EBay says buyer activity slowed in March
SAN FRANCISCO, April 16 (Reuters) - Internet auction leader eBay Inc (EBAY.O) saw a fall-off in buyer activity on its e-commerce sites at the end of the first quarter, making the company cautious about the threat of a weakening U.S. economy.
"We saw a slowing in terms of buyers' propensity to buy toward the end of the first quarter," Chief Financial Officer Bob Swan told Wall Street analysts on a conference call following the quarterly financial report.
Also during the conference call, Chief Executive John Donahoe said buyers appear to be responding to reforms the company introduced in the first quarter that are designed to improve customer service by sellers on eBay.
As a result, eBay has no plans to boost advertising spending in order to drive new users to the site. Instead he described a small initial effort to offer coupons to top buyers to reward them for shopping on eBay. Coupon offers will expand during the second quarter and throughout 2008, Donahoe said.
Earlier, eBay officials said 2008 was off to a strong start and the company was increasing its financial outlook despite signs of a weakening in the United States and Britain, its No. 1 and No. 3 markets. Germany is eBay's second-largest national market. (Reporting by Eric Auchard in San Francisco and Michele Gershberg in New York; Editing by Braden Reddall)
