EBay aims to boost mobile sales with new iPhone apps
This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.
EBay might be best known for offering auctioned items on the Web, but now the company is planning to expand its operation through mobile phones.
The online auction site announced on Tuesday that it has released two new iPhone applications that will make it easier for users to create EBay listings and bid on products without being tied to a desktop.
The company’s EBay Selling app allows users to take a picture with their iPhones of an item they want to sell and create a listing on the site. It’s a process that EBay says will take just 60 seconds to complete. The app also includes a feature that will help sellers find the best price range for the item based on previous sales. After a listing has been posted to EBay, users can share it with friends on Facebook and Twitter.
EBay also launched EBay Classifieds, which allows users to post free ads with up to eight photos from an iPhone to the company’s Classifieds site. Users can also view ads in a single page and reply to postings from within the program.
Both the EBay Selling and EBay Classifieds apps are free to download from Apple’s App Store.
EBay’s decision to offer two new iPhone apps underscores its renewed focus on mobile sales. The company says that 8 million people are using the iPhone to buy items on the auction site.
That growth has contributed significantly to its bottom line. The company said in a statement that it posted $600 million in mobile merchandise value -- the gross amount that items sold for on the site -- in 2009. It expects to generate $1.5 billion in mobile merchandise value in 2010.
[Updated at 3:51 p.m.: Added and defined merchandise value amounts]
-- Don Reisinger