Internet Changes Everything

EBay adds private wholesale market, Web site services

CORRECTED:EBay adds private wholesale market, Web site services - Yahoo! UK & Ireland News

By Lisa Baertlein

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Web marketplace eBay Inc. on Thursday unveiled two new services that give top sellers a private market for buying discounted inventory and Web retailers tools to easily launch independent e-commerce sites.

The moves from the company, which kicks off its annual user conference in Silicon Valley today, seek to solve a major challenge for sellers as well as expand the company's online reach.

"They really extend our strategy," Michael Dearing, senior vice president of marketing and merchandising for eBay North America, said of the new services.

EBay's new "Reseller Marketplace" is a private online site, where high-volume so-called PowerSellers can buy discounted inventory from manufacturers, liquidators and wholesalers without having to maintain ongoing relationships with individual suppliers.

"This is an answer to our sellers' need to source quality product," Dearing said.

Last week, eBay announced an alliance with Global Sources Ltd. that resulted in a service called Global Sources Direct. It would boost product sourcing opportunities in China and around the world for eBay PowerSellers.

Global Sources Direct will be available later this year through the Reseller Marketplace.

The new ProStores service helps sellers and other small- to medium-sized businesses build customized e-commerce sites independent of the eBay marketplace.

The site-building tool enables eBay Store users to connect their independent sites with their existing eBay Store, allowing them to manage listings and inventory for both stores and accept eBay's online payment service PayPal.

"EBay sellers are looking to maximize their sales online, and many are interested in doing so through more than one channel," Bill Cobb, president of eBay North America, said in a statement. "It's the perfect complement to selling on eBay."

ProStores offers four pricing packages, starting at $6.95 (3.93 pounds) per month with fees ranging from 0.5 percent to 1.5 percent per successful transaction. Users do not need to be eBay sellers, although eBay Stores users get a 30 percent discount on ProStores subscription fees.

Shares of eBay were off 66 cents, or 2 percent, at $35.73 on Nasdaq on Thursday, down 40 percent from their 52-week high.

July 3, 2005 at 11:36 AM in eCommerce | Permalink | TrackBack (9) | Top of page | Blog Home