E-Commerce Report: EBay Moves to Recharge Its Auctions
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In making upgrades intended to make its site more friendly, eBay may endure criticism from more than 700,000 sellers who rely on it for their livelihoods.
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PayPal, the online payment system owned by eBay Inc. (EBAY.O: Quote, Profile, Research) , on Wednesday said it has fixed most of the problems that for five days left some users unable
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Online auction site eBay has pulled its ads off of Google's U.S. ad network, raising questions about whether relations between the two companies have hit a rough patch.
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(InfoWorld) - eBay will once again advertise on Google's U.S. AdWords network, but its spending on it will be significantly lower. eBay will start turning on its U.S. AdWords ads on Friday, ending aÂ 10-day pulloutÂ that made headlines worldwide and was seen as a sign of the companies' deteriorating relationship. eBay has determined that it doesn't need to spend as much as it did before the ad blackout, eBay spokesman Hani Durzy said Friday. "In general, our AdWords spending will be significantly lower than it was before," Durzy said, declining to be more specific. eBay reallocated its U.S. AdWords budget to other advertising channels and found that it isn't as dependent on AdWords as it thought before doing this test, Durzy said. By spending part of its AdWords budget elsewhere from now on, eBay will obtain better value in terms of traffic to its marketplace, he said, adding that the AdWords blackout was never intended to be permanent. eBay shocked the Internet industry when it pulled its ads off of the U.S. AdWords network early last week. eBay is the largest paid search advertiser in the U.S., and Google is the country's largest paid search ad network. In March, eBay ranked first in the U.S. among paid search advertisers with 802 million sponsored link exposures, or 4.1 percent of the total, according to comScore Networks. Its position is even stronger if one factors in eBay's comparison shopping engine, Shopping.com, which ranked third on that list with 357 million sponsored link exposures, or 1.8 percent of the total. Meanwhile, Google topped the list of search engine referrers, handling 57.3 percent of all paid search ad clickthroughs, comScore said. Yahoo took a distant second place with 26.1 percent of clickthroughs. At the time of the ad pullout, eBay characterized the move as a regular "experiment" similar in nature to tests it runs regularly to determine the best mix for its advertising spending. Yet, a source told IDG News Service that the move was an angry reaction to Google's plan to throw a party in Boston last week to attract eBay merchants who would be in town to attend the eBay Live annual seller conference. Apparently, eBay's top brass took exception to Google's party, whose purpose was protesting eBay's decision to forbid merchants in its marketplace from using Google's Checkout online transaction system. After eBay turned off the ads,Â Google cancelled the party, but eBay kept the ad blackout in place until today, when it will be lifted. Google and eBay have increasingly become competitors in areas like online payments, where Checkout and eBay's PayPal compete, and product listings.
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eBay defies cynics, but the absence of sellers is troubling.
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NetSuite has updated the e-commerce piece of its NetSuite hosted application suite, allowing users to manage sales efforts on eBay Inc.'s action site
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(InfoWorld) - After making a series of decisions that frustrated some merchants, eBay is wooing store owners. If a speech from Bill Cobb, president of eBay North America, hints at future relationships between the company and its sellers, the message is toÂ keep your doors open. During a Thursday keynote at eBay's annual sellers convention, Cobb pledged not to increase merchant selling fees this July and said that the stores category will return to the eBay page header within 30 days. In addition to offering its main auction listings, eBay allows merchants to set up shops and sell wares at fixed prices. Last July relations between store owners and eBay grew contentious when eBay announced an effort "rebalance the overall eBay marketplace," which had seen store listings eclipse auctions listings. The rebalancing meant higher store fees as of last August, and in April the stores tab was removed from eBay page headers. "For eBay Stores, the last 10 months have been a transition. We are committed to the long-term success of eBay Store owners," Cobb said. While store owners didn't welcome last August's fees, Cobb said he is pleased with the realignment's progress. Additional efforts to court store owners include 24-hour phone support for Featured eBay Store owners and a reduction in Anchor Store monthly fees. Among a raft of other initiatives for sellers, Cobb announced a temporary reduction in the Final Value Fee, a charge tacked on to an item's final selling price. Visual navigation, in which photographs play a prominent role in navigation, will be introduced to more categories. PayPal president Rajiv Dutta addressed merchant security during his portion of the keynote. "We heard the message on fraud. We know it's a top challenge. I am personally committed to keeping fraudsters off the site," Dutta said. In an effort to combat phishing, PayPal, eBay's payment division, will make theÂ PayPal Security KeyÂ available to all eBay and PayPal users on Friday. The security key device, previously in beta testing, generates unique security codes in 30-second intervals. Users then enter the code when logging on to their PayPal or eBay account. In August PayPal will launch a payment review system that flags "transactions that pose a risk." The questionable transaction is highlighted, and the seller is told to wait on shipping the item until PayPal confirms that the buyer's account contains adequate purchasing funds. Meg Whitman, eBay president and CEO, opened the keynote and emphasized that the company is suited to reach its goal of connecting people through three of its divisions. Finding, buying, communicating, entertaining, and paying are main Internet activities, she said. eBay fulfills the buying aspect, PayPal handles payment functions, and VoIP provider Skype, which the company purchased in 2005, provides communication services. "The lines between finding and buying are blurring. At the core the company is about connecting people," Whitman said. As eBay executives discussed staying linked and protected, some sellers said theyÂ felt a disconnectÂ from the company. "I'm happy to hear that stores are going back in the header," said Maria Ginter, who sells furniture and home decor on eBay. Ginter was less impressed thatÂ eBay is no longer advertising on GoogleÂ after a spat this week over a Google event to promote its own online payment system, Google Checkout. "That's how people find my furniture," she said. Deb Martin, who sells collectible figurines on her store wanted to hear of security efforts to crack down on dishonest buyers who create new user identifications solely to commit more fraud. "Buyers have no incentive to keep their name. They just restart their IDs and log back in." She also questioned the merits behind the temporary fee reduction and saw it as an effort to boost quarterly revenue and benefit shareholders. Although eBay is emphasizing its auctions, one merchant thinks that form of e-commerce has faded. "A lot of people are over bidding. They're just buying now," said Judy Pykhoff, who operates the Red Cougar Trading Post store on eBay.
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LAS VEGAS - EbayÂ has brought together several technology industry heavyweights in an initiative to promote recycling of old computers and other consumer electronics hardware. The move also is an attempt by the industry to pre-empt further electronic waste legislation.ADVERTISEMENTReducing the Total Cost of OwnershipLearn how to reduce the total coast of ownership in enterprise data management in this case study.
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Online auction king eBay (Quote, Chart) reported a better than 50 percent rise in quarterly revenue from last year and profits that jumped by about 77 percent compared to last year, thanks in part to its PayPal unit and growth overseas.
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EBay&#39;s online payment service PayPal has suffered intermittent glitches since late last week, locking some users out of their accounts for long stretches and making
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Blog: A site for people who want to sell old electronic gear online but don't want to become eBay Power Sellers.
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InfoWorld - The significantÂ changes that eBay announced last weekÂ have merchants abuzz as they analyze and react to the impact that the restructured fees, modification of the search and feedback functions, and other changes will have on their sales and profits.
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EBay (EBAY), the world&#39;s largest online marketplace, Wednesday posted a quarterly profit that rose 77% from a year ago, fueled by growth in its international and PayPal businesses.
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EBay Inc., the world's largest online marketplace, on Wednesday posted a 77 percent increase in quarterly profit, fueled by strong back-to-school shopping and growth in its international and PayPal businesses.
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This fourth priority&#39;s main focus has been improving or obtaining CRM and ERP software for the past year and a half. Online auction giant eBay won&#39;t be closing down its Half.
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EBay, the world&#39;s largest Internet auction house, is making a purchase of its own, increasing its stake in South Korean affiliate Internet Auction.
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EBay Inc said on Wednesday it had a strong quarterly performance in auctions, masked by a big net loss due to a write-down, and that its full-year earnings would be at the top end of expectations.