Norrington Declares eBay ‘Back to Normal’
Ebay.com recently suffered outages due to software issues. The problem affected eBay search functionality, and last Saturday no one could search on the auction Web site. EBay President, Lorrie Norrington, described the issue as an "isolated incident."
During the outage, eBay searches returned limited or no results. As eBay teams worked to remedy the situation, some secondary search features remained temporarily offline, including the option to refine a search by item specifics, such as color or clothing size.
Norrington said that eBay would ensure that sellers and buyers whose transactions were affected by the disruptions will be made as whole as possible. This includes listing-fee refunds and protection against negative or neutral buyer feedback.
Norrington ended the public announcement with an apology. "To the eBay community, you have our most sincere apologies for the disruption and inconvenience caused by the software problem…and our commitment to continuing to provide the best marketplace for sellers and the best deals for buyers."
EBay Launches Cross-Merchandising for Sellers
When eBay announced the new item-page design earlier this year, the company also announced a feature that would give sellers the opportunity to boost exposure by having their listings appear on their own and on other sellers’ relevant item pages. This feature, called cross-merchandising, gives buyers immediate access to similar products when they view an item listing.
While some sellers do not want to have their competitor's items showing on their item page, by using the "Promote Similar Items" feature they can gain more exposure for their own items. The cross-merchandising feature is completely optional. Sellers can opt out by changing settings in their My eBay.
EBay Offers a Deals App for iPhone and Starts Buyer Promotions
Just in time for holiday shopping, eBay has released a new application for iPhone and iPod touch owners that lets them shop on eBay anytime and anywhere.
While eBay already offers mobile shoppers an enhanced mobile Web interface (m.ebay.com) that makes it easy to browse ebay.com from any mobile phone equipped with a Web browser, the new Deals app expands on the current mobile offerings. By the end of this year, the company expects people will purchase more than $500 million in merchandise via eBay mobile.
In addition to the special Deals app, eBay will also start its "12 Days of Deals" promotion on Friday, November 27. The "Big Deal" is a heavily discounted item that includes free shipping, and the deals will last for a week unless supplies run out. The first deal to launch in the U.S. promotion will be a Samsung Netbook N120-12GBK at unbeatable value. The Big Deals, along with eBay’s heavily promoted Daily Deals can be found here.
Kijiji Helps Consumers Free up Christmas Cash
As eBay starts promoting deals to buyers, Kijiji.com, eBay’s free, local classifieds Web site, is also starting its holiday buzz. On Kijiji, however, the message to consumers is to sell and make money rather than buy holiday gifts.
According to a recent holiday-focused survey (conducted for Kijiji by Chadwick Martin Bailey, a research and consulting firm), the cost and clutter of the holiday season leaves many Americans feeling stressed out.
The survey found that money is a top consumer stress factor during this economic downturn. More than half (56 percent) of consumers surveyed said the cost of travel and gifts is their biggest cause of holiday stress.
To help relieve holiday financial stress, Kijiji recommends that consumers clear out clutter and earn some cash at the same time by listing on Kijiji. The survey showed that the average household has about 35 unwanted items worth $670.
HammerTap Says Holiday-Themed Books Do Well on EBay
Sellers with holiday-themed books — especially vintage catalogs — will be pleased to learn of new eBay market research from HammerTap that shows vintage Sears Roebuck Christmas Catalogs from the 1950s and 1960s as being hot sellers.
According to HammerTap, over a 30-day period to mid-November, 153 of these catalogs were placed up for bid on eBay with 73 percent successfully ending in a sale. For these types of holiday-themed books, the average selling price was $45 per catalog. Of course, there were some above-average sales also. HammerTap data showed that a 176 page Wish List Sears catalog from 1943 sold for $305 and a 439 page catalog from 1952 sold for $255.
HammerTap spokesperson, Jen Cano, said that research from last year also showed a similar trend, which indicates that sales for these books will probably remain steady during the holiday season for years to come. Cano suggests that eBay sellers keep an eye out for vintage holiday catalogs all year long to maximize profits by selling them during the next holiday season.
Vangie Beal is a veteran online seller and frequent contributor to ECommerce-Guide.com. She is also managing editor of Webopedia.com. You can tweet with her online @AuroraGG.
IE 7
Firefox 2.0
