Online auction site eBid is readying a feature that allows sellers to require immediate payment from buyers. And the site, boasting 4 million live listings, said new updates to its mobile app are completed and awaiting App Store approval.
The new “Require Immediate Payment” system was requested by many sellers “to ensure payment is received safely and swiftly from their buyers.” The feature is optional and will allow sellers to decide if their buyers must pay immediately after a “BuyNow” purchase is made.
We checked in with eBid founder Mark Wilkinson, who sounded positive about the site’s growth rate. “Our sales for April are up 5% and 9% in the UK and U.S., respectively, year on year. Mobile sales are doubling monthly currently, but that it is to be expected as (the) App has only been available since 1st Feb, and we expect that to slow.”
The problem of stale listings is a common one for eBay alternative marketplaces, and Wilkinson said they recently culled stale listings and put in place more checks to ensure all listings are fresher and sellers are active.
“You might be interested in our social endeavors that we have been spending more time on in recent months,” he said. The company hired a social coordinator, and it now has 68 active pages on Google Plus with over 17,000 “plus 1s” (similar to Facebook “likes.”) It also has a new blog page and Pinterest pages.
eBid has also added in-app notification to its iOS and Android apps – “You’ll be alerted when a BuyNow sale is made on one of your listings and also when offers and counter-offers are made/rejected/accepted,” according to a website announcement. “We’ll be adding more in-app notifications in future versions.”
A review of other updates shows some attention being paid to U.S. based users, such as new Priority Mail shipping options as well as changing the spelling of “favourite” to American English for some emails to U.S. users.
