In the early 1990s, a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Africa led Elizabeth Bennett to change her career as a franchise entrepreneur and management consultant to start selling African crafts. She only sold at shows and wholesale to shops until a customer recommended eBay in 1997. Her business, Africa Direct, is now eBay’s largest seller of African art and trade beads; she also sells ethnic jewelry. In 2009, Elizabeth was honored by Fortune Magazine as one of the 10 Most Powerful Women Entrepreneurs.

These days, she has six full-time employees, including a Ph.D.-educated curator of African art, and buys from over 100 different traders in Africa. In addition to providing immeasurable contributions to those communities, Africa Direct is a passionate supporter of eBay Giving Works.

“We’ve become a million-dollar-plus business and it’s because of eBay,” Elizabeth said. “eBay brings me more customers than I could possibly get on my own. More than 30-35 percent of my customers are return customers and eBay is regularly bringing me 65 percent new customers. No one else can bring that kind of traffic for my specialized market.”

Elizabeth strongly believes that eBay can be a major player in transforming today’s economy. When asked about the effect of sales taxes on her business, she responded:

“It needs to be a level playing field. We would be supportive if the government could come up with something that would collect money but wouldn’t kill small businesses with an unbelievably complicated system. What can’t work are the 4,500 different taxing sources and the reporting responsibility. If [the government] decided they wanted to make a 4 percent national tax, that’s fine.”