There's a popular saying that goes "the enemy of my enemy is my friend." This applies to business, war and cheesy reality TV show contestants. It now applies to eBay. A Wall Street Journal article today revealed the auction behemoth is getting more and more nervous over Google's foray into the e-commerce sphere. How nervous? Enough to seek help from Yahoo and Microsoft.
"eBay is worried about Google Base, the auction giant's free classified listings services. Wall Street analysts have long argued that plans to use Base to process payments from online merchants is a threat to eBay's lucrative PayPal business. Publicly, both eBay and Google have downplayed such speculation," writes TheStreet.com's Jonathan Burr.
In case you missed it, we posted our synopsis of Google's entry into the e-commerce space yesterday.
"Last October when Google Base was announced it was met with much speculation. Defined by Google as "a service designed to allow anyone to upload information about anything", it is intended for a wide variety of content to be uploaded by a wide variety of Internet users. While not specifically user-focused or for selling online, it still comes as no surprise that Google Base is seen by many as having an emerging role in e-commerce."
Google Base enables content providers to upload data with lots of attributes and descriptions (like recipes, events or real estate listings) to Google, so that the information can better be found when searched on Google.com and other Google properties, such as Google Local and Froogle."
"The recent addition of the Google Payments, an e-commerce transaction handler (currently in beta) that become available to a limited number of Google Base users provided fuel for much speculation."
Turbo Lover
Anyone who's used eBay's standard listing process knows how cumbersome it can be, especially if you're trying to list multiple items. Well, eBay knew this was a problem a long time ago and developed its own Turbo Lister. Today, eBay released the latest and greatest version.
Gui Bastos, eBay Product Management team member, said on the company's announcement page, "During the past year we've worked with you to make improvements to Turbo Lister, a free listing tool that helps make listing items in bulk on eBay faster and easier. We greatly appreciate the time hundreds of thousands of you took to try out the early release versions, send us your feedback, and participate in the workshops — a huge Thank You from us on the Turbo Lister team!"
Among the improvements, according to Bastos: "Easier listing process — Now you can create listings within a single page. You can also customize the options you want to see on the page, allowing you to look only at the fields that you use."
"Enhanced editing capabilities — Now you can edit your items directly in the main inventory list. Change the prices, modify the title, and make other quick changes from the list view without having to open another window." "Faster performance — We've also made some technical changes to the new Turbo Lister to make it faster and more reliable."
Reality Nightmare
We aren't exactly big fans of reality television here at ECommerce Guide, thinking this genre "jumped the shark" a long, long time ago. So we were dismayed to hear there apparently is no end in sight as ABC and eBay announced this week they are teaming up to launch a new reality show.
According to the Media Daily News, "The show, with the working title 'Make It Happen,' will focus on families who have inspiring dreams but lack the financial means to make them happen. The families will be given the chance to place their 'hidden treasures' — collectibles, memorabilia, artifacts, and other items — up for bid on eBay, where the proceeds will turn their dreams into reality."
"The show is expected to air this summer with two episodes per week: a Monday night show to introduce the families and their dreams, followed by a Friday show with a live culmination of the bidding on eBay for the families' items. In between will be five days of public bidding on eBay," says David Goetzl.
"The show is expected to serve as a marketing vehicle for eBay through brand integration in the content, the show's role in driving traffic to its site, and favorable PR as eBay plays a role in helping endearing families fulfill their wishes," he says.
As if the Extreme Makeover franchise wasn't bad enough. We'll give this show two weeks before it disappears. We have no further comment.
The Mystery Remains, But Customers Happy
Hundreds of customers were left hanging earlier this year after one of eBay's largest power sellers - GlacierBayDVD - suddenly closed shop with no explanation. This week however, several customers who thought they were out of luck after paying for merchandise they never received from the seller got some good news courtesy of buySAFE, Inc.
"buySAFE, Inc... (an) online trust and safety company for e-commerce transactions, announced today that it has successfully resolved all claims related to the collapse of GlacierBayDVD, once eBay's highest-rated feedback seller. buySAFE paid thousands of dollars to hundreds of consumers who paid for - but did not receive - merchandise from GlacierBayDVD, and ensured that every buyer who completed a transaction bonded by buySAFE either received their product or was fully reimbursed for their loss," the company said in a statement on Wednesday.
"In February, GlacierBayDVD shut down on eBay's marketplace and stopped shipping products to hundreds of buyers who had already paid for their goods. Because GlacierBayDVD was a buySAFE Bonded Seller, each of its affected customers was proactively contacted by buySAFE and was reimbursed for any losses. buySAFE Bonded Sellers are merchants who are inspected and monitored by buySAFE and whose transactions are guaranteed with a surety bond from Liberty Mutual at no cost to the buyer. In the rare instances when something does go wrong with a transaction, buyers can redeem their surety bonds for complete reimbursement," the company added.
We all have warm fuzzies now.
Devin Comiskey is the managing editor of ECommerce-Guide.com.
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