eBay's EEMS Integrates Agency, Marketing Services

Sure to draw a few double takes from agency heads, eBay this week is rolling out the closest thing yet to a full-service digital agency offering.

Headed up by its eBay Enterprise division, eBay Enterprise Marketing Solutions -- or EEMS -- plans to integrate a number of the company's agency services and marketing product offerings, including ClearSaleing, e-Dialog, FetchBack, M3 Mobile, MBS, PepperJam Exchange, Silverlign and True Action.

"We fully integrated our nine marketing product and agency services companies … into one organization," Steve Denton, vice president of marketing solutions at eBay Enterprise, said Thursday.

The group, Denton said, “is a new breed of marketing services dedicated to driving commerce marketing.”

Until recently, the disparate marketing units operated under the umbrella of GSI Commerce, which eBay acquired in 2011. Last month, GSI Commerce was rechristened eBay Enterprise.

Over the past seven years, eBay Enterprise -- then known as GSI Commerce -- has developed its agency services and marketing products. With the help of eBay’s other divisions -- eBay Marketplaces and PayPal -- the newly integrated EEMS now hopes to simplify the marketing landscape for clients, according to Denton.

With the help of eBay, EEMS is also expected to invest in commerce marketing technology, with a particular focus on attribution and better analytics.

Thinking outside the retail box, data-rich ecommerce companies are increasingly exploring online advertising and other businesses once reserved for agencies.

Earlier this year, for example, comparison-shopping site Shopzilla debuted Aisle A -- a media solutions and audience-targeting division, which encompasses a range of features, including better audience targeting, rich media and display advertising.

In one early test, which lasted about a month, Aisle A was found to boost click-through rates by 28% and a control segment with no targeting by nearly 200%. When it came to posting click metrics, Aisle A data drove 95% more deep-funnel engagements than the other segments, Shopzilla found.

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