eBay continues to shuffle top executives.

eBay announced on July 16th that Rajiv Dutta, President of eBay Global Marketplaces will leave his post in October. Lorrie Norrington current North American Marketplaces President will move up to take Dutta's position.

Since the retirement of Meg Whitman, there seems to have been a large turnover in top exec's at eBay. Certainly CEO John Donahoe wants to have his own team in place, so these moves are not totally unexpected.




Internet Merchants Association President Steve Grossberg has cancelled his scheduled live interview on our Saturday July 12th 2008 program with the following email:

Quote-
"David 

I am going to have to back out of this interview. Right now my time and energies are geared toward #1 my family, #2 my business, and #3 getting IMA moving forward. We already have an open dialouge and interactive dialouge in place for IMA members to voice their opinions and be heard

Regards,

Steve

1Busyman's Inc" End Quote

Durham, NC (June 4, 2008) – iContact, the industry-leading email marketing service for small and mid-sized businesses, announced today it has signed up its 25,000^th customer.  The Company also announced it now has 100 full-time employees.  

 

The 25,000^th customer is the Paris Winery located in Paris, Tennessee.  

 

iContact is currently adding more than 2,500 new customers on a monthly basis. iContact has more than doubled its acquisition of new customers since April 2007, when the company added its 10,000^th customer.

 

“We are excited that our growth continues at such a rapid pace,” commented Ryan Allis, CEO of iContact.  “Our customers and team members are our focus.  We have a rock star team dedicated to making sure our customers receive the best email marketing product available.”

 

“From just 2 employees in 2003 to over 100 today, the growth has been phenomenal,” adds Aaron Houghton, Co-Founder of iContact.  “Our biggest investment has been in customer service and development, where we feel our customers will benefit the most.”

 

iContact, with offices in Durham, NC, has added team members in all departments -including customer service, sales, marketing, corporate communications, development, management  and finance - over the last year.  

 

About iContact

 

With more than 25,000 customers, iContact makes it easy for anyone to send out permission-based email newsletters, surveys, and autoresponders to their prospects and customers. iContact is the first on-demand application in the world to allow businesses to manage all their online communications in one central platform. Market leaders like Bank of America, Ford, Intuit, Vonage, Symantec, International Paper, LG Electronics, ReMax, United Colors of Benetton, and Centex Homes, use iContact to build stronger relationships with their customers and prospects at a fraction of the cost of traditional marketing methods. iContact, designed for the SMB market and iContact Enterprise, designed for mid-sized to large organizations, are both available at www.icontact.com.

 

 

For media inquiries, contact Chuck Hester, APR, Corporate Communications Director, chuck@icontact.com or 919/459-1451.

OverStock.com Cancels Affiliate Program in New York
In an email to websites in New York State participating in their affiliate program, Ryan Sorenson Affiliate Program Manager attached a PDF document signed by Geoff Atkinson VP of Overstock that states due to recent tax law changes in NYS Overstock will be discontinuing "temporarily" the affiliate program in New York. No official word has been posted on the website as of the writing of this article.

Craigslist vs eBay
A few weeks ago we learned that eBay had filed suit against the online free classified site Craigslist. Somewhat surprising since eBay is partial (about 28%) owner of Craigslist. eBay posted it's suit in it's entirety on their site. 28+ pages worth. The New York Times boiled it down in an article yesterday.


eBay Brings Down The Gavel on Live Auctions
 As first reported by AuctionBytes yesterday, today Jim Ambach VP of Seller Experience on eBay announced that LiveAuctions on eBay will wind down and totally shut down as of Dec. 31, 2008. Ambach assures users that eBay auction format will remain and there is no intention to shut down the auction format on eBay.
Read eBay Announcement

eBay Offers
Value Pack Discount
For the next three days, you can add Value Pack to your listings for only 25¢! Value Pack combines three of our popular upgrades, Gallery Plus, Subtitle and Listing Designer, into one package to help your listings stand out. Save 62% with this three-day offer.

The promotion will start on Tuesday, April 15, 2008 at 00:00:01 PT (12:00 AM plus one second) and end on Thursday, April 17, 2008 at 23:59:59 PT (11:59 PM plus 59 seconds). Listings created prior to April 15, 2008 that are scheduled to start during the promotional period (April 15-17, 2008) will be eligible for the promotional rate.

This promotion will not apply to International, Live Auction, Professional Services, Motors Vehicles and Non-Vehicles, Real Estate, Ad Format, and Store Inventory listings. For full details about the promotion, please see our information page.

Online Auction Site PlunderHere Under New Direction
In a post on the PlunderHere.com Announcement board, the online auction site PlunderHere.com is apparently now under new management. Though it is not totally clear to me, it appears that the former sole proprietor known as Mojavelyn has found financial backers. The change brings in needed funding and additional resources the site needed. "Mo" as she is known has contacted ebay & Beyond: Basics to Business via email and states she will contact us later today with more news.

OnlineAuction.com Welcomes Sellers of Digital Content

Following eBay's announcement that sellers of digital content (e-books, templates, patterns, and so on) would be restricted to their Classified Ads format, OnlineAuction.com (OLA.com) has extended a hearty welcome to displaced sellers. Said one former eBay seller, "For some people, this is their livelihood and eBay has given them seven (7!!!) days to re-work their business plans."

At $8.00 a month (the basic OLA seller's membership), an unlimited number of items may be listed for less than the cost of ONE classified ad on the larger site.  In the midst of a rapid increase in its membership base, a well-publicized site upgrade including new servers, and planning the large upcoming advertising campaign, CEO Chris Fain is very optimistic about OLA's future.  "We're the Costco of the online auction industry ," Fain said.  In a recent  CNN/Fortune interview he stated, "Because eBay is such a huge entity, it's hard to compete unless you get the people behind you, but that's what's happening right now."

"Our company sees eBay's changes as an opportunity for both OLA and sellers seeking a new venue.  At OnlineAuction.com, we're here to enhance your business not control it."

"To show you how our members are getting behind OLA we have thousands of sellers listing items at cost or even slightly below cost to get buyers to our site. Our people represent mostly the smaller sellers that have really been hurt by the new policy changes at eBay.  These people are joining forces to help create the new and only real competitor in online auctions," said Fain. 

eBay Makes Relisting Pulled Listings Easier

eBay announced that is is making it easier to recover and relist item listings that have been pulled for violations of eBay's listing policies. Jim Ambach, VP of Seller Experience stated that listings pulled for violations of the site's listing policies can now be found in the unsold items in the users My eBay, and will be clearly marked as a cancelled listing. Ambach goes on to say that the reason for the cancellation will be found in My Messages. The seller can then make changes to bring the listing into compliance and relist them without having to completely rebuild them.

Runs $0.01 Listing Fee Promotion on Auction Listings Starting at $0.99 or less March 25-31 BUT Requires 4.5 or Above DSR's to Participate

The $0.01 listing fee promotion will run from March 25-31 2008 for Auction Style Listings with a starting price of $0.99 or less but does have some requirements attached. In the email announcement, eBay says that in order to particpate sellers MUST include Shipping and Handling fees in the appropriate fields in the listings so the Best Match search can pick up the S&H (versus putting this information in the body of the listing) and sellers must have DSR's of 4.5 or HIGHER in all 4 DSR criteria. eBay says this DSR requirement will be based on DSR's over the past 12 months. New sellers who do not yet have DSR ratings can also participate.

eBay Changes Policy on Digital Delivery Products
Brian Burke eBay's Director Global Feedback Policy announced today that effective March 31, 2008 items such as ebooks and other items delivered digitally will no longer be able to be sold on eBay. Instead sellers of this type of product will be limited to listing these items in the Classified Ad format. Burke said this move is being made to prevent real or perceived Feedback Manipulation. Items listed as a Classified Ads to not qualify for buyer or seller protection since the transaction is not completed on the eBay site. 

eBay Offering Sale on Listing Enhancements March 1-2, 2008