What a yawner of a week for eBay. Besides one announcement aimed at eBay Store owners, there isn't much to report from the cubicles of San Jose. Fortunately, there's always interesting things happening in the world of online auctions. So, today, we send out the super sleuths of ECommerce Guide to see what they find.

Chris Tsakalakis, senior director of eBay Stores, delivered some welcome news to Store owners who have been casking for more exposure on the general eBay site. IN a posting on the Announcement Page this week, Tsakalakis said, "Starting this week, all matching Store Inventory listings will display at the end of the main eBay search on eBay.com and on eBay Motors. Store sellers will see increased exposure for their Store Inventory items, and buyers will see more qualified listings every time they search. As Bill (Cobb, eBay's el Presidente de North America) said, it's a win/win."

"For example, if you search on 'bow tie,' you'll see all the normal auction and Fixed Price listings as you did before. But now you'll also see all Store Inventory listings matching 'bow tie' listed at the end, regardless of how many auction or Fixed Price listings were found," he added.

Tsakalakis also said this is a large, technologically-complicated launch, and it might take some time for these extra results to appear consistently.

Going Global
QuikDrop International, a popular chain of eBay drop-off stores, is taking a proactive approach to boosting international exposure for its clients and trying to get a leg up on its drop-off store competitors. It announced Thursday that it will provide language translations for each of its approximately 15,000 eBay auctions per week on eBay.com into Spanish, French, Italian, German, Portuguese, Korean, Chinese and Japanese.

"Most of our competitors do not ship items internationally due to the increased complexity of foreign payments and shipping requirements. However, since QuikDrop does accept bids outside the United States, a very significant number of foreign nationals bid on and win QuikDrop auctions on eBay," Murray Mead, President of QuikDrop, said in a press release. "These foreign bidders represent the fastest growing segment of eBay buyers. Their strong currencies and buying power cannot be ignored. By translating our auctions into European and Eastern languages, we send a strong message to the international community of eBay buyers that we appreciate their business and will endeavor to make their experiences with us as seamless as possible."

The company says translations into Spanish and French will begin next week on all new QuikDrop auctions. The remaining languages will be completely phased in by the end of February.

Brown, eh?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported this week that Canadian eBay.com users now have the same shipping option as their American cousins.

Atlanta-based UPS has begun package shipping services for Canadian eBay users, letting them ship goods to buyers within or outside Canada.

The article says UPS has offered domestic shipping on eBay's American Web site since 2000. In December 2005, eBay.com began international package shipping through UPS for U.S.-based eBay users. UPS service options are now part of the Canadian eBay site. UPS shipping tools allow eBay sellers to calculate costs, request a UPS pick-up, track shipments, review transit times and print shipping labels all at the point of transaction, says the AJC.

Take it from us, our Northern neighbors, stick to the postal service. Our experiences shipping to Canada via UPS were no picnics.

Devin Comiskey is the Managing Editor of ECommerce-Guide.com.

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