First announced by Chief Strategy Officer Michael van Swaajj speaking at a software conference, eBay's ad initiative will be tested through eBay affiliates in coming months. By providing affiliates with snippets of code that link to eBay auctions closely related to the content on the affiliate's website, eBay hopes to enlarge its base of eBay shoppers to include new customers from the blogosphere and other online communities.
The program is to be called AdContext and will pay a weighty commission to network members of between 40 and 70 percent of eBay's own earnings on each sale, depending on the amount of buying driven by the affiliate in question.
In a reversal of its historical position with regard to the feedback system, which allows eBay traders to rate each other on performance, eBay has indicated that it may also seek to provide web developers with tools to examine user feedback ratings. Such a move would create a new window of opportunity for sites that have traditionally existed under something of an eBay-imposed cloud, such as those that enable users to search through and aggregate feedback information.
What It Means For You
AdContext and a more open feedback system under the developers program are welcome news for eBay traders—the small traders in particular—since both initiatives will add up to more bids and better security.Traders should find themselves with increased auction viewership (and thus a larger pool of bidders come closing time) as AdContext drives traffic from e-commerce, community, and blog sites to related auctions on the eBay website.
If and when the feedback system is also opened up, traders will also find themselves with access to web-based tools that will help them to quickly and easily identify problem buyers and problem sellers of all kinds—information which can be leveraged into smarter buying as a bidder or better bidder exclusion lists as a seller.
The big picture in this case shows us, in combination with other recent news from eBay, that eBay is not content to rest on its laurels or occupy a niche in the e-commerce world. Instead, eBay is clearly determined to diversify its offerings and drive traffic to them in coming days, something which can only make both traders and investors happy.
