Under the new pricing plan, sellers who offer fixed-price items in eBay's "Buy It Now" format will pay only 35 cents to list an item for 30 days, a 70 percent reduction in upfront fees. The online auctioneer is also expected to announce that most customers will no longer be allowed to pay by check or cash--only a credit card or eBay's PayPal payment service will be accepted to complete transactions, according to an an article in the New York Times..

eBay also plans to launch a revamped search engine to give buyers looking for a specific item options to buy at a fixed price or via auction, according to a Reuters story.

"I'd say this is the most fundamental change we've made, ever, to the marketplace," Lorrie Norrington, president of eBay marketplace operations, told Reuters. "It's a huge shift from where we've been."

San Jose, Calif.-based eBay reported in July that second-quarter net earnings grew to $460.3 million, or 35 cents a share, up from $375.8 million a year ago. But the boost came largely from sales growth in the company's PayPal division; transactions at eBay's Marketplace grew only 8 percent, compared with double-digit growth in previous quarters.

Posted at 10:38AM Aug 20, 2008 by Kevin P McAuliffe in Inform  |  Comments[0]