I spider tax man coming

Today is the last chance for many eBayers in the UK to submit their self assessment tax return if they haven't already done so. Not only that but by close of business today millions of people up and down the country will suddenly have lighter bank accounts as they settle any balancing payments from the 2005-2006 tax year and make the first payment for the 2006-2007 tax year. It's an expensive time of year but for those that have adequate financial planning an accepted fact of being self employed.

What of those happily selling on eBay that have "forgotten" about the tax man? Well I guess they'll be oblivious to the filling in and completing a tax return but will they get caught or are they home and dry laughing all the way to the bank?

A little known computer program called Xenon has been loose on the web for the last two years. Xenon is a spider which crawls website a little like Googlebot which trawls websites cataloguing everything in it's path. While Google crawls the entire web Xenon is more specific restricting itself to Internet auction sites such as eBay. Slowly but surely it visits each individual auction and saves them along with links to all other auctions from the seller. Then it's Identity Information Extraction Module correlates any information such as names, postcodes, cities, streets against national databases to identify mailing addresses and users real identities which can be matched with tax records.

Xenon originated in The Netherlands and now operates in four other countries as well - Austria, Denmark, Canada and of course in The United Kingdom. Next time you're wondering if your competitors on eBay are undercutting you because they're not paying tax relax with the thought that big brother really is watching. Time is running out for those cheating the system.

Move over Lumberton NJ, here comes the UK

It's official, the UK are the biggest eBayers in the world, with over £50 per head of population spent on the site annually. Last November, eBay launched a US wide search to find the most active eBay community and Lumberton, New Jersey was declared the winner. Now however the two biggest eBay communities - the US and Germany - are lagging behind the UK in market penetration.

It's easy to bring in good results when you have a large territory to cover, although eBay.com is actually growing more slowly, 17% growth compared with 32% growth internationally. The small size of the UK market in comparison to the US, shows we're actually leading the way for the other eBay marketplaces to follow.

It's just a shame that eBay persist in treating the UK site as a test bed for eBay.com.

eBay promise more off site links in search results

We reported Shopping.com links appearing in search results promoting sales on eBay's rival Amazon back at the begining of December. Now eBay are promising more off site links in the form of Google text adverts on search results driving yet more buyers off the eBay site.

Testing will commence on eBay.co.uk and eBay.ie for Google ads, supposedly in searches where few results appear on eBay. It does make sense that if a buyer can't find what they're looking for on eBay that they're directed to another site where they can purchase, but concerns have been voiced where a buyer can legitimately claim to have made a purchase clicking on a link on eBay but are directed to an off eBay site.


eBay have in the past educated buyers that the only safe way to purchase is to keep their transaction "on eBay" and now in a sea change they are to encourage buyers to leave eBay and purchase on alternative sites, and in many cases from eBay's competitors. Even worse having seen some of the results from shopping.com adverts buyers are directed to minor websites with no large company backing and no recourse for assistance if a transaction goes bad.

eBay should consider very carefully how the legitimacy of a safe marketplace could be undermined by buyers being directed elsewhere. There are enough stories where buyers complain they purchased on eBay but it was a spoof site, or they took the transaction off eBay, now eBay are going to encourage them to do so.

eBay fourth quarter conference call upbeat and positive

Meg had the enviable position of talking to investors shortly after releasing better than expected financial results. Apart from allowing that overall margin is down slightly and that Skype has room to grow and deliver more for eBay's bottom line the fourth quarter was cracker.

The worries that Google Checkout might impact the PayPal business were unfounded. In fact it's possible that the hype about Checkout went some way to increasing PayPals business as reality of PayPal's superior flexibility for both consumers and merchants bore fruit.

Finally something to look forward to - with the move of Philipp Justus from Germany and arrival to eBay of Michael Linton from bestbuy, Meg promises some innovative ideas will be coming to revitalise the auction format on eBay. It's true - we do love the fun side of business!

All in all as predicted much more upbeat than the third quarter's conference call, a strong performance with good results is always sweeter to swallow.

eBay fourth quarter financial results better than predicted

eBay released their results with $0.31 per share earnings, well up on the $0.28 predicted by the analysts. Trading on NASDAQ closed up at $30 per share but immediately jumped after hours and are currently at $33.40

Revenue is up 29 percent at $1.72 billion with PayPal contributing $416.8 million or about 25% of income.

eBay reveal that they are looking to peripheral business for future revenue growth. PayPal is performing well with little effect from Google Checkout, Skype contributed $66 million and the StubHub purchase is designed to attract new users to the eBay group.

The conference call between eBay and investors discussing fourth quarter earnings looks to be interesting, but largely we expect a buoyant forecast for 2007 to be welcomed. Most importantly competition from both other auction sites and payment processors appear to be having little impact on eBay's business.

Death of the Caravan

No, not the Brainiac style blowing up of a caravan as below, but death of the caravan on eBay Pulse. The Brits love their caravans, and for almost the whole of 2006 the search term "Caravan" appeared in the top 10 searches on the front page of Pulse. Sadly the mad rush for the latest must have games consoles have pushed the faithful caravan from the most searched for items on eBay.



eBay Pulse is a tool for sellers although many mistakenly think having their item showing on Pulse (which means it's the most watched on eBay) is a sure fire way to sell it. The truth of the matter is buyers don't know pulse exists, and neither do many sellers. What Pulse is fantastic for is letting you know the most searched for terms in any particular eBay category. This is priceless information for sellers when constructing an item title, do you for instance describe your caravan as a "Touring Caravan" or a "Swift Caravan" (or both if you have room in your title! Were you aware that "VW" (the good old VW Camper) is the third most popular search term in the caravan category currently?

Similar information is available specifically for your own customers from eBay Traffic Reports for those that have an eBay shop, and in this case it tells you the search terms your customers are using in your shop. If you know what people are looking for and give them what they want you'll get more sales. It's as simple as blowing up a caravan!

eBay España crippled by unannounced counterfeit policy

At the beginning of December eBay introduced steps to reduce counterfeit goods on eBay. It took another two weeks until they made public the new policy "Building Trust by Reducing Counterfeits".

Since then many sellers have found themselves being restricted from listing and fighting to meet the new criteria for selling. Suddenly finding your account restricted from listing designer goods with no prior notice, while eBay "conduct a review" of your account (which you may or may not pass), can severely cripple an eBay business. If you fail the review there is no published appeal process or even criteria needed to pass.

In general once a seller has jumped through the requisite hoops and passed the unknown "account review" they've been free to list and sell again.... or at least that's your own country.

Cross-border trade for certain types of items that are often subject to counterfeiting will be restricted as follows:

Sellers registered in the UK, U.S., and Germany may post these items worldwide.

Sellers in English-speaking markets – UK, U.S., Australia, and Canada – will be able to list and post these items freely across these sites. For example, a UK registered seller will be able to list an item on the US site.

Sellers in Germany, Switzerland and Austria will be able to list and post these items freely across these sites, with the exception that Austrian sellers won’t be able to post to Switzerland.

Sellers in France and Belgium will be able to list and post these items freely between these sites, with the exception that French sellers won’t be able to post to Belgium

Sellers in all other countries will only be able to list and ship these items domestically.

We've been hearing from Spain that eBay businesses are being crippled by the new restrictions. Previously able to trade freely across Europe, Spanish sellers of designer brands are limited to selling on the Spanish site to the Spanish market place.

Rumour has it a meeting is to take place next week with Maria Calvo, General Manager of eBay Spain, Klaus Gottschlich, Director of Category Management and Seller Development and several of the biggest Spanish sellers. The meeting will focus on the state of eBay Spain (currently some 250k listings per day) and why Spanish sellers are unable to sell luxury goods to the rest of Europe.

The situation is so severe that a website proposal has been advanced amongst Spanish PowerSellers as an alternative venue to eBay. The sellers involved all have their own ecommerce ventures but recognise the benefits of a large venue with a greater variety of goods than any one seller stocks. They propose a site only open to Spanish PowerSellers (who would pay a fee to fund the site) specifically to market luxury goods from Spanish sellers to the rest of Europe.

It's easy to see, with increasing pressure in the UK from programs like BBC Watchdog and around the world with Louis Vuitton & Christian Dior in Europe and Tiffany in the US, why steps to reduce counterfeits would be introduced. However the ramifications may be more draconian than eBay management in the US intended - after all the US, UK and Germany (eBay's three largest marketplaces) are free to ship worldwide. How much consideration was given to other countries is unknown as eBay have at no time made an official statement or posted on the UK or US announcement boards.

It will be interesting as Meg Whitman continues to gather the management stars from across the eBay marketplaces to San Jose whether growing marketplaces such as Spain receive more attention and are treated more equitably in the future. If they're not it may be the death knell for worldwide growth as eBay fragments into multiple closed trading venues and international commerce dies.

Meg Whitman reveals management strategy

Over the weekend Cisco announced plans to deploy more San Jose executives to India. Cisco plan to set up a globalisation centre with executives drawn from their top management based in San Jose, from acquisitions and competitors worldwide and of course those already based in India. Many other companies are following suit moving key members of their management team abroad to bridge cultural and language barriers and cement relationships with workers around the world.

At eBay though Meg Whitman is doing the opposite as revealed in a phone interview from Shanghai (reported by Associated Press). Whilst other companies are increasingly deploying US home bred talent abroad eBay is scouring it's worldwide management team and bringing the crème de la crème back to San Jose

What we're trying to do is to bring international talent to San Jose, not the other way around, but you have to have a leadership team that's global, and that's what we aspire to be.

Management moves already made public are Philipp Justus from Germany who moves to run the auction business, and Michael Linton who will oversee Motors, Stores/Shops, Express and ProStores. Gautam Thakar (formerly Country Manager, eBay India Marketplace) will become Senior Director of International Marketing reporting to Lorrie Norrington and Alex Kazim returns to eBay from Skype, demonstrating Meg Whitman's commitment to a management team with International experience.

eBay had their fingers badly burnt in 2006 with their withdrawal from China and no doubt Jack Ma's diagnosis still smarts - "Professional managers are making their bosses in the US happy, not the Chinese users." Meg Whitman's epitaph as "China's worst businesswoman ever" will not be forgotten quickly.

By scouring the world for leaders and most importantly non US personnel that understand the rationale and culture of their own continents and countries, to bring their talent to San Jose, Whitman is putting a formidable corporate strategy in place. To truly run a global business successfully you have to go local, just think of HSBC's adverts with the focus as "The world's local bank". It may be too late in China, but her current foresight in setting up a truly global management team may not only be her smartest move to date but could be her lasting legacy to eBay.

Parcelforce low cost Christmas deliveries

Send a parcel anywhere in the UK from just £10.99 for Parcelforce 48 and £11.99 for Parcelforce 24. The offer runs for all eBay sellers from the 13th to 21st of December 2007. Parcelforce will collect from your doorstep and deliver to your customer and you don't even need a ParcelForce account to take advantage of the offer.

There are some terms and conditions but this is a great opportunity to sell those heavier items and qualify for eBay Get it Fast. Let your buyers know their purchases will arrive in time for Christmas. This offer was previously only available to PowerSellers but is now open to all eBay sellers.

Of course if you need to send a lot of parcels it's worth opening an account so don't forget the free wine promotion.

Accounting for your accountant

It's almost the time of year to pay the final tax bill which prompted a visit to my accountant today. This got me thinking - just how does the typical eBayer view their accountant? A while ago in conjunction with another eBayer I wrote a guide "BOOK KEEPING, TAX & BUSINESS REGISTRATION" which examined the basics of keeping financial records. Many sellers on eBay appear to leave record keeping to their accountant and view them as little more than glorified bookkeepers.

Accountants should have a much more active role in a business then simple book keeping and completing a tax return. Discussions with mine today focussed on plans for the last three months of the 2006 - 2007 tax year to minimise next years tax bill. One possible idea is to purchase a motor specifically for business use - commercial vehicles can be fully offset as a business expense, VAT can be claimed back and all servicing and running expenses are deductible. This affects my decision to replace either my car or the 4x4 I currently use and of course purchase of the new vehicle can be done in the most tax efficient way possible.

The other good news from the meeting today is that my accountancy fees for the year will actually be less than previously charged. This is due mainly to keeping records up to date and leaving very little work for my accountant to do. The way I keep records is described in another eBay guide "Basic Excel Accounts and Book Keeping for eBay Sellers". By keeping records all my accountant has to do is tally the columns and include allowances for which there isn't a direct cost - like use of my home office.

To hand over a pile of receipts and sales data to an accountant is wasting their qualifications, book keeping isn't that onerous if done daily or weekly. Consider them as an expert business advisor and allow them to have input on shaping your business for the future. Don't make decisions and purchases and then expect your accountant to "get the tax back". Discuss in advance and find the best way to invest your money in the first place. Use them as the highly paid consultant that they are... you never know, your accountant may turn round and tell you they're reducing their invoice too.

The effects of free postage

Businesspundit points out an interesting article from Harvard Business School, which might add to the perennial debate amongst eBayers as to whether 'free' (i.e. included in the headline price) shipping fees are a good idea:

A "simple" all-inclusive price will lead buyers to focus on the main benefit offered, while partitioned price formats (main price + other charges) stimulate people to look into the details of what they get for their money. Thus, price framing can be used as a tool to induce consumers to acknowledge additional points of differentiation: a convenient shipping method or a useful service plan, for example.

With eBay, like many other online shopping sites, pushing free postage this Christmas, this seems to suggest that 'no shipping fees' isn't quite the universal panacea that people take it for. In my experience, the most important thing is clarity, quickly followed up by simplicity: a buyer who needs a calculator to figure out your postage prices is a buyer who's hit the back button.

Post and Packing Banned!!

Fee avoidance has always been an issue that eBay have struggled to combat. Fee avoidance takes many forms but the latest drive is to eradicate items with low prices but unreasonably high shipping charges - eBay have committed to crack down on this practice. eBay appear however, to be removing auctions with reasonable postage through ignorance of actual costs whilst ignoring auctions in categories where fee avoidance is habitual and blatant.

It is undoubtedly a poor buying experience to find an item you want at a great price just to discover that the postage cost is many times the bid price. This is especially bad when the postage price isn't shown in search results and a great argument for eBay to present total price, including shipping to the buyers location, instead of the item price. At the same time the practise disadvantages buyers who list the true selling price with realistic shipping charges as buyers are likely to home in on the lowest cost items bypassing the more expensive. This undermines the marketplace for both buyers and sellers.

Sadly their drive to rebalance the marketplace seem to be targeting the wrong auctions. Rather than concentrating on prolific fee avoiders they have been removing listings which have legitimate postage charges commensurate with the weight of the item and method of shipping. Recent examples of removed auctions we are aware of include

A heavy hardback book with postage charge £5.50
Actual cost £3.85 for standard parcels
Actual packaging materials £0.85
Total £4.90 leaving £0.60 for handling and sundries

Telephone equipment weighing 8kg with postage charge £12.00 (specified as courier delivery from a VAT registered seller)
The lowest cost on the ParcelForce rate card for 8kg would be £14.25 (plus VAT) so £12.00 is reasonable.
As an alternative a 3-5 day delivery actual cost £9.97 for RoyalMail standard parcels
VAT on £9.97 = £1.75
Total cost £11.72 leaving £0.18 for packaging and handling. (NB This is the cheapest method available)

In these two examples if eBay were familiar with actual shipping costs quoted by Royal Mail or couriers perhaps they wouldn't remove these auctions. To demonstrate just how poor eBay's understanding of shipping methods and costs are you only have to look at the examples they provide in the Excessive Postage & Packaging Charges Policy.

The Matrix Reloaded DVD
BIN: £3.99
Domestic Postage UK £2.00 Royal Mail Second Class
Explanation: The seller is sending the item via Royal Mail First Class parcels and is charging actual postage prices plus a reasonable fee for packaging and handling.

In this example just what postage are they looking at? Second class? First class? Standard Parcels? If eBay can't research shipping charges sufficiently to write their own policy it's unrealistic to expect their customer service reps to implement the policy with any understanding.

To make the situation worse statements from eBay to sellers whose auctions were ended have been "We want each seller to have a balance in their listings, between the price and the shipping cost. So therefore I urge you to adjust them" or "relist the auctions with a postage cost below the original costs to show you've complied with the policy" (How much below?) "Just a little lower". Such messages have naturally been treated with the contempt they deserve when actual or close to actual postage costs have been charged. Instructing sellers to incorporate shipping costs into the item price whilst others don't is not providing a balanced marketplace.

Removing auctions for sellers where postage is high in comparison to the item cost, but where weight is significant and suggesting that sellers reduce postage below cost and incorporate it into the selling price also raises accusations of profiteering on eBay's part. eBay make fees on final value prices (and on listing fees if starting prices are higher). They do not make fees on postage. It's worth noting sellers will simply increase selling prices to take fees into account degredating the buyer experience yet further.

There have been calls in the past for the postage to be incorporated into the item cost removing all ambiguity. This naturally raises difficulties when shipping costs vary between domestic and overseas destinations.

If eBay really want to start reducing fee circumvention they should look at categories such as MP3 players with shipping regularly ten times the cost of the item! Fee avoidance is sadly just the tip of the iceberg, sellers that resort to it often have grossly unfair and often illegal terms and conditions of trading. Examples include

"All items will be sent by Registered Air Mail and mark as "Gift"" (which is illegal and breaks Customs regulations)
Quoting shipping and in the small print plus "required insurance for the each item" (gouging even more money from the buyer without paying eBay fees)
"All sales are final, no return or refund will be issued" (so if it's faulty they won't help you)
"We reserve the right not to refund S&H when the item has been posted" (meaning if the product is defective they don't refund you for the grossly overcharged postage - just the couple of quid for the product)

Muddying the water further some fee avoiding overseas sellers with low price high postage products have started to incorporate Union Jacks in their gallery pictures to trick buyers to thinking items are located in the UK.

- Unhappy buyers who fall for outrageously high postage charges and compulsory insurance
- Unhappy buyers snared with illegal or unreasonable terms and conditions
- Unhappy buyers who have a poor buying experience trying to wade through auctions with unreasonably high postage charges
- Unhappy sellers who feel their auctions are removed unjustly whilst seeing many others remain
- Unhappy sellers unable to compete against those trading unfairly

eBay desperately need to get a handle on fee circumvention in general and excessive shipping charges in particular. In their own words "Listings that include excessive P&P fees lead to a poor buying experience and unlevel the playing field by putting sellers who charge reasonable P&P charges at a disadvantage. These listings undermine the trust and legitimacy of eBay’s marketplace." Trust and legitimacy works both ways, it doesn't include removing sellers auctions that have reasonable postage costs whilst the site is infested with auctions that not only blatantly avoid fees but have darn right illegal trading practices.

PayPal winning over google

Cramer (of CNBC) thinks PayPal is still winning over Google Checkout, this despite Google giving the service free of transaction fees for the next year. In a change of position he recommends buying eBay stock as it's undervalued.

Crammer also likes shopping.com yet another reason the group (who's day to day operations were taken over in July by Josh Silverman back in July) is becoming more and more important to the eBay group as a whole. This is one area of eBay's portfolio worth watching with business reportedly up this quarter by some 40% compared to last year.

PayPal success, shopping.com, a deal with Yahoo and Baidu.com along with some $3.2B in the bank have convinced the analysts that eBay is ending the year in fine shape and stocks are undervalued.

Philipp Justus leaves the problem child behind

Philipp Justus moves to San Jose to oversee the future of eBay's auction business and leaves behind the German site which Seeking Alpha today described as "quickly overtaking the US as eBay Marketplaces problem child". Whilst US business has grown slower than International Germany the second biggest eBay territory is experiencing the slowest growth. It should be noted that the UK have the highest GMV per capita in the eBay world so in theory there is the least room for expansion. We believe when the Q4 figures are released this will prove the opposite and that the UK will be impressive compared to the other territories.

Whilst Justus' career at eBay started in Germany his latest role covered Europe. Growing Germany to the largest marketplace outside the US is undoubtably an achievement, but it's the UK where the eyes of management turn to see growth today

Three steps to succeed on eBay

Businesspundit offers The Top 5 Reasons You Don't Need 4 Easy Ways to Start Your Own Business.

It's a truism that it's easy to get started in business on eBay. Just because it was easy to start doesn't mean it's going to be easy to continue, easy to make a real, long-term profit (that includes enough to pay your tax bill), easy to succeed. Amazon is filled with books that promise to tell you "powerseller secrets", the internet littered with "five steps to eBay success" articles, as though there's a kind of magic formula that you just need to follow and you'll be a millionaire by Christmas, Rodney.

Well, here's my three-step plan to eBay success:

1. Buy cheap
2. Sell as expensive as you can
3. Keep doing it

Step three is where most people fall down.

If you're now looking crossly at the screen, or going "duh, that's obvious, where's her insight?", then may I humbly suggest you stop falling for the hype about magic formulae? There isn't a special secret to riches, there's only hard work, and lots of it. But when it's all for yourself, even hard work can feel magic.

Inappropriate links undermine the trust and legitimacy of eBay’s marketplace

"Inappropriate links undermine the trust and legitimacy of eBay’s marketplace" is a direct quote from eBay's own policies. It has always been a given that links that permit off site sales were forbidden, but that's all changed

Shopping.com adverts have now started to appear on eBay, but only in certain categories. Not a problem you might think, but they're appearing in search results and pushing products relevant to the search criteria and worse are clickable to ecommerce vendors own websites. The display below was from a search for new sewing machines.


It is understandable that eBay would want to cross promote it's platforms. It's perfectly natural that sellers on eBay may want to pay to have their items featured on shopping.com as well as eBay, however the reverse doesn't hold true. Sellers on eBay have to pay to have listings appear in search results and many are still smarting from the reduced visibility of shop inventory format listings. Now adverts are appearing at the bottom of listings that have paid nothing to appear in search results, pay no eBay fees and direct eBay buyers to off eBay venues.

Taking buyers off eBay brings up a host of issues - Why are eBay sending buyers to competing sites for example amazon? Does this make good business sense? What about directing them from eBay to virtually unknown sites? What about trust and safety? eBay have always promoted on eBay transactions to be safe with feedback, buyer protection and dispute resolution. A buyer clicking through direct to a merchant website can legitimately claim their purchase was through eBay, although it's certainly off eBay.

This seems to be madness, eBay pay millions to attract customers, why would they want to let them go? Currently only a few categories appear to be infected with shopping.com adverts - we'd rather they weren't there at all. Promote the fact that eBay have other platforms by all means, but if sellers can't have links to their own ecommerce platforms then for all the same reasons shopping.com shouldn't have direct links to vendors on eBay either.

Boxing clever!

A delivery took me by surprise this week, I ordered more than I realised. No it's not stock for sale, it's packaging. My packaging store is just about full to the roof now with packaging boxes, bubblewrap, jiffy bags and parcel tape.

Buying packaging is one of those things I dislike - mainly because I'm convinced that most of it ends up in the trash when it gets to the recipient. The important thing is when buying packaging (as with most products) is that the more you buy the more cost effective it becomes. This is especially true with packaging because of it's bulk - carriage is often the same price to order one box of jiffy bags as it is to order three or four. Rolls of bubblewrap are always expensive to ship and to lower the cost I order by the truck load. This latest delivery was for four pallets of boxes and thirty rolls of bubblewrap - sending my own courier in becomes worthwhile as it's a full load anyway.



If you buy packaging then buy as much at a time as you can comfortably order. There really is no point buying a single box of jiffies each month when you can buy six boxes twice a year and pay the same carriage as you would for one. Just make sure that you have ample room to store it when it arrives!

This notice is not worth noticing

Seth Godin ponders why anyone would put up an "Under New Management" sign, calling it "a vivid symbol of the ego-centric nature of most marketing".

The most stupid (non-)marketing notice I ever saw was in a newsagents in Lyme Regis. The shop had a huge postcard display, obviously aimed at the thousands of holidaymakers in the town, which was topped off with a notice: Sorry, we do not sell stamps. I stood there in open-mouthed wonder that, if you get asked for stamps so often that you have to put up a notice about it, you wouldn't stock the stamps in the first place.

When I first started selling for myself on eBay, I made it a rule that if one customer asked me to get something for them, I always would. It was a great way to expand my inventory to what I knew people actually wanted to buy, and in some cases, what they just couldn't get anywhere else. Why send your customers sniffing round your competition when they could buy the complete package from you.

Get it Fast in time for Christmas in full swing

Following our prompt to add 'Get it Fast' to your eBay listings last week, the promotion to buyers is in full swing. From the eBay.co.uk home page buyers are directed to a custom Christmas Get it Fast search page. With two days of cheap listings to come this week it's an ideal time to attract even more Christmas shoppers by ensuring your listings appear in 'Get it Fast' search results.

eBay spot on with 'Free Shipping' promotion

According to Josh Silverman, General Manager of Shopping.com, "There's more competition among online merchants than ever which is great for shoppers as many of them are rolling out more incentives and discounts this year. In fact, according to our research, 20 of the top 50 merchants ranked by Internet Retailer are offering shoppers free shipping this holiday." It's good to know that both eBay.co.uk and eBay.com got it right with their promotions to encourage sellers to offer free shipping and to promote the auctions to buyers inspite of those sellers who decryed the move.

Shopping.com was created with a merger of DealTime and Epinions in April 2003. The site is dedicated to delivering the world's ultimate shopping experience, where people use the power of information to make the best shopping decisions. With their new branding as DoorOne in the UK they are going from strength to strength with traffic on the US Cyber Monday (traditionally the start of the shopping season) up 40%.

As an eBay company some eBay Express listings are now appearing on Shopping.com on a trial basis. This allows eBay Express sellers to reach an even wider audience at no extra cost and to help attract new buyers to visit and purchase from eBay Express.

Many sellers are concerned that shopping comparison sites encourage buyers simply to choose the cheapest product available but Silverman states "only around 20 percent of our shoppers click on the lowest-priced items, indicating each shopper's priority isn’t always to find the lowest price". That has to be reassuring and an added incentive to offer extras whether it be product, service, free shipping or a trusted brand.

According to a document by e-consultancy, shopping comparison sites continue to grow at 30% year on year so shopping.com and DoorOne will be increasingly important to the eBay portfolio of companies.