Author: Ina Steiner

Ina Steiner is co-founder and Editor of EcommerceBytes and has been reporting on ecommerce since 1999. She's a widely cited authority on marketplace selling and is author of "Turn eBay Data Into Dollars" (McGraw-Hill 2006). Her blog was featured in the book, "Blogging Heroes" (Wiley 2008). She is a member of the Online News Association (Sep 2005 - present) and Investigative Reporters and Editors (Mar 2006 - present). Follow her on Twitter at @ecommercebytes and send news tips to ina@ecommercebytes.com. See disclosure at EcommerceBytes.com/disclosure/.

Amazon Adds Former Pepsi CEO to Its Board

February 25, 2019February 25, 2019 Ina Steiner

Amazon added former Pepsi CEO Indra K. Nooyi to its Board of Directors. Wikipedia says the 63-year-old is consistently ranked among the world’s 100 most powerful women. CNBC noted Nooyi becomes the fifth female member of Amazon’s 11-person board. You Read more

Etsy Grows GMS 22% in Fourth Quarter 2018

February 25, 2019February 25, 2019 Ina Steiner

Etsy reported fourth quarter and full year 2018 financial results today. It grew Gross Merchandise Sales (GMS) 22.3% in Q4 (or 23.1% FX-neutral) and grew revenue 46.8%. (Note: edited to fix typo in revenue growth rate.) Press release follows (excerpt): Read more

Woot Runs Promo with Exclusive Deals for Amazon Prime Members

February 25, 2019February 25, 2019 Ina Steiner

One year ago, Amazon extended Prime membership benefits to its Woot deals site, including free shipping. Now it’s running a promotion to celebrate, giving Prime members access to exclusive Woot deals. The inaugural “Prime Member Appreciation Week” kicked off on Read more

Sellers Weigh In on Selling eBay Subsidiaries

February 24, 2019March 21, 2019 Ina Steiner

Activist investor Carl Icahn forced eBay to split with PayPal in July 2015, but in a survey conducted last month, a majority of sellers said they were not better off as a result of the breakup. EcommerceBytes conducted the survey Read more

eBay Spurs Sellers to Offer Tiered Volume Discounts

February 23, 2019February 23, 2019 Ina Steiner

eBay UK is running a promotion to encourage sellers to offer volume pricing discounts through a feature it calls Multi-buy in the UK, called Volume Pricing in the US. eBay also revealed that it was working on introducing discounts on Read more

Amazon Enforces Safety Requirements for Children’s School Supplies

February 23, 2019February 23, 2019 Ina Steiner

Amazon notified sellers about enforcement measures it is taking in children’s school supplies. It required safety documentation for those products by February 13, 2019, otherwise it promised to pull the ASINs from its site. The enforcement relates to strict rules Read more

Etsy Updates Sellers on Last Week’s Billing Glitch

February 23, 2019February 23, 2019 Ina Steiner

Reports came flooding in on Friday, February 15, about Etsy taking funds from some sellers’ bank accounts and charging their credit cards for hundreds, even thousands of dollars. Etsy updated sellers on a thread on its discussion boards, and a Read more

eBay Promises Advertisers a Month of Madness with Help of ESPN

February 23, 2019February 23, 2019 Ina Steiner

eBay appealed to advertisers trying to reach sports fans with the promise of an exciting season of March Madness NCAA college basketball, thanks in part to some help from a collaboration with sports television network ESPN. eBay entered into the Read more

What Stamps.com Postal News Means for Online Sellers

February 23, 2019February 23, 2019 Ina Steiner

Stamps.com rocked the shipping world when it revealed its relationship with USPS was changing in a drastic way. Stamps.com CEO Ken McBride said he no longer sees an exclusive partnership with the USPS as the right strategy for Stamps.com, and Read more

An Update on the Etsy Billing Disaster

February 22, 2019February 22, 2019 Ina Steiner

Late last week we reported on the Etsy billing debacle in which it incorrectly withdrew funds from some sellers’ bank accounts and charged some sellers’ credit cards, despite the sellers not owing fees. The problem occurred on Friday, with some Read more