eBay is expecting a merry mobile holiday season this year and TechCrunch agrees.

On Tuesday, the site reported that mobile-only dollars transacted by eBay users increased more than 200 percent in the third quarter, when compared to the same period in 2011.

TechCrunch also noted, as eBay previously reported, that the company expects eBay mobile transactions to exceed $10 billion in volume in 2012. That’s more than double the amount that exchanged hands — er, devices —  in 2011.

Additionally, more than 800,000 new users made their first eBay purchase on mobile during Q3 and over 1.8 million new users made their first eBay purchase on mobile from January through Sept. of this year.

As TechCrunch notes, eBay is unveiling a series of new, mobile-driven initiatives designed to engage shoppers through through their mobile phones, such as a mobile exclusive shoppable gift guide and mobile-only inventory and deals.

“The mobile business has gotten big enough so we are seeing similar behavior in terms of what people are buying on phones to what people are purchasing on the site,” Steve Yankovich, vice president of mobile, told TechCrunch’s Leena Rao.

eBay Inc. CEO and President John Donahoe recently told CNBC that the company had foreseen this trend and made a big bet on mobile several years ago that is now paying off.

“Consumers are making the mobile device the central navigation system of their lives,” Donahoe told “Squawk on the Street” on Nov. 9. “While it’s driving great mobile results for us, the coming year will be when the mobile device links the digital world to the physical world.”

Image courtesy of eBay Inc.

Source: eBay Inc.

An eBay report about the effects of limited 4G service in the United Kingdom is generating widespread news coverage in the country.

According to the report, the lack of universal 4G service throughout the UK will cost the country’s economy £120 million, or roughly $192.5 million, in lost sales this Christmas season. At the moment, the UK only offers the speedy 4G service in ten cities, including London and Liverpool.

The report also addressed the growing importance of mobile and mobile-influenced shopping, noting that 55 percent of consumers plan to use their smartphones to browse the web this holiday season and 39 percent will use their device to get gift ideas and check prices. About a third of the items in eBay’s Christmas campaign will likely be bought with a mobile phone as well.

“Mobile devices have become virtual stores in our pockets, giving us the ability to shop anytime, anywhere,”  said Clare Gilmartin, vice president of eBay Marketplaces Europe. “But for consumers, it’s critical that the experience is quick, seamless and simple.”

However, the top three barriers that prevent consumers from mobile shopping are slow connection speeds, payments timing out and network reliability. All these problems would be virtually eliminated by 4G, the latest and fastest wireless technology network. But rollout of the network has been long delayed in the UK. Full availability is not expected until early 2013.

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.

Social & Mobile Commerce Panel
eBay: On Location – Denver
Friday, May 25, 2012
3:45 – 5:00 pm

Speakers:
• Peggy MacDonald, Product Manager, eBay Mobile
• Martin Herbst, Director of Global Merchant Experience, PayPal Here
• Garry Wiseman, Sr. Director of Social Commerce Product Management
• Richard Brewer-Hay, Sr. Manager of Social Media, eBay Inc.

Panel Overview:
Listen in as experts in the social and mobile commerce world discuss their visions on where these powerful platforms are headed, share trends, and discuss new innovations on the horizon.

Check out the full list of speakers at eBay: On Location.

Check out the full list of sessions at eBay: On Location.

Cheers!
RBH

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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.

eBay has unveiled it’s all new eBay for iPad App 2.0 in the Apple iTunes store this morning and I’m already playing with it. Building on the impressive mobile commerce legacy that eBay has already carved out for itself in just a few years- including creating one of the very first apps for the first generation iPad – eBay has built the new app from the ground up and really focused on the unique shopping experience that the tablet provides. I sat down with Steve Yankovich, vice president of eBay Mobile, to chat about the new app and how far we’ve come in just three and a half years:

With the first signs of personalization and new search functionality, the app caters to all kinds of buyers – from the shopper who knows exactly what they want to the buyer who wants to get lost in the immersive experience and browse any number of images and categories.

Key Features:
• Customizable home screen – Easily access items for watching, buying, or selling and instantly search from favorite categories
• Stunning images – Double resolution optimized for the new iPad
• Quick listings – Create a listing in under a minute
• Multiple views – Seamlessly switch between three views of search results – ranging from highly visual to very detailed
• Photo browsing – Flip through multiple images with the swipe of your finger for easy browsing
• Barcode scanner – Research items and import details right into the listing
• Photo upload – Effortlessly upload photos from your iPad 2 camera or photo library for iPad and iPad 2
• Advanced search – Target your results to listings that fit your budget, category, condition, size, color, or style
• Customer service on the go – See how items are performing, reply to questions promptly, and provide speedy response to Best Offers
• Effortless navigation – Buy and sell in “My eBay” without ever clicking away from the search screen – products are always in view. Users can now also view “More Like This” from sellers and easily transition back and forth between search results
• Watch with eBay – Quickly access the Watch with eBay™ app to browse items relevant to the shows on TV
• Availability – Download for free all over the globe in the following iTunes stores: AU, AT, BE, BE-FR, CA, CA-FR, FR, DE, IE, IT, NL, ES, CH, UK, US

I also got a first-look demo of the app itself:

It’s not just for buyers either. Sellers can quickly research sale trends, list items, and make sales from virtually anywhere. They can scan an item using the barcode scanner to easily pre-populate a listing and sellers can now revise their listings directly from the iPad app.

Like I said, I’m a big fan. I’ve become a pretty addicted mobile shopper over the past few months and even bought my first big ticket item via eBay for iPad – our new family TV – just a couple of weeks ago. I look forward to really getting under the hood

Cheers,
RBH

Related Reads:
eBay Adds Barcode Scanning, Personalization, Better Image Quality To New Version Of iPad App
eBay Mobile Fast Facts

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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.