eBay - Internet Marketing News and Blogs

Online auction giant eBay is introducing some much needed changes to its search functions, making it easier for users to find what they want and filter out what they don't.

The changes will go live on the UK site in the next month but are already available to try out on eBay Playground. 

I have issue with the process of online media buying. Agreeing a spend budget for the month, researching a handful of websites, a few phone calls to negotiate the rate, booking a volume of impressions, signing an insertion order before sending over the ad-serving tags.

It feels too rigid, too simplistic, but most of all too much like offline media buying! But is that all about to change?

Jonathan Wall is the marketing director at Dabs.com, the online technology retailer bought by BT in 2006.

Here, we ask him about the company’s latest efforts around acquisition, conversion and retention, including a current project to digitise its print catalogues.

He also gives us some interesting thoughts on cashback affiliates and shopping comparison sites, as well as the good stuff IT manufacturers are doing to support retailers like Dabs.

In what is one of the more amusing lawsuit filings I've read in recent memory, Craigslist has fired back in its legal battle with eBay.

uBid, the US-based online marketplace for discounted products, is preparing to enter the UK in the coming months following a reorganisation of its business.

The company joins rival Overstock in targeting Europe for the first time this year as US merchants look to get their hands on more foreign currency. It will also provide more competition for the likes of eBay and Amazon in the battle to attract buyers of cheap goods.

uBid CEO Jeffrey D. Hoffman told E-consultancy: “We are looking to acquire both buyers and sellers in European markets and are setting up an office in Europe. It will likely be in the UK.”

US-based consumer electronics retailer Dyscern is a great case study of how to make serious money on online marketplaces like eBay.

The company, which started up only five years ago, is now sixth in Inc. Magazine’s list of America's fastest growing retailers and is reportedly the most rapidly expanding eBay Powerseller on the other side of the pond.

We spoke to Dyscern COO Bill Frischling about the pros and cons of eBay as an e-commerce channel for merchants, and how the firm is looking to ramp up its European sales.

Craigslist is more than just a popular online classifieds service. The bare-bones site created by Craig Newmark represents, to some, the epitome of the New Internet.

It is fueled by a dedicated community and Craig has eschewed the temptation to fully exploit its commercial potential for his personal gain, even going so far as to state "my exit strategy is death".

Most of the news that caught Drama 2.0's attention this week was primarily filled with drama in one form or another.

Reserve and collect services are all the rage at the moment as retailers integrate their online and offline businesses. But few – if any – have developed an equivalent offering for marketplaces like eBay and Amazon.

One company that is looking to do so, however, is footwear chain Schuh; one of the most prolific sellers on eBay UK. 

Chris Dawson is the co-founder of eBay-related blog TameBay and a consultant on how to sell via online marketplaces.

We asked him a few things about how eBay is developing as an e-commerce channel for businesses in the UK.