eBay Names Jateen Patel Chief Analytics Officer

eBay has a new Chief Analytics Officer as Jateen Patel joins the company, bringing expertise in data, analytics, and AI from his time as Chief Data and Analytics Officer at food retail group, Ahold Delhaize.

The new addition was announced on LinkedIn by Chief Growth Officer Julie Loeger, who extolled Patel's commitment to DE&I and sponsorship of corporate inclusion initiatives.

Prior to Ahold Delhaize, Patel held Analytics and Customer Intelligence roles at SymphonyAI, Centrica, dunnhumby and more.

He replaces previous VP Global Analytics, Jim Oliver, who left eBay in April after 3 years at the company.

Patel's role may also consolidate some aspects of the Global Insights Manager position that was recently eliminated, leaving Lamont Jones suddenly looking for a new job due to "a shift in company priorities."

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Value Added ResourceLiz Morton

That shift began earlier this year with mass layoffs and the departure of Chief Business Strategy Officer, Stefanie Jay and has continued with several key business development departures in recent months,

Since that time, the company has been expanding their "high value buyer focus vertical" strategy to include more of the core consumer to consumer (C2C) sales that have historically been the foundation of eBay's success.

Those C2C efforts have ramped up quickly in the UK as part of what eBay calls the "fix the fundamental aspect of UK Win back plan", dropping private selling fees across most categories and expecting to bring in buyer fees and managed shipping in early 2025 to "remonetize" that market.

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Value Added ResourceLiz Morton

C2C initiatives were a main topic of interest in yesterday's Q3 2024 earnings call, with weak Q4 guidance raising questions about pressure from fee-free selling lowering revenue estimates during the all important holiday shopping season.

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Value Added ResourceLiz Morton

No doubt much of Patel's work on analytics and AI will center around eBay's increasingly automated and AI-powered customer experience that Loerger and VP Global Customer Experience Derek Allgood have been promoting on podcasts and social media.

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Value Added ResourceLiz Morton

But if he really wants to start things off with a challenge, I'd suggest Patel should get with Chief Technology Officer Mazen Rawashdeh to fix the embarrassing not ready for prime time launch of traffic analytics for sellers in the eBay mobile app.