eBay Creates Wholesale Deals Site for Top Sellers

Three years after eBay gave up on a B2B product-sourcing site, it's testing a similar model again. eBay has been pilot testing an invitation-only marketplace for Top Rated Sellers where it offers them wholesale "deals" from pre-selected wholesalers, brands, liquidators, and distributors. Every week, eBay Wholesale Deals runs offers for wholesale merchandise in a range of categories including electronics, home & garden, fashion, and more.

In an invitation emailed to a limited number of sellers, eBay says it pre-screens all wholesalers prior to approval and compares prices on eBay and other websites to ensure competitive pricing of the deals offered. eBay also pitches "easy financing" through PayPal's Bill Me Later service - "Qualified buyers can finance purchases with Bill Me Later Business. You'll pay no interest if your balance is paid in full within 90 days."

eBay Wholesale Deals is managed by Anthony Okoro, a Senior Manager in the eBay Business Incubation Group.

In 2005, eBay launched the Reseller Marketplace, a business-to-business marketplace specifically for eBay PowerSellers, in alliance with China's Global Sources. The Reseller Marketplace was designed to help PowerSellers source inventory from China and was also a snub to leading B2B marketplace Alibaba after it opened a C2C marketplace that competed with eBay in China.

In 2009, eBay closed the Reseller Marketplace. The company explained it wanted its third-party developer community to provide reseller and liquidation apps directly on the eBay Selling Manager Platform in order to give a larger group of sellers access to the same liquidated items that were then only available to PowerSellers on the Reseller Marketplace.

At the time, eBay spokesperson John Pluhowski told EcommerceBytes, "By having the liquidation marketplace directly available within the eBay site, sellers will access to better and more inventory, liquidators will be able to directly market their inventory to a wider audience more efficient."

eBay has since closed the Selling Manager Platform to new developers as it moves to a new platform that integrates Magento, PayPal and eBay, called X.commerce.

Some sellers who received the invitation to the new wholesale-deals site thought it might be a phishing email, since eBay has not yet announced the site. Another seller wrote, "I'm not a TRS anymore, so I didn't appreciate the timing."

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