eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY) has witnessed an increase in its year over year gross merchandise volume growth and this growth is the outcome of new users acquired in the past few quarters. eBay holds the view that, on an average, one in every three purchases on eBay is by mobile. The company expects to process over $10 billion in mobile payments, in 2012.

The online retailer claims that its mobile app has been downloaded 100 million times since its launch four years ago, the figure is almost equal to the number of the active users, who bought, listed, or sold something on eBay last year.

Strong Financials

The company recorded total revenue of $3.4 billion in the third quarter of 2012, an increase of 15% year over year. The adjusted net income stood at $718 million or 55 cents per share, an increase of 14% year over year.

Fourth Quarter Expectations

The company expects to post revenues between $3.85 billion and $4 billion, with adjusted earnings per share at 66 cents to 69 cents. eBay is expecting increased revenues for the fourth quarter, owing to the holiday shopping season.

Significant steps

eBay launched its same day shipping service in 2012 and invited some of the San Francisco users to a new same-day shipping service called eBay Now. An iOS app, eBay Now’s beta will allow SF residents get $5 same-day shipping on products from local stores. It’s now signing up users for “exclusive beta”.

Prior to eBay, TaskRabbit and Uber provided consumers with this kind of facility, and now eBay wants consumers to get the same experience through its service. Consumers are witnessing the rise of convenience technology.

eBay also acquired Sypply, a New York-based startup that duplicates the experience of window-shopping online with a social, curated, and personalized experience. Sypply offers accurate selection of stylish merchandise from across the Web. Through the services offered by this site, online shoppers can keep the record of products they like. Ccustomers can also see what their Facebook and Twitter friends like and help to discover the products from other users. It also allows users display galleries of items they want or own.

eBay changed its logo in 2012. The colors of the logo are the same, but the font has been changed to give a modern and sleek look, and the word “eBay” is nicely aligned in a straight line.

Competition Intensifying

eBay's major competitors are: salesforce.com and Rackspace for Cloud Services. Traditional retailers like Wal-Mart, Target, and Costco also impact eBay’s business. Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) is also a retailer in tech clothing.

In the past few months, retailers including Wal-Mart and eBay, have been testing the same-day delivery service, to compete with similar Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) ’s initiatives. If eBay succeeds in its efforts, it will be a major blow for Amazon.

On the competitive front, Amazon continues to invest heavily in its global distribution footprint (which differentiates it from eBay), and Amazon has targeted the apparel category as a major focal point for investment (apparel is a major category for eBay). While eBay’s growth has improved, Amazon has a long-term competitive advantage for 3rd party sales with Fulfillment by Amazon shipping and is growing 3rd party units at about 2.5x eBay’s unit growth.