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eBid Sales up 38 Percent, Updates Sellers on Google Shopping
By Ina Steiner
EcommerceBytes.com
November 05, 2012
eBid had a good month despite significant changes at Google that are impacting all online merchants - a spokesperson told EcommerceBytes that October sales were up 22% compared to the previous month, and were up 38% year-over-year.
The auction site is now paying for all traffic coming from Google Shopping since the search giant has eliminated free Google Product Search in the U.S. and moved to a paid advertising model. (eBid is headquartered in Europe but has exposure in over 100 countries, including the U.S.)
eBid said it has 5.4 million live listings and said October has been a "significant" month from a selling point of view. "Whereas before now any clicks from Google Shopping to your items were free for us, now they are paid for by us," it told users in a recent newsletter. "Other marketplaces will start to charge you for this traffic but on eBid your uploads to Google Shopping will always be at no extra cost."
eBid also announced it was instituting a new policy in which it will remove old listings from the site. Many marketplaces struggle with the problem of multi-channel sellers who don't update inventory when it sells out on another site. eBid said listings would now auto-close when there has been no activity on the seller's account for 60 days - it had originally been set to 150 days. Buyers will also now be able to see when the last time a seller logged in.
eBid also told users that the addition of Skrill (Moneybookers) as a payment option was going well, with tens of thousands of listings now accepting the payment method.
Finally, it had some news for international shoppers. Buyers can now purchase from members in Brazil, South Africa and Malaysia using US dollars. "Prior, due to currency restrictions in these countries, it was a little frustrating for buyers in general. We have solved the issue and streamlined the process so making it easier to buy from Brazil, Malaysia and South Africa," eBid said.