eBay annual Developers Conference isn't exactly a place where you'll find small business owners and sole proprietors rubbing shoulders with developers. What you will find, however, are signs that the developer community is thriving thanks to the demands of small businesses on the Web, as well as several new business opportunities that are coming down the road.

ECommerce-Guide spoke with the Director of eBay Developers Program, Greg Isaacs, during the conference last month and asked him why small entrepreneurs should still be excited about eBay, and how developers and businesses are working together.

Isaacs said that eBay offers small businesses a bigger consumer market than they could hope to get on their own. "If you own a small business, you want access to a large pool of demand. [On eBay], you can gain access to millions of eyeballs, for as little as 35 cents," Isaacs said. "We make that process much easier. Hopefully, we've addressed the concerns of the storeowners, regarding pricing [in response to raising store subscription and listing fees in January]. We definitely heard them loud and clear."

One of the major topics during the Developers Conference and eBay Live was international business. When asked about the impact that international buyers and sellers have on eBay, Isaacs said the company's marketplace is the best option for businesses to get their feet wet in international e-commerce.

"Think about what it would cost to start up a business internationally," he said. "It's a big focus for us."

During his keynote speech, Issacs said that eBay has heard developers requests for help expanding their businesses internationally, and that roundtable discussions were set up for that purpose.

What About the Little Guy?
Isaacs said the first place he'd direct small online-business owners is to the Solutions Directory "That's really the place to go. There's software and system integration to do custom work. For non-technical things, we have providers that focus on auction strategies, template design, etc.," he said.

He pointed out a couple of companies that focus on teaching Internet business skills, which include "starter packs" and pricing how-to.

Looking forward, we asked Isaacs what eBay trends he saw developing over the next couple of years.

"It will be interesting to see more shopping comparisons, classifieds sites (like Kajiji.com) and how the acquisition of shopping.com turns out. These are new sites for us, and we'll see in the next year how they play out and how buyers and sellers take advantage of them," he said.

Devin Comiskey is managing editor of ECommere-Guide.com.