EBay Allows Users to Set Up Shop
Auction giant's site will host online stores for its frequent
sellers.
Reuters
Tuesday, June 12, 2001
EBay, whose successful Internet auction site has spawned countless
copycat services, on Monday said it was veering into traditional retailing with
the launch of an "eBay Stores" service.
The company is setting up eBay Stores as a way for frequent sellers on
its site to establish their own specialized shopping destinations, where they
can sell their goods at auction, or for a fixed price if they prefer.
In a pilot program to be launched next Monday, a small group of eBay
sellers will have their own shops on the eBay Web site. The company hopes by
mid-summer to have an eBay Stores Hub, complete with a mall-like directory of
all the participating stores.
And, in another indication of how far eBay has
expanded from its roots as an online flea market, one of the
participants on eBay Stores will be computer giant IBM. EBay says IBM plans to
use its popular Web site as another distribution outlet, to compliment the
business it does with major retail outlets.
"A lot of these big manufacturers like IBM are beginning to realize that
a marketplace that has 30 million registered users is too big to ignore," says
eBay spokesperson Kevin Pursglove.
The new Stores service, however, will not cater to large manufacturers
alone. Other participants include one-person shops such as "InstrumentGuy," a
Scarsdale, New York individual who frequently sells musical instruments on the
site.
"The new format should help attract more customers and keep them coming
back to me for more products," Michael "InstrumentGuy" Pagliaro says in a
statement.『My success really depends on creating loyalty and making it easy
for buyers to shop.』
In exchange for the buyer loyalty the new service will bring,
participating sellers will pay eBay a premium monthly subscription fee, in
addition to regular listing and "final value" fees that are charged to all eBay
sellers. EBay says it is too early to say if the additional fees would have any
material impact on its results.
EBay says it suspects many of the participating sellers will opt to list
their items at fixed prices. Last November, eBay introduced a "buy it now"
opportunity, giving sellers the option of setting a fixed price. That option
has been wildly popular, with about 30 percent of all eBay sellers opting for
it over the auction format.
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