Patagonia Let’s Customers Buy and Sell Clothes On a New eBay Store Patagonia announced this week it will be partnering with eBay to open a marketplace for the company’s used products as part of its sustainability plan. The online eBay store, called the Common Threads Initiative, will be open to any eBay seller wishing to…

eBay Runs Social Marketing Campaign to Attract College Students
The “Gear Up For College and Show off Your Pad” campaign asks students to decorate their dorm rooms and enter the contest by uploading original photos of their room to eBay.com/gearup or on Facebook. Design Expert Kelly Edwards (HGTV’s “Design on a Dime”) has teamed up with eBay for the “Gear Up For College” campaign. The winner receives one free year of tuition up to $50,000. [via The Examiner]

American Apparel Partners with eBay
Clothing company American Apparel Inc. is teaming up with eBay Inc. to create an online store within eBay’s auction web site due to strong demand for its products there. American Apparel CEO and founder Dov Charney said that eBay gets more than 30,000 searches for American Apparel each month. American Apparel will use eBay’s marketing features, such as targeted e-mail, affiliate programs and personalization, to help promote American Apparel to a new audience of eBay shoppers. [via Forbes]

As illustrated in the infographic, iPad 2 activity on the eBay marketplace is booming. Interestingly, some of the strongest demand is coming from outside the U.S. in countries like Russia, Canada, Hong Kong and Japan – many of which Apple either just began selling the iPad 2 in on Friday or plans to in April.

Bringing local commerce one step closer to shoppers, eBay announced today that it will be offering consumers local inventory powered by Milo. Users will now be able to use the new local shopping tab to check a product’s local, or in-store availability. Additionally, product pages for MP3 players and GPS devices now include a local shopping tab allowing shoppers to find they product they want, whether its online or offline at a local retailer.

Mobile Web traffic to high-traffic e-commerce sites grew more than 300% during the 2010 online holiday shopping season over levels registered during the same period a year earlier, according to a Conductor report. You can find out more by clicking on either of the charts included here.

Another sign that ecommerce sites are tapping into all things local to augment existing services, eBay has introduced GiftsNearby – giftsnearby.ebay.com – the first integration of Milo’s local inventory availability onto eBay. It’s a new way for last-minute shoppers to simplify their final shopping sprees by showing them gift options available for pick-up at local…

Tara Snyder of OnlineTraining.org has a thorough and detailed blog post devoted to Holiday shopping online.

Sellers can list Auction-style in the 1, 3, or 5-day duration for just 25¢ Insertion Fees through tomorrow, December 10.

eBay revealed that the majority of American women identify with one of four types of holiday gifters: Emotional, Practical, Convenience or Last Minute.