eBay and Online Marketplace News
EBay this week announced the eBay Partner Network, its new in-house affiliate platform. Starting on April 1, eBay and Half.com will no longer run its affiliate program through Commission Junction's ValueClick. EBay affiliates will need to register with the eBay Partner Network and migrate their links from Commission Junction to the new affiliate program platform.
In an e-mail message sent to affiliates through the Commission Junction platform, eBay said that the eBay Partner Network will offer its more than 100,000 global affiliates the same tools and benefits. This includes access to the Editor Kit and affiliate API, a flexible destination tool and the same payout structure. In addition, the eBay partner network will offer its affiliates several new features and tools including the following:
- global registration to multiple countries simultaneously
- new targeted banners and rich media
- new landing page optimization and geo-targeting capabilities
- additional detailed reporting capabilities for eBay's programs.
The eBay Partner Network and Commission Junction will run in parallel for one month, so affiliates have until May 1 to register with the new eBay Partner Network, confirm their registration and update their eBay links with their new identifiers.
For the month of April, eBay is offering a five-percent bonus for all traffic tracked through eBay Partner Network, including traffic sent to the Half.com and US, UK, Australia, Canada, Italy, India and Spain eBay sites. EBay's Tradera AB, ProStores, Inc, Reseller Marketplace, Media Marketplace, eBay Stores and StubHub will not be moved to the eBay partner Network, and will continue their relationship with Commission Junction.
eBay Rolls Out Safer Payments
On Monday, as previously announced, eBay's US Trust and Safety team rolled out the new safer payment requirements as outlined in January. Since January, all new sellers have been required to offer PayPal or a merchant credit card as a payment option to their buyers. This policy has now been expanded to include sellers or items when they meet one or more of the following conditions: the seller has higher than five percent buyer dissatisfaction rates, the seller has less than 100 feedback and the items are listed in categories with higher rates of buyer complaints, including: gift certificates, video games, cell phones, computers and consumer electronics.
In addition, for transactions that have a higher risk of buyer dissatisfaction, eBay may delay the release of funds paid through PayPal for up to 21 days. The funds may be released earlier if the buyer leaves positive feedback or if PayPal can confirm delivery of the item.
eBay's New Checkout
Last week eBay launched a new version of its Checkout that lets buyers pay for an item they've purchased. Changes include a selectable progress meter so buyers can gauge where they are in the process, improved coupon, gift certificate and gift card redemption and an automatic default to multi-seller checkout so buyers can go through Checkout once to pay for multiple items from multiple sellers. The new Checkout is being expanded to more of the marketplace over the next several weeks. Once you see the new Checkout it will be your new default, except in cases where sellers use a third-party listing provider. This eBay discussion forum details the new Checkout features.
In eBay Stores: Free Trial & New Contest
The eBay Stores team is inviting sellers to open a storefront during its free, 30-day promotion. To get a free store you must subscribe for the first time to a Basic or Premium eBay Store on or before March 25. Using eBay stores, sellers can create a centralized storefront to showcase all their Auction-Style, Fixed Price and Store Inventory listings.
In other Stores news this week, the eBay Stores division recently launched its fifth annual Best in Stores contest. Store owners wanting to enter have until March 31 to get their store in top shape, and enter their store to be judged on offering the best shopping experience, the best store marketing and the best design. The four top finalists in each category are voted on by the eBay community from April 16 to April 30. The winning store owners will win a $1500 cash prize and a paid trip to eBay Live! 2008.
eBay Live! 2008 Registration Opens
EBay opened up registration for the 2008 eBay Live! event, which will take place in Chicago from June 19 to 21. eBay Live! is a three-day event that is often attended by up to 10,000 enthusiasts who come to network, share tips and strategies and attend seminars. This year the exhibitors include AuctionCheckout.com, Auctiva, ChannelAdvisor, FedEx Services, Kyozou, Terapeak, WholesaleCentral.com, as well as many other business resources.
John Donahoe, eBay President and CEO, is expected to talk about the future of eBay at the Keynote Address. Those who register before April 30 will save $45 on the registration price and pay $75 to attend the event. The eBay Live! 2008 Web site contains a list of exhibitors as well as details on the developers' conferences and other events.
Perfume Bay Expands Name With Brand
The "Perfume Bay Versus eBay" was a four-year legal battle over trademark dilution and Infringement, called a David-and-Goliath fight by many, it seems that in this case the little guy just couldn't win. The courts ruled that Perfume Bay needed to change its URL to prevent confusion by consumers, and Perfume Bay has decided to give up the fight rather than appeal to the Supreme Court.
Perfume Bay CEO Jacquelyn Tran, in an official statement said, "Since we can no longer use the domain www.Perfumebay.com, we decided to evolve the brand to offer a superior online fragrance and beauty shopping experience." Tran plans to maintain the Perfume Bay trademark and use the new address of www.BeautyEncounter.com for the Web site at which customers can shop. You can read the history and details of the Perfume Bay and eBay dispute on Jacquelyn Tran's Blog, makesnoscents.com.
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