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On Friday, the Silicon Valley auction pioneer eBay announced it was purchasing the assets of San Francisco-based Kurant Corporation, makers of the popular StoreSense e-commerce platform. Kurant has actively built up its eBay Store integration within StoreSense during the past year, making it easier for users to manage multiple auctions simultaneously (see Kurant Adds Marketing Muscle, More eBay Integation).

eBay first became smitten with Kurant in March 2004 when the two companies announced the ability to integrate eBay functionality into StoreSense. They extended their partnership in December 2004 to accommodate the StoreSense version 5.8 upgrade.

Kurant describes StoreSense as a platform that lets companies add commerce to an existing Web site or create a sophisticated Web Store. Features include inventory management, supplier communication and integration with QuickBooks.

So what exactly is eBay up to with this acquisition? Could it be to reel in fees it feels it's currently losing through what some people call checkout re-direct tactics? Or is eBay's motive to simply improve its offerings to eBay Store merchants?

Many eBay Store owners take advantage of e-commerce management software like StoreSense to up sell and cross-sell during the checkout process to customers that are paying for an item won in an auction or purchased through an eBay Store. These items are more profitable to merchants because they don't have to pay listing and Final Value Fees to eBay for those additional items.

After the announcement of higher Ebay Store subscriptions and listings last week, many users are skeptical about eBay's motives. One eBay user said she feels squashing the sale of non-eBay listed items is exactly what eBay is doing with the Kurant acquisition.

"Last month 22 percent of my customers purchased additional items from me as they headed out of my checkout. I did not have to pay eBay fees on any of those items. I think they are looking to squash this behavior," she said.

Others feel eBay may be looking to improve on its Store offerings, which they speculate could include greater personalization, a shopping cart, or possibly an increased presence in non-eBay commercial sites.

Acquisition no surprise to some

In hindsight, some StoreSense users weren't surprised by the acquisition. One StoreSense user and former eBay Store owner Barbara Thomas, owner of RubyThomas.com, which sells vintage and reproduction clothing and other textiles, said she was contacted by eBay in the summer of 2004 to get feedback as "both an eBay store seller and a Kurant customer."

“With all the flak eBay has received about the recent fee increases, they would be wise not to spring another change on store owners so soon.” —Barbara Thomas Owner, RubyThomas.com

"Last summer two members of the eBay Stores team conducted a phone interview with me, asking how I liked the StoreSense program. Specifically, they wanted to know about adding products to inventory and traffic reporting. Did I find StoreSense easy to use, did I like it, how did it compare to an eBay store, etc.," said Thomas on Wednesday.

"They also asked why I felt the need to have both an eBay and non-eBay store and whether I thought the eBay store was a good value for the price. At the time I thought they were considering adding a shopping cart to eBay stores, but I have no idea what features of StoreSense they plan to use," added Thomas.

Even before the purchase, said Thomas, Kurant was an "eBay Marketplace." She said she has always been able to convert any item from her off-eBay store into an eBay auction, with the customer returning to the store for checkout.

Hani Durzy, a spokesperson for eBay, said it was too early to talk about what the acquisition will mean for the future of Ebay and its stores.

"We're not going into any details right now about our acquisition of their assets. The reason we bought the assets of Kurant is because it was great way to add value to our online stores. That's where we are at at this point," said Durzy on Wednesday.

When asked about the effect of up store owners selling and cross-selling outside of eBay, he indicated it wasn't a serious concern for eBay.

"We're aware that stores will often times use their own checkout process," he said.

Despite the speculation about what the purchase of Kurant's assets means for eBayers, Thomas had some frank advice for the auction giant moving forward.

"With all the flak eBay has received about the recent fee increases, they would be wise not to spring another change on store owners so soon," she said.

Michael Singer contributed to this report.