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 As AuctionBytes revealed in September,
eBay is committed to bringing large, high-volume retailers onto its
site through "Operation Catalog." Some of these volume retailers are
making their debut during the all-important holiday shopping season, a
time that existing eBay sellers rely on for a major part of their
annual sales. With the economy in tough shape, the added competition
couldn't come at a worse time.
eBay announced an API called "eBay Large Merchant Services" on
Monday, and on Tuesday, Mercent, a third-party vendor, announced the
launch of a "catalog merchandising and order integration software" for
high-volume eBay sellers, integrated with the new API. Mercent heralded
the launch of its enterprise seller tools for eBay and PayPal with the
news that SmartBargains.com was the first client to adopt its eBay
selling solution.
eBay had announced a "Diamond PowerSeller" program in June, in which
sellers who achieve $500,000/month in gross sales are eligible to
negotiate with eBay on special pricing and other benefits. But with
Operation Catalog, high-volume retailers or etailers can come into the
program with little or no history on eBay. While eBay won't reveal
details, sources have told AuctionBytes that Diamond sellers pay zero
listing fees and receive heavily discounted commission fees.
One source told us eBay would give such Op Catalog participants a
grace period to conform to eBay's seller standards. Another source told
us some participants are able to negotiate an "auto enhancement
program" in which their average DSRs (customer ratings) would never
fall below 4.6, which AuctionBytes has not been able to confirm.
Sellers who are reported to be enrolled in eBay's special Diamond PowerSeller program include Shoplet.com and Toolup.com.
Mercent CEO Eric Best stated in his company's press release,
"Using the Mercent Retail platform and Large Merchant Services on the
eBay platform we can quickly integrate sellers into the eBay
marketplace. For large, branded merchants looking for automated control
over product merchandising across eBay, Mercent Retail is the ultimate
on-demand software."
A list of Mercent's customers
include: REI, 1-800-FLOWERS.COM, Fingerhut, Nautilus, Guess, Crabtree
& Evelyn, Lucky Brand, Levenger, Fortunoff, Woolrich, Car Toys,
Color Me Beautiful, Limoges Jewelry, Saffron Rouge and Gristedes.
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