Further News
+ An infographic that shows the numbers behind in-store mobile commerce and online retail payments.
+ Is online shopping pushing up postal costs?
+ How do social networks Facebook and Pinterest compare when it comes to social commerce?
+ See how iPad-vertising is taking off.
+ 5 things you need to know about e-commerce.

Looking Back on eBay Ink
June 6, 2011: eBay Inc. today announced that it has agreed to acquire Magento Inc., the creator of Magento, a leading open source ecommerce platform. The deal follows eBay’s acquisition of a minority stake in the company in 2010. Upon closing of the transaction, eBay will own 100% of the outstanding shares of Magento. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

A video message to developers from eBay Inc. CEO, John Donahoe

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

Enter the StubHub Bonnaroo Total Access Sweepstakes!
Enter for a chance to win an experience of a lifetime to the biggest festival of the year. The winner and 8 of their best ‘Roo friends get into the festival for an all VIP/Total Access opportunity, which includes backstage passes, limo, concierge service and more! Make this summer rock and enter here.

Further News
+ Facebook gains in public debut after record $16 billion IPO.
+ Starbucks brews loyalty with mobile payments‎.
+ Is Pinterest the next billion dollar company?

Looking Back on eBay Ink
May 23, 2011: Cheers to all small businesses out there! I just wanted to reiterate how grateful I am to the eBay Ink Social Media Sellers who contributed articles last week to celebrate National Small Business Week. The response I’ve received from folks has been really positive and I plan on making it more of a recurring feature on the blog moving forward. I’ve already received interest from additional social media sellers who’d like to contribute articles for the blog so, if you’re interested in either becoming a certified eBay Ink Social Media Seller or just have a cool story to share with readers, please feel free to email us.

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

eBay On Location Around Corner
A quick reminder for those looking to join us in Denver May 24-25, 2012 for eBay OnLocation. Register now for your chance to find out what works best from eBay experts, business gurus and your fellow eBay sellers.

Further News
+ Will your Klout score get you hired?
+ Infographic showing five things we’ve learned about social sites, Pinterest and Facebook.
+ How to use social media for powerselling
+ Is the online shopping checkout harming or helping you?

Looking Back on eBay Ink
May 11, 2011: From The PayPal Blog: “PayPal leads, others follow”. You may have heard that Visa announced plans to launch a digital wallet in the US and Canada later this year. As the lines between online and offline commerce continue to blur, this is yet another sign that the payment industry’s model for success in our new digital world is looking more and more like PayPal’s.
While other companies are following PayPal’s business model, we’re already light years ahead. More than 98 million people around the world have already trusted us with their digital wallets. PayPal was built 12 years ago, because traditional payment methods weren’t designed for the digital world. We’ve offered mobile payments since 2006 and expect to do more than $2 billion in mobile this year. We’ve offered micropayments since 2005 and launched our solution for digital goods last year. We plan to be at retail point of sale by the end of this year. You can read the full blog post: PayPal leads, others follow.

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

Further News
+ Are men online shopping more than women?
+ 39 million Americans purchased over their mobile devices last year.
+ Mobile isn’t just changing how we shop, it’s changing who is shopping

Posts From the Week
+ eBay unveils all new iPad App 2.0; 5 minutes with eBay Mobile VP, Steve Yankovich
+ eBay Technology Center of Excellence Coming to the Big Apple #ebaynews

Looking Back on eBay Ink
May 2, 2011: eBay has acquired MissionFish – the innovative technology and team that powers the eBay Giving Works program – from the Points of Light Institute. Since 2003, MissionFish has provided eBay with the back-end tech to power the eBay Giving Works program in the US (they’ve powered eBay for Charity – the same program in the UK – since 2005). I’ve written about them many times here on Ink and in the more than 8 years they’ve been an eBay partner, they’ve helped raise nearly a quarter of a billion dollars for the nonprofit sector by connecting consumers with nonprofit causes.

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

Enter eBay Green Driving Contest
Who doesn’t love the smell of a new car? Enter for your chance to win a Toyota Prius, and learn how to save money at the pump with the wide variety of unique, green vehicles available on eBay Green Driving. eBay Green Driving is the latest in a series of programs and experiences designed to help eBay buyers and sellers make more sustainable shopping decisions. It offers user-friendly tools and resources, as well as eBay’s unique green vehicle and parts inventory, in a single location, to help people determine the best ways to “green” their daily driving routines – including information on electric vehicles, hybrids, clean diesels, compressed natural gas and ethanol vehicles, as well as high-MPG gasoline vehicles.

Further News
+ Take a look at this music video and get shopping.
+ Does mobile commerce encourage laziness?
+ A winning social commerce strategy: Don’t ask how, ask why
+ Ten habits of global online shoppers.

Posts From the Week
+ eBay Sellers Go To Washington
+ The Magento Imagine eCommerce Conference Kicks off in Las Vegas

Looking Back on eBay Ink
April 28, 2011: eBay sponsor Shazam App for Android giving users unlimited tagging. Shazam updated its Android App today bringing unlimited tagging sponsored by eBay for all “Shazamers” using the Shazam Free App and “Shazam Friends”, a real-time feed with the App of songs that Facebook friends have tagged. This essentially creates a continuously updating list for Shazamers to discover and share new music with their friends. The deal with eBay means that instead of just five free tags in a month, users can now tag as much music as they want between now and January 1st, 2012. This is the first exclusive App sponsorship deal agreed by eBay anywhere in the world, and the first time Shazam has selected a partner to provide free services to their customers.

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

Further News
+ Tips to closing the deal on abandoned online shopping carts.
+ Mobile commerce offers consumers significant convenience over e-commerce.
+ A study shows, the iPad is driving American mobile commerce.

Posts From the Week
+ The World’s Fastest Car Show has been Nominated for a 2012 Webby Award… Please vote!
+ Social Resources for eBay Sellers: Pinterest and Facebook Timeline
+ Planned PayPal Site Outage for April 19
+ eBay Inc. Reports Strong Q1 2012 Results; Increases full-year guidance for 2012
+ eBay Earnings Twitter Recap via Storify; John Donahoe on CNBC

Looking Back on eBay Ink
April 20, 2011: eBay launches “Every Mom’s a Hero!” campaign and social media contest. Now here’s a promotion I can get behind… In addition to featuring products for Mum and special Mother’s Day Daily Deals, eBay is launching an integrated social media contest for customers and employees today called “Every Mom’s a Hero.” Utilizing Twitter and Facebook, eBay will feature stories and sentiments about special mothers shared through those channels. Facebook contest winners will be announced on May 10th and participants will be asked to post a photo of their mom “hero” along with a short story on eBay’s Facebook page about why this mom is so special. Happy Mother’s Day to all the Mums (and Moms) out there and I wish all of them could win these cool prizes! Good luck!

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

Further News
+ E-commerce is driving up prepaid card usage as consumers have started to use them more to pay bills and make online purchases.
+ HTML5 is the latest version of the ubiquitous web programming language, and it’s especially important in mobile commerce.
+ There is a growing trend within the converging spaces of social media and e-commerce.

Posts From the Week
+ eBay Ink Wants You!
+ eBay’s Topaz Data Center Gets Even Greener

Looking Back on eBay Ink
April 18, 2012: eBay Instant Sale now offers $$ for broken devices. My 2 broken iPods may no longer be worthless. eBay has opened up its Instant Sale program to include new, limited-time pricing for broken or damaged iPods, iPhones and iPads, offering consumers more value for their broken gadgets than ever before in celebration of Earth Month. Additionally, eBay will offer every user that sends in their device – broken or not – a bonus $5 eBay gift card and a matching $5 donation to Global Green USA.

Through April 30, eBay Instant Sale will begin paying up to $150 for broken iPads, $100 for iPhones, and $50 for iPods. Until now, Instant Sale offered free shipping and responsible recycling for all broken items, but limited cash value. As a result, I now have two otherwise useless iPods that could translate into about 100 new songs from iTunes for my functioning one.

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

Further News
+ The Hottest Trend in e-Commerce? Clothes.
+In-app purchases are proving a boon for app developers, boosting revenues for both developers and app store owners such as Google and Apple.
+ What makes the online consumer tick?
+ The Facebook Timeline of social commerce represented as an infographic.

Posts From the Week
+ Happy Birthday to us! eBay Ink turns 4 today
+ Celebrate Earth Month with eBay
+ eBay on the Road: 2012 NonProfit Technology Conference
+ Survey shows Tax Refunds “Drive” Vehicle-Related Purchases
+ UPDATED: eBay has Acquired WHI Solutions

Looking Back on eBay Ink
April 12, 2011: Today, eBay, HP, Microsoft and Intel released a statement in support of Senator Kerry’s (D-MA) and Senator McCain’s (R-AZ) Commercial Privacy Bill of Rights Act. The Act establishes a framework to protect the personal information of all Americans both online and offline. Please click here to view eBay, HP, Microsoft and Intel’s statement of support.

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

Further News
+ Social sharing has become a mainstream activity, a new study says.
+ Mobile shoppers more often turn to a retailer’s actual website rather than a dedicated app.
+ Some have questioned the effectiveness of Facebook as a commerce platform, but can you dismiss an ad and marketing channel with 800+ million users?

Posts From the Week
+ AutoNation Direct launches special 50%-off promo on eBay Motors
+ David Marcus is the new President of PayPal
+ 5 Minutes with… David Marcus, President of PayPal

Looking Back on eBay Ink
March 31, 2012: Bringing local commerce one step closer to shoppers, eBay announced today that it will be offering consumers local inventory powered by Milo. Shoppers 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. By bringing local inventory into the core search experience on eBay.com, shoppers who opt-in through the Garden will now see local shopping results on a new tab alongside the traditional search results on eBay.com
To connect small retailers and local shoppers, eBay is also introducing pluginfrom Milo that will help small to mid-size retailers easily integrate their offline merchandise onto Milo and eBay. Beginning with retailers who use QuickBooks, this software will allow independent retailers to upload their local inventory through a one-time, three-step installation and automatically share the real-time availability of their products with millions of shoppers nationwide, whether on eBay.com, eBay’s RedLaser mobile barcode-scanning application, or Milo’s affiliate partner sites. Retailers can sign up for the program here: http://www.milo.com/retailer-signup.

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

Further News
+ New Yorkers can now shop for Lancôme and Yves Saint Laurent beauty products while riding in cabs.
+ E-commerce sites are facilitating social sharing among their users through buttons and plugins.
+ Some of the biggest brands on the Web are opening shops offline.

Posts From the Week
+ PRIMEDIA to Acquire Rent.com from eBay Inc.
+ [VIDEO] Recap of eBay Inc. at Mobile World Congress 2012

Looking Back on eBay Ink
eBay’s Raji Arasu Named a “Woman of Influence” for 2011. Raji Arasu, Vice President of Technology for eBay, has been named to the prestigious Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal 2011 Women of Influence list. Nominated by her peers, and recognized by the publication’s Women of Influence committee, Raji will receive the award at a formal awards’ dinner on April 14. She will also be included in a special publication honoring notable women in Silicon Valley. I was lucky enough to sit down with the 10-year eBay veteran to chat about her time at eBay, the award itself and the challenges and opportunities she sees facing women in technology today.

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