Oakland Zoo to auction paintings by its animals

SAN FRANCISCO — Elephants, giraffes, lemurs, and even a cockroach at the Oakland Zoo in California have been exploring their creative sides to produce colorful paintings that will be auctioned for charity.

The painting sessions were conducted by zookeepers who used only positive reinforcement, including plenty of treats, as they worked with the animals, zoo spokeswoman Nicky Mora said.

Elephants were helped to hold paintbrushes in their trunks and giraffes in their mouths and produce their artwork one stroke at a time. Goats, lemurs, and meerkats had their hooves, paws or claws dabbed with nontoxic, water-based paint and ran over a blank sheet of poster board while chasing a treat.

Thirty-two of the works will be auctioned on eBay starting Thursday.

Andy, a Madagascar hissing cockroach, scurried around a canvas and the result was a piece in purple, green and yellow tones.

Maggie, a Nigerian dwarf goat, had her hooves dipped in blue, green and yellow paint and the keeper coaxed her with snacks to walk on a canvas.

"It was fun for them because they got treats for participating," Mora said.

None of the animals was forced to take part, she said.

Last year, Oakland Zoo auctioned off twelve paintings and raised nearly $10,000.

The bidding this year will end Sept. 20 and the funds raised will benefit Oakland Zoo's conservation partners, who are working in the field to save wild animals, Mora said.

source: philstar.com

PayPal fuels higher eBay revenue even as cyber attack, rivals weigh

SAN FRANCISCO — EBay Inc posted a 13 percent rise in quarterly revenue on Wednesday, as better-than-expected results from its fast-growing PayPal division helped the online retailer overcome increasing competition from Amazon.com Inc and a well-publicized cyber attack.

Investors had been braced for a tough quarter.

Ebay’s stock has fallen more than 8 percent since April, hurt by the cyber attack disclosed in May that compromised data for some 145 million customers, the departure of highly regarded PayPal chief David Marcus, and intensifying competition from both online and offline rivals. 


EBay was also hurt by a change in Google Inc’s algorithm, which pushed eBay results lower in search rankings, slowing traffic.

That slowdown was seen in June in a measure of transactions across eBay’s core Marketplaces platform, known as gross merchandise value, with the growth rate falling to 7 percent from around a double-digit pace in previous months.

“We had a challenging first half of the year with several distractions,” Bob Swan, the chief financial officer, told analysts on a conference call, noting that the cyber attack and the Google search engine changes “had an immediate and dramatic impact.”

Executives said eBay will spend more on measures to entice users back, including coupons, seller incentives and increased marketing.

Several investment brokerages had downgraded their forecasts ahead of Wednesday’s results. The second-quarter results and eBay’s revenue outlook were roughly in line with those tempered expectations. Revenue rose to $4.37 billion for the quarter, compared with $3.88 billion a year ago; Wall Street had forecast revenue of $4.38 billion, on average.

Payment volume leaped a better-than-expected 29 percent. Gross merchandise value grew 12 percent, in line with or slightly better than analysts’ forecasts.

Going forward, eBay will have to grapple with stiffening competition across its businesses.

Marcus departed for Facebook’s messaging team in June. The payments service faces a growing challenge from the likes of Amazon, which launched a recurring payments program in June. Google is also expected to delve further into this field. Brick-and-mortar retailers are investing to boost their online presence. EBay also has to fend off a growing coterie of fast-growing retail upstarts that focus on specific categories such as home and apparel.

Longer term, industry analysts speculate that Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd, which is going public this year in what could be the largest-ever tech IPO, is preparing to leverage its U.S. investments into a play for the U.S. retail arena, the world’s largest.

On Wednesday, eBay forecast third-quarter revenue of $4.3 billion to $4.4 billion, compared with expectations for $4.4 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

For the second quarter, it posted non-GAAP earnings per share of 69 cents, a penny better than forecasts for 68 cents.

source: interaksyon.com

EBay initially believed user data safe after cyberattack

BOSTON/SAN FRANCISCO — EBay Inc initially believed that its customers’ data was safe as forensic investigators reviewed a network security breach discovered in early May and made public this week, a senior executive told Reuters on Friday.

EBay has come under fire over its handling of the cyberattack, in which hackers accessed personal data of all 145 million users, ranking it among the biggest such attacks launched on a corporation to date.

“For a very long period of time we did not believe that there was any eBay customer data compromised,” global marketplaces chief Devin Wenig said, in the first comments by a top eBay executive since the e-commerce company disclosed the breach on Wednesday.

EBay moved “swiftly to disclose” the breach after it realized customer data was involved, he said.

Wenig would not say when the company first realized that the cyberattackers accessed customer data, nor how long it took to prepare Wednesday’s announcement.

He said hackers got in using the credentials of three corporate employees, eventually making their way to the user database.

Hackers accessed email addresses and encrypted passwords belonging to all eBay users. “Millions” of users have since reset their passwords and the company had begun notifying users, though it would take some time to complete that task, Wenig said.

“You would imagine that anyone who has ever touched eBay is a large number,” he said. “So we’re going to send all of them an email, but sending that number all at once is not operationally possible.”

At least three U.S. states are investigating the company’s security practices. Customers have complained on social media about delayed notification emails. And New York’s attorney general called on eBay to provide free credit monitoring services to users.

But the Internet retail giant has no plans to compensate customers or offer free credit monitoring for now because it had detected no financial fraud, Wenig said.

Wenig declined comment when asked if he thought eBay had good security prior to the breach. He said the company would now bolster its security systems, and has mobilized senior executives in a subsequent investigation of the attack.

“We want to make sure it doesn’t happen again so we’re going to continue to look our procedures, harden our operational environment and add levels of security where it’s appropriate.”

The breach marked the latest headache for eBay this year. In January, it crossed swords publicly with activist investor Carl Icahn, who mounted a campaign to get it to spin out PayPal. Then in April, the e-commerce company disappointed investors with a weak second-quarter outlook, pressuring its shares.

Avoiding back door

Buying and selling activity on eBay remained “fairly normal” though eBay is still working out the cost of the breach, which included hiring a number of security firms. Wenig, who was previously a senior executive at Thomson Reuters Corp, declined to comment on whether the cost could be material to eBay’s results.

Wenig’s revelation that the company initially believed that no customer data had been compromised might take some of the heat off eBay’s executive team.

Cyber forensics experts said it’s not uncommon for large companies to take weeks to grasp the full impact of an attack, because hackers are often able to steal data without leaving obvious clues.

“In some cases you go in and find the smoking gun immediately. Other times, it takes a few days or even a few weeks,” said Kevin Johnson, a cyber-forensics expert who was not involved in the eBay investigation but has worked for other Fortune 500 companies.

Daniel Clemens, a forensics expert and CEO of Packet Ninjas, said investigators often ask companies to hold off on disclosure until they believe they understand the full extent of an attack. Otherwise, they risk tipping off attackers who might cover their tracks or leave “back doors” so they can return after the investigators complete their probe.

On Wednesday, the e-commerce company announced that hackers raided its network between late February and early March. The company said financial information was not compromised and its payments unit PayPal was not affected.

When eBay first discovered the network breach in early May, the senior team was immediately involved and held multiple daily calls on the issue. EBay staff have been working around the clock since Wednesday.

Wenig said he could not provide much more detail about what happened in the attack beyond the scant information given out so far.

He declined to provide further specifics, citing ongoing investigations by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and several forensics firms including FireEye Inc’s Mandiant division.

source: interaksyon.com

EBay asks 145 million users to change passwords after cyber attack

BOSTON — EBay Inc said that hackers raided its network three months ago, stealing some 145 million user records from a database in what is poised to go down as one of the biggest data breaches in history based on the number of accounts compromised.

It advised customers to change their passwords immediately, saying they were among the pieces of data stolen by cyber criminals who carried out the attack carried out between late February and early March.

EBay spokeswoman Amanda Miller told Reuters those passwords were encrypted and that the company had no reason to believe the hackers had broken the code that scrambled them.

“There is no evidence of impact on any eBay customers,” Miller said. “We don’t know that they decrypted the passwords because it would not be easy to do.”

She said the hackers copied a massive user database that contained those passwords, as well as email addresses, birth dates, mailing addresses and other personal information, but not financial data such as credit card numbers.

The company had earlier said a large number of accounts may have been compromised, but declined to say how many.

source: interaksyon.com

Italy sells luxury state cars on eBay

ROME — Italy’s government on Friday said it had raised 371,400 euros ($513,200) so far in an eBay auction of luxury official cars in a symbolic effort to cut outrageous spending by ministries that has sparked public anger.

The 52 cars sold were being used by the police, the fire brigade and the defence ministry and included five BMWs and two Audis, the government said in a statement.

“The average final price was 7,142 euros,” it said.

A total of 151 chauffeured cars will be auctioned off by May 16 in an initiative that has gained broad public support and was launched by centre-left Prime Minister Matteo Renzi shortly after coming to power in February.

The cars yet to be sold include eight armoured Maseratis formerly used by the defence ministry. A brand new Maserati can cost around 100,000 euros.

The government said the official cars chosen for sale were “those that the public administration retains no longer essential for institutional ends”.

As Italy struggles to recover from a painful two-year recession, national and local authorities have been forced to cut down on thousands of official cars known as “auto blu” (blue cars) that have been for decades one of the many perks for the political class.

source: interaksyon.com

US online retailers under pressure with looming tax bill

WASHINGTON — The US Senate moved Monday toward expected approval of a bill that would subject online retailers to state sales taxes, cutting a advantage that helped them steal business from brick and mortar stores.

The bill, the Marketplace Fairness Act, represents a long fought battle by local governments and businesses to collect taxes on Internet sales to local people by outside retailers like Amazon, eBay, and other online giants.

But it also raises operating challenges for Internet businesses, especially medium-sized ones, to begin collecting tax payments for state and local jurisdictions, wherever orders originate.

Senators voted a generous 74-20 to move to debate on the bill, which suggests an easy passage, despite a stiff lobbying fight to block or alter it from online retailing power eBay.

The bill would force online retailers to collect sales taxes on purchases made in states and localities even if the retailer is not physically present there.

A 1992 Supreme Court ruling has prevented states from compelling tax collection as long as the retailer lacks a physical presence in the state.

With combined state and local sales taxes adding as much as 10 percent to the price of a good, that has given online sellers a significant advantage to local shops.

Local shops then want the bill, as do states and local governments trying to rebuild finances after the deep 2008 recession by seeking out new sources of income.

The National Retail Federation, which represents physical retailers, estimates that $24 billion worth of taxes goes uncollected due to online sales.

“It’s costing states and localities billions in lost revenue,” said Republican bill sponsor, Wyoming Senator Mike Enzi. “Now is the time for Congress to act.”

The bill would cover only retailers with more than $1 million in revenues from outside their physical base, an effort to alleviate the collection and filing burden collecting taxes from multiple jurisdictions would have on small businesses.

But the online giants Amazon and eBay have split over it. Amazon, which long fought local taxes, now has or will have a warehouses in so many areas that it backs the bill, if mainly to ensure its competitors do not have an advantage.

But eBay, the auction marketplace that is increasingly competing with amazon for direct sales of new consumer goods, over the weekend launched a broadside against the bill.

EBay chief executive John Donahoe told eBay members in an email that the bill threatened their business.

“Some lawmakers and large retailers want to impose more costs on you by mandating nationwide sales tax collection for your online business, whether you sell through eBay, other marketplaces or your own site,” Donahoe said.

The White House strongly endorsed the bill, saying it “will level the playing field for local small business retailers that are in competition every day with large out-of-state online companies.”

The influential anti-tax lobby Americans for Tax Reform issued a statement urging backers to fight the bill, saying it would extend the power of “money-hungry state legislators” to apply taxes outside their borders.

“The regulatory implications will span more than just internet based businesses.”

source: interaksyon.com

EBay goes after Amazon with fee changes for sellers

SAN FRANCISCO — EBay Inc said on Tuesday it will overhaul fees for sellers on its online marketplace, lowering them for many sellers as it steps up competition with Amazon.com Inc.

EBay is simplifying its “final value fees” with the percentage fee levied on each sale determined by product categories. Currently, the percentage fee is based on an item’s price.

Some of eBay’s listing fees, a bone of contention among sellers, are also going away. Most of the changes will kick in April 16, with others taking effect May 1.

Many sellers will pay lower fees after the changes, especially those who are not volume sellers and list fewer than 12,250 times per month, according to Scot Wingo, chief executive of ChannelAdvisor, which helps merchants sell on online marketplaces including eBay and Amazon.

“These fee changes definitely make eBay more competitive,” said Wingo.

EBay’s move comes as sellers on Amazon’s marketplace become increasingly upset with fee increases.

The company’s announcement about the new fees included a table comparing its charges to Amazon’s fees, a move that Wingo said he had not seen before.

“EBay is really coming out swinging against Amazon,” Wingo added.

EBay shares rose 2 percent to close at $51.10 on the Nasdaq. Amazon slipped 0.6 percent to $256.41.

11 PERCENT CUT

For consumers who sell only a few items a year, eBay will offer 50 free listings per month. If the item sells, the company will take 10 percent of the sale price.

EBay has been using a fee structure that included a listing fee of 50 cents per item for full-price listings. The company has been offering free listings only on auctioned items.

For larger-volume sellers, eBay will introduce new final value fees ranging from 4 percent to 9 percent, depending on the product category.

Seller Phil Forman said he received an email from EBay on Tuesday morning, estimating that he would see an 11 percent decline in fees.

“I can work with an 11 percent cut,” said Forman, owner of Newtownvideo.com, which sells CDs, DVD and video games on its own website and on marketplaces including Amazon.com and eBay.com.

The reduction in listing fees should encourage sellers to list more products, getting more inventory onto eBay, he said.

“Sellers like to only pay when they actually sell something,” Forman added.

However, Forman said he was concerned because Newtownvideo.com lists many thousands of products per month, so the business may still pay some listing fees on eBay. This is because the new free listings top out at 2,500 per month for subscribers to eBay’s premium “Anchor Store” selling program, he noted.

Amazon has never charged sellers listing fees, one reason why its marketplace has been gaining strongly against eBay in recent years.

“For most of our sellers the complexity of our fees were keeping them from being on eBay and preventing them from having full transparency into their profitability from selling on eBay,” Michael Jones, vice president of merchant development, said.

“There will be some sellers who will pay a little bit more on eBay, but most sellers will be impacted positively by this,” he added.

source: interaksyon.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

Online sales jump on Cyber Monday, eBay shines

SAN FRANCISCO — Online sales jumped on Cyber Monday, sending e-commerce retailers’ shares higher and suggesting strong growth from earlier in the holiday shopping season is continuing for now.

Sales on eBay Inc’s online marketplace were particularly strong and Amazon.com Inc continued its rapid holiday shopping season growth, according to early Cyber Monday data released by e-commerce firm ChannelAdvisor.





EBay’s shares climbed 4.9 percent to close at $51.40. The stock hit an intra-day high of $51.78, the highest level since early 2005. Amazon’s shares gained 1.6 percent to $243.62.

Cyber Monday has been the biggest online shopping day in recent years, as workers return to offices and use computers to make holiday purchases. ComScore expects online sales to hit a record of about $1.5 billion by day’s end.

Online sales were up 25.6 percent as of 3:00 pm EST on Monday, compared with the same period a year ago, according to International Business Machines Corp which tracks transaction data from 500 U.S. retail websites. In 2011, Cyber Monday year-over-year growth was 15 percent by 3:00 pm, IBM said.

Strong online sales growth on Thanksgiving Day and “Black Friday” sparked concern that shoppers were just buying earlier, threatening revenue later in the season.

“So far, that is not the case,” said Jay Henderson, the strategy director for IBM Smarter Commerce. “Extending the shopping season has really just fueled additional online spending rather than cannibalizing days later in the season.”

ChannelAdvisor said client sales – or sales generated by third-party merchants using the company’s software – soared 57 percent on eBay.com early on Monday, compared with the same period in 2011.

The growth rate was five times higher than during the same period last year, said ChannelAdvisor, which helps merchants sell more online.

“The early eBay numbers are impressive,” said R.J. Hottovy, an equity analyst at Morningstar. “They put together an effective marketing plan across several channels this holiday season – online, television and print.”

EBay has been trying to move away from its online auction roots, emphasizing new items selling at fixed prices to better compete with Amazon.

“The numbers suggest they’re having success reintroducing consumers to the ‘new eBay,’” Hottovy said.

PayPal, the payments division of eBay, said the volume of mobile transactions it processed by 2:00 pm EST on Cyber Monday almost tripled versus the same period last year.

Client sales on Amazon.com were up 52 percent during the first part of Cyber Monday, ChannelAdvisor also reported.

“Amazon continues to look impressive to us since it is building on top of large numbers,” said Scott Tilghman, an analyst at Caris & Company.

Discounts

Online retailers held back some of their best promotions and biggest discounts until Cyber Monday, which helped spur sales, IBM’s Henderson and ChannelAdvisor’s Wingo said.

Amazon offered $30 off its 7 inch Kindle Fire tablet, which usually sells for $159. The deal was only available on Cyber Monday and was still available at 5:00 pm EST.

EBay promoted Cyber Monday deals on iPads, made by Apple Inc, and Nook devices from Barnes & Noble.

These types of discounts attract shoppers to Amazon and eBay’s websites, where they may purchase other items too, Wingo explained.

‘WII U’ sells out

EBay has also benefited as some hot holiday items sold out this year at some retailers. When that happens, shoppers often turn to eBay, where third-party sellers are usually still offering the items at higher prices.

Nintendo Co Ltd said on Monday its new “Wii U” video game consoles sold out at retailers in the United States.

The devices were still available on ebay.com on Monday at 10 to 20 percent above the suggested retail price, according to Jesse Divnich, an analyst at video game research firm EEDAR.

Margin question

Despite strong sales data, analysts are concerned that heavy discounting may pressure retailers’ profit margins, online and offline.

The average online order size on Cyber Monday was $130.30 as of 3:00 pm EST. That was down from almost $200 during the whole of Cyber Monday last year, according to IBM.

Online order sizes are shrinking as consumers buy more digital goods, such as e-books, music and video, which generally cost less. However, discounting is also pressuring order size and that could feed through to lower margins, Morningstar’s Hottovy said.

EBay margins should be relatively well protected because the company charges a commission on sales by third-party merchants and retailers.

Amazon operates like this, but, unlike eBay, the company also has its own product inventory so it may be exposed to margin pressure, according to Colin Sebastian, analyst at R.W. Baird.

source: interaksyon.com

eBay targets growth in China with a new partnership

The operator of the world's biggest online marketplace, eBay, has agreed to partner with a Chinese firm to boost its sales in the country.

It will launch a localized shopping portal, eBay Style, in collaboration with Xiu.com, a Chinese online retailer.



Foreign firms are looking to tap into China's booming internet market, amid sluggish growth in developed nations.

With more than 500 million users, China is the world's biggest internet market.

That is expected to grow even further in the coming years as more people in rural areas get access to the internet.

And with growing popularity of online shopping in the country, China has become a key market for e-commerce with internet firms.

According to various estimates, total online retail trade volume in China was about 800bn yuan ($129bn; £80bn) in 2011 and is expected to increase further this year.

Melanie Tan, the vice president of eBay, said the firm had seen a rise in its sales in China and was keen to explore further growth options.

"Chinese consumers are increasingly coming to eBay and we have seen a 40% year on year increase of goods bought by Chinese consumers navigating eBay.com in English," she said.

"We believe that in the future Chinese consumers will use eBay as a passport to global Fashion styles, especially for leading women's brands and accessories, and menswear," she added.

source: bbc.co.uk

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

Cher Causes Controversy With eBay Listing For Australian City Key

In a move more reminiscent of a downtrodden, retired NFL player, Cher is (allegedly!) hawking an exceptional item from her personal collection on eBay: an honorary key to the city of Adelaide, Australia, which was presented to her by the city's mayor, who is not exactly thrilled with the discovery of the auction.

Either Cher or a trusted confidante of the singer, put the key up for auction, which has left the mayor “exceptionally disappointed” with the iconic pop star.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports that the auction appeared a few days ago and the high bid as of this moment is a whopping $95,900 with only a few hours left. The key was presented to Cher in November 1990, as labeled on the key’s plaque, when she performed at the Australian Grand Prix formula one race. The description touts it as a “very unique item from Cher’s own personal collection!” and adds that the key will come with the original box, a hand-written sticky note and certificate of authenticity.

Mayor Stephen Yarwood isn’t happy about it, saying, “It must be very embarrassing for her if she is selling it because she needs the money.” (Editor’s note: Ouch! Editor's note 2: We doubt Cher needs any money following her recent, very lucrative Las Vegas residency.)

"I would have thought that getting the key to a city like Adelaide would have had some value to her, but obviously it doesn't because she wouldn't have got rid of it," he lamented.

Cher has been quick to react, suggesting through a tweet that it must be some kind of accident, writing, “Im upset 2& trying 2get2 bottom! I Think my office fkd up?” in response to a fan’s question.

That’s all Cher has mentioned of the incident. However, the actual eBay seller, known as "Linda," commented with further clarification. "Cher receives many awards and gifts from all over the world," the seller wrote. "At certain times she goes through her huge collection and decides to share many of these special treasures with her fans, with all the proceeds going to Cher's Charitable Foundation.”

The text begins to read quite defensively as the seller continues, "I think the city of Adelaide should be proud of what this plaque & key are doing for those in need or suffering. Cher is incredible, kind and generous and in no way meant to slight the people of Adelaide. Thank you for your understanding."

The auction is still up, so apparently it’s not too much of a mix-up for Cher to actually end its sale.

source: http://newsroom.mtv.com/2012/04/25/cher-causes-controversy-with-ebay-listing-for-australian-city-key/