were actually completed in the on-line environment.
GM launched the eBay program in California on August 11th with the hopes of boosting interest in its new car offerings. The program was extended earlier this month to run through the end of September, but GM announced on Tuesday that it will not renew its partnership with eBay after the end of the month.
“The need to roll eBay out nationally isn’t there as it was when we first rolled out the pilot,” said GM spokesman, Mr John McDonald. “At the time we had no large, national marketing programs in the system, so that made sense at the time.”
Over the course of the program, 1.5 million visitors viewed GM’s eBay offerings.
GM hasn’t ruled out a return to eBay, but will instead focus on other programs.
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This is nothing more than a major company trying to deflect attention from it’s poor financial position. In my opinion of course.
Good. It was a stupid idea in the first place and I can’t believe they even considered it. Certainly not the way to get them on top.
Which car company will be the first to start selling cars directly and cutting out dealer charges, a smart one i reckon.
Wrong buyer demographic. eBay buyers don’t buy GMs. I’d wager it would work for Mazda, VW, and Toyota Prius.
California is an area where GM is traditionally not strong, particularly younger buyers… so it was a valid experiment from which I am sure they (and others) have learned a lot. Good on them for giving it a try.
I guess your right, they have to try all their options to try and claw back some of their market share, this was just one that wasnt as successful.
I just watched Surrogate, yes I know…why?
Anyway I never really notice how crap american cars are inside.
They’re actually worse than Chinese cars.