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ebay
eBay Inc. is an American multinational internet consumer-to-consumer corporation, headquartered in San Jose, California. It was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995, and became a notable success story of the dot-com bubble; it is now a multibillion dollar business with operations localized in over thirty countries. The company manages eBay.com, an online auction and shopping website in which people and businesses buy and sell a broad variety of goods and services worldwide. In addition to its auction-style sellings, the website has since expanded to include "Buy It Now" standard shopping; shopping by UPC, ISBN, or other kind of SKU (via Half.com).online classified advertisements (via Kijiji or eBay Classifieds); online event ticket trading (via StubHub); online money transfers (via PayPal) and other services.

Early history
In 1995, eBay, the largest online auction site, was just someone's new idea and the primary collectables being sold were beanie babies. Today, eBay has demonstrated effective entry-level ecommerce education opportunities resulting in 114 million users, 430,000 full time selfemployed eBay entrepreneurs, and 150,000 online eBay stores. As one of the fastest growing companies in the world, eBay has expanded into 28 countries and last year 28 billion dollars in goods were exchanged on eBay.
Auction Web was founded in San Jose, California, on September 3, 1995, by French-born Iranian-American computer programmerPierre Omidyar (born June 21, 1967) as part of a larger personal site that included, among other things, Omidyar's own tongue-in-cheek tribute to the Ebola virus.One of the first items sold on Auction Web was a broken laser pointer for $14.83. Astonished, Omidyar contacted the winning bidder to ask if he understood that the laser pointer was broken. In his responding email, the buyer explained: "I'm a collector of broken laser pointers."The frequently repeated story that eBay was founded to help Omidyar's fiance trade Pez candy dispensers was fabricated by a public relations manager in 1997 to interest the media, which were not interested in the company's previous explanation about wanting to create a "perfect market". This was revealed in Adam Cohen's book, The Perfect Store (2002),and confirmed by eBay. Reportedly, eBay was simply a side hobby for Omidyar until his internet service provider informed him he would need to upgrade to a business account due to the high volume of traffic to his website. The resulting price increase (from $30/month to $250) forced him to start charging those who used eBay, and was not met with any animosity. In fact it resulted in the hiring of Chris Agarpao as eBay's first employee to handle the number of cheques coming in for fees. Jeffrey Skoll was hired as the first president of the company in early 1996. In November 1996, eBay entered into its first third-party licensing deal, with a company called Electronic Travel Auction to use Smart Market Technology to sell plane tickets and other travel products. Growth was phenomenal; in January 1997 the site hosted 2,000,000 auctions, compared with 250,000 during the whole of 1996.The company officially changed the name of its service from Auction Web to eBay in September 1997. Originally, the site belonged to Echo Bay Technology Group, Omidyar's consulting firm. Omidyar had tried to register the domain name echobay.com, but found it already taken by the Echo Bay Mines, a gold mining companyso he shortened it to his second choice, eBay.com In 1997, the company received $6.7 million in funding from the venture capital firmBenchmark Capital. Meg Whitman was hired as eBay President and CEO in March 1998. At the time, the company had 30 employees, half a million users and revenues of $4.7 million in the United States. eBay went public on September 21, 1998, and both Omidyar

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and Skoll became instant billionaires. eBay's target share price of $18 was all but ignored as the price went to $53.50 on the first day of By early 2008, the company had expanded world wide, counted hundreds of millions of registered users, 15,000+ employees and revenues of almost $7.7 billion After nearly ten years at eBay, Whitman decided to enter politics. On January 23, 2008 the company announced that Whitman would step down on March 31, 2008 and John Donahoe was selected to become President and CEO.[ Whitman remained on the Board of Directors and continued to advise Donahoe through 2008. In late 2009, eBay completed the sale of Skype for $2.75 billion, but will still own 30% equity in the company

Logo
In September 2012, eBay introduced a new logo set in Univers. The logo was introduced to the main website on October 10, 2012.

19952012

2012present

Items of ebay
Millions of collectibles, decor, appliances, computers, furnishings, equipment, domain names, vehicles, and other miscellaneous items are listed, bought, or sold daily on eBay. In 2006, eBay launched its Business & Industrial category, breaking into the industrial surplus business. Generally, anything can be auctioned on the site as long as it is not illegal and does not violate the eBay Prohibited and Restricted Items policy. Services and intangibles can be sold, too. Large international companies, such as IBM, sell their newest products and offer services on eBay using competitive auctions and fixed-priced storefronts. Separate eBay sites such as eBay US and eBay UK allow the users to trade using the local currency. Software developers can create applications that integrate with eBay through the eBay API by joining the eBay Developers Program. In June 2005, there were more than 15,000 members in the eBay Developers Program, comprising a broad range of companies creating software applications to support eBay buyers and sellers as well as eBay Affiliates. Controversy has arisen over certain items put up for bid. For instance, in late 1999, a man offered one of his kidneys for auction on eBay, attempting to profit from the potentially lucrative (and, in the United States, illegal) market for transplantable human organs. On other occasions, people and even entire towns have been listed, often as a joke or to garner free publicity. In general, the company removes auctions that violate its terms of service agreement. Beginning in August 2007, eBay required listings in "Video Games" and "Health & Beauty" to accept its payment system PayPal and sellers could only accept PayPal for payments in the category "Video Games: Consoles".Starting January 10, 2008, eBay said sellers can only accept PayPal as payment for the categories "Computing > Software", "Consumer Electronics > MP3 Players", "Wholesale & Job Lots > Mobile & Home Phones", and "Business, Office &

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Industrial > Industrial Supply / MRO".eBay announced that starting in March 2008, eBay had added to this requirement that all sellers with fewer than 100 feedbacks must offer PayPal and no merchant account may be used as an alternative. This is in addition to the requirement that all sellers from the United Kingdom have to offer PayPal. Further, and as noted below, it was a requirement to offer PayPal on all listings in Australia and the UK. In response to concerns expressed by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, however, eBay has since removed the policy on the ebay.com.au website requiring sellers to offer PayPal as a payment option.

In April 2006, eBay opened its new eBay Express site, which was designed to work like a standard Internet shopping site for consumers with United States addresses. It closed in 2008. Selected eBay items were mirrored on eBay Express, where buyers shopped using a shopping cart to purchase from multiple sellers. The UK version was launched to eBay members in mid-October 2006 but on January 29, 2008 eBay announced its intention to close the site. The German version, eBay Express Germany, was also opened in 2006 and closed in 2008. At the 2008 eBay Developer's Conference, eBay announced the Selling Manager Applications program (SM Apps). The program allows approved developers to integrate their applications directly into the eBay.com interface.[ The applications created by developers are available for subscription by eBay members who also subscribe to Selling Manager. eBay maintains a number of specialty sites including the discussion boards, groups, answer center, chat rooms, and reviews and guides. eBay's mobile offerings include SMS alerts, a WAP site, Java ME clients, and mobile applications for Windows Phone,Android OS and Apple iPhone.

Acquisitions
StubHub
StubHub was acquired by eBay in January 2007 for a reported $310 million. According to CNN Money, 2007 was a very successful year for the company, handling five million individual transactions, more than in the previous six years combined of its history.Staffing at StubHub had increased to 350 workers by the time of the sale. Eight months after the acquisition, StubHub reached an exclusive agreement with Major League Baseball (MLB). They get a piece of the 25% in commissions StubHub earns on either end of a season ticket buy and sell transaction. Ticketmaster filed a lawsuit against StubHub and eBay in 2007, alleging "intentional interference" with Ticketmaster's contractual rights.

Skype
eBay Inc. acquired Skype in 2005 and significantly expanded its customer base to more than 480 million registered users worldwide. To focus on its core e-commerce and payments businesses, eBay Inc. sold a majority stake in Skype in November 2009, retaining a minority investment in the company. In May 2011, Microsoft announced that it had acquired Skype for $8.5 billion.

Craigslist
In the summer of 2004, eBay acknowledged that it had acquired 25% of classified listings website, Craigslist. Former Craigslist executive Phillip Knowlton was the seller, and he insisted that his former employer was aware of his plans to divest his holdings. Initially, eBay assured Craigslist that they would not ask the company to change the way it does business. eBay spokesman Hani Durzy stated that the "investment was really for learning purposes; it gives us access to learn how the classified market online works." In March 2005, eBay launched the classifieds service Kijiji. In April 2008, eBay sued Craigslist to "safeguard its four-year financial investment", claiming that in January 2008, Craigslist took actions that "unfairly diluted eBay's economic interest by more than 10%."[45] Craigslist countersued in May 2008 "to remedy the substantial and ongoing harm to fair competition" that Craigslist claims is constituted by eBay's actions as a Craigslist shareholder. In September 2010, Delaware Judge William Chandler ruled that the actions of Craigslist were unlawful, and that the actions taken by Craigslist founders Jim Buckmaster and Craig Newmark had "breached their fiduciary duty of loyalty", and restored eBay's stake in the company to 28.4% from a

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diluted level of 24.85%.However, the judge dismissed eBay's objection to a staggered board provision citing that Craigslist has the right to protect its own trade secrets. eBay spokesman Michael Jacobson stated "We are very pleased that the court gave eBay what it sought from the lawsuit.

PayPal
On October 3, 2002, PayPal became a wholly owned subsidiary of eBay. Its corporate headquarters are in San Jose, California,United States at eBay's North First Street satellite office campus. The company also has significant operations in Omaha, Scottsdale,Charlotte, Austin, and Boston in the United States; Chennai in India; Dublin in Ireland; Kleinmachnow in Germany; and Tel Aviv in Israel. From July 2007, PayPal has operated across the European Union as a Luxembourg-based bank.

The former eBay homepage.

Type

Public

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Traded as

NASDAQ: EBAY NASDAQ-100 Component S&P 500 Component

Foundation date

September 3, 1995

Headquarters

San Jose, California, U.S.

Area served

Worldwide

Founder(s)

Pierre Omidyar

Key people

Pierre Omidyar (Chairman) John Donahoe (CEO) Internet, Online retailing eBayClassifieds, electronic commerce, Gumtree, Kijiji,online auction hosting, PayPal,iBazar

Industry Products

Revenue Operating income Net income Total assets Total equity Employees Slogan(s)

US$ 14.07 billion (2012)[1] US$ 2.88 billion (2012)[1]

US$ 2.60 billion (2012)[1] US$ 37.27 billion (2012)[1] US$ 20.87 billion (2012)[1] 27,770 (2012)[1] "World's Online Marketplace." "Connecting buyers and sellers globally." "Whatever it is, you can get it on eBay." "Buy it, sell it, love it" "Buy it New, Buy it Now"

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"When it's on your mind, it's on eBay" Website Written in IPv6 support Alexa rank Type of site Registration Available in eBay.com Java[2] No 20 (January 2014)[3] Online auction Required to buy and sell Multilingual

Auction: eBay
Welcome to e bay: Get started with eBay Create your personal account or start a business account. Get started now. It's fast and easy and after registration l set a automatic bid now l am the higher bidder .By submitting your bid, l 'll be committing to buy this item from the seller if l am the winning bidder. Now l am the set the automatic bid of US $100.00 and Item condition: --Time left: 6d 20h (Jan 08, 2014 06:44:33 PST)

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Registration Process
By placing a bid on ebay, the user declares that they are legally capable of entering into binding contracts and that they are at least 18 years old. ebay products and services are offered exclusively to private users and not to commercial or partly-commercial resellers. The user must be registered Each user may register only once using their mail address (registration using PO Boxes or equivalents is not permitted). During the registration process, the user must choose a username. The username must not be offensive, be selected to deceive or miss-inform other users, may not offend common decency or infringe upon the rights of third parties. User accounts created during registration are non-transferable. The user account may be used only by the user and not by anyone else.

The Bidding Process

With each bid placed the price of the item on which the user is bidding increases by the amount specified (Forward Auction). A bid submitted by the user constitutes willingness of a user to enter into a binding contract with ebay and in the event of a successful finishing of an auction. A contract to purchase the item does not come into effect until the auction is finished and the last bidder has followed all the steps as set forth in clause number 6. Each new bid resets the remaining time for an auction up to, but not above, the displayed countdown reset value (usually, 10, 15 or 20 seconds). The one exception to this rule is when two Auto ebay bid against one another. The auction ends when the remaining time reaches zero. The user who was the last to bid then wins the auction. All other bids placed on the item expire and will not be credited back to the user's account or be eligible for a refund. ebay grants winners the right to cancel an order. This right is unconditional and begins from the moment the contract is concluded. If a user cancels a contract to which the cancellation provisions apply they are entitled to a refund of the auction end price they have paid in relation to the contract even if the goods are not defective in any way.

8|Page Unless otherwise stated, delivery will be made directly from our suppliers or from our warehouse to the address provided by the user.

Delivery: Varies for items shipped from an international location Seller ships within 1 day after receiving cleared payment. The handling time is the number of business days the seller will take to ship the item after receiving your cleared payment. A payment is considered "cleared" after the money from the buyer has been deposited into the sellers account. If the buyer pays by PayPal, the payment may clear immediately. However, in categories where permitted, if the buyer pays by check, money order, or check, it may take several days .

Payments: PayPal Returns: No returns or exchanges, contact seller with questions

Ecarter
eCrater is a 100% free online handmade marketplace. Unlike competitors, eCrater is less of a creative community and more of a way for sellers to have a personalized storefront. If you have an eBay business, this site allows you to create a professional looking store to direct customers to. Once youve created an account you can start listing items in no time. All purchases are made through Google checkout. We love Google checkout, so we love this setup. With Google checkout every purchase is connected with your Google account. When youve made a purchase, youll re ceive a confirmation email in seconds and you can save credit card information without worrying about security. Several sites use Google checkout as their form of eCommerce, so if you dont already have a Google account setup, creating one now will save you time in the future. Once youve added items to your cart, you dont have to enter in different information for each specific shop, Google checkout only asks for your information once and then it splits the payment between shops. You can contact individual sellers on eCrater for customized handmade gifts, but there is no option to save your favorite items to view at a later date. The only way to save items is to put them in your shopping cart. eCraters search function is also quit e primitive, allowing you to search by category, keyword and price range, but thats it. You cant search by seller, color or the most popular items. Because eCrater is a free online store builder, it has a comprehensive backend with administrative tools that allow you to customize the look of the site, promote your products through Google products and manage shipping zones and sales tax. You can even import all content from your eBay account, including feedback, items listed and store policies. Basically, eCrater is an easy venue to list products for sale with no listing costs. If you already have a following of loyal customers for your handmade items, eCrater would be an option to break away from a handmade marketplace that charges to list and takes a

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commission off of items sold. However, because eCrater isnt a creative community, it is missing the homey feel of the top handmade marketplaces. eCrater doesnt specialize in handmade items, instead promoting product categories ranging from art and collectibles to camer as and movies. Their art, crafts and home and garden categories are those that would most closely compare to competing handmade marketplaces. The craft category is then broken down into several subcategories. What eCrater lacks in handmade specialization, it makes up in selection. Its craft category is bursting with handmade gifts, handmade cards and more. We just wish there were a better way to navigate through the items. To contact eCrater, your only option is email. They do have an FAQs page and forum with current threads, but the only direct way to eCrater is through the email form located by clicking on the contact link at the bottom of any page. If you have questions about products, wed contact the seller directly. eCRATER is both a free web store builder and an online marketplace. If you are a seller you can create your own free online store in minutes. If you are a buyer you can browse and search among millions of products.

History
eCRATER is a free online marketplace and an ecommerce website builder based in Irvine, California. It was launched in the early fall of 2004 by Dimitar Slavov.By October 2008, it reached 1,500,000 items for sale in the marketplace and, as of January 2009, eCRATER has 65,242 active stores, and 95,773 stores have been created since its launch. eCRATER does not follow the online auction business model, it is more an online equivalent of a shopping mall. Its marketplace offers the products of all registered sellers in one place, while the web store builder allows sellers to have their own custom online store. All listings are "fixed price" and buyers can add products from several sellers into their shopping cart and buy them in one single order. Creating stores and listing items for sale in eCRATER is free of charge; also, "final value fees" are not applied to the merchants' sales. eCRATER does offer premium positions on its website for a fee, but this is completely optional for sellers

eCrater has a feedback feature just like eBay, and some of the better features of Feedback 2.0 were integrated, well before eBay launched them. eCrater allows sellers to accept PayPal and Google Checkout and has plans to add Amazon Payments. Premium Listings eCrater is completely free, but the site does offer premium positions. A position on the home page, which merchants can use to rotate their products, costs $100/month. (The position is booked through the end of March 2008.) A position on the top of all listings in a category costs $25/month per item and guarantees a premium top spot in the category. New Features Founder Dimitar Slavov said he has added new features since April, including an optional inventory control feature eCrater also added a "mods" system. "The idea is similar to the Wikipedia content control," Slavov said. Moderators make sure that all the listings belong in the correct category and are compliant with eCrater's policies. "As a certified Google Checkout partner we would like to make sure that all listings are compliant with Google Checkout's and Google Base's policies too. With this step we would like to improve the quality of the whole marketplace and make it more attractive for both buyers and sellers."

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Moderators receive a small icon next to their store name as a bonus for their efforts, making their stores stand out from the others. Slavov said eCrater is working on improving the search function, adding product attributes, adding express product listing and upgrading its bulk lister. eCrater will be adding some new features to its Google Checkout integration, and is adding Amazon Payments. "There are also some new features that we would like to keep secret at this point," Slavov said. eCrater Forums Unlike some other free sites, eCrater has a great set of forums. They have an entire board dedicated to suggestions for making eCrater better. They genuinely seem to be interested in their sellers and want to improve the site's functionality for all involved. There are some useful posts about how to get setup on the site, as well as technical questions. The forums have a decent amount of traffic too, so if you do post a question, you won't be twiddling your thumbs for two weeks waiting for someone to respond. Marketing One of the big questions new sellers ask is, "How do I get sales on eCrater?" On the Forum boards, eCrater sellers talk about using Craigslist and My Space to drive traffic to their site. Kijiji, local ads, and even flyers, business cards, etc., will help. Slavov said most of the traffic to eCrater comes from search engine optimization (for example, eCrater comes up on the top of Google results for searches on "free online store" and "free online marketplace"). eCrater also uses Google Adword advertising. "Most of the traffic for the sellers comes from Google Products and Google," Slavov said. "Some sellers are doing pretty good job in making their stores search engines friendly, others are using paid advertising or just relying on posts in blogs and forums. eCrater is nothing like eBay or Amazon, so bringing their own traffic is important." eCrater has great potential as long as they keep the simplicity and usability they have now.

origins
Dimitar Slavov, a programmer, started putting the eCRATER.com site together in early 2004. It took him about four months to code an initial version, coding module by module from scratch. His goal was to create an ecommerce marketplace that was nice and clean, where buying and selling was easy. Slavov eliminated any fees charged to buyers and sellers because he thought that online selling should be as free as it is searching the internet.[9] This idea gave birth to eCRATER, a free marketplace, just a few minutes before midnight on September 27, 2004 in Irvine, California. Despite some sources pointing to eCRATER as a competitor to eBay, Slavov says that his marketplace doesn't intend to take on eBay, but to provide an alternative ecommerce venue for both buyers and sellers.

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eCRATER's first store opened on September 28, 2004 and, as a curious fact, they never listed any product. By the end of 2008, eCRATER's listings hit the 1,500,000 mark and over 300,000 orders placed. As of January 2009, eCRATER has 65,242 active stores and has 462,000 unique visitors. As of March 2011, its traffic rank on Alexa is around 4,260.[1] Some eCRATER's selling facts: A CD by the rock group Motrhead was the first product sold, for $10.99. The most expensive item ever sold on eCRATER to date was a 2005 Chevrolet Corvette.

Services and future

The main service that eCRATER offers is a free of charge, customizable ecommerce website and, a free online marketplace. The website builder allows sellers to choose the color of the store template, as well as adding their own logo, main picture and category's pictures The product listings have a fixed price and can include up to 10 pictures, there can be unlimited product listings in a store and they are automatically included in the marketplace. Sellers can add their own text to the homepage, about, terms, FAQ and contact pages of their stores but, they cannot use any HTML code. The stores' back-end allows sellers to modify the store's look and contents, set up internal categories, add products, configure shipping and payment options and managing orders. eCRATER's stores also count with a bulk lister tool, [4][12] to upload a hundred or more products at a time, and a product inventory control. eCRATER's marketplace and stores have a shopping cart that allows buyers to pay with PayPal, Google Checkout, check or money order.[12] The cart is integrated with PayPal Express Checkout and Google Checkout.eCRATER is listed as a Google Checkout ecommerce partner and it offers integration with other Google solutions, like Google Product Search and Google Analytics. eCRATER has an internal messaging system to allow buyers to contact the sellers, also, buyers can use the feedback system to rate the transaction with the seller. The eCRATER community forums were launched on February 24, 2006, open to both sellers and buyers with the exception of some boards that are exclusively for sellers. . Main Categories: Art, Antiques, Baby, Books, Cameras and Photos, Collectibles, Computers, Craft, Electronics, Movies and DVDs, Home and Garden, Music, Sports and Outdoors, and Toys, Games & Hobbies.

Prohibited items
There are some basic requirements to list products on eCRATER: the seller has to be a registered user, all texts must be in English, all prices must be in US dollars and equal or greater than $0.20, and the seller must be able to ship throughout the United States. It is not allowed to post:

Body parts & organs Pirated materials and products Copyrighted materials (images & texts) Counterfeit designer items (replicas or imitation of designer products) Fake documents Illegal goods and services Personal information about another individual Prescription drugs

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Prostitution Currency exchanges The same or very similar content several times (even in different categories) Miscategorization Meaningless titles & descriptions Test items unless your store is put on-hold Free items and items with prices that are not "real" Items that are not for sale Pre-order items Firearms & ammunition Tobacco and cigars for smoking Live animals Mod chips or mod chips accessories

Customer supports
The eCRATER community forums are an important part of the site's customer support. Most common questionsand technical issues are covered on the boards and, if not, a contact form is available to direct the questions to the eCRATER team. eCRATER's customer support is not intended for buyers asking about a particular product or payment and shipping arrangements, those kind of questions are meant for the seller directly, as eCRATER itself does not sell any particular product.[17] However, buyers can request support if they're having problems with a seller or if there is a technical issue with the site that prevents them from making their purchase. Problems with sellers may include: non-delivery of product, selling of counterfeits, breach of terms and agreements, and others. Also, anyone can report illegal products being sold/listed, fraudulent activities and/or DMCAinfringement.

Type

Private

Foundation date

September 27, 2004

Headquarters

Irvine, California, United States

Key people

Dimitar Slavov, founder

Industry

Electronic Commerce

Products

Online Shopping Mall, Online Store Builder

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Website

www.ecrater.com

Alexa rank

7,835 (January 2014)[1]

Type of site

Online Shopping Mall

Registration

Required to sell

Available in

English

Top 5 Tips for Getting Started on eCrater.com

Choose your store ID wisely. When you set up an eCrater account (by the way, you can have your store up and running in only a few minutes), you'll be asked to select a store ID, or a name for your web store. It is important to select a name that you like, that is easy to remember, and that appropriately reflects your business. This store ID will appear in your unique eCrater URL in the form of http://storeid.ecrater.com. Take time to design your store. Now that you've registered on eCrater, let's start designing your store! After logging in to eCrater, you'll see a "Color Templates" button on the left-hand side; choose the one that best matches the products you'll be selling. For example, if you plan on selling electronics, go for a blue or gray theme. Also, to make your store look even more professional, we recommend creating your own 250x68px logo to upload. If you don't have one, you can use Vistaprint's free logo builder to get a basic one in minutes. Upload square product images to avoid cropping issues.When you upload images of your products, eCrater will automatically crop them into smaller, square images. To avoid messy and potentially off-putting thumbnails, make sure that the main item images you upload are square-shaped. Import your eBay listings. If you have an eBay store, eCrater is a great way to diversify your business quickly and easily to reach more buyers. eCrater allows you to import all items and product listing information directly from eBay. We recommend only importing a few at a time to start, as you'll have to go into each listing after the import to manually remove specific eBay references and add line breaks. Offer informative FAQs. Since you've basically just created your own store, you also have the ability on eCrater to create your own FAQ for your customers. This is a great opportunity for you to let your buyers know about your payment and shipping policies so that they feel more comfortable purchasing from you. This will also help facilitate the purchase process so that they aren't left with any questions about what kind of service to expect from your business.

Conclusion
All in all, eCrater.com is a fantastic alternative to eBay and is a great way to diversify your online business. In essence, you get to create and brand your own web store without actually building your own website from scratch!

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Also, eCrater frequently submits feeds to Google Product Search, so your merchandise will automatically appear on Google within a few days of posting your items. One thing to keep in mind about eCrater is that because the buyer base is smaller, you have to do some work to get people to find your web storeWe hope you found this introduction to eCrater.com helpful! There are many great advantages of this marketplace, and if you have any questions while you're getting started, we encourage you to consult eCrater's community forums here. You'll find many active threads dedicated to helping sellers get started and boosting their sales.

Auction
eCarter is not a auction website

Amazon is one of the most popular and well known sites like eBay. Amazon is a great eBay alternative for buyers or for businesses looking to grow their online presence. Amazon started back in 1995 and has since expanded outside the United States to have separate warehouses (and websites) for a number of countries (most notablyCanada and United Kingdom). Amazon's product lines include toys, baby products, sporting goods, health, beauty, clothing, groceries, DVDs, books and consumer electronics. Amazon now also offers e-book sales for the Kindle, Instant Watch movies and MP3 downloads. While Amazon has an extensive collection of products nearly 50% are served from third party sellers. Amazon's website also delivers reviews for each product from previous buyers allowing you to easily make the right decision on your next purchase. Amazon's popularity, shipping options and product availability make it one of the best sites like eBay available. Amazon.com

History
The company was founded in 1994, spurred by what Bezos called his "regret minimization framework", which described his efforts to fend off any regrets for not participating sooner in the Internet business boom during that time. [15] In 1994, Bezos

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left his employment as vice-president ofD. E. Shaw & Co., a Wall Street firm, and moved to Seattle. He began to work on a business plan for what would eventually become Amazon.com. After reading a report about the future of the Internet which projected annual Web commerce growth at 2,300%, Bezos created a list of 20 products which could be marketed online. He narrowed the list to what he felt were the five most promising products which included: compact discs, computer hardware, computer software, videos, and books. Bezos finally decided that his new business would sell books online, due to the large world-wide demand for literature, the low price points for books, along with the huge number of titles available in print. [16] Amazon[17] was originally founded in Bezos' garage in Bellevue, Washington.[18] The company began as an online bookstore, an idea spurred off with discussion with John Ingram of Ingram Book (now called Ingram Content Group), along with Keyur Patel who still holds a stake in Amazon. [19] In the first two months of business, Amazon sold to all 50 states and over 45 countries. Within two months, Amazon's sales were up to $20,000/week.[20]While the largest brick and mortar bookstores and mail order catalogs might offer 200,000 titles, an online bookstore could "carry" several times more, since they had an almost unlimited virtual (not actual) warehouse: those of the actual product makers/suppliers. Bezos wanted a name for his company that began with "A" so that it would appear early in alphabetic order. He began looking through the dictionary and settled on "Amazon" because it was a place that was "exotic and different" just as he planned for his store to be, and he believed it was the biggest river in the world, and he planned to make his store the biggest in the world.[12] Bezos placed a premium on his head start in building a brand, telling a reporter, "There's nothing about our model that can't be copied over time. But you know, McDonald's got copied. And it still built a huge, multibilliondollar company. A lot of it comes down to the brand name. Brand names are more important online than they are in the physical world."[21] Since 2000, Amazon's logotype has featured a curved arrow leading from A to Z, representing that they carry every product from A to Z, with the arrow shaped like a smile. [22] Amazon was incorporated in 1994, in the state of Washington. In July 1995, the company began service and sold its first book on Amazon.com: Douglas Hofstadter's Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies: Computer Models of the Fundamental Mechanisms of Thought.[23] In October 1995, the company announced itself to the public.[24] In 1996, it was reincorporated in Delaware. Amazon issued its initial public offering of stock on May 15, 1997, trading under the NASDAQ stock exchange symbol AMZN, at a price ofUS$18.00 per share ($1.50 after three stock splits in the late 1990s). Amazon's initial business plan was unusual; it did not expect to make a profit for four to five years. This "slow" growth caused stockholders to complain about the company not reaching profitability fast enough to justify investing in, or to even survive in the long-term. When the dot-com bubble burst at the start of the 21st Century, destroying many e-companies in the process, Amazon survived, and grew on past the bubble burst to become a huge player in online sales. It finally turned its first profit in the fourth quarter of 2001: $5 million (i.e., 1 per share), on revenues of more than $1 billion. This profit margin, though extremely modest, proved to skeptics that Bezos' unconventional business model could succeed.[25] In 1999, Time magazine named Bezos the Person of the Year, recognizing the company's success in popularizing online shopping. Barnes & Noble sued Amazon on May 12, 1997, alleging that Amazon's claim to be "the world's largest bookstore" was false. Barnes and Noble asserted, "[It] isn't a bookstore at all. It's a book broker." The suit was later settled out of court, and Amazon continued to make the same claim."[26] Walmart sued Amazon on October 16, 1998, alleging that Amazon had stolen their trade secrets by hiring former Walmart executives. Although this suit was also settled out of court, it caused Amazon to implement internal restrictions and the re-assignment of the former Walmart executives.[26]

Acquisitions[edit]

1998: PlanetAll, a reminder service based in Cambridge, Massachusetts; Junglee, an XML-based data mining startup based in Sunnyvale;[27][28] Bookpages.co.uk,[29] a UK online book retailer, which became Amazon UK on October 15, 1998.[30] 1999: Internet Movie Database (IMDb);[31] Alexa Internet, Accept.com, and Exchange.com[32]

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2003: Online music retailer CDNow.[33] By 2011, the website cdnow.com was defunct and in use by a different company. 2004: Joyo.com, a Chinese e-commerce website.[34] 2005: BookSurge,[35] a print on demand company, and Mobipocket.com, an e-Book software company.[36][37] CreateSpace.com (formerly CustomFlix), a distributor of on-demand DVDs, based in Scotts Valley, California.[38] CreateSpace has since expanded to include print on-demand books (POD), CDs, and video. 2006: Shopbop, a retailer of designer clothing and accessories for women, based in Madison, Wisconsin.[39] 2007: dpreview.com, a digital photography review website based in London; Brilliance Audio, the largest independent publisher ofaudiobooks in the United States.[40] 2008: Audible.com; Fabric.com;[41] Box Office Mojo;[42] AbeBooks;[43] Shelfari;[44] (including a 40% stake in LibraryThing and whole ownership of BookFinder.com, Gojaba.com, and FillZ); Reflexive Entertainment,[45] a casual video game development company. 2009: Zappos,[46] an online shoe and apparel retailer [47] Lexcycle,[48] SnapTell, an image matching startup,[49] Stanza, a rival e-book reader to Amazon's Kindle.[50] 2010: Touchco.,[51] Woot,[52] Quidsi, BuyVIP, Amie Street. 2010: Toby Press[53] 2011: LoveFilm,[54] The Book Depository,[55] Pushbutton[56] Yap,[57] 2012: Kiva Systems,[58] Teachstreet[59] Evi[60][61] 2013: IVONA Software,[62] GoodReads[63] Liquavista [64]

Investment[edit]

2008: Engine Yard, a Ruby-on-Rails platform as a service (PaaS) company.[65] 2010: LivingSocial, a local deal site.[66]

Subsidiaries[edit]

2004: A9.com, a company focused on researching and building innovative technology.[67] 2004: Lab126, developers of integrated consumer electronics such as the Kindle. 2007: Endless.com, an e-commerce brand focusing on shoes.[68] 2007: Brilliance Audio, the largest independent audiobook producer in the US.[69]

Product and services

Retail goods[edit]
Amazon product lines include media - books, DVDs, music CDs, software, videotapes, and software - apparel, baby products, consumer electronics, beauty products, gourmet food, groceries, health and personal-care items, industrial & scientific supplies, kitchen items, jewelry and watches, lawn and garden items, musical instruments, sporting goods, tools, and toys & games. The company launched amazon.com Auctions, a web auctions service, in March 1999. However, it failed to chip away at the large market share of the industry pioneer, eBay. Later, the company launched a fixed-price marketplace business, zShops, in September 1999, and the now defunct partnership with Sotheby's, called Sothebys.amazon.com, in November. Auctions and zShops evolved into Amazon Marketplace, a service launched in November 2000 that let customers sell used books, CDs, DVDs, and other products alongside new items. Today, Amazon Marketplace's main rival is eBay's Half.com service.[citation needed]

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In August 2007, Amazon announced AmazonFresh, a grocery service offering perishable andnonperishable foods. Customers can have orders delivered to their homes at dawn or during a specified daytime window. Delivery was initially restricted to residents of Mercer Island, Washington, and was later expanded to several ZIP codes in Seattle proper.[106] AmazonFresh also operated pick-up locations in the suburbs of Bellevue and Kirkland from summer 2007 through early 2008. In 2012, Amazon announced the launch of Vine.com for buying green products, including groceries, household items, and apparel.[107]It is part of Quidsi, the company that Amazon bought in 2010 that also runs the sites Diapers.com (baby), Wag.com (pets), andYoYo.com (toys).[107] Amazon also owns other e-commerce sites like Shopbop.com, Woot.com, and Zappos.com.[107] Amazon's Subscribe & Save program offers a discounted price on an item (usually sold in bulk), free shipping on every Subscribe & Save shipment, and automatic shipment of the item every one, two, three, or six months. [108] In 2013, Amazon launched its site in India, amazon.in. It has started with electronic goods and plans to expand into fashion apparel, beauty, home essentials, and healthcare categories by the end of 2013. [citation needed]

Consumer electronics[edit]
In November 2007, Amazon launched Amazon Kindle, an e-book reader which downloads content over "Whispernet", via Sprint's EV-DO wireless network. The screen uses E Ink technology to reduce battery consumption and to provide a more legible display. As of March 2011, the stated library numbers over 850,000 titles. [citation needed] In September 2011, Amazon announced its entry into the tablet computer market by introducing the Kindle Fire, which runs a customized version of the operating system Android. The exceedingly low pricing of Fire ($199 USD[when?][citation needed]) was widely perceived as a strategy backed by Amazon's revenue from its content sales, to be stimulated by sales of the Fire. In September 2012, Amazon unveiled the second generation tablet, called the Kindle Fire HD. On September 25, 2013, Amazon.com unveiled its third generation tablet, called Kindle Fire HDX.[109] In October 2013, the sixth generation Kindle was released.

Digital content[edit]

Amazon Kindle Fire HD 8.9" Tablet

Amazon's Honor System was launched in 2001 to allow customers to make donations or buy digital content, with Amazon collecting a percentage of the payment plus a fee. The service was discontinued in 2008 [110] and replaced by Amazon Payments. Amazon MP3, its own online music store, launched in the US on September 25, 2007, selling downloads exclusively in MP3 format without digital rights management.[111] (In addition to copyright law, Amazon's terms of use agreements restrict use of the MP3s, but Amazon does not use DRM to enforce those terms.)[112] Amazon MP3 sells music from theBig 4 record labels EMI, Universal, Warner Bros. Records, and Sony Music, as well as independents. Prior to the launch of this service,

18 | P a g e
Amazon made an investment in Amie Street, a music store with a variable pricing model based on demand.[113] Amazon MP3 was the first online offering of DRM-free music from all four major record companies. [114][115][116][117] In January 2008, Amazon began rolling out its MP3 service to subsidiary websites worldwide. [118] In December 2008, Amazon MP3 was made available in the UK. In July 2010, Amazon announced that e-book sales for its Kindle reader outnumbered sales of hardcover books for the first time ever during the second quarter of 2010. Amazon claims that, during that period, 143 e-books were sold for every 100 hardcover books, including hardcovers for which there is no digital edition; and during late June and early July, sales rose to 180 digital books for every 100 hardcovers. [119] On March 22, 2011, Amazon launched the Amazon Appstore for Android devices and was made available in over 200 countries.[120] In 2011, Amazon announced that it was releasing a Mac download store to offer dozens of games and hundreds of pieces of software for Apple computers.[121] On August 2012, Amazon announced it would be adding a gaming department to its company titled Amazon Game Studios. Amazon states that they will be bringing, "innovative, fun and well-crafted games."[122] In January 2013, Amazon launched AutoRip, a digital music service. The service allows customers to receive a free MP3 copy of select CDs purchased through Amazon.[123] Amazon announced in September 2013 that they would launch Kindle MatchBook in October 2013, a similar service for books allowing customers who buy books from Amazon to acquire a ebook copy for free or at a discounted price of $3 or less. [124] MatchBook was launched on their site on October 29, 2013.[125][126]

Amazon Art[edit]
In August 2013 Amazon launched Amazon Art as an online marketplace selling original and limited edition fine art from selected galleries.[127] The initial 40000 items listed for sale included Norman Rockwell's painting Willie Gillis: Package from Home priced at $4.85 million, "L'Enfant a la tasse" by Claude Monet for $1.45 million and Andy Warhol's "Sachiko" for $45 000.[128]

Amazon Instant Video[edit]

Main article: Amazon Instant Video

Amazon Prime[edit]
Amazon Prime is a service of free two-day shipping on all eligible purchases, for a flat annual fee, as well as discounted one-day shipping rates.[129] Amazon launched the program in the contiguous United States in 2005, in Japan, the United Kingdom and Germany in 2007, in France (as "Amazon Premium") in 2008, in Italy in 2011 and in Canada in 2013. Amazon Prime membership in the United States also provides Amazon Instant Video, the instant streaming of selected movies and TV shows at no additional cost, as of February 2011. [130] In November 2011, it was announced that Prime members have access to the Kindle Owners Lending Library, which allows users to borrow certain popular titles for free reading on Kindle hardware, up to one book a month, with no due date. [131]

Private labels and exclusive marketing arrangements[edit]

In August 2005,[132] Amazon began selling products under its own private label, "Pinzon"; the trademark applications indicated that the label would be used for textiles, kitchen utensils, and other household goods.[132] In March 2007, the company applied to expand the trademark to cover a more diverse list of goods and to register a new design consisting of the "word PINZON in stylized letters with a notched letter "O" which appears at the "one o'clock" position". [133] Coverage by the trademark grew to include items such as paints, carpets, wallpaper, hair accessories, clothing, footwear, headgear, cleaning products, and jewelry.[133] In September 2008, Amazon filed to have the name registered. USPTO has finished its review of the application, but Amazon has yet to receive an official registration for the name.

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AmazonBasics is a private-label consumer electronics product line. It sells AV cables, blank DVD media and other electronics products under the AmazonBasics product label. [134] The line was launched in 2009.[135] An Amazon.com exclusive is a product, usually a DVD, that is available exclusively on Amazon.com. Some DVDs are produced by the owner of the film/product, while others are produced by Amazon.com itself. The DVDs produced by Amazon are made using their "CreateSpace" program, in which DVDs are created, upon ordering, using DVD-R technology. The DVDs are then shipped about two days later. Some DVDs (such as the Jersey Shore Season 1 or The Unusuals Season 1) first release their DVD on Amazon as an Amazon.com Exclusive for a limited time before being released elsewhere. On May 23, 2011, Amazon.com allowed customers to download Lady Gaga's Born This Way album for $0.99, resulting in some downloads being delayed, due to an extremely high volume of downloads.[136] Amazon provides fast and inexpensive self publishing services through one of its companies, CreateSpace, a member of the Amazon group of companies, allowing authors to easily offer their content to millions of customers on Amazon.com and other methods.[137]

Computing services[edit]

AWS Summit 2013 event in NYC.

Amazon launched Amazon Web Services (AWS) in 2002, which provides programmatic access to latent features on its website. Amazon Web Services (AWS) was first launched as a public beta of Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud running Microsoft Windows Server and Microsoft SQL Server.[138] This was later expanded to several operating systems, including various flavors of Linux and OpenSolaris. In November 2005, amazon.com began testing Amazon Mechanical Turk, an application programming interface (API) allowing programs to dispatch tasks to human processors. In March 2006, Amazon launched an online storage service called Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3). An unlimited number of data objects, from 1 byte to 5 terabytes in size, can be stored in S3 and distributed via HTTP or BitTorrent. The service charges monthly fees for data stored and transferred. In 2006, Amazon introduced Amazon Simple Queue Service (Amazon SQS), a distributed queue messaging service, and product wikis (later folded into Amapedia) and discussion forums for certain products using guidelines that follow standard message board conventions. Also in 2006, Amazon introduced Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2), a virtual site farm, allowing users to use the Amazon infrastructure to run applications ranging from running simulations to web hosting. In 2008, Amazon improved the service by adding Elastic Block Store (EBS), offering persistent storage for Amazon EC2 instances andElastic IP addresses, and offering static IP addresses designed for dynamic cloud computing. Amazon introduced SimpleDB, a database system, allowing users of its other infrastructure to utilize a high-reliability, highperformance database system. Amazon continues to refine and add services to AWS, adding such services as Scalable DNS service (Amazon Route 53), payment handling, and AWS specific APIs for their Mechanical Turk service.

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In August 2012, Amazon announced Amazon Glacier, a low-cost online file storage web service that provides reliable data archiving, storage, and backup.[139] In November 2012 at AWS' web developer conference in Las Vegas it announced it was targeting large companies as cloud storage clients. It will further cut its S3 prices to customers with long-term contracts in its "Redshift" storage service launching in 2013. In March 2013 Amazon announced its Mobile Ads API for developers. The new Ads API can be used on apps distributed on any Android platform as long as the app is also available on Amazons Appstore.[140]

Content production[edit]
Amazon Publishing is Amazon's publishing unit.[141] It is composed of AmazonEncore,[142] AmazonCrossing,[143] Montlake Romance,[144] Thomas & Mercer,[145] 47 North,[146] and Powered by Amazon. Additional imprints are planned. Launched in 2005, Amazon Shorts offered exclusive short stories and non-fiction pieces from best-selling authors for immediate download. By June 2007, the program had over 1,700 pieces and was adding about 50 new pieces per week. The program was discontinued on June 1, 2010.[147][148] In 2008, Amazon expanded into film production, producing the film The Stolen Child with 20th Century Fox.[149]

Donations[edit]
Amazon also created "channels" to benefit certain causes. In 2004, Amazon allowed customers to donate $5 to $200 to the campaigns of 2004 US presidential hopefuls, providing links that raised $300,000 for the candidates. [150] Amazon has periodically reactivated a Red Cross donation channel after crises such as Hurricane Sandy, Hurricane Katrina, and the 2004 earthquake and tsunami in the Indian Ocean. By January 2005, nearly 200,000 people had donated over $15.7 million in the US.[151]

Amazon Local[edit]
Amazon Local is a daily deal service launched in June 2011 in Boise, Idaho.[152] As of 2013, Amazon Local offers daily deals to over 100 regions in 36 US states. Amazon Local also acts as a deal aggregator; some of the deals are actually offered through LivingSocial, a firm in which Amazon has heavily invested. [153]

AmazonWireless[edit]
In July 2009, Amazon.com launched their AmazonWireless website, [154] which offers cellular devices and service plans for Verizon Wireless, AT&T, Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile in the US.[155]

AmazonFresh[edit]
Main article: AmazonFresh

Amazon Prime Air[edit]

Announced on December 1, 2013 on 60 Minutes, Amazon Prime Air is a possible future delivery service expected to be many more years in development. It would use drones to deliver small packages (less than five pounds) within 30 minutes by flying short distances (1020 km) from local Amazon Fulfillment Centers.[156][157] The project will require the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) to approve commercial use of unmanned drones. [158] Although such approval could be in place as early as 2015, the project is still expected to be a few years off. [159]

Other services[edit]
In 2007, Amazon launched Amapedia, a now-defunct wiki for user-generated content to replace ProductWiki, and the video on demandservice Amazon Unbox. Also in 2007, Amazon launched Amazon Vine, which allows reviewers free access to pre-release products from vendors in return for posting a review, as well as a payment service specifically targeted at developers, Amazon FPS.[citation needed]

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IMDb and Amazon launched a website called SoundUnwound for browsing music metadata with wiki-like user contribution in September 2007; this data was also used for Amazon's Artist Pages. [160] Soundunwound ceased existence on June 18, 2012, and the site redirected to Amazon. Amazon Connect enables authors to post remarks on their book pages to customers. Amazon Webstore allows businesses to create custom e-commerce websites using Amazon technology. Sellers pay a commission of 1-2%, plus credit-card processing fees and fraud protection, and a subscription fee which ranges from $0 to $39.99 per month depending on the bundle option for an unlimited number of listings. [161] Amazon has chosen very few companies to become their implementation solution provider, and they are 4C Media, Absolute Webstores, atmosol, eCatalog, Explore Consulting, GoWebBaby,Kaushalam, KLoc Technologies, Luxor Design, SynapseIndia, and V Group. These companies ecourages traders to have their own webstore with easy guidance and solutions

Reviews
Amazon allows users to submit reviews to the web page of each product. Reviewers must rate the product on a rating scale from one to five stars. Amazon provides a badging option for reviewers which indicate the real name of the reviewer (based on confirmation of a credit card account) or which indicate that the reviewer is one of the top reviewers by popularity. Customers may comment or vote on the reviews, indicating whether or not they found it helpful to them. If a review is given enough "helpful" hits, it appears on the front page of the product. In 2010, Amazon was reported as being the largest single source of Internet consumer reviews.[166] Amazon's customer reviews are monitored for indecency, but do permit negative comments. When publishers asked Bezos why Amazon would publish negative reviews, he defended the practice by claiming that amazon.com was "taking a different approach...we want to make every book available the good, the bad, and the ugly...to let truth loose".[167] Although reviews are attributed to the credit-card name of the reviewer, there have been cases of positive reviews being written and posted by a public relations company on behalf of its clients,[168] and writers employing pseudonyms to leave negative reviews of their rivals' work. [169] Following listing for sale of Untouchable: The Strange Life and Tragic Death of Michael Jackson a disparaging biography of Michael Jackson by Randall Sullivan his fans, organized via social media as "Michael Jacksons Rapid Response Team to Media Attacks" bombarded Amazon with negative reviews and negative ratings of positive reviews

Amazon sale rank

The Amazon sales rank (ASR) provides an indication of the popularity of a product sold on any Amazon locale. It is a relative indicator of popularity that is updated hourly. Effectively, it is a "best sellers list" for the millions of products stocked by Amazon.[179] While the ASR has no direct effect on the sales of a product, it is used by Amazon to determine which products to include in their best sellers lists.[179] Products that appear in these lists enjoy additional exposure on the Amazon website, and this may lead to an increase in sales. In particular, products that experience large jumps (up or down) in their sales ranks may be included within Amazon's lists of "movers and shakers," and this also provides additional exposure that may lead to an increase in sales.[180] For competitive reasons, Amazon does not release actual sales figures to the public. However, Amazon has now begun to release point of sale data via theNielsen BookScan service to verified authors.[181] While the ASR has been the source of much speculation by publishers, manufacturers and marketers, Amazon itself does not release the details of its sales rank calculation algorithm. In addition, it states:

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Please keep in mind that our sales rank figures are simply meant to be a guide of general interest for the customer and not definitive sales information for publishers - we assume you have this information regularly from your distribution sources

Amazon technology
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Information Management (IM) support Amazons business strategy. The core technology that keeps Amazon running is Linux-based. As of 2005, Amazon had the worlds three largest Linux databases, with capacities of 7.8 TB, 18.5 TB, and 24.7 TB. The central data warehouse of Amazon is made of 28 Hewlett Packard servers with four CPUs per node running Oracle database software. Amazons technology architecture handles millions of back-end operations every day, as well as queries from more than half a million third-party sellers. With hundreds of thousands of people sending their credi t card numbers to Amazons servers everyday, security becomes a major concern. Amazon employs Netscape Secure Commerce Server using the Secure Socket Layer protocol which stores all credit card details in a separate database. The company also records data on customer buyer behavior which enables them to offer or recommend to an individual specific item, or bundles of items based upon preferences demonstrated through purchases or items visited.[183] On January 31, 2013 Amazon experienced an outage that lasted approximately 49 minutes, leaving its site inaccessible to some customers.[184]

Auction No amazon is not auction site cQout

CQout (pronounced 'Seek You Out') is an online auction company which is based in the UK and trades nationally in over 80 countries. CQout was launched in 1999 by three London Business School Graduates, namely Tony Newton, founder and creative director, Siamak Bashi, now the company's CEO, and Mike Rees. By number of items listed, CQout is the UK's 2nd largest online auction website listing around million in December 2006, million in September 2007 and almost million in August 2008. Listing items for auction on CQout is free in order to offer its sellers a 'no sale, no fee' service. A proportion of the final selling price for each item sold via the CQout website is taken as an alternative to charging listing fees. CQout charges a commission on each sale contract relative to its final selling price. This commission is payable by the seller on formation of a contract of sale. CQout has been providing a secure online auction website since 1999. With reasonable fees and a resolution
center for sellers and buyers, both can feel safe doing business on this site.

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The selling fees with CQout are reasonable and easy to understand. To set up an online auction account as a seller, you pay a onetime verification charge of $3.22 so that the site can verify your identity. This safety feature prevents people from setting up accounts under fraudulent names and helps ensure a safe marketplace. There are no upfront listing fees to sell your items and if an item fails to sell on the first try, you can re-list it as many times as you want at no extra charge. However, you do have to pay a backend fee when your item sells, known as a commission. This charge varies depending on the cost of the item you sell. For example, you will pay 5.4 percent of total costs up to $50.00 and 3.6 percent for selling totals of $1,000.00 or more. There are fees for optional enhancement features, including a charge of $0.16 for additional photos. Since you only get one image with each listing, this cost can add up if you want a lot of images for a single item.If you want to buy products on this site, CQout offers a unique payment method called SecurePay. SecurePay is CQout's in-house escrow service that holds your money until after you examine your purchase. After you have received your goods and are satisfied, you notify the seller. At that time, SecurePay releases the funds to the seller. The best part about SecurePay is that as a buyer, you are guaranteed a refund if the item is not as described. CQout offers an email address and telephone number for customer assistance. Since the company's headquarters are located outside of the USA, contacting them for support by telephone is a challenge. However, the company FAQs page is well organized and it is easy to find answers to any questions you may have.

Summary:
CQout offers you a safe online auction site to sell and shop online with their SecurePay system. Although it is hard to get customer help in real-time, you can find answers to your questions on the website.

CQout

Type

Limited Company

Foundation date

London, UK (1999)

Headquarters

Reading, UK

Industry

Auctions, Electronic commerce

Products

Online auction hosting, Online payment systems, Electronic funds transfer

Slogan(s)

The UK's 2nd largest online marketplace

Website

www.cqout.com

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Type of site

online auction

Registration

required to buy and sell

Payment options
Sellers of CQout must accept CQout's Escrow/Secure Pay and may even be forced to accept CQout 'Easy Pay' method if they also accept Nochex.

Preventing fraud
When using CQout's own Secure Pay service, payment is not released to the seller until the goods have reached the buyer and been deemed satisfactory. This enables CQout to prevent any illegitimate transactions from being processed until such time as both sellers and buyers are satisfied with each transaction. Similar to eBay's feedback system for combating auction fraud, CQout has also addressed these issues with their own anti fraud initiative. This comes in the form of their 'CQ trusted' medal. Sellers are only granted this medal if (among other criteria): a) the seller is known to CQout and/or has a good trading track record b) the seller is known to be genuine and honest c) the seller is reliable and provides above average customer service.

Auction shipping
CQout have an anti-sniping feature which allows sellers to obtain the true selling price of their goods. This featur e avoids disadvantaging buyers who are using a slower internet connection. The 'anti sniping' feature automatically extends the closing time of an auction to allow buyers on slower dial up internet connections to catch up.

Restricted iteams
So long as an item is permitted for sale under English & Welsh law, such an item is permitted for listing on CQout's auction website. CQout ensures that viewing and bidding access to any adult materials is restricted to 'logged in' users only. Logged in members are by definition over 18 years of age as credit/debit card details are required to attain log in details. Such cards are not available until the holder is 18 years of age.

critisms
It has been reported that some of the busier areas of the site can be slow to load at peak times. Also, CQout does not have a forum where its users could benefit from being part of a CQout community.

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The listing pages on CQout are in alphabetical order (unlike eBay), making it harder to know which auctions are ending soonest. All users, regardless of whether selling or simply buying, must pay a 2 registration fee to use the website, unlike competitors which are free to buy from. Auction Auction eBid

Official T-Shirt Buddy Points (XX Large)

Now the bid Start T ime Mon 23 Dec 2013 09:27:40 (GMT) Close Time Wed 22 Jan 2014 09:27:40 (GM T) and bid
starting was $1.oo and l set a bid $1.20

Bidz.com offers the experience of "Live Auctions" to give the feel and excitement of a real auction.Bidz.com is the largest brand name & jewelry auction. All of items are 100% authentic

and almost all are brand new. We offer outstanding jewelry, watches, sunglasses, and other accessories from leading brands, including Gucci, Chanel, Roberto Coin, Autore, Disney, Chrome Hearts, and many more.
Customer Satisfaction is number one priority. At Bidz, guarantee that all of listings and items are 100% as described. If an item that is not as described it will be refund 100% of the purchase price, plus any shipping costs that may have incurred.

Process
Placing Bids Buying merchandise on Bidz.com is quick and easy. If customer has something in mind, it can search all currently open listings using Search feature. Alternatively, it can browse through auctions using a simple system of categories. Once you find what you're looking for, you can click on the item's description to enter the item's "Listing Page". This area contains all pertinent information about the item, including warranty, shipping and description specific information. We urge you to read this information carefully, allowing you the ability to bid confidently.

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After the allotted time for an auction has expired, a message indicating SOLD will be displayed. Win the bid Bid amount should exceed the current highest bid by at least the set bid increment then you will win the bid. Only place bids in whole dollar amounts. Cent increments will not be applied. If a bid is placed during the last 15 seconds of an auction, the auction will be automatically extended for additional 15 seconds from the time of the latest bid. The auction will close once all bidding activity has stopped for a period of 15 seconds. Typically you will receive an e-mail declaring you the current winner of an auction. Payment and delivery After wining the bid the bidder is responsible to make the payment against the product win and after that with in 15 working days the delivery has been made on the given address by the bidder. Tracking Your Bids Use Bidz.com's Watch List feature to track items you are interested in, but not yet ready to bid on. The watch list closely monitors the status of these items so that you are able to keep an eye on them as they develop. Retracting your bid Bidz.com considers a confirmed bid on an item to be a legally-binding expression of intent to purchase. Once you have submitted your confirmed bid, it cannot be retracted except in the following exceptional circumstances: You made an obvious typographical error when placing a confirmed bid amount. Exceptional circumstances do not include bids placed on a similar item, changing your mind, or stating that you cannot pay for the item. To retract a confirmed bid, please contact Customer Service with your request and include the item listing number and a valid explanation. Bidders who retract their bids may not place new bids on that item. Bidder's Agreement By logging in to Bidz.com, you agree to and accept Bidz.com's Terms and Conditions and are responsible for reviewing our list of Bidding or Buying Violations. Internet fraud is a serious offense. Every time you log in to Bidz.com, Your IP address is recorded. This information can be used against fraudulent bidders. Bidz.com will fully cooperate

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with any investigation into internet fraud involving our auctions. Bid shilling occurs when someone bids on an item for the sole purpose of driving up the price. Please bid only on items you intend to purchase. Any evidence of bid shilling on a Bidz.com auction warrants immediate termination of membership. Bidder's Obligation When you bid on an item on Bidz.com, you enter a legally binding contract, in which you express intent to purchase the item. Failure to do so in a timely manner will result in termination of your Bidz.com membership. You are responsible for keeping track of all of your winning bids. You will receive an e-mail indicating you are the highest bidder. At that point, you have two days to pay for your items. This policy ensures timely resolution for both seller and bidder. Extensions are subject to approval.

Zappos
Zappos.com is an online shoe and clothing shop currently based in Las Vegas, Nevada.[3] In July 2009, the company announced it would be acquired by Amazon.com in an all-stock deal worth about $1.2 billion.[4][5][6] Since its founding in 1999, Zappos has grown to be the world's largest online shoe store. [7]

History
Inception [edit]
Zappos was founded by Nick Swin mur n in 1999. The init ial i nspirat ion cam e when he couldnt find a pair of brown Air walks at his local mall. [ 6 ] That sam e year, Swinmurn a pproached Tony Hsi eh and Alfred Li n with the idea of selling shoes online. [ 8 ] Hsieh was initially skeptical, and almost deleted Swinmurns voice mail. [ 9 ] After Sw inmurn mentioned that "footwear in the US is a 40 billion d ollar market and 5% of that is already being sold by paper mail order cat alogs," Hsieh and Lin decided to invest $2 million through their investm ent firm Venture Frogs. [ 9 ] The company was off icially launch ed in June 1999, under the original domain name "ShoeSite.com." [ 1 0 ] A few months after their launch, the company's name was changed from ShoeSit e to Za ppos (a variation of "zapatos," the Spanish word for "shoes") so as not to limit itself to selling only footwear. [ 1 0 ] In January 2000, Venture Frogs inv ested addit ional c api tal, and allowed Zappos to move into their office space. [ 1 1 ] During this time, Hsieh found that he "h ad the most fun with Zappos" and came on board as co - CEO with Nick Swinmurn. [ 1 2 ] After minimal gross sales in 1999, Zappos brought in $1.6 million in revenue in 2000. [ 1 2 ] [ 1 3 ]

Growth [edit]

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In 2001, Zappos more than quadrupled their yearly sales, bringing in $8.6 million. [ 1 2 ] In 2002, they opened their own fulfill ment cent er in Shepher dsville, Kent ucky . [ 1 2 ] Advertising costs were minimal, and the company grew mostly by word of mout h . [ 1 4 ] It was around this time that Hsieh and Zappos execut iv es set long-term goals for 2010: ac hieve $1 billion in sales and receive inclusion on Fort une s list of The Best Companies to Work For. [ 1 5 ] In 2003, Zappos reached $70 million in gross sales and abandoned dr op shi pping , wh ich accounted for 25% of their rev enue base. [ 1 2 ] The decision w as based on supply ing superior customer servic e, as Hsieh says "I want ed us to have a whole company built around [custom er service] and we couldnt contro l t he customer experienc e when a quarter of the inv ent ory was out of our control." [ 1 6 ] In 2004, Zappos did $184 million in gross sales, and received their first round of ventur e c apital, a $35 million investment from Sequoia Capital . [ 1 2 ] [ 1 7 ] That same y ear, they moved their headquart ers from San Francisco to Henders on, Nevada . [ 9 ] Over the next three years, Zappos doubled their annual revenues, hitting $840 million in gross sales by 2007. They expanded their inv entory to include handbags, ey ewear, clothing, w atches, and kids merchandise. [ 1 8 ] [ 1 9 ]

Acquisition by Amazon
In 2008, Zappos hit $1 billion in annual sales, two years earlier than expect ed (one y ear later, they fulfilled their other long- term goal, debuting at No. 23 on Fortunes Top 100 Companies to Work For). [ 2 0 ] [ 2 1 ] In 2009, Zappos started exploring an acquisit ion to Ama zon . [ 2 2 ] Within Zappos board of directors, two of the five Hsieh and Alfred Lin were primarily conc erned with maintaining Zappos com pany culture, whereas the other three want ed to maximize profits in a down economy . [ 9 ] Initially, Hsieh and Lin planned to buy out their board of directors, w hich they estimated would cost $200 million. In the midst of this, Amazon execut ives approached Zappos with the proposition of buying Zappos outright. After an hour -long m eeting with Amazon CEO J eff Bezo s , Hsieh and Lin sensed that Amazon would be open to let ting Zappos continue to operate as an independent entity, and started negotiations. [ 9 ] On July 22, 2009, Amazon announc ed that it would buy Zappos for $940 million in a stoc k and c ash deal. [ 2 3 ] [ 2 4 ] [ 2 5 ] Owners of shares of Zappos w ere set to receive approxim ately 10 million Amazon.com shares, and employees would rec eive a separate $40 million in cash and r estricted stock units. [ 2 5 ] The deal was ev entually closed in Nov em ber 2009 for a reported $1.2 billion. [ 2 3 ] On June 22, 2012 Zappos announced it would be shedding their Kentucky warehouse on September 1st, 2012. [ 2 6 ] Hsieh had mentioned that "Even though it was h ard to walk away from sales at a time when nobody is offering you money, we couldn't distinguish ourselves in the eyes of our customers if we weren't going t o control the entire experienc e. We had to give up the easy money, manage the invent ory, and take the risk." [ 2 7 ] Even in spite of his commitment to controlling t he customer experienc e by managing inventory , this announc ement m eant that Amazon would now be controlling that part of that customer experience. Over 3,000 employees in Zappos' Kentucky warehouse will now be in the care of Amazon on September 1, 2012. On January 16, 2012, the com pany announc ed that its computer syst em was crac ked, compromising the personal inform ation of 24 million customers. In response, the com pany required all of its customers to change their passwords on t he site. The company also sh ut down its customer servic e phone lines, requiring its customers to email questions inst ead. [ 2 8 ] This inc ident led to a class action suit In re Zappos.com, Inc., Customer Dat a Security Br eac h Liti gati on , with plaintiffs claiming that Zappos did not adequat ely prot ect their personal information.

New headquarters
On September 9, 2013, Zappos moved their headquarters from Henderson, Nevada t o the for mer Las Vegas City Hall building in downtown Las Vegas , after a n ext ensive $48 million effort to renovate and make major improv ements to the building. [ 2 9 ] [ 3 0 ] [ 3 1 ] [ 3 2 ] CEO Tony Hsieh, who also leads the Downtown Project, an effort to revitalize downtown Las Vegas as a vibrant cultural a nd economic hotspot, has said he wants "to be in an area where everyone f eels like they can h ang out all the time and wh ere theres not a huge distinction between working and playing." [ 3 3 ] The move was lauded by Las Vegas m ayor Oscar Good man who said "this will be a gam e changer for Southern Nevada. This move will bring about a critical m ass of creativ e persons to

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the inner core of Las V egas in addition to causing a significant shot in the arm for th e economy and for new jobs." [ 3 3 ] [ 3 4 ]

Products [edit]
Zappos primary selling base is shoes, which accounts for about 80% of its business. [ 3 5 ] There are currently about 50,000 varieties of sh oes sold in the Zappos store, from brands like Nik e , Ugg boots , ALDO Shoes , and St eve Madden heels. They also serv e the niche shoe markets, including narrow and wi de wi dths , hardto-find sizes, American- made shoes, and vegan shoes . I n 2004, they launched a second line of high -end shoes called Zappos Couture. [ 3 6 ] In 2007, Zappos expanded their inventory to include clot hing, handbags, eyew ear, watches, and kids merchandise, which currently account for 20% of annual revenues. Zappos expects that clothing and accessories will bring in an additional $1 billion worth of revenue by 2015, as the clothing market is four times the size of the footwear market . [ 3 5 ] [ 3 7 ] [ 3 8 ] Hsieh stat es that "our whole goal is w e want to build the best brand of custom er servic e. H opefully, 10 years from now , people wont ev en realize th at we started selling shoes." [ 3 7 ]

Business model
Zappos uses a l oyalty business model and rel ati ons hip marketi ng . The primary sou rces of the company's rapid growth have been repeat customers and num erous wor d of mout h recommendations. [ 3 9 ] Of its customers, ov er 75% are r epeat buy ers . [ 4 0 ] The company's customer service reputat ion has been augmented through viral spreading as well: "Shoe merchant Zappos has benefit ed from Internet wildf ire. When Zappos off ered special retur n shipping assistanc e, beyond their com pany polic ies...the good word about the company spread quickly throughout the blogosphere." [ 4 1 ]

Customer service [edit]

On average, Zappos employees answer 5,000 calls a mont h, and 1,200 e -mails a week (exc ept in the holiday season, when call frequ ency increases signif icantly ). [ 1 0 ] Call cent er em ployees don't have scripts, and there are no limit on call tim es. [ 4 2 ] The longest call reported is 10 hours 29 minutes. [ 4 3 ] Zappos em ployees are encouraged to go abov e and beyond traditional customer service. [ 4 4 ] [ 4 5 ] In particular, after a late night of barhopping and closed room servic e, Hsieh bet a Skec hers rep that if he called the Zappos hotline, the em ploy ee would be able to locat e the nearest lat e -night pi zza delivery . [ 4 6 ] The call center employ ee, although initially confused, returned two minutes later with a list of the fiv e closest late night pizza restaurants. I nc. Magazi ne notes another exam ple when a woman called Zappos to return a pair of boots for her husband because he died in a car acc ident. The next day , she received a flower deli v ery, which the call cent er rep had billed to the company without checking with her superv isor. [ 4 7 ] Zappos often gives "surprise" free upgrades to overnight shipping for customers, [ 4 8 ] [ 4 9 ] [ 5 0 ] though their websit e reports that deliv ery will take two to five business days.

Social media
CEO Tony Hsieh enc ourages his employees to use social media networks to put a human face on the company and engage with customers, following their core v alue #6: "Build Open and Honest Relationships With Communic ation." . [ 5 1 ] Zappos employ ees maintain an activ e presence on: Twitter: Zappos run its own Twitter microsit e for its 500 employ ees registered o n Twitter. Among them, Tony Hsieh is one of the most followed persons on Twitter with 2.75 [ 5 2 ] million follow ers. [ 5 3 ] Employ ees are

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encouraged to use their Twit ter accounts for casual communication rather than promotions or marketing pitches, in an effort to humanize the com pany , like when Hsieh tweet ed before going onstage at a tech conference: "Spilled Coke on left le g of jeans, so poured some water on right leg so looks like the denim fade." [ 4 7 ] He also encourages customers to use Twitter to give posit ive as well as negative feedback. YouTube: Zappos' cont ent on YouTube supplem ents its ot her networks, hosting videos that primarily highlight the work culture at Zappos headquart ers including behind the scenes clips, humorous sketches by employees, and contests for customers. Fac ebook: Its Facebook page provides an eff ective route f or feedbac k and discussion with customers. Corporate blogs: Zappos runs sev eral blogs [ 5 4 ] covering many topics related to its business: CEO blog, COO blog, Couture blog, Fash ion Culture

Additional ventures
In 2008, Zappos launch ed Zappos Insights, which aims to help other businesspeople refine their company culture and customer serv ice. [ 5 5 ] For $40/month, participants are offered access to a subscription v ideo servic e that lets companies ask quest ions to Zappos employees. [ 5 6 ] [ 5 7 ] Zappos Insights also off ers a three -day bootcamp where participants visit the headquarters and have meetings with Zappos executives. [ 5 8 ] [ 5 9 ] In 2007, Zappos acquired 6pm.com, which has bargain sh oes, clothing, and acc essories. [ 6 0 ] [ 6 1 ] [ 6 2 ] In May 2010, 6pm accidentally pric ed all their merch andise at $49.95, including it ems like GPS navigators. [ 6 3 ] They honored the pric ing glitch, taking a $1.6 million loss. [ 6 4 ] Zappos sponsors the "Zappos Rock 'n' Roll Las Vegas Marat hon and Marathon," which draw 28,000 runners each year. [ 6 5 ] [ 6 6 ] They also sponsor the Zappos WCC basketball ch ampionships. [ 6 7 ] During the tournament, Zappos hosts "K idz Day ," which outfits local Las Vegas kids with a new pair of shoes and an event t-shirt. [ 6 8 ] The company also sponsors a stretch of highway ( Int erstate 15 in Nev ada ) in the Las Vegas Vall ey area.

Type

Subsidiary of Amazon.com[1]

Industry

Retail

Founded

1999

Headquarters

Las Vegas, Nevada, United States Warehouse: Shepherdsville, Kentucky, United States

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Key people

Nick Swinmurn, founder Tony Hsieh, CEO Chris Nielsen, CFO

Products

Shoes, handbags, eyewear, accessories, clothing

Revenue

US$1 billion (2009)

Owner(s)

Amazon.com[2]

Employees

1500+

Website

zappos.com

Ebid
eBid is an online auction website founded in December 1998. eBid operates in twenty-three countries where it allows sellers, United Kingdom, United States of America,Canada, Australia, Ireland, Belgium, Austria, Italy, France, Germany, Spain, Netherlands,Denmark, Hong Kong, India, Norway, New Zealand, Portugal, Sweden, Singapore, South Africa, Brazil, Malaysia and lists to buyers in over 100 Countries. eBid uses its own online payment service PPPay [1] to allow for buyers and sellers to pay each other in Euros and Pounds Sterling, although members are not restricted to using this form of payment:Paypal, Google Checkout and Skrill (Moneybookers) are also accepted payment methods. Listing a basic auction on eBid is free and a zero or small percentage final value fee is paid on selling your item. The domain ebid.net has 8 million page impressions a month and attracts around 60,000 visitors a day (15m unique visitors yearly) alexa.com ranking.[2] Currently eBid has 3 membership levels available for new members, Buyer (free) buyer only, Seller (free but requires credit/debit card verification) occasional seller, final value fees are 3%, Seller Plus+ subscription based membership aimed at professional sellers with a recurring fee, payable every 7,30,90 or 365 days, OR a one off lifetime payment (currently 99.99 or 49.99 if taken within first 24 hours of joining). Seller Plus+ members can open up to 5 shops free. For a basic auction Seller Plus+ members pay no fee, for a gallery one they pay 2% fvf. Options like BIN only auctions & Run until Sold, are also available for free. Buddy Points

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Members can earn Buddy Points when they buy, sell or enlist new members. These points can then be used in Buddy Auctions to bid on items from eBid t-shirts, hats and golf umbrellas to cameras, monitors, kindles and household electrical items. Methods of Earning Buddy Points: Referring a Buddy 1.00 points Your Buddies Upgrading to SELLER 2.00 points Your Buddies Upgrading to SELLER+ 5.00 points You Making a Bid Meeting Reserve 0.50% of reserve price (max 5.00 p oints) You Winning by Bidding 1.00% of final bid (max 5.00 points) You Purchasing Using BuyNow 1.00% of BuyNow price (max 5.00 points) You Gaining Positive Feedback 0.50% of final bid OR BuyNow price (max 5.00 points)
With excellent selling features, marketing tools and low fees, eBid is a greatonline auction site to sell your merchandise, Due to its ease of use and assortment of categories, sellers and buyers will benefit from joining the eBid marketplace. We have given eBid our TopTenREVIEWS Bronze Award for its ability to provide an alternative selling arena to more expensive auction sites.

Selling fees
eBid has diagrams on its site that explain its fee structure and allows you to compare selling plans. When it comes to selling products, you have seven different listing options to choose from and the prices vary from $0 to $99.98. The membership fees are based on time intervals. For example, a 30-day membership will cost $6.99 and an annual membership will cost $54.99. Some of the membership plans include free product photos and some do not, so read the chart on the website carefully before purchasing a plan. If you just have one item to sell you can use the standard selling option. It does not have any upfront listing or membership fees, you just pay a 3 percent closing fee if the item sells. If you sell a high volume of products, you will want to consider the seller + lifetime plan. For a one-time charge of $99.98, you get a lifetime membership to sell that includes five images per item. All seller + lifetime plans include five eBid stores. eBid charges a 3 percent closing fee on every item you sell. That means that you pay 3 percent of your sale profits in addition to your membership fee. The 3 percent is a flat fee and does not vary based on your product category. With no upfront fees, this charge is competitive when you compare it to those of other online auction sites.

Selling feature
Listing enhancements are available including subtitles and extra categories. Adding a subtitle allows you to give more details about a product, which can attract more attention from potential buyers. You can even list your items in multiple categories to get more exposure. Uploading products is straightforward. There are boxes for product descriptions that you can fill in as you go. If you miss anything, you will be directed back to complete any missing information. There are no strict guidelines for formatting images; however, you have to save images as BMP, GIF, TIF, PNG, or JPG files and they must be smaller than 25MB in size.

Buying Features:
eBid has an excellent feedback system that encourages you to provide high-quality sales and service. After every transaction, buyers can rate sellers with visible reviews. This system rewards reputable buyers and penalizes those who are not because buyers avoid doing business with individuals who have a lot of negative feedback.The auction website does not have a set return policy and the
individual buyers set their own. If there are issues with a transaction, you will have to resolve them directly with the buyer. This makes buying more risky than with sites that offer established return policies.

Help & Support:

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We are disappointed with eBids customer service. For support, you will have to rely on email, FAQs and the community forum. eBid does not offer live chat or telephone assistance. On the website, it states that due to the large volume of emails they receive, questions that are answered on the FAQs page or community forum are pushed to the back of the email queue.

Summary:
Low fees and an easy process to upload products make this online auction site a good forum for selling your products. Its multitude of enhancement-selling features allows you to market your merchandise. If you have questions, you will have to find your own answers by researching the community forums and FAQs pages, which can be frustrating.eBid is an online auction website founded in 1998. eBid uses its own online payment service to allow buyers and sellers to pay each other. There are no listing fees on eBid. A small commission or final value is paid when each item sells. eBid attracts around 60,000 visitors a day and has a steadily growing user base.

Auction
Product commercial promo video for youtube, listings etc

Over the years our team, technology, and experience has lived under different brands (most particularly with our premiere icollector.com brand). More recently we have been growing to serve multiple auction markets and have been bringing new and improved software to our offerings. We have chosen to use liveauctiongroup.com as our technology brand, bringing our products, services, and growing marketplace sites under the one identifiable name: liveauctiongroup.com our expertise and technology is bringing auctions to the next level, and into offices and homes everywhere.

Registration Process
User must 18 years of age If you want to purchase the bid login your account New user create the account Submit personal information registration form, this is to allow you to participate in certain offerings such as online bidding services Name, contact name, billing address, shipping address, phone number, fax number, email address, relevant password, User ID, credit card information. Your Registration Information is password-protected so that only you have access to this personal information. We recommend that you do not divulge your password to anyone.

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We will never ask you for your password in an unsolicited phone call or in an unsolicited email. IP addresses are not linked to any personally identified information. Please note that we use credit card information only to verify your account when you register with icollector.com. It is sent over our secure server using SSL Technology, industry-wide encryption software.

The Bidding Process

The company designed absentee bidding on Auction Catalogues so that no personal identifying information is displayed online or is accessible to the general public. In absentee bidding, your bids are not disclosed as it is a 'closed bidding' system. The only time any personal identifiable information is released is when you submit an absentee bid on an item in an auction house sale. Such personally identifying information could include your name, email address, home address, phone number, fax number, credit card information, and bid amount and lot number. By placing a successful bid, you are entering a binding agreement between yourself and the Seller. Bids for a particular item are subject to a minimum bid increment as posted. If you bid an amount below the minimum increment your bid will not be accepted. If you bid an amount between increments, your bid will automatically round your bid down to the nearest increment. Once accepted bids may not be retracted or cancelled and, upon acceptance by the Seller, constitute a binding agreement between the Buyer and Seller. Bids for an item do not apply to subsequent offerings of identical or similar items. A bid that was unsuccessful may be reinstated if a problem arises with a higher bid. Bidders placing a winning bid through Bidder Services will be notified by e-mail. Reserve bid amounts are displayed at the discretion of the Seller. Notices shall be given by email to the email address you provide during the registration process.
SELLING POLICIE
Now for the small print... Some countries have bans on certain products - jewellery, computer inks, certain books or films for example. It is the buyers responsibility to make sure that thier purchase is legal in thier country and for any Customs import charges- sorry but I am not able to be familiar with the import laws of all countries.Please make sure that your delivery address is correct.

PAYMENT
I vastly prefer paypal, since it has the advantage of clearing at once so that I can send your item immediately. I am happy to sell to people all over the world. Within the UK I accept Paypal, cheque or postal order from buyers - please note that I reserve the right to wait for cheques to clear before sending your item, and that I am not responsible for cheques / postal orders/ loose cash being ""lost in the mail""

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Outside the UK: I only accept payments via Paypal. You can pay from money already in your paypal account, or use it to pay with your credit or debit card.

PAYMENT REQUIRED WITHIN 4 DAYS OF AUCTION ENDING POSTAGE - All items in the United Kingdom are sent ""Signed For"", first class.
Any item sent overseas, regardless of value, is sent via Airmail Signed For. Royal Mail ""Signed For"", both inland and overseas is is a secure service with a tracking number.You will need to sign for the item when you recieve it. If you do not recieve it within six days from the auction ending, it is your responsibility to check with your local Royal Mail/ postal delivery office as they will be holding it for you to collect, and you will need to go and sign for it. Please allow up to 5 weeks for overseas delivery You will have a maximum of 7 working days to collect it from them as per thier holding policies.

All items being sent overseas:

Ubid
uBid.com manages an online auction style and fixed-price shopping website that offers both goods sold directly by the company and items sold by pre-approved third party uBid-certified merchants.

Overview
uBid Holdings Inc. offers both products sold through and by uBid.com and products offered by other established businesses through the uBid Certified Merchant Program. The site specializes in excess new, refurbished and overstock consumer electronics such as computers, electronics, home goods, jewelry, watches and cellular phones. uBid.com's sister website RedTag.com offers a Deal of the Day, and Flash Sales of specific fixed-price merchandise. uBid.com is not a penny auction site where it sells bids, nor does it open its platform compared to eBay to any third-party sellers without being approved. Sellers must be approved with the idea that the platform should avoid counterfeit, infringing, stolen or other questionable products on its platform. uBid once had the closest market share in the on-line auction style space, approximately 15% market share compared to eBay and once had a stock market valuation that peaked at close to $2 Billion dollars.

History
uBid.com was formed and launched in 1997. Originally the platform was a subsidiary of PC MALL (MALL). The co-founding management team took the company public in 1998 and achieved a market capitalization value of over 1.8 billion dollars at one point. The company officially spun off from PC Mall with its co-founding management team in 1999. Ownership has changed multiple times over the years, including one involuntary bankruptcy petition with one of the previous owners. As of October 8, 2010, the uBid.com and Redtag.com platforms are owned and operated by uBid Holdings, Inc., and the company is headquartered in Itasca, Illinois. CMGI acquired the company from its founders and shareholders in early 2000 for a reported $407 million. [1] The company is still memorialized at the home of the New England Patriots, formerly CMGI Field, now Gillette Stadium, with the "uBid.com Entrance".[2]CMGi was an internet conglomerate with ownership stakes in over 90 companies, including AltaVista, Navisite,

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Lycos, Talon, Sales Link, Yes Mail, Geocities-purchased by Yahoo, and Exchange Path to name a few. According to SEC filings CMGi once had a market capitalization of about 60 Billion dollars. In early 2003, CMGi sold uBid to Takumi Interactive, a holding company formed to manage its purchase by Thomas Petters and the Petters Group of Minnetonka, Minnesota.[3] Two uBid executives, Robert H. Tomlinson Jr. and Timothy E. Takesue, assumed executive leadership roles within Takumi Interactive. Tomlinson, previously uBid's Chief Financial Officer under CMGi ownership, had been named President of Takumi Interactive. Takesue, an original member of uBid's Founding Management team and the most recent Senior Vice President of merchandising under CMGi ownership, assumed the role of Executive Vice President, Merchandising. Mr. Takesue in January 2008 at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) accepted the Consumer Electronics Daily News Direct Seller of the year award. The award was co-sponsored by consumer electronics manufacturers and distributors. In Petters' 2009 criminal trial on numerous Federal charges, Petters testified that uBid was profitable,[4] which was untrue. According to SEC filings, uBid had never claimed to be a profitable corporate entity since inception. The new company to date retains only one of the original founders of the uBid platform as a senior executive. Petters, in prison since October 2008, is currently serving the remainder of a 50-year prison term in Leavenworth, Kansas, for multiple crimes associated with operating a multi-billion-dollar Ponzi scheme possibly going as far back as the late 1980s according to some press reports and trial transcripts. According to SEC filings and public press releases, The Petters Group divested their majority holdings status in uBid in 2005. The Petters Group once held positions in over a hundred companies, employing upwards of 3,000 people at one point, and partnered at various times, according to press releases, with companies including Bain Capital/Fingerhut, Polaroid/Chase Bank, and Sun Country Airlines/Whitebox Advisors,and Boeing/Petters Aviation, where they once owned minority, majority, or full ownership interests. An Ohio business school dean has agreed to return stock and $1.25 million in cash he says he earned as a consultant to Tom Petters before the Wayzata businessman was caught running Minnesota's biggest business scam. The settlement with Roger Jenkins, dean of the Richard T. Farmer School of Business at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, was disclosed in October 2012 in a court filing by the receiver sorting through the Petters mess for funds to compensate fraud victims. Under the settlement, Jenkins will return the cash and 22,200 shares in Internet retailer Enable Holdings Inc., a former operator-owner of websites uBid and RedTag. The over-the-counter stock traded for less than 1 cent on average in 2012.Dr. Jenkins work has been published in the Harvard Business Review. He is the recipient of the Harold Maynord award. Dr. Jenkins earned his undergraduate degree from Berea College, his MBA at East TN State and his PHD from Ohio State University. According to SEC filings, The Petters Group was listed as the company's largest single minority shareholder, until late 2008. In September 2007, Jeff Hoffman, a founder of the Priceline family of companies and Walker Digital, joined the company as its CEO. Hoffman restructured the company into several units, and focused it on the liquidation of excess inventory. Hoffman immediately hired Lee Olsen as his COO to oversee the company; Olsen was previously, an executive with IBM. Hoffman obtained only the URL ordomain name Redtag.com from Petters, and created a fixed-price liquidation site by that name. He also instituted liquidation sales at specific temporary sites - spearheaded by EVP Tim Takesue in early 2008 - bulk excess inventory liquidations via Dibu Trading Corporation, and "Commerce Innovations", a company that was being developed to sell auctioning technology software, while Executive Vice President and General Counsel Glenn Weisberger; Vice Presidents; Theo Brasch and Kirk Maier took over the merchandising roles that oversaw the uBid web site procurement process, procurement for Dibu Trading and Procurement for the Live events, and oversaw the management of the personnel that handled the listings of its third party sellers from early 2008 until their resignations. The new business model was well received in the financial community and the Board of Directors, which at the time included Mary Jeffries, CEO of Petters Group Worldwide and CEO of Polaroid and Director of various other public Companies including Dave's Barbeque, Petters Group Worldwide Chief Legal Counsel: David Baer named Minnesota 's Lawyer of the Year of 2006, Steve Sjoblad, former founder of FICO, Ken Roehring, Professor of Marketing at The University of Minnesota, and Casey Gunnell directed Hoffman to spend a large amount of capital the company held in reserve on these efforts, while scaling back its marketing and advertising efforts. After Mr. Petters' arrest in the fall of 2008, uBid laid off a large portion of its workforce in an effort to contain costs. Management announced 12 initial layoffs, but ultimately about 31% of its workforce, or between 22 28 employees, were laid off.[5] In the fall of 2008, the company also immediately accepted the resignations of Mary Jeffries and David Baer from its Board of Directors.

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Subsequently, On December 2, 2008, the company received financing from Robert T. Geras and Theodore Deikel, on terms that essentially gave Mr. Geras, his wife and Mr. Deikel warrants for a majority controlling interest of the company, in exchange for a loan of approximately $1.5 million. [6] In 2009, Mr. Geras resigned his position on the company's board of directors. Additional investor funds were also raised through a senior convertible debenture. On December 22, 2009, Mr. Hoffman resigned from the company. uBid co-Founder Timothy E. Takesue was named interim CEO.[7] On March 1, 2010, Patrick L. Neville, a corporate turnaround specialist, became the company's official CEO, essentially following Mr. Hoffman's vision for uBid.com and RedTag.com. Neville filled two more Board of Director seats in 2010. Neville initially, started his role as day to day CEO early, on February 1, 2010, for no compensation, to try to immediately help the company. Neville officially resigned his position of CEO of Enable Holdings on October 15, 2010.

2010 bankruptcy and acquisition[edit]

In September 2010, a group of unsecured creditors forced Enable Holdings, uBid's former holding company, into bankruptcy.[8] On October 8, 2010, Sunrise Bidders (now uBid Holdings, Inc) purchased uBid and other assets at a courtauthorized auction, and appointed Scott Koerner as the company's President. Koerner was previously Senior Vice President of Merchandising for all of North America for Office Depot (ODP); he originally joined Enable Holdings as a paid consultant for then CEO Pat Neville from approximately June 2010 until October 8th 2010. Mr. Koerner led the article 9 sale out of the assets of Enable Holdings Inc. Mr.Koerner departed the Company as President, CEO and Director in January 2013. According to SEC filings Sairam Rangachari, President and CEO of uBid Holdings successfully filed for a $4,600,000 capital infusion where more than half of that amount was already raised by June 25, 2013. Mr. Rangachari, a former founder and Senior Executive with Options Express which was eventually sold to Charles Schwab for over $1 Billion dollars, took over as President, after Mr. Koerner's departure in January 2013 as CEO. Mr. Rangachari, revamped the entire management team according to the uBid.com website in early 2013. As of June 2013 and as part of the successful capital raise Mr. Rangachari completed, the team is currently being headed by Sairam Rangachari as President and CEO, Mr. Ketan Thakker as CFO, Mr. Michael Schmahl as EVP and General Counsel and Mr. Michael Moss as Director of eCommerce with full responsibility and authority over uBid and RedTag's Certified Merchant Program.

uBid v. GoDaddy[edit]
In 2009, uBid commenced a lawsuit against GoDaddy, in Federal Court in Chicago, accusing the company of profiting off of domain names that were similar to its trademarked names. uBid accuses Godaddy of unlawfully profiting by placing paid advertisements into parking pages, and splitting revenues with its customers, who uBid alleges to be cybersquatters. The lawsuit was originally dismissed for a lack of jurisdiction, but that decision was reversed by the Seventh Circuit. The case was pending before U.S. District JudgeCharles Kocoras, but was dismissed by agreement on October 17, 2011.

Certified and merchant program

In order to maintain a trusted trading environment, uBid only allows established businesses who have been pre-approved to sell products on its site. Merchants wishing to be approved must provide tax and credit information as well as trade and bank references to prove their credibility. Once approved, Certified Merchants are allowed to sell their products on the site, however all payments and customer service inquiries are made directly through uBid in order to maintain consumer trust and provide the best possible post-sale service. Due to this system, Certified Merchants do not have any direct interaction with customers except for questions asked about products through the uBid site, nor do they see customers' credit card information. However, it should be noted that uBid currently has no existing method for seller feedback or ratings. This has led to some disreputable vendors being allowed to use uBid to sell counterfeit products with impunity.

Other

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uBid Holdings announced in February 2011 the formation of uBid.com Business, which is the company's B-to-B arm, providing revenue from SMB, government, education and other business customers. uBid is currently the lowest-rated online retailer in terms of customer satisfaction, according to ConsumerAffairs.com It is currently attempting to litigate with FDA, a memorabilia dealer, regarding the repeated sale counterfeit sports memorabilia to uBid customers.

Ubid rewiew
Editors Note: This product has been removed from viewing as part of this site because it does not accept auction listings un less you are a professional retailer. You can still read our original review below, but TopTenREVIEWS is no longer upda ting this products information." uBid is significantly different from the other online auction sites reviewed. uBid.com is unique in that it doesnt rely on members to post products and items. Most items available are excess inventory items sold new through uBids warehouse or affiliate manufacturers, distributors or resellers. Therefore, all products are shipped from legitimate businesses. This approach has its benefits and downfalls. On the one hand, buyers are further assured that the item they are bidding on is legitimate. However, because the auction sellers are professionals, getting an extra good deal is unlikely. Also, you are less likely to find unique antiques being sold through uBid.

Selling Fees:
Selling your items through uBid is not possible unless you are a registered business. At-home-sellers should look elsewhere to auction off their items.

Buying Features:
Most items auctioned on uBid are Dutch auctions, which mean that the seller has multiple of the same item to sell and the buyer bids for how many they want. Winners are determined by quantity and price offered. While bidding and purchasing at uBid is easy, the process doesnt include many additional features to aid buyers. Ther e is no advanced search function, though you can go directly to an item by typing in the designated auction number, if you know it. Members do have access to a personalized page where they can keep track of auctions they have recently bid on. Buyers and potential buyers can also look at the auction history at any time to see how many people have bid on a particular item and what the current winning bids are.

Help & Support:

Because the items auctioned at uBid come from verified sellers and not from individuals, security and reliability for buyers is high. uBid is certified by the Better Business Bureau. Most of the products carry a vendor warranty, and uBid has an extended protection plan available. However, all merchandise sold in non-refundable (unless item is not as described). Exceptions are made, but are subject to a 15% restocking fee and shipping and handling is non-refundable.

Summary:

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uBid is a reliable auction site for buyers looking to purchase excess inventory, especially consumer electronics. However, selling is not available to the common user, and so uBid isnt a great place for bargain hunters or at -home sellers. Also, uBid primarily utilizes Dutch auctions, which is great for people looking for multiple items, but can potentially relegate a bidder who just wants one item.

Product and services

Features:

Categories
Computers & Office

Desktops Laptops PDAs & Handheld PCs Monitors Drives Servers Printers Scanners Computer Components Networking Accessories Software

Jewelry & Gifts

Mens Watches Womens Watches Bracelets & Anklets Charms Costume Jewelry Earings Beads & Gemstones Necklaces Pendants & Lockets Rings Men Other Jewlery Gifts & Occasions Cigars

Sports, Toys & Hobbies

Sporting Goods Memorabilia Toys Games Trains Models Radio Control

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Stuffed Animals Binoculars & Telescopes

Consumer Electronics

Apparel

Digital Cameras Video Home Audio Portable Electronics Car & Mobile Audio Televisions Phones & Pagers Cameras & Optics Speakers Other Electronics

Womens Clothing Womens Shoes Womens Accessories Mens Clothing Mens Shoes Mens Accessories Girls Boys Infants

Everything Else

Real Estate Constuction Electronic Components Farm Healthcare Industrial Supply & MRO Laboratory Equipment Metalworking Printing & Graphic Arts Restaurant Retail Test Equipment Education & Learning Everything Else

Music, Movies & Games

Movies Music Musical Instruments Video Games Books

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Home & Garden

Tools Kitchen & Dining Kitchen Appliances Bedding Bath Home Decor Art Furniture Lighting Windows & Floors Storage & Organization Household Appliances Housekeeping Garden, Lawn & Patio Food & Wine Luggage Baby Gear Pet Supplies Gifts & Celebrations Crafts

Collectibles

Coins & Stamps Collectibles Antiques Art Books, Movies & Music Dolls & Doll Houses Militaria Pens & Writing Instruments Pottery & Glass Sports Toys

Auction
Auto-extend Auctions[edit]
If the seller has this turned on it will extend the length of the auction by 60 seconds if there is a bid within the final 60 seconds of the auction. This option is only available to Seller Plus+ users.

Featured Auction[edit]
If the seller selects this method then the item will be at the top of the relevant section for 30 days. Featured listings cost from zero to 1.00 in your local currency, however the final value fee is zero

Gallery Auction[edit]

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Gallery auctions are only for seller + status. The listing of Gallery auctions is free, they get a thumbnail and up to 5 free pictures. When a Gallery auction is successful then a 2% final value fee is incurred. Gallery auction is the most popular auction type. Gallery auctions can have a run time of 3+ days

Free Auctions[edit]
The listing of free auctions is totally free, but Basic Sellers do not get a picture thumbnail on the results page, but you still get up to 5 free pictures. If a free auction sells then it incurs a 3% final Value Fee. Free auctions can have a run time of 3+ days

Platinum Auctions[edit]
Platinum auctions are only for seller status. There is a listing fee of 0.05 or 0.05 in local currency normally. The platinum auction gets you a thumbnail picture and if it sells you pay a final value fee of 3%. Again platinum auctions can have a run time of 3+ days. These listings can be set to Auto Repost up to 10 times.

Gallery Auction[edit]
Gallery auctions are only for seller+ status. There is no listing fee for standard auctions, but unlike the free auction above, a gallery picture is shown in the results. If a standard auction is successful then a final value fee of 2% is charged. Run time of standard auctions is 3+ days. As with the Platinum Listing, these listings can be set to Auto Repost up to 10 times.

Run Until Sold[edit]

A "Run Until Sold" auction is one where the item is listed until it is sold. This type of auction appears near to the bottom of the search results. This type of auction does not have a countdown time. These listings show at the bottom of Search Results, so careful thought should be take when using this type of listing.

On first bid[edit]
On first bid auctions only start after the first bid has been placed, with a minimum duration of 3 days.

Auction
BRAND NEW PNY Attache 2 16GB USB Flash Drive for Windows and Mac

TIME LEFT: 17:22:22Auction Close Time:

Jan 22, 2014 10:05PM PDT

uBid brings bargains to hundreds of people every day whether that's through winning an auction, by buying from us, by buying from our marketplace, or by earning loyalty points. We've always believed in the power of our website to bring quality discounts to peoples lives and in doing the right thing. As our business grows, so do our responsibilities. We recognize the

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importance of your participation on our website and are committed to providing the best value for your money At uBid, we take pride in bringing bargains to our customers. We have been doing so for past 2 years. Our experienced management team comes from different walks of life, making this website possible. Our team includes top notch people from various sectors such as; e-commerce websites, auction websites, logistics, distribution, customer support, legal, and banking.

Registration Process

Register for a free account

It takes JUST A FEW MOMENTS to sign up. Registration is free. No credit card information required for registration. You must be over 18 years of age to participate. If you have already used your free bids, you can top up your account by PayPal, Credit card, Debit card or other payment options available in your country.

Once you have purchased bids, they will appear in your account immediately. Bid Packages are available in 100, 250, 500 and 1000. The larger the package, the bigger the discount. Vouchers are also available.

The Bidding Process

The auction ends when the auction time has expired. The User who is the last to bid wins the product. All other bids on the item expire and will not be refunded. The last bidder is determined by Bid Heres database. In the event of any dispute occurring, it is Bid Heres decision on who is the last bidder shall be final. It is necessary that the user understands the auction type. There are several types of auction and it is users responsibility to read it before considering participating. No refunds shall be made in event of user ignoring the Auction Wiki before participation With each bid submitted, either online or by SMS service, the price of the item on which the User is bidding increases by 2 cents (Forward Auction). A bid submitted by the User constitutes an offer from that User to BidHere to conclude a contract to purchase the item. A contract to purchase the item is not completed until the auction is finished and the last/winning bidder has followed all the steps provided to complete the sale. Each new bid starts off a new auction time (Auction Time) for the product. The Auction Time for each of the auctions is shown on the screen. BidHere reserves the right to change the auction times at any time. BidHere can add or remove products from the BidHere.com website at anytime without notice, including auctions which are already in progress Pay the final auction price and receive the winning product by post in 7 to 14 working days. Unless otherwise specified, delivery will be made from our suppliers warehouse or from our warehouse to the registered address provided by the User.

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Esty
Etsy is an e-commerce website focused on handmade or vintage items, supplies, as well as unique factory-manufactured items under Etsy's new guidelines, released in October 2013. These items cover a wide range, including art, photography, clothing, jewelry, food, bath and beauty products, quilts, knick-knacks, and toys. Many sellers also sell craft supplies such as beads, wire and jewelry-making tools. All vintage items must be at least 20 years old.
[3]

The site follows in the tradition of

[4]

open craft fairs, giving sellers personal storefronts where they list their goods for a fee of US$0.20 per item. As of August 2013, 30 million users are registered on the website and by the end of 2013, projections of one million sellers and over US$1 billion in total annual transactions have been announced

History
The site was launched on June 18, 2005, by iospace, a small company composed of Robert Kalin, Chris Maguire and Haim Schoppik. The initial version had taken two and a half months to build. [5] Later Jared Tarbell joined the team. Former NPR executive Maria Thomas joined as COO in 2008, was promoted to CEO and left Etsy in December 2009. Robert Kalin resumed his role as CEO from December 2009 until July 2011. [6] Investors include Sean Meenan, Spencer and Judson Ain, Union Square Ventures, and founders ofFlickr and Delicious.[7] Kalin said that he named the site Etsy because he "wanted a nonsense word because I wanted to build the brand from scratch. I was watching Fellini's 8 and writing down what I was hearing. In Italian, you say 'etsi' a lot. It means 'oh, yes.' And in Latin, it means 'and if.'"[8] In Etsy's first year, it attracted attention for frequently adding new tools and functionality to the site to help sellers gain exposure and traffic, including Adobe Flash-based visualizations and a taxonomy of categories with tags.[9] Etsy passed $1.7 million in sales in May 2007.[10] On July 29, Etsy had its one-millionth sale and anticipated its two-millionth sale would occur mid-December 2007. In November 2007, buyers spent $4.3 million purchasing 300,000 items for sale on Etsy, an increase of 43 percent from October 2007.[4] In June 2007, it expected to be profitable by the fall, [11] but in December 2007 it was not a profitable company.[12] In January 2008, Etsy received an additional $27 million in funding from Union Square Ventures, Hubert Burda Media, and Jim Breyer.[13] In February 2008, trouble at eBay, including a strike by some dissatisfied sellers, brought speculation that Etsy could be an increasing competitor.[14] At the same time, however, some Etsy sellers expressed unhappiness with how Etsy was handling complaints about stores.[15] At the time, a comparison of the two websites included complaints that on Etsy, items are difficult to find, the interface "feels slow", and the buying and selling process is United States-centric.[16] Other reviewers enjoyed using Etsy's specialized search options,[17][18] including the "Shop Local" tool.[19] In July 2008, Rob Kalin ceded the position of CEO to Maria Thomas. [20] Some longtime Etsy employees left the company in August 2008, including founders Haim Schoppik and Chris Maguire. [21] In September 2008, Etsy hired Chad Dickerson, who formerly worked at Yahoo!, as Chief Technology Officer.[22] The company acknowledged concerns about vendors selling other people's work as their own.[23] In April 2009, users organized an "etsyday" promotion on Twitter that brought extra attention to the site. [24] As of May 2009, it had approximately 60 employees and sales of $10 to 13 million per month, [25] possibly boosted by consumer interest in cheaper and more personalized goods due to the United States recession. [26] In March 2010, Kalin said that the company is profitable and "plans to go public, though not until at least next year."[27] In December 2010, Etsy said it had seven million registered users and predicted $400 million in transactions for the year, and

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that it would continue to focus on a personal community feel as it grows larger, as that is part of what distinguishes it from eBay.[28] In 2010, Etsy saw revenues increase from $180 million to $314 million, which fell short of the $400 million prediction.[29] In March 2011, Etsy "introduced a Facebook-style social networking system called People Search...to help buyers and sellers connect with each other and become friends". By doing so, Etsy made any past purchase with feedback easily searchable, which caused many complaints. Etsy then made changes to the site to better guard information regarding users' purchases.[30] In July 2011, Chad Dickerson, CTO since September 2008, became CEO, upon the firing of Rob Kalin. In April 2012, a newspaper article about Etsy covered its fraud detection efforts; [31] Etsy had been criticized in the past for inconsistently applying its rules about items having to be handmade. [32] Later in April 2012, the writer of Regretsy, a popular blog, did independent research into a specific featured vendor, Ecologica Malibu, and found evidence to accuse the vendor of being a reseller, which would be against the Etsy Terms of Service. [33] The vendor asserted that it was in line with the Terms of Service, stating that the shop had simply failed to identify itself as a "collective" that included the work of several individuals, and many Etsy community members posted on the Etsy forum expressing unhappiness with the action (or lack of action) taken by Etsy.[34] As of June 2012, the vendor's account is no longer active on Etsy.[35] In May 2012, Etsy raised $40 million in Series F funding, and announced the company had become B Corporation certified.[36] This funding is partly going toward expanding Etsy in international markets, including France, Germany, and Australia.[37] On October 1, 2013, Dickerson held an online Town Hall Meeting to announce that Etsy would now permit factory-made goods and drop shipping, provided the seller either designed or hired designers of the items, disclosed to Etsy their factory, disclosed that they used factories and took "ownership" of the process. In that meeting and afterward, Etsy claimed the meaning of the word "handmade" should be redefined to encompass factory made. [

Main future
Selling[edit]
A variety of products are sold on Etsy, including arts supplies, handmade products and vintage pieces. Vintage pieces can only be listed if they are a minimum of 20 years old. In order to sell products on Etsy, users must create a username and have the option to create a shop name. The username cannot be changed once created. Creating a shop on Etsy is free, however each listing that is posted in the shop costs $0.20. Each listing will remain on the shop's page for 4 months, or until someone buys the product. The sale prices of products are determined by the shop owner, but Etsy claims 3.5% of the sale price of each listing. Shop owners are sent a bill at the end of every month containing the fees they owe, and they have until the 15th day of the following month to pay the Etsy bill.[39]

Buying[edit]
Searching for products to buy on Etsy is generally intuitive and simple. On the homepage, potential buyers can type a product description into the search bar, [40] or they can "Browse" through a list of options on the left side of the homepage, which include Art, Home & Living, Jewelry, Women, Men, Kids, Vintage, Weddings, Craft Supplies, Trending Items, Gift Ideas, Mobile Accessories, and more.[41] Alternatively, buyers may choose from a list of categories by clicking on the "Categories" link under "More Ways to Shop". This will bring the user to a page of over 30 categories, each containing subcategories.[42] When a buyer views a product, he/she can view the positive percentage feedback of each seller to determine the reliability of the shop. Once a buyer finds a product he/she would like to buy, he/she clicks "Add to Cart", and that product is added to his/her virtual "Shopping Cart". The buyer may then continue shopping or purchase the selected item. In order to purchase items, buyers must have an account with Etsy. The account is free and can be integrated with Facebook. The total product

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and shipping costs are shown to the user prior to entering payment information so the user knows exactly how much is being paid. Sellers choose which payment options to offer buyers; options include credit/debit cards and PayPal, among others.[43]

Operation
Etsy is popular as a side-business[44] as well as a place to buy goods made from recycledand upcycled materials,[45] along with less expensive or more unusual versions of mass-produced items.[46] The unique nature of many of the items for sale is part of their appeal to some shoppers.[47][48] Product photos on Etsy tend to be editorial or artistic instead of commercial catalog style.[49] Sellers can add tags to their products to help buyers find them, [50] and buyers can choose to search for items available locally.[51] Etsy staffers publish lists of featured items. [52] Etsy makes money by charging a listing fee of 20 cents for each item and getting 3.5% of every sale,[53] with the average sale about $15 or $20. Most sellers are women[11] who tend to be college-educated and in their twenties and thirties.[25] Individual Etsy sellers decide which payment options to offer buyers; these options may include credit card, check,money order, PayPal, bank transfer, and Etsy gift card.[54][55] Etsy sellers range from hobbyists to professional artists who use the site to make a living. [56] According to artists who have developed their Etsy stores into their primary jobs, scaling up production of handmade items can require more than full-time work,[57] especially during the holiday shopping season. [58] Etsy's main office is located in DUMBO, Brooklyn, and it has hosted open crafting classes in the "Etsy Labs". [59] The site's technology, customer support, marketing/PR, business, and communications teams operate out of this office. Etsy Labs has a workspace that provides equipment and donated materials where members gather to make items, take and teach workshops, and attend special events.[4] Etsy also has an office in Berlin.[60] In April 2012, Etsy announced that it was taking steps to hire more women engineers to improve the gender balance of its team, as a website with majority women users but few women engineers.[61] Etsy was one of the main members of the Handmade Consortium, a 2007 effort to encourage buying handmade holiday gifts.[12] Etsy has partnered with the retail chain West Elm to sell some Etsy products in its stores.[62][63] In December 2012, Etsy opened a temporary holiday storefront in SoHo, New York City.[5

Ethos
In an August 2013 interview, CEO Dickerson emphasized the importance of human interaction and meaning from creativity in regard to his perspective on Etsy. Dickerson described the website as "a platform that provides meaning to people, and an opportunity to validate their art, their craft", and after spending time with Etsy users, Dickerson learned that "all commerce is about real human interaction". Dickerson also provided a summation of Etsy that is a further reflection of the company's relationship- and meaning-based ethos: "At the end of every transaction, you get something real from a real person. There is an existential satisfaction to that

competiton
Etsy has been compared to "a crafty cross between Amazon and eBay",[10] and to "your grandma's basement".[64] Etsy also has a number of direct competitors. DaWanda, based in Germany, focuses on growing in European countries.[65] ezebee.com, based in Switzerland, is a global competitor, but also caters to freelancers and professionals [66] Bonanza (formerly Bonanzle and 1000 Markets[67]) is based in the United States and focuses on clothing

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and fashion, Zibbet and MadeIt which are based in Australia, iCraft is based in Canada, [68] and Artfire is based in the United States.[69] Tindie is based in Portland, Oregon, and focuses on technology and electronics. [70] Asked about competitors, Etsy's European CEO said, "As far as I am concerned, the more people highlighting the value of supporting micro-producers and buying handmade and vintage directly from them, the better

Etsy vs. Ebay

Many vintage clothing lovers and artists who previously sold on Ebay were chased away by some of the site's policies that were rather unfriendly to sellers. So, which site is better for sellers? Etsy has stricter listing policies about what can and cannot be sold. Vintage items must be older than twenty years old; you can't resell items you bought wholesale or resell any other items except for crafting supplies. If, however, you've got truly vintage items, supplies, or crafts to sell, Etsy is definitely the way to go. The community of buyers and sellers on the site are friendlier and generally more laid back. There seem to be fewer conflicts between buyers and sellers, and I've heard of very few scammers on either the buyer or seller side of the equation. Etsy is certainly not for everyone, and you have to be willing to put in the time and the effort to market your items. So far, though, I've been really impressed with Etsy and would recommend it to most people looking to make a little extra money.

Myntra
Myntra.com is an Indian online shopping retailer of fashion and casual lifestyle products, headquartered in Bangalore. Myntra is a famous legendary shopping portal that offers amazing lifestyle products at great prices. The noteworthy feature is that it comes with free home delivery on all products and the customer can return the product within a month if it is not as per their need and also get back the money. This store gives choices to select from many collections of apparels for women like sarees, dress materials, salwars, churidars, skirts, tops, shorts jeans and for men includes shirts, tee shirts, kurtas, jeans, trousers, pants, shorts, inner and sleepwear. The accessories such as bags, watches, sunglasses, caps, wallets, footwear and personal care items are also available in traditional and fashionable manner with best quality.

History
Myntra was established by Mukesh Bansal, Ashutosh Lawania, and Vineet Saxena in February 2007. All three are IIT alumni, and have worked for several start-ups.[5] Myntra is headquartered in Bangalore and has been funded by Venture Capital funds like Tiger, Kalaari, IDG & Accel Partners.[6] From 2007 to December 2010, Myntra.com was in the business of personalization of products online. [7] The products ranged from T-shirts, mugs, greeting cards, calendars, key chains, diaries etc. However, in 2010, the company repositioned itself and expanded its catalogue to retail fashion and lifestyle products.

New business focus and products[edit]

Myntra has tied up with top fashion and lifestyle brands in India, such as Nike, Inc., Reebok, Puma, Adidas, Asics, Lee, Levis, FILA, CAT, Timberland, Steve Madden, Biba, FabIndia etc. to offer a wide range of current season merchandise from these brands [8]

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Myntra currently offers products from more than 350 Indian and international brands. [9] These include shoes for running, tennis, football, basketball and fitness, along with casual footwear from world-renowned industry leaders like Nike, Puma, Converse, Supra, Adidas, Reebok, Lee Cooper, Numero Uno, Skechers, Crocks, Asics, Fila, Lotto, ID and many more. There are also casual and dressy footwear for women from Catwalk, Carlton London, Steve Madden and Red Tape to name a few. Myntra also stocks T-shirts for men and women from popular brands like Jealous 21, Forever New, Classic Polo, Inkfruit, Lee, Nike, Inc., Probase, Puma, Adidas, Reebok, Ed Hardy, Decathlon, Lotto, Ediots, Mr. Men, Tantra and Guerilla. The website has also launched Being Human and Fastrack watches. [10] [11] [12] In July 31, 2012 Bollywood actor Kalki Koechlin launches Myntras Star N Style feature. [13] In 2013, Myntra acquired San-Francisco-based Fitiquette, a developer of virtual fitting room technology. [14] In November 2013, Bollywood star Hrithik Roshan joined forces with online shopping portal Myntra.com to exclusively launch and manufacture his active lifestyle apparel and casual wear brand HRX.[15][16]

Business modile
Myntra.com is an aggregator of many brands. Its business model is based on procuring current season merchandise from various brands and making them available on the portal at the same time as in respective retail brand outlets. All these products are offered to customers on MRP.[17] In October 2007, Myntra received a seed funding from Accel Partners (formerly Erasmic Venture Fund), Sasha Mirchandani from Mumbai Angels and another angel investor. In November 2008, Myntra raised with its A funding of $5 million from NEA-IndoUS Ventures, IDG Ventures and Accel Partners. [18] In the second round of funding led by Tiger Global and participated by existing investors IDG Ventures and Indo-US Venture Partners, Myntra raised $14 million. Towards the end of 2011, Myntra.com raised $20 million in its third round of funding led by Tiger Global. [19] Myntra launched a brand campaign with its first TVC in July 2011. The commercial 'juxtaposes new-age fashion with oldworld grit' and positions Myntra as a 'fashionable new age' brand. [20] [21] [22] [23] Myntra's second campaign, with the tagline "Ramp It Up", was launched in October 2011 with a TVC. The new ad scored high on fashion quotient and the core message was to communicate the launch of the Autumn Winter 2011 collection on Myntra.com.[24] In February 2012, Myntra also rolled out an OOH (out of home) campaign across Tier 2 cities, to build brand awareness and promote online shopping.[25] In June 2012, Myntra launched its third campaign. Created by Taproot, the communication emphasises the benefits of buying online, and is titled 'Real life mein aisa hota hai kya'.in which they offer free shipping,cash on delivery,30 day return & 24 hours dispatch [26] Myntra continued the 'Real life mein aisa hota hai kya' theme in its next campaign in October 2012 and extended it to showcase its wide catalog and hassle-free Returns Policy.[27][28]

Awards
Myntra.com was announced as a winner of the Red Herring Global 100 award. Red Herring announced its Global 100 awards in recognition of leading private companies from North America, Europe, and Asia, celebrating these startups' innovations and technologies across their respective industries. [29]

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CNBC - TV18 awarded Myntra.com as one of the Hottest Internet Companies of the Year at the Mercedes - Benz CNBC TV18 Young Turks Awards.[30] Myntra.com won IAMAI's Best Ecommerce Website of the year award for 2012 at the 7th India Digital Summit, 2013.
[31]

Myntra.com also won the Fashion eRetailer of the Year Award at the Indian eRetail Awards 2013 organised by Franchise India in Delhi.[32]

Myntra

200px Myntra.com logo.

Screenshot [show]

Web address

www.myntra.com

Commercial?

Yes

Type of site

Online shopping (E-commerce)

Registration

Required

Availablelanguage(s) Hindi

Owner

Mukesh Bansal, Ashutosh Lawania, and Vineet Saxena

Launched

2007

Alexa rank

926 (February 2013)[1]

Current status

Online

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About Myntra.com:
Myntra.com is one of India's largest online fashion and lifestyle store for men, women, and kids. You can shop online from the latest and wide range of collections of apparel, footwear and accessories, featuring all the best brands. They are committed towards delivering the best online shopping experience. Myntra.com's unique offerings and whole new level of professionalism has bagged them some awards which are as follows:

CNBC - TV18 Young Turks Award as one of the "Hottest Internet Companies of the Year 2011-12" "Pride of India 2011-2012" for Most Successful Fundraising by IDG Ventures

"Pride of India 2009-2010" award for Exceptional Business Growth by IDG Ventures

Online Shopping at Myntra.com:

Myntra.com has wide range of apparel, footwear and accessories, featuring all the best brands. The shopping at Mynta.com is very simple. Open the home page of Myntra.com where you need to register on this site. After getting registered then you need to select the category of the product that you want to buy. After you select the product, the product's specification will be displayed on the screen. You can choose your size of that product and you can save that product to wish list and after that you can select the mode of payment of your desired product as if you want to pay through debit card or through cash on delivery.

My shopping experience with Myntra.com:

Talking about my experience I have purchased Nike shoes and Ray Ban glasses from Myntra.com and my shopping experience was great. The price of both of these products was good which I was not able to resist and I immediately ordered for both of these products. The Myntra people delivered me both of these products within 7 days as expected. So, I can say their delivery policy is up to the mark.

Deals and Offers at Myntra.com:

There are many cool offers that are provided my Myntra.com which you cannot resist. There are some offers such as buy 1 get 2 free ,discounts from 25% to 50%, get off up to 50% off and many more. Apart from these offers there are always some festive offers and right now there is an offer of New Year sale given by Myntra.com that is flat 25% off.

Customer support:
Myntra.com provides very good customer support. If you face any problem or you have any query then you can call, email or chat with customer care. In case you send the e-mail to the customer care they will reply you within

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48 hours and they will answer your queries.

Payment Options
Following payment options are supported by Myntra.com 1) Cash on Delivery 2) Credit card 3) Debit card 4) Net banking 5) EMI (Credit Card) Online payments that are done on Myntra.com are being processed through CCAvenue, Axis Bank, ICICI Bank and TechPro Instant Pay payment gateways, which provide secure encrypted connections for all the credit card, debit card and net banking transactions . So, you need not to worry about the online payment.

Shipping and Delivery at Myntra.com:

The Myntra.com strives to deliver the best product in excellent condition in less time. The shipping policy of Myntra.com says that product costing Rs. 799 or more, will be delivered free of cost. The shipping cost of Rs. 59 will be applicable to all the products under Rs. 799.

Cancellation Policy of Myntra.com:

Myntra strive to provide its customers with the best possible experience while they shop online. The customers can easily cancel all items before they are processed in the warehouses. This includes items purchased on sale. The amount that is to be refunded will be credited back into Mynt Credits account in the form of cashback of that particular customer who have requested for the cancellation.

Return policy of Myntra.com:

The return policy of Myntra.com says that you can easily return all items except innerwear, cosmetics, socks, deodorants, perfumes and free items within 30 days along with the full refund of the item purchased. The items that are to be returned back should be unused and in their original condition with all original tags.

Shopping with Myntra.com in future:

Well I will definitely look forward to do shopping with Myntra.com because they provide such great offers along with the price that is affordable to everyone.

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WeBidz is another site like eBay that focuses on reducing fees allowing you to keep more profits from your online auction. WeBidz has no listing fees or sales fees unlike eBay making it a great alternative for start up a business. The only WeBidz fee is to become a verified seller ($5) which is generally recommended if you plan on selling on the site. WeBidz also offers free store fronts allowing you to easily create a WeBidz branded store to promote and sell your products. One of the biggest strengths of WeBidz is in its massive amount of search options allowing buyers to easily find what they are looking for based on price, location, keyword, brand or particular seller. WeBidz also offers unique wanted advertisements that you can create if you can't find a particular item. WeBidz packs all the features that you would come to expect from an eBay alternative and thanks to the low fees and strong website traffic starting your own online commerce business couldn't be easier.

History
Webidz was introduced in 2005, and despite a slow start, it now has a large amount of regular sellers and buyers along with thousands of active auctions and listings. They offer zero fees on all auctions with a choice of featured upgrades from just a few dollars. A $5 registration fee is required for all new sellers, which could be seen as a downfall, however, this keeps scammers and fakes away from the website as the fee is used to verify seller accounts.
At the WeBidz online auction site, you will find an affordable platform for selling and buying anything online, from electronics to antiques. Basic listing fees are free on this auction website, including upfront listing and final sales fees. To set up your seller account, you will have a one-time seller verification charge of $9.95 so that the site can verify your identity. This safety feature keeps unethical sellers from setting up accounts under false names and helps ensure a safe marketplace for buyers. With no listing or final auction selling fees, you can use marketing tools like listing enhancements without breaking the bank, and you can list your items in more than one product category. Costs for enhancements vary from $0.05 to $0.15 per product and the picture gallery allows you to upload four product photos at no cost.

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To upload merchandise on the website, you just follow the instructions as you go. There are boxes designated for product information including item descriptions and prices. You can even decide what types of payments you are going to accept and create your own refund policy. Buy-it-now options are available if you would rather sell your items at a fixed-price rather than auction-style listings. Be aware that the WeBidz community does not have as large of a membership base as other online auction sites, which means you may have fewer customers than you would on comparable sites. WeBidz uses a feedback system that allows buyers to rate their experience with specific sellers. It is listed under a category titled reputation and this is where buyers can view a seller's customer service score. This rating system encourages sellers to provide high-quality products and customer service. WeBidz has moderators on staff to help settle disputes between buyers and sellers. That means you have support when a buyer files a claim against you. An email address is located on the company website and WeBidz provides a FAQs page and community forum for additional assistance. There are no telephone numbers or live chat services, so you will not be able to have real-time conversations with representatives. As a result, we found it difficult and time consuming to find answers to our questions.

Summary:
Webidz offers a safe and user-friendly auction site for doing business. With plenty of features and selling tools, this site has everything you need to sell your wares. However, with a small customer base, you will not have access to as many buyers as you get with other sites. Our company has been a supplier/wholesaler to many online sellers for many years. We have heard many stories of grief regarding profit margins when selling in online auctions. We have lost many customers/resellers because they were actually losing money after paying all their fees to eBay and PayPal. After years of seeing dreams washed down the drain, we decided to build an alternative website where basic listing is free and the final value fees are affordable. Therefore, if a user's item does not sell, they pay no fees.

WeBidz Auctions
Description: WeBidz Auctions is an eBay Alternative Auction Site. Buy or sell with our online auction community today. Bid low to get your next great deal. Free auction listing is a great alternative to eBay. WeBidz is an online bargain shopping mall with thousands of online auctions at bargain prices. Keywords: auctions, auction, online auction, online auctions, online bargain shopping, shopping, computer, bid, buy, sell, bidding, sale, classified ad, classifieds, want ads, trading cards, memorabilia, sporting goods, music, dolls, comics, antiques, jewelry, ebay alternative, ebay, bargain prices, bids

WEBIDZ.COM - Site Location

Country/Flag City/Region/Zip Code United States Lenexa, KS 66215

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Organization Internet Service Provider Codero Codero

WEBIDZ.COM - Domain Information

Domain Registrar Registrar URL Whois server Created Updated Expires Time Left Status DNS servers WEBIDZ.COM [ Traceroute RBL/DNSBL lookup ] ENOM, INC. http://www.enom.com whois.enom.com 19-Oct-2004 18-Oct-2013 19-Oct-2014 280 days 15 hours 19 minutes clientTransferProhibited NS1.WEBIDZ.COM 198.50.199.28 NS2.WEBIDZ.COM 198.50.199.28

WEBIDZ.COM - DNS Information

IP Address Domain Name Servers 69.64.83.114 ~ Whois - Trace Route - RBL Check ns1.codero.com 64.150.179.21 ns2.codero.com 216.55.130.43 mail.webidz.com 198.50.199.28

Mail Exchange

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Site Response Header

Response Server Date Content-Type Cookie HTTP/1.1 200 OK Apache/2.2.3 (CentOS) Mon, 18 Apr 2011 04:44:29 GMT text/html PHPSESSID=0543kpnonpsp69r8hp6uv65573; path=/

auction
Louis vuittion wallet new

Current Bid Your Bid

$300.00 [ Convert ]

$300.00 13h 52m Jan. 04, 2014 12:42:01 PST 14830, New York, United States Open 2 bids

End Time

Location Status History

Reserve Price Met

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Shipping Shipping Terms

Buyer pays for shipping expenses

Seller ships to United States address only. Please no International buyers. Ships From 14830, New York, United States Postage Insurance Fee $10.00 via USPS First Class

Item Title

louis vuittion wallett new

Time Left Current Bid

13h 52m $300.00

First l register and after complete a registration process l want to bid a Louis vuititon wallet The current bid was $99.99 and l set a bid $11000 bid no l am highest bidder on this item and payment method are

jabong
Jabong.com is an Indian fashion and lifestyle e-commerce portal. It retails apparel, footwear, accessories, beauty products, fragrances, home accessories and other fashion and lifestyle products.
Apparel to Home needs. Online shopping that helps you make the right choice
We offer online shopping that is stylish, trendy and reliable the Shopping that is light on your pockets, the Shopping that offers all of your favourite brands and more, the Shopping that is simpler, easier, faster and always Online. At Jabong, we understand shopping better, and therefore, we strive to offer you the best of fashion and elegance. We showcase products from all categories such as clothing, footwear, jewellery, accessories, home & living, personal care, and exotic cosmetics.

[2][3]

The company is headquartered in Gurgaon,

NCR. Jabong Fashion & Lifestyle Store offers you great discount on all listed product.They offers wide range of products from

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The epitome of fashion & style For we know you need the best!
Jabong, the Online Shopping store, brings to you the chicest collection of latest apparels, footwear, accessories, jewelleries and more. Like you, we too follow the latest in fashion trends and it just helps us bring over thousands of new products exclusively selected for you. Explore big brands like Burberry, Calvin Klein, United Colors of Benetton, Arrow, Esprit, French Connection, Adidas, Reebok, Nike, Clarks, and so many others. While you take the best, we keep looking at what newer designs and styles the likes of Stella McCartney, Robert Cavalli, Zac Posen, and Marc Jacobs orchestrate, just in case, you want more from the shop.

Our Services at your Doorsteps

You make up your mind on a product, order it online in few easy clicks, and we deliver it right at your address across India. Just pay for the product, while we ensure Free Shipping all the time, of course, with no strings attached. For those second thoughts after purchase, we have in place a 30-day return option as well.

Jabong the 24 x7 Online Fashion & Lifestyle Store for everyone

Forget the fashion streets of the world. We, at Jabong, have all that you need to glam up your lifestyle. From extensive range of mens shirts to exotic dresses for women to funkiest clothes for kids to matching footwear, sports shoes and accessories for everyone, we purvey diversity of choices in online shopping in India under one umbrella. Your Jabong Online Shop has arrived! Do not miss the attractive best buy prices and super discount offers. Get more, pay lesser! Drop a line at care@jabong.com for any query or give us a call at 01246128000.

Inception and growth

The site started operations in January 2012. It was co-founded by Arun Chandra Mohan, Praveen Sinha and Lakshmi Potluri [2] The managing officers are Arun Chandra Mohan, Praveen Sinha and Manu Jain. [5][6] In March 2013, Jabong was shipping 6000-7000 orders a day.[7] In March 2013, the annual revenues of Jabong was estimated to be 100-150 mn USD.[8] During September 2013 Jabong was shipping 14,000 orders on a daily basis out of which 60% were from small towns.[9] Jabong was one of the most visited e-commerce sites during the Great Online Shopping Festival 2013. Company representatives claimed that its revenues increased five to six times compared to a usual day, and that Jabong set a record for sale in the male fashion category. [10] [11] [12] Buiness modle Jabong.com follows both an inventory model and a managed marketplace model.[23] In the inventory model, products are sourced from brands and stored in the Jabong warehouse. In the managed marketplace model, Jabong doesnt store t he inventory but takes care of customer service and returns. [24][25] Jabongs logistic operations launched JaVAS as a separate service independent of Jabong. JaVAS covers around 50 -55 cities and a majority of its customers are e-commerce players.[clarification needed][26]

Marketing campaigns[edit]
The company's main source of promotion has been the internet. [27] The company launched its first TV campaign in March 2012. [28] Other television campaigns appeared in September 2012 and during 2013 Jabong In November 2013 Jabong together with Puma launched the digital fitness campaign Gear up Buddy with Bollywood actor Chitrangada Singh.

Movie related products[edit]

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In May 2013 Jabong presented a fashion collection based on the Bollywood movie Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani. Jabong showcased the fashion apparel used in the movie by the movie stars.[35][36] In July 2013 Jabong associated with Bollywood again through the movie 'Bhaag Milkha Bhaag', and offered a collection inspired by the movie.[37][38] In its third association with Bollywood, Jabong in Dec 2013 presented a collection of products inspired by the movie Dhoom 3, including bags, hats, pendants and rings. [39]

Online traffic[edit]
According to a ComScore report of September 2012, Jabong.com had the second highest amount of traffic on its website, among Indian e-commerce websites, within a few months of its launch. [5] In November 2013, Jabong.com held an Alexa Traffic ranking of 37 in India.[1] Jabong also ranked 10th in Google Zeitgeist India trends making it 10th most searched term in 2012 in India.[40]

International store [edit]

Jabong also has an international store called Jabongworld.com, which sells Indian ethnic wear and western wear such as sarees, lehengas, salwar suits and dress materials, dresses and tunics priced in foreign currencies. [41]

Awards and recognition [edit]

Jabong.com received the award for the Most Impactful Launch of the year at Pitch Brands 50 Awards 2013. [42] According to The Brand Trust Report India Study - 2013 by Trust Research Advisory, Jabong ranked among the top 25 trusted Online brands in India.[43] Jabong is among the top 3 ecommerce players in India when it comes to customer satisfaction. [44]

Headquarters

Gurgaon, India

Area served

India

Key people

Arun Chandra Mohan, Praveen Sinha, Manu Jain

Industry

Fashion & Lifestyle, Online retailing

Products

Apparel, shoes, accessories, beauty and home accessories

Website

www.jabong.com

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Alexa rank

524, 37:India(November 2013)

[1]

Launched

2012

Current status Online

ShopClues
ShopClues.com is an online retail website, headquartered in Gurgaon, India. The company was founded in the Silicon Valley, USA in the year 2011 by an alumnus of Washington University and renowned Wall Street internet analyst Sandeep Aggarwal[3]and eBays former Global Product Head, Sanjay Sethi. [4] ShopClues was the first e-commerce website in India[5] that operated on the managed marketplace[6] model. Over 12,000 registered merchants[7] retail +2,00,000 products[8]on the ShopClues platform to over 42 million visitors [9] every year across 9500 locations[10] in the country.

As per the citation, ShopClues joined as 35th entrant in the Indian e-commerce in 2011[11] and is reported to have made its way to the list of the top 6 e-commerce destinations in the country. The company employees over 350 people[12] across locations.
History[edit]

ShopClues is the Indian subsidiary of Clues Network Inc.,[13] a US Corporation and commenced operations in November 2011 as pioneers of the managed marketplace concept, wherein the company does not buy or store inventory for retail, and instead offers a platform for buyers and sellers to interact in a managed environment. ShopClues is known to be popular among shoppers in the 1824 years age group who regularly shop from the wide assortment of items including mobile phones, laptops, tablets, electronics,[14] home dcor, footwear, apparel, fashion accessories, books & music, etc. New product categories like Pet Supplies and Gourmet Food are also gaining popularity. ShopClues offers multiple payment methods like credit card, debit card, net banking and Cash on Delivery. ShopClues runs several popular customerengagement programs including Jaw Dropping Deals,[15] Sunday Flea

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Market,[5] surprising deals like Black Friday, 12-12-12 Deals [16] and ShopClues Anniversary Special.
Funding[edit]

In March 2013, ShopClues successfully completed its third round of funding.[17] In a tough market, the company raised close to $10 million (Rs. 54 crores) from Helion Venture Partners[18] and Nexus Venture Partners. Nexus Venture Partners[19] had previously led the Series A investment in the company in Feb 2012. With this round, ShopClues.com has raised over $15 million in capital so far. ShopClues has other investors like Series B investors Helion and Nexus and a Japanese Internet company. Prior to Series A, ShopClues had raised a round (in Aug. 2011) from angels including from early employees of companies like Google, Netscape and many serial entrepreneurs from Silicon Valley.
Business Model[edit]

ShopClues works on a zero-inventory marketplace[6] model where sellers can display their product catalogues. Besides helping merchants reach out to a larger customer base, ShopClues also claims to increase their (merchants) business by providing a number of business management tools and marketing and decisionenabling analytics. The company claims to evaluate merchants carefully before they set up shop on the platform. These merchants typically are successful retailers, manufacturers, brand owners or authorized dealers who have earned credibility and customer loyalty in the offline environment.
Business Results[edit]

Shopclues handles about 18 lakh transactions[20] annually and around 42 million visitors a year. The company is already doing Rs 100 crores in annualised revenue based on its monthly run. It is targeting about 3.5 percent growth in the January numbers. The company witnessed growth of 250 percent from January 2012 to January 2013. In January 2013, Shopclues posted a revenue of about Rs 8 crore and handled 1.52 lakh transactions compared to Rs 11 lakh in revenue and 200 transactions in January 2012. Now, the company is looking at handling about 30 lakh transactions[20] and also expects the total visitors to the website to cross 10 crores.

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Locations[edit]

The company maintains 3 offices in India: Gurgaon, Haryana (Headquarters) New Delhi, Delhi Mumbai, Maharashtra ShopClues delivers to over 9500 cities[21] in association with leading courier partners. ShopClues fulfilment operations are managed by 3 Fulfilment Centres in New Delhi and Mumbai.
Awards & Achievements[edit]

Best E-Commerce Site of the Year at Social Media Summit & Awards (2013), by Global Youth Marketing Forum[22] Best e-Retailer of the Year - Value for Deals' by at 2nd National Indian e-Retail Awards 2013,[23] by Franchise India[24]

Shopclues.com
Shopclues.com which is India's first and largest managed marketplace was started in July 2011 in Silicon valley. This website connects buyers and sellers online and offers a trusted and safe online experience. Shopclues provides a wide range of branded categories like mobiles, tablets, computers, accessories, home appliances, cameras, electronics, fashion products, jewelery, watches, health and beauty products, garden, books, media, gaming, kids store, gifts, flowers, sports items, pets supplies and auto accessories at a cheap rate with fast delivery and good customer support. They offer over 1,500 global and regional brands, thousands of online stores, retailers and over 125k products across 450+ categories. Shopclues ships their products to more than 7,000 cities, with the largest offering of EMI plans at 0% interest. They have 200 employees in India, based out of Gurgaon, New Delhi, Mumbai and Vadodara.

Speciality and Deals offered by Shopclues.com

The main specialty of Shopclues.com is its cheap price for branded items. Another specialty is its 'Clues Bucks'. Clues Bucks is another way provided by Shopclues to help customers, as well as to attract them to the website again and again for continued support. Every time a customer buys an item from Shopclues.com the website will credit the buyers account with 2% of purchase price known as Clues Bucks. The customer can then redeem this credit at Shopclues.com for their next purchase. Clues Bucks earned by a customer from his purchases are valid for

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a period of one year. Shopclues.com will run promotions from time to time and these Clues Bucks will be valid for 45-60 days. They also offer deals at the time of special events and festivals giving a deduction of 5% to 90% on prices. This project will attract more customers towards the website. This time Shopclues offers a wide range of discounts because of Christmas and New year events.

Payment options
Shopclues.com offers a wide range of payment options like Net banking, Equalated Monthly Installments (EMI>, Credit card, ATM card/Debit card, Mobile payment, Itzs cash card and Cash on Delivery (COD). In these payment options Cash on Delivery (COD) is the most attractive and uses friendly payment options. Banks acceptable for Net banking are clearly mentioned in the website and this information will help users who want to pay online. Another attractive payment option is the 0% interest EMI plan. The highlights of this EMI plan is that it offers 3, 6, 9 and 12 months of EMI plans. The banks available for EMI payment are HDFC, Citi bank, ICICI, Axis bank, Kotak, and Stanchart bank. User can choose EMI options for a minimum order value of Rs.1,500. Each EMI option needs certain processing fees and this is a Rs.99 processing fee for 3 months, Rs.459 for 6 months, Rs.1,459 for 9 months, and Rs.2,459 for 12 months. The buyer will not get refunded with the processing fee if he/she cancels their EMI order.

Return policy
Return policy at Shopclues.com offers a 10 days return guarantee if you received a defective product. You can ship it back to them and they will refund all your money back. The criterias for a return policy are wrong size, wrong color, wrong quantity, defective item, damaged or a significantly different item from the description given by the merchant. You will not able the gain the return policy if it is used/worn or altered, exhibits physical damage to the box or to the product, product is returned without original packaging and if the accessories or the serial number is tampered with. In my opinion Shopclues.com needs to improve their return policy by increasing the time for return. Most online shopping websites offer atleast a 30 days return policy and some others offer a return policy of up to a 100 days.

Customer support
Shopclues.com offers a very good pre and post sale customer support on their products. Users get up to date information about the items which they have ordered. You will get answers for all your queries within 24 hours of the incident. You can ask questions by calling or by mailing Shopclues.com but mailing is the most prefered way.

My own experience

I didn't buy a lot of items however I did buy from this website a pair of fancy LED lights for my bike. I am satisfied with shopping here because they provide good customer support and the packing is really good. I am excited about seeing the offer prices in the sales for Christmas and New year. In my opinion Shopclues is a very good online shopping website which provides branded items at a cheap rate. The one and only negative point I found on this website is their return policy, other wise it is really outstanding.