Refund your Oyster or help charity

Do you have an Oyster card which you bought for lols that time you went to London and then completely forgot about?

Well then you should check out if you can get the spare money back, as there’s £124 million on them (not yours, but loads in general)

Transport for London reckon – out of the 75 million cards issued since time began (2003) – that there’s around 28 million cards that haven’t been used for over a year, and THESE have a combined amount of £64 million on them. Lordy. TfL also has £59.5 million in deposits on these cards too.

Once you’ve found your card, here’s what you can do:

Phone: call 0343 222 1234 with your Oyster number to hand and go through all the security questions, get the nice person on the other end to cancel your card, which you then send to TfL’s customer services HQ to get a full refund of your credit and deposit via bank transfer, cheque, or TfL website credit.

Post: Complete a TfL refund form and send it in to TfL with your Oyster. (Admittedly, if you live in, say, outside of London, a TfL refund form may be difficult to come by).

Person: You can apply for a refund at any London Underground ticket office (BE QUICK WHILE THEY STILL USE HUMANS) and someone will be able to help you.

If the payment method you originally used was a debit or credit card that’s since expired, you can ask for the refund to be transferred to a nominated bank account or to receive it via cheque. If you haven’t registered your card, you’ll need to show some form of ID in order to get the refund. You can’t get a refund on behalf of someone else.

If you can’t be arsed to do any of this, and fancy being nice, TfL donate unused cards to charity, and the spare cash goes to the Railway Children charity which helps nippers on the streets of Africa, India and the UK. Which is quite nice isn’t it? (Although you’ll probably go for the refund though eh?).

source: bitterwallet.com

Mortgage approvals down since nosier tests

Mortgage approvals have fallen to a nine month low.

The new affordability tests, which ask a variety of quite tough and nosey questions, are said to be the main cause for this, and hence having a knock on effect on the housing market.

The approvals fell for a third month in April 2014, according to the Bank of England, and these new rules are said to be part of the reason.

The seasonally adjusted figures showed that a total of 62,918 house purchase loans were approved during April, the lowest number since July 2013. It’s also markedly lower than the previous six months’ average of 70,132.

Analysts reckon that these figures, along with those of an increase in manufacturing, showed that the UK economy was undergoing a hoped-for rebalancing away from housing and consumer-dependent growth to an industry-based model.

A man with a great name – Samuel Tombs, who is UK economist at Capital Economics – had this to say:

“The data has provided more encouraging evidence that the recovery is shifting away from its excessive dependence on housing and consumers towards industry”

So the economy may be showing signs of recovery, but be cautious, as these tests may actually really start dragging on the property market. While it’s still happening with house-buying and that, and the market is still vibrant with house prices in England and Wales rising 6.7% in April compared with the same month last year, according to the Land Registry.

The slowdown in approvals over the spring means that in April mortgage lending to homebuyers was 17% below its recent peak of 75,838 in January, when total lending peaked at 124,358 approvals.

Remortgaging has also dropped off since the start of the year, with 31,703 loans approved for existing borrowers who were not moving house. This is below the previous six-month average of 34,316.

The total value of mortgages approved fell to £15.7bn in April, down from £16.3bn in March, while loans for house purchases dropped from £10.6bn to £10bn.

So that’s all super news if you ever do find yourself on the property ladder.

source: bitterwallet.com

Ten tips for the eBay newbie

Been looking for a DVD copy of the 1973 Hollywood musical Lost Horizon, a 1954 Omega Seamaster, a pair of Johnny Depp’s Moscot Lemtosh shades, an 11200-mAh power bank for your iPhone, or a 1988 Stipula Baracca limited-edition fountain pen? Well, I have — and I found them all, not in my neighborhood mall or ukay-ukay, but in that largest of global marketplaces, eBay.

I’ve been buying and occasionally selling on eBay almost from the very beginning, since December 1997, and now have a feedback of 520+ (thankfully 100 percent positive). In all those hundreds of transactions, I’ve had maybe three or four bum cases of sellers not delivering, or sending me bad stuff. All of those cases were sorted out and I was refunded, so I do believe eBay to be a generally safe place to shop, with lots of wonderful bargains to be had, but as with any marketplace physical or digital, it can be tricky for the unwary.

I thought of writing up this brief guide to shopping on eBay because, thanks to my recent articles featuring fountain pens, papers, and inks, I’ve been deluged with inquiries about where to find these items and for how much. In particular, vintage and premium pens seem to be in great demand — pens like the Montblanc 149 and 146, the Parker Duofold, Parker Vacumatic, and Parker 75, and 1920s Waterman pens with flexible nibs.

I’ve sold quite a few of these pens myself, having made a pledge (a pitifully weak one) to trim down my collection of about 200 pens by half. My recent acquisitions have tended to be more expensive, so to help assuage my wallet and my conscience, I’ve had to dispose some of my loot, if only to make room for more. That means that I have to find a steady and reliable source for pens both to resell and to keep, and that can only be eBay — where, at any given moment, there will be about 40,000 pens of all kinds to compete for my attention and my credit card.

So I’ve been telling my pen-seeking friends that they could save themselves a chunk of change by bypassing me and going straight to the source — where a slightly used Montblanc 149 (which sells new on Amazon for $810) might go for around $400. But I’ve also warned them that it’s going to be a slippery slope, fraught with dangers and risks — not to mention the biggest risk of all, which is to get infected with eBay shopaholia.

Even if you care nothing about pens, there are literally a million more things to be found on eBay.com and on its local site, eBay.ph — everything from a mummified monkey’s paw (which you can buy without bidding for $13.00) and an 1864 autograph of Abraham Lincoln (bidding starts at $4,995.00) to a 2012 Lamborghini Aventador (yours for $469,991.00). Very likely, they’ll be things you don’t need but will soon want — and want badly, so mind the following tips if you plan on shopping on eBay without risking your children’s inheritance or your marriage. I’m going to use pens to illustrate my points, but these tips can apply as well to cameras, shoes, bags, bikes, or whatever floats your boat.



1. Know what you’re looking for — know the product and its current market value. Do some research beforehand and establish what possible issues there might be with the item. For example, if you’re looking for a Montblanc, understand that vintage celluloid ones in good shape could command more than new ones in “precious resin” — but also that the 149 and 146 are the most faked pens in the world (along with the Parker Sonnet); eBay actually has a guide to determining fake MBs (which means, know your way around eBay as well). EBay’s “completed listings” is a great way to determine market value — look for the median price (discard lowest and highest prices) for a better sense of what you can expect to pay. Check other websites (Amazon, BestBuy, etc.) as well, because their special deals and offers could undercut eBay. I do most of my gadget shopping, for example, on dealmac.com.

2. Condition, condition, condition. In your enthusiasm for an item, you might forget to probe its condition. Read the description very well and look out for any flaws. Especially scrutinize all the pictures. (This also allows me to spot special features that others might miss — a broad stub on a nib, for example). I think I know pens well enough that I can tell make, model, year, and approximate value for most major brands on sight, but every pen is still unique once it’s up for sale. Keep an eye out for cracks, glue, broken tines, mismatched caps and barrels, discoloration, etc.

3. Set up a PayPal account. It will make your life a whole lot easier on the Internet, since PayPal has become a global standard for electronic payments. I’ve tied my PayPal to a specific bank account I use only for eBay transactions. Is it safe? Of course you’ll hear a horror story here and there, but in my own experience, eBay and PayPal have served me very well, settling questions and disputes and sending refunds very quickly in the rare cases of non-delivery I’ve encountered.

4. Keep looking. Since I now buy and sell pens, I check out eBay many times a day — I have it on my phone—and have set up search terms for my favorite items, like Parker Vacumatics. This enables me to find what I like quickly, in a marketplace where millions of items are up for sale at any given moment. Some of my best bargains have come when buyers in the US — my chief competitors — are literally asleep. I also check out ebay.uk and ebay.ca (the UK and Canada) and have found some of my best bargains there. The first thing I check is “newly listed”, further narrowed down to “buy it now” — this way I can catch the real bargains before anyone else does. Then I check “ending soonest.” You can also refine your searches, for example by looking just for “149” under “Montblanc” under “fountain pens.”

5. Check the seller’s feedback. I’d be wary of a seller with less than 95 percent positive feedback. He or she may not be a cheat, but has a poor service record (delayed mailings, no response, etc.)

6. Establish your bidding threshold early on. Don’t get caught in a bidding war with another bidder. These days, since I could be bidding on 20 items at any given moment (expecting to win maybe two or three), I just bid my maximum and forget about it until the last two minutes, which are really all that matters on eBay. Some people use sniping programs that let the computer make a last-second automated bid for them; I should, but have been too lazy to set one up, and I rather like the excitement of making the last-minute bid myself.

7. Figure out and factor in your shipping options. Since most of my purchases are made in the US, I use a US shipping address (my sister’s in Virginia) and aggregate my purchases there. When I’ve gathered a boxful, I ask my sister to ship them to Johnny Air Cargo in NYC, which forwards them to me in Manila a week later. I’m sure many of you have US relatives who can do this for you (just make sure that they’re willing — be very nice to them at Christmas). I’ve educated my sister on pens so she’ll know how to check out a pen when it arrives and how to handle and package them properly; and yes, I’ve given her a nice pen or two.

8. Pay promptly, and leave feedback. You’ll see how your own feedback will improve once you become a good eBay netizen.

9. If and when you encounter a problem, report it to eBay. They have mechanisms for dealing with problems like getting a defective item (unless it was so described) or not receiving an item you paid for at all. Take note that there’s a time window (45 days, I believe) within which complaints can be filed.

10. Don’t lose hope. I’ve lost out on bids for items that I’d coveted for years, but then found another one a week later, for cheaper. If you can’t find it on eBay, it probably doesn’t exist, or is illegal to own. For me, it’s fountain pen paradise, and another reason to wake up in the morning for.

article source: philstar.com

The multiple faces of Swatch: Style & personality – with a twist

MANILA, Philippines - Swatch’s many faces welcome spring: colors, contemporary messages, emotions and style transform an ordinary day into a day at full speed. Swatch’s mission for this season is to lighten up the world and brighten up everyone’s mood. Yes, we can. Yes, Swatch can!

The latest collection from Swatch anticipates spring with sunshine, fresh colors and inventive design. Traditions are revived with exciting new models from across the spectrum of Swatch families. Among them are the new Originals and Irony timekeepers in light-hearted, energetic, eye-catching versions. Signature materials take on new life as stainless steel, aluminum, silicone and leather combine to invigorate the new collection.

Designed with contemporary and spot-on taste in mind, the new Swatch Spring Collection 2013 features attractive and versatile Swatch watches for all occasions.

Swatch is available at Swatch Shops in SM Megamall, Glorietta 1, Glorietta 4, Greenbelt 5, TriNoma, Alabang Town Center, Ayala Marquee Mall, Pampanga, SM Mall of Asia, SM City North EDSA, SM City Davao, Rockwell Power Plant Mall, Greenhills V-Mall, Shangri-La Plaza, Robinsons Place, Ermita, Sta. Lucia East Grand Mall, Festival Mall, Ayala Center, Cebu and Abreeza Mall, Davao.

source: philstar.com

mySupermarket launches grocery comparison app

Companion App for mySupermarket released that lets consumers compare the prices of groceries across online shops. So for example when you’re browsing milk on Waitrose, you can click the app and view the price through other merchants such as Sainsbury’s and Asda.

The mySupermarket app is built as a browser extension for Internet Explorer 9, Chrome, Firefox and Safari. It also means that because it’s an extension, the software is platform agnostic meaning there's both Mac and Windows support.

Invisible Hand has a similar award-winning concept. It too is a browser extension, but it has a different remit to mySupermarket’s. Invisible Hand is more consumer electronics and travel-focused with the ability to compare shopping, flights, hotels and rental cars.

Major supermarket savings

mySupermarket says that its app will help consumers save at least 20%. Tesco, Waitrose, Sainsbury’s, Ocado and Asda are supported by the Companion App. It currently offers three types of shop in groceries, health and beauty and wine.

The swap and save suggestions in the mySupermarket Companion App showcase more time-dependant offers like buy one get one free and vouchers. The new Savvy Buys feature lets the consumer know when a product is a least 30% cheaper than it has been all year.

James Foord, VP of Business Development at mySupermarket, believes his app can benefit everyone. “Our Companion app is like having mySupermarket constantly looking out for you,” he said. “And we have so many ways to help customers save now that it can make a difference to anyone.”

source: affiliates4u.com

Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping

Ready or not, the holidays are here and the shopping season is upon us. Although I wish I could convince you not to shop during November and December -- I'm a fan of Buy Nothing Day myself -- I realize I'm in the minority. It's Black Friday. It's Christmas. People are going to shop.

If you do choose to shop this time of year, be smart about it. Make no mistake: It's a war out there, my friends, and the merchants aren't on your side. They want your hard-earned money just as much as you do, and they've got all sorts of tricks to separate you from your cash.

You see, merchants are smart. They spend billions of dollars every year conducting research into what makes people like you and me buy things. And so they put the sweetened cereal at your six-year-old's eye level. They block the aisles with displays to create traffic jams in front of the things they want to sell. They'll even use scent to encourage spending!

In his 2000 book Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping, Paco Underhill — an environmental psychologist — described what he'd learn through years of research into consumer behavior and retail marketing. Some of this stuff is very subtle.

Take this anecdote, for instance:

I once heard a talk given by the vice president of merchandising from a national chain of young women's clothing stores in which she deconstructed a particular display of T-shirts. "We buy them in Sri Lanka for $3 each," she began.

"Then we bring them over here and sew in washing instructions, which are in French and English. Notice we don't say the shirts are made in France. But you can infer that if you like. Then we merchandise the hell out of them — we fold them just right on a tasteful tabletop display, and on the wall behind it we hang a huge, gorgeous photograph of a beautiful woman in an exotic locale wearing the shirt. We shoot it so it looks like a million bucks. Then we call it an Expedition T-shirt, and we sell it for $37. And we sell a lot of them, too."

It was the most depressing valuable lesson I've ever had.

Like it or not, you're manipulated all of the time while you're shopping, and in ways you don't even suspect. But by taking Underhill's lessons for marketers and flipping them around, you can make yourself immune to marketers' manipulations. (Well, maybe not immune, but less likely to succumb to their ploys, anyhow.)

Here are a few easy changes you can make to spend less while shopping:

• Spend less time in stores. Underhill writes, "The amount of time a shopper spends in a store (assuming he or she is shopping, not waiting in line) is perhaps the single most important factor in determining how much he or she will buy." Don't browse. Shop with a purpose.
• Don't use a basket. Only use a basket (or shopping cart) if it's absolutely necessary. Baskets induce people to buy more. And you know how the upscale places offer to place your items behind the counter to make it easier for you to shop? That leads you to buy more too.
• Only seek employee contact if you need help. Employee interaction also induces people to buy more. Underhill notes that "the more shopper-employee contacts that take place, the greater the average sale."
• Don't try samples. Research indicates that people are more likely to buy something if they can sample it first. Don't try the samples as you wheel around the giant warehouse store — or stand at the perfume counter. They're likely to make you want the product.
• Don't examine or handle things you don't need. The more you interact with something, the more likely you are to buy it. "Virtually all unplanned purchases — and many planned ones, too — come as a result of the shopper seeing, touching, smelling, or tasting something that promises pleasure, if not total fulfillment."
• Don't try on clothes you don't need. "Shopper conversion rates increase by half when there is a staff-initiated contact, and it jumps to 100 percent when there is staff-initiated contact and use of the dressing room. In other words, a shopper who talks to a salesperson and tries something on is twice as likely to buy as a shopper who does neither."
• Avoid advertising. Advertising exists for one purpose: to get you to buy things. If you don't want a closet full of clothes you never wear, reduce your exposure to advertising.
• Make a list and stick to it. The majority of supermarket purchases are unplanned. Underhill writes: "In one supermarket study, we counted how many shoppers came armed with lists. Almost all of the women had them. Less than a quarter of the men did. Any wife who's watching the family budget knows better than to send her husband to the supermarket unchaperoned."
• Ignore the racks of impulse items. Those things by the cash registers are high-margin products designed to make the retailer profit while parting you from your money. These are not things that you need.
• Don't go shopping. The number one way not to buy anything is not to go shopping. It's obvious, but true.

Many of you have probably read Malcolm Gladwell's best-selling Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking. That book, too, points out the power of marketing, emphasizing how shoppers are manipulated in lots of tiny ways. Even when we think we're immune to marketing, we're not.

Here's how Underhill sums up his own research:

Good stores perform a kind of retailing judo — they use the shopper's own momentum, her largely unspoken inclinations and desires, to get her to move in a direction unplanned, and often unaware. In the end, it's not enough that goods be within reach of the shopper — she must want to reach them. And having reached them, she must then wish to own them, or all this effort goes to nought. Amid so much science, we discover in the end it's love that makes the world of retailing go round.

So, be careful out there, folks. If you're going to shop on Black Friday — or at any other point during the holiday season — be smart about it. Go prepared. Stick to your budget. And, most of all, watch for the tricks that merchants use to lure you to buy.

source: savings.com

As Low Rates Depress Savers, Governments Reap Benefits

A consumer complaint is ricocheting around the world: low interest rates are eating away at savings.

Bill Taren, a retiree near Orlando, Fla., discovered in August that his credit union would pay only 0.4 percent annual interest on his saving account, even though inflation averaged 2.8 percent over the last year. So he and his wife decided to just stuff their money in the mattress, he says, because at least there “we can see the cash when we want.”

Jeanne and André Bussière, in Annecy, France, have a stable pension and a bank account that pays 2 percent interest — “almost nothing,” they say — even though the consumer price index rose an average of 2.5 percent over the last year.

Jiang Rong, an information technology professional in Xiamen, China, decided to dive back into the speculative real estate market rather than watch his savings wither at the bank. In China, too, the cost of living is outrunning savings, as local restaurants nearly double their prices.

The fact that interest yields are so low in so many parts of the world is no coincidence. Rates are determined not only by markets, but also by government policy. And right now many governments say they have good reason to keep their own borrowing costs as low as they possibly can. Just last week, the government’s report on job growth in the United States showed continued weakness, and an international forecasting group warned that the European economic powerhouse, Germany, will fall into recession later this year.

Though bad for people trying to live off their savings, low interest rates happen to be quite good for anyone borrowing money, like governments themselves. Over time, interest rates below the inflation rate allow governments to refinance, erode or liquidate their debt, making it easier to live within their budgets without having to resort to more unpalatable spending cuts or tax increases.

Along with keeping rates low, governments are using a variety of tactics to encourage captive audiences, like pension funds and banks, to buy their debt. Consumers, in other words, are subtly subsidizing governments without even knowing it. Economists have compared this phenomenon to a hidden tax on people’s wealth.

“If you ask a central banker is that what you’re doing, and why you’re doing it, they’ll say ‘No, we’re just trying to get the economy going by making it easier for the private sector to borrow,’ ” said Neal Soss, chief economist at Credit Suisse. “But I have a syllogism for you: The government makes the rules. The government needs the money. So why should it surprise if the rules encourage you to lend the government money?”

This is not the first time governments have benefited by depressing interest rates, something economists refer to by the ominous name of “financial repression.”

In the three and a half decades after World War II, interest rates in the developed world were on average below zero after adjusting for inflation, according to Carmen M. Reinhart, a professor at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. This helped Europe, the United States and Japan slowly whittle away much of their war debt as their economies grew faster than their debt burden.

“The difference is that the postwar period was one of strong growth, when rebuilding and capital investment was going on across the Continent, and there were strong demographics,” said Stefan Hofrichter, the chief economist at Allianz Global Investors. “But these elements are not necessarily in place today.”

For that reason, economists are less certain that the success of the strategy will be repeated.

Many major economies are already slowing down, if not outright contracting. And the actions taken by governments to keep interest rates low can restrain how much savers have to spend and force fragile banks and pension funds to take on more risk. Ultimately, it could crowd out private borrowing.

Governments have different mechanisms to keep their borrowing costs artificially low.

The Chinese government can just make a call to banks and dictate how much they will lend and at what interest rate.

“By forcing them to lend at low interest rates, China’s central bank is taxing banks at high rates,” said Nicholas R. Lardy, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. “They make it up to the banks by dictating that banks pay depositors even lower rates, so consumers are getting taxed too.”

Inflation-adjusted interest rates on one-year deposits have been below zero since late 2003, he said. China tightly controls how much money can leave the country, so individuals cannot seek higher yields elsewhere. As a result, Chinese families have been investing their growing incomes in real estate, which has led to a huge real estate bubble in some Chinese cities.

Democracies use more roundabout techniques.

“They have to work with their captive audiences — the pension funds, domestic insurance policies, banks, any domestic buyers they can find — to force-feed sovereign debt, sometimes under the euphemism of ‘macroprudential regulation,’ ” said Professor Reinhart.

Ireland and France, for example, have required or “encouraged” pension funds to invest in more government debt.

In Spain, fragile banks have been arm-twisted into lending to the government, which forces down the interest rates that the banks can pay to depositors. The Spanish government also capped the amount of cash that could be withdrawn from bank accounts, which prevented people from seeking higher yields elsewhere.

And in the United States, the Federal Reserve is buying up government debt to keep interest rates even lower than what markets would otherwise pay (and rates were low to begin with because investors from all over the world are buying up American debt because it seems relatively safe).

In the nearly four years that the Fed set its benchmark interest rate at zero, the government has saved trillions of dollars in interest payments. If interest rates today were what they were in 2007, the Treasury would be paying about twice as much to service its debt.

Inflation in the United States is very low by historical standards, but interest rates are so paltry that savers are losing money anyway.

“I got hit a couple of years ago pretty badly in the stock market, so now my savings are weighted mostly toward bonds,” said Dorothy L. Brooks, 65, who lives in Garland, Tex., and retired about a decade ago. She recently decided to go back to work as an assistant at a local school. “Now both investments are terrible. And I can’t put my money in a money-market account because that’s crazy. That just pays nothing.”

Of course, any economic policy will produce winners and losers, and it seems unlikely that policy makers are deliberately sacrificing retirees either to stimulate the economy or to grind down government debt. More likely, older Americans and other savers are just unintended casualties of policies aimed at other economic targets, particularly the policy making it easier for consumers and companies to borrow.

“If you care about the distribution effects of these policies, and being fairer to the elderly or other people, that seems to argue for carefully designed fiscal stimulus,” said Robert J. Shiller, an economics professor at Yale. “With fiscal stimulus you have more control over who gets taxed at what rate and so on. At least it’s more transparent anyhow.”

But, he added, “the whole reason we like using monetary policy is that it avoids those very political discussions of who gets taxed.”

source: nytimes.com

ONLINE SHOPPING

EBAY Inc., once a scrappy auction site for mom and pop sellers, is enticing some of the world's largest retailers by arguing it can help them compete better against e-commerce leader Amazon.com, Inc.

EBay Chief Executive John Donahoe and other executives have been telling retailers that Amazon is their enemy, while eBay is a friend because, unlike Amazon, it holds no inventory.

Amazon buys products wholesale, stores them in inventory, and sells them to consumers at higher prices – like all retailers.

EBay says it just matches buyers and sellers.

That message is sinking in, especially among brick and mortar retailers that are losing market share to Amazon.

''As retailers look for new vehicles for growth eBay becomes a natural partner – a better partner than Amazon,'' said Sucharita Mulpuru, an e-commerce analyst at Forrester Research.

When RadioShack Corp., reported a surprise quarterly loss last month, Chief Executive Jim Gooch told analysts that the electronics retailer had set up an eBay storefront to help the company reach new customers online.

Barnes & Noble, Toys ''R'' Us, GNC Holdings, Aeropostale, and Neiman Marcus are among other big retailers that now have storefronts on eBay.

Best Buy Co., Inc., sells mobile phones and wireless plans on eBay.

On Monday, eBay said it was testing a same-day delivery service called eBay Now with Target Corp., the second-largest US retailer, and other big retailers including Macy's, Inc., Nordstrom, Inc., and Walgreen Co.

Amazon offers same-day delivery in some areas already.

The foundations of eBay Now rest on Milo, a start-up eBay acquired in late 2010 which lets merchants upload in-store inventory onto eBay's online marketplace. When shoppers search on eBay now, they see what online sellers are offering, but also which nearby physical stores carry the product.

More than 50,000 stores in the United States have uploaded inventory to eBay, via Milo, including major retailers Home Depot, Inc., Ikea, Lowe's Companies, Inc., Sears Holdings Corp., and J.C. Penney Company, Inc.

''It's simple: location, location, location,'' said Ben Schachter, an analyst at Macquarie. ''Sellers have to go to where the buyers are.''

EBay has more than 100 million active shoppers on its online marketplace, he noted.

''Retailers don't have those kinds of numbers coming to their sites and buying,'' Schachter said. ''They would love to only sell through their own site, but they have to go where the buyers are, and many are on eBay.''

Amazon has a lot more active customers – about 180 million – but some retailers steer clear still.

Barnes & Noble, which has been hammered by Amazon, has had an eBay storefront since late 2010 and mostly uses it to sell refurbished Nook gadgets. Toys and books were added in May 2011.

''EBay has been an exceptional partner, working with Barnes & Noble to effectively promote Nook to its massive user base,'' said Barnes & Noble spokeswoman Mary Ellen Keating. ''Amazon is a competitor. We don't sell on Amazon and have no plans to do so.''

Toys ''R'' Us does not sell on Amazon either. More than a decade ago, the largest toy retailer had exclusive rights to supply some toys on Amazon's website. That partnership ended in litigation and Amazon is now a leading toy retailer in its own right.

''It's the worst-kept secret in the retail industry,'' said Mulpuru. ''When you partner with Amazon, they are looking at your data, learning your business and have ambition to get into every category.''

Among the 100 largest retailers in the United States, most are choosing eBay over Amazon, according to Scot Wingo, chief executive of ChannelAdvisor, which helps merchants sell on both online marketplaces.

An Amazon spokesman declined to comment.

Amazon's marketplace for third-party sellers is growing rapidly and Wingo said that would not be happening if all retailers thought Amazon was the enemy.

The lure of Amazon's massive customer base is still powerful for many.

''We take any chance of getting new eyeballs and Amazon is just so large in the world of e-commerce,'' said Jerry Deboer, senior vice president of marketing at Jos. A. Bank, which has Amazon and eBay stores.

RadioShack also has both, and big retailers including Office Max and Sephora run Amazon stores.

Adding large sellers to eBay's marketplace helps the company in several ways.

EBay takes a cut of sales, so higher-volume sellers may help the company generate more revenue and profit.

EBay and retailers declined to discuss fees. However, eBay charges less for top sellers and negotiates individual deals with the biggest and best, according to Wingo.

EBay has struggled in the past because some of the products on its site were listed poorly or of questionable quality, and customer service from small sellers is not always what it could be. Big retailers are more likely to sell higher-quality products, categorize them more and provide better service.

DIFFERENT SHOPPERS

Retailers say eBay storefronts attract different shoppers than the ones who come to their own websites and physical stores.

EBay shoppers often search for deals, so some retailers use eBay to sell end-of-season or outlet products at lower prices.

Neiman Marcus' eBay storefront sells apparel, shoes and accessories under the Last Call brand, its outlet business.

EBay provides data to retailers to help them check if the shoppers who come to their eBay storefronts overlap with their existing customer base, according to Michael Jones, vice president of merchant development at eBay.

''By and large, people see this as a very significant incremental channel for them,'' Jones said.

In early 2010, eBay started including storefront inventory in results when shoppers searched on the website's front page.

That has helped retailers place their products in front of more consumers, according to Jo

source: mb.com.ph

US consumer confidence falls in second quarter - Nielsen

LONDON - Consumer confidence fell in the second quarter from early this year as slowing employment growth and an escalating euro zone crisis made Americans more cautious about the economic outlook, a survey showed on Monday.

Consumer sentiment in the world's biggest economy fell by 5 points in the second quarter from the first quarter to 87, according to a quarterly survey by global information and insights company Nielsen, conducted May 4-21.

A reading below 100 indicates consumers are pessimistic about the economic outlook for the coming months.

Only 34 percent of Americans were optimistic about their job prospects for the next six months, compared with 38 percent in a survey in the first quarter, the survey showed. Thirty three percent said now was not a good time to buy things they needed, down from 38 percent in the first-quarter survey.

The poll, covering 500 online respondents in the United States, showed that confidence fell after rising in the two previous quarters although it was still higher than levels seen last year.

"Consumer uncertainty prevails with weak job gains, instability in global financial markets and continued budget issues at local, state and national government level," said Todd Hale, senior vice president of consumer and shopper insights, Nielsen.

Concern for the economy - the top concern for U.S. consumers - increased from the first quarter, with 42 percent of consumers citing the economy as their main concern, up from 40 percent in the previous survey.

Seventy eight percent of Americans believed the economy was in recession. That was down from 83 percent in the previous survey, but 56 percent of those who saw a recession in the latest survey expected the downturn to last at least another 12 months.

The U.S. economy has been losing more steam since May when the survey was taken. Manufacturing, which had been one of the strongest links in an otherwise frail economic recovery, grew in June at its slowest pace in 11 months, suggesting weaker overseas demand and the euro zone debt crisis may be starting to take a toll.

Job creation has also slowed and the Federal Reserve launched another round of monetary stimulus last week to try and stimulate the economy. A recent sharp fall in oil prices, by $35 from March highs to around $90 a barrel, offers some positive news for consumers but its impact will take time to factor through to households.

The U.S. consumer confidence survey is part of the global quarterly Nielsen Survey of Consumer Confidence and Spending Intentions, established in 2005, which tracks consumer confidence, major concerns and spending intentions in 56 countries. The global survey will be published in July.

source: interaksyon.com