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/.

China Payments Firm Runs into US Roadblock

January 4, 2018 Ina Steiner

It was supposed to make buying and selling across borders easier, but the merger between US money-transfer firm MoneyGram and China’s Alipay parent Ant Financial has been nixed. However, the two companies will work together on new strategic initiatives in Read more

Echo Surpasses Amazon Prime in Building Customer Loyalty

January 4, 2018January 4, 2018 Ina Steiner

If you know anything about Amazon, you know that the company is investing heavily in its Prime program because Prime members spend more than non-members. A new report suggests customers who own an Amazon Echo “smart speaker” spend even more. Read more

USPS Loses Executive Responsible for Flat Rate Priority Mail

January 3, 2018January 3, 2018 Ina Steiner

Postmaster General Megan J. Brennan announced that Chief Customer and Marketing Officer James Cochrane will retire next month after more than 43 years of service to the USPS, saying he has had a lasting impact” on the organization and the Read more

Expect Shipping Disruptions from East Coast Storm

January 3, 2018January 3, 2018 Ina Steiner

The Northeast United States is used to snow storms and blizzards, but the one arriving on Thursday looks to be a record-breaker, and it is impacting the entire east coast beginning today. Here is the warning from the National Weather Read more

PayPal Writes eBook on Selling

January 2, 2018 Ina Steiner

PayPal UK has published an ebook, “How to sell like Christmas all year round,” and is making it available on its website at no charge. Between one fifth and one third of UK retail sales occur in the lead up Read more

eBay Runs Free Listing Promotion in UK

January 2, 2018January 2, 2018 Ina Steiner

Some eBay sellers in the UK will be able to list up to 100 auction and fixed-price listings per day and pay no insertion fees for the month of January. eBay is running a free listing promotion in the UK, Read more

Amazon Ships 5 Billion Items through Prime in 2017

January 2, 2018 Ina Steiner

Amazon won’t release the number of customers who pay for a Prime subscription, but today it revealed that in 2017, it shipped over 5 billion items through the free 2-day shipping program. It also said that more new paid members Read more

Etsy Runs Free Listing Promotion for Existing Shops

January 1, 2018 Ina Steiner

Etsy is running a free listing promotion for sellers who have a shop. It’s a repeat of a promotion Etsy ran in January 2017. This type of promotion is to help marketplaces get fresh inventory onto their sites after the Read more

FedEx Expects Holiday Shopping to Continue – Here’s Why

December 28, 2017 Ina Steiner

FedEx expects holiday shopping to continue into January thanks in part to gift cards. FedEx Express Canada commissioned a survey that revealed three quarters of Canadians who planned to shop after the holidays were doing so to take advantage of Read more

UPS Expects Record Number of Returns

December 28, 2017 Ina Steiner

UPS is expecting a record number of returns this holiday season, and said more than 1 million returns occurred each day of December before Christmas. The shipping carrier expects 1.4 million returns on January 3rd, dubbed National Returns Day, which Read more