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Every year, eBay hosts an Innovation Expo that invites eBay employees, from every department and level of the organization, to develop prototypes for new products and breakthrough innovations that benefit our buyers and sellers. This year, more than 250 employees on nearly 80 teams competed for the top prize. eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and CEO, John Donahoe kicked off the event.

This year’s grand prize winner was an idea called “simple green shipping.” (I was lucky enough to video the team behind the concept so I’ll try and dig up the footage for you guys as soon as eBay: On Location comes to a close). In a nutshell, it’s a durable box that’s been designed to be used over and over and over again.

Now, six months later, We’ve printed up 100,000 boxes in three sizes and giving eBay: On Location participants and eBay Green Team members a limited chance to sign up to participate in the pilot.

According to the eBay Green Team, if every box gets reused at least five times, we could protect nearly 4,000 trees, save 2.4 million gallons of water and conserve enough energy to power 49 homes for a year.

What is the eBay Box pilot program?
At eBay, we want to help our buyers and sellers save money and make it as convenient as possible for them to ship items they sell on eBay. We also strive to make it easy for users to reduce their impact on the planet. The eBay Box program encourages eBay buyers and sellers to keep their shipping boxes traveling. The eBay Box is a durable, reusable box made from environmentally-friendly materials. Starting in October 2010, participants in the eBay Box pilot can track their box’s journey at thebox.ebay.com, simply by entering the unique code printed on the box. As a token of our appreciation, we’re also giving every unique eBay user who receives and registers a box up to $1 in eBay Bucks.

Why is eBay doing this?
The eBay Box was the winner of this year’s eBay Innovation Expo, a celebration of new products and breakthrough innovations coming from employees at every level of the organization. Initially called “simple green shipping,” we believe it has the potential to both improve the eBay customer experience and help reduce the environmental impact of the eBay marketplace.

Does this program cost anything?
During the pilot, the eBay Box program does not cost anything. In fact, eBay buyers who receive an eBay Box are eligible for an eBay Bucks reward.

You say this is a “pilot.” What does that mean?
At eBay, so much of what succeeds or fails does so because of its impact on our community. We think the eBay Box is a great idea, but we have to make sure our buyers and sellers agree. So, to start off, we are printing just 100,000 boxes and releasing them out into the world. We’ll track their progress, and talk to the people who touch them, through our website and social media channels. Once the boxes have had a few months to travel, we’ll check back in and see where we can take it from there.

I’m a seller, and I want to participate in the program. How do I get involved?
There are a few ways to get involved in the eBay Box pilot. If you are participating in the eBay: On Location event in San Jose on September 1 and 2, you can stop by the eBay Green Team booth, fill out a short form, and register to participate. For a limited time, sellers who are eBay Green Team members can also sign up on the eBay Green Team website. Participation will be determined on a first come, first serve basis. Once all 100,000 boxes have been distributed in October, eBay buyers who receive their purchase in an eBay Box can participate in the program by going to thebox.ebay.com and entering the box number and basic item information. We encourage everyone who gets an eBay Box to help us keep it traveling.

If you aren’t able to participate in the pilot but are interested in greener packaging options, check out our green selling hub, where you can access lots of great tips and resources on green packaging and shipping. You can also order free Priority Mail, Cradle-to-Cradle-certified boxes from eBay and the USPS through the eBay Shipping Hub.

What’s so environmentally-friendly about this box?
All of the eBay Boxes are made from FSC-certified, 100% recycled material and have been printed with water-based inks. They’re designed for durability and minimal taping, so they can withstand multiple uses. They’re also 100% recyclable.

For more information, check out the eBay Green Blog.

Cheers,
RBH

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All,
eBay: On Location kicks off today, in conjunction with our celebration of 15 years of eBay. I managed to get my hands on a celebratory video we’ll be showing at eBayOL – San Jose tonight and to our employees around the world.

I’ve only been a part of the eBay family and community for a relatively short time in the grand scheme of things but have thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it – well… almost every minute of it… – and I look forward to seeing old friends and new ones this week and hopefully meeting many more as we head into the Next 15 of eBay Inc.

For those of you attending eBay: On Location, please send your photos to home23like@photos.flickr.com and I’ll make sure they get included in the eBay Ink Flickr feed.

In the meantime, here is the video…

Cheers!
RBH

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All,
We’ve seen a couple of stories recently regarding last week’s third party checkout announcement, that need clarification. Specifically, stories running this morning state that, as part of last week’s third-party checkout announcement, eBay has prohibited Google Checkout. In fact, Google Checkout is not an accepted payment method today and last week’s announcement was completely separate from that. The announcement actually noted that effective June 30, 2011, eBay Checkout will be the only checkout process on eBay. Sellers who use Certified third-party checkout solutions from providers like ChannelAdvisor, Auctiva, Vendio, Infopia and Kyozou, will transition to eBay Checkout. For more information, please see eBay’s Accepted Payments Policy.
Cheers,
RBH

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eBay Updates
PayPal to Develop Micropayments Product
PayPal President Scott Thompson recently announced that the company will be delivering a micropayments product before the end of the year as part of the company’s goal in simplifying the purchase of low-cost virtual goods. [via eBay Inc]

eBay Announces the End of Third Party Checkouts
eBay will no longer be supporting third party checkouts after June 30, 2011. This change will allow users to experience a speedy and consistent checkout experience. [via eBay]

eBay Implements Automatic 5-star DSR for Free Shipping This Week
Effective August 24, shipping cost DSR will be automatically defaulted to 5 stars when it is verified that a buyer did not pay for shipping. [via eBay Ink]

Other Top Stories
PayPal’s vice president of global product strategy, Sam Shrauger, expects PayPal to be available on gaming consoles in the near future. [via Forbes]

MasterCard’s acquisition of Datacash is the first in credit card companies move into the e-commerce and mobile technology space, other companies are reportedly to soon follow. [via TheStreet]

Location based services has the ability to become the next big thing in m-commerce but still needs time to fully develop. [via Internet Retailer]

Further News
+ E-commerce in Korea exceeds over $170 Billion and has grown more than 20% in just 3 months
+ Digg rolls out with new redesign, making it a true social networking site
+Alibaba purchases Auctiva, a developer of software tools for eBay sellers
+ Social Media marketing needs scale, distribution, targeting and format in order to increase ad spending

eBay Ink Weekend Roundup is a summary of news and updates around eBay, PayPal, Social Media, Technology and E-commerce. Let us know what interests you.

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I’ve received some questions about whether sellers will now receive automatic, 5-star DSR’s for free shipping.

I’m pleased to tell you the answer is yes! And, this isn’t a test – effective Aug. 24, we began defaulting the shipping cost DSR to 5 stars when eBay can verify a buyer did not pay for shipping.

Sellers have been asking for this, and we are excited to bring it to them before the holiday season. Free shipping attracts buyers, and this important new protection for sellers will ensure that DSR scores for shipping cost will not receive a score of less than 5 if buyers choose free shipping.

Here’s all it takes:

1. The item must offer a free shipping option.
2. In order to get the automatic 5-star rating, the buyer must choose the free shipping option during payment.
3. Sellers should be sure to offer verifiable payment methods (i.e. PayPal, MoneyBookers, PayMate, ProPay) and use eBay checkout. Third-party checkouts will work, as long as they provide the full post back information to eBay, so that we can verify the buyer didn’t pay for shipping.

We’d be happy to answer your questions. Feel free to leave comments here on the Ink blog or via Twitter at @ebayinkblog and @ebay_andy.

Cheers!
Andy

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Don’t Count E-Commerce Out Yet
A new group of e-commerce companies such as Groupon, Etsy and FreshDirect are proving that e-commerce is still going strong. With avid consumers, they are a strong bet for investors in the IPO market. [via New York Times]

Debut of Facebook Places
Keeping in touch has become even easier with Facebook Places. The new feature allows you to share your location with friends via check-ins. Currently, the feature is only available to US users and can only be used through the Facebook iPhone application or by visiting touch.facebook.com on your mobile browser. [via PC World]

eBay and Half.com Help Students Purchase Cheaper Textbooks
Half.com has launched a new iPhone app allowing students to scan textbook barcodes and search through millions of listings for competitive prices. The new app is the first app to integrate barcode scanning technology implemented through RedLaser, which eBay purchased in June. [via TechCrunch]

Further News
+New eBay news feed keeps employees in the loop
+M-commerce reaches another milestone as customers in UK are more likely to make purchases through their mobile phones rather than traditional mail order catalogs
+MasterCard steps into the e-commerce industry with its upcoming purchase of DataCash Group

eBay Ink Weekend Roundup is a summary of news and updates around eBay, PayPal, Social Media, Technology and E-commerce. Let us know what interests you.

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An interesting post over on Hitwise Intelligence by Heather Dougherty earlier this month profiles how this Summer’s heat wave in the US has driven online sales of air conditioners. What I found most interesting was the eBay-focused data…

eBay experienced increases in the Air Conditioner category during the same week ending July 10, 2010 with a 46% increase in the volume of searches for ‘air conditioner’, ‘window air conditioner’ and ‘portable air conditioner’.

Going one step-further, we thought it would be compelling to see if similar trends were occurring on our other sites such as eBay Classifieds and Shopping.com. Sure enough, the trends are fairly consistent across the board. Digging even deeper, you can see that searches for air conditioners on eBay Classifieds peaked a week earlier than they did on eBay or Shopping. One could obviously attribute this to people wanting to shop locally before going onto eBay or other sites.

Searches for Air Conditioners – eBay Classifieds

Searches for Air Conditioners – Shopping.com

Searches for Air Conditioners – eBay.com

Not only that, the higher levels of search activity seem to follow higher levels of listings. Leading one to conclude that once again, online sellers are playing Nostradamus to consumer demand…

“[An] interesting trend is the ability of the eBay sellers to predict demand in terms of their inventory – in this case, the number of listings was the highest the week ending July 3, 2010, right before the peak, with a small decrease in the subsequent weeks of 2.3%* and 3.6%*. Watching the listings of eBay sellers could offer some predictive insight into the popularity of certain categories and products– like last year’s holiday hit, Zhu Zhu Pets.”

Cheers,
RBH

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The eBay Classifieds Summer Twitter Chats continue tonight at 8:30pm ET with “Money Mama” Lori Mackey (@LoriMackey), founder of Prosperity4Kids, discussing teaching children the value of money. Lori will provide tips on how families can make or save money on sites like eBay Classifieds.

As usual, there will be prizes given away during the chat. Tonight they’ll be giving away three Money Mama piggy banks – aimed at helping folks get started on teaching kids about finances.

Lori will be tweeting from her own account, @LoriMackey, along with @eBayClassifieds. You can join in the conversation too by using the hashtag #eBCchat. You can also visit the eBay Classifieds Twitter Chat site to find out more information.

Cheers!
RBH

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eBay launched a new free Half.com iPhone app and Buying Wizard to help students quickly find great deals on textbooks (and more fun stuff of course) heading into the school year. It’s the second eBay app to integrate barcode scanning technology and allows users to scan the barcodes on items to find the best deals on textbooks, DVDs, video games and more. The app provides Half.com buyers access to over 80 million active listings from more than 700,000 sellers.

Check out the following demo video to learn more:

Key features:
+ Popular item search by category available on the home screen – see what others are buying.
+ Speedy Checkout has payment and shipping information saved to complete the transaction quickly. Add a gift card or coupon code when checking out to save even more.
+ Social Media Sharing function enables users to share favorite deals via Facebook, Twitter, and ema

The App includes “Buying Wizard”. Based on the user’s criteria for item condition and seller feedback, the Buying Wizard (currently in Beta) identifies the lowest cost items and shipping discounts (if applicable) to help shoppers get the best deals on Half.com.

With three easy steps the Buying Wizard will match users with the best deal:
+ Add Products – Users select the minimum criteria for item condition and seller feedback.
+ Find Deal Button – Buying Wizard will display the best deal for you, based on the criteria you selected.
+ Add to Cart – Move the items from Buying Wizard into your shopping cart to purchase.

UPDATE:
This is exactly the app I’ve been looking for. The integration of the barcode scanning technology into this and our existing Selling App could be the most significant to date for eBay’s mobile application efforts. It was why I was so fired up about the acquisition of Red Laser back in June. In addition to the Half.com and Selling Apps, I’m interested to see how long it takes to be included as a future upgrade to other existing eBay mobile applications. It could end up being a huge hit with both buyers and sellers on eBay too. Walking through a retail store and seeing an item you want – or want to sell – and being able to scan the barcode to see how much the item is being sold for online and elsewhere. Total price comparison shopping at your fingertips.

Bottom line, mobile applications have changed how people buy and sell online in just a matter of months and this latest development only adds to that evolution. Today: students… tomorrow: everyone. Looking forward to trying it out myself.

Cheers,
RBH

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New eBay Bucks Reward Program
The eBay Bucks shopping reward program gives users a 2 percent reward on certain items they buy through eBay.com and pay for through PayPal. Participants of the program can earn as much as $200 eBay Bucks for each item purchased or $500 per quarter. [via Associated Press]

E-Commerce Spending Up
ComScore has announced that e-commerce spending is up 9% in Q2 of 2010 versus Q2 of 2009. Although the gain is strong, ComScore is still cautious as the rate is still far below the strong e-commerce spending in 2008. [via SocalTech.com]

Twitter Debuts “Tweet” Button
The newly unveiled tweet button allows users to directly share links from any site they may be visiting. Once a user clicks the tweet button, a pop box appears with the URL already shortened. All the user has to do is add their message and hit the tweet button, the update will be sent to the users Twitter feed automatically. [via PC Magazine]

Further News
+In times of crisis, Americans are likely to turn to social media.
+Taking cues from their teenage daughters, Moms are turning to online shopping and social media.
+Foursquare launches e-commerce shop for users.
+eBay launches new eBay Classifieds Pets iPhone app for users.
+”Mad Men” links up with smoking charity for auction
+Jay-Z Creates Custom-Made Nike Sneakers for Charity

And one I neglected to reference last week…
ProStores goes for a more user-friendly e-commerce platform
The new ProStores 10 lets merchandisers modify page layouts without altering software code. [via Internet Retailer]

eBay Ink Weekend Roundup is a summary of news and updates around eBay, PayPal, Social Media, Technology and E-commerce. Let us know what interests you.

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