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/.

eBay Launches New APIs as Developers Conference Kicks Off

June 20, 2017 Ina Steiner

eBay kicked off its 2017 developers conference at eBay headquarters in San Jose, California today with the news that it is releasing new and updated buy and sell APIs. This week’s eBay Connect is the first of seven events eBay Read more

Etsy Unveils the Etsy Journal

June 20, 2017 Ina Steiner

Etsy has been publishing its blog for 10 years with stories about artisans, collectors, buyers, and sellers. Often it features Etsy shops. On Monday, it announced it is changing the name to the Etsy Journal and is compiling posts into Read more

eBay Struggles to Patch Its Shipping Label Platform

June 19, 2017 Ina Steiner

eBay has been struggling to fix issues affecting sellers’ ability to print shipping labels through its platform. In a rare move, eBay published a post acknowledging the issue on Friday and posted several updates to the announcement as it attempted Read more

UPS to Charge Merchants Extra for Holiday Shipping

June 19, 2017 Ina Steiner

Online sellers who use UPS will pay more for shipping their holiday orders this year. UPS announced a new peak charge for US Residential deliveries and large packages, among other services. In addition, UPS will apply a peak surcharge on Read more

For Techies: How eBay Built Its New Homepage

June 18, 2017June 18, 2017 Ina Steiner

eBay’s desire for a new homepage presented a challenge to its tech team. Management wanted the homepage to include personalized listings and ads and to feature trends and curated content – and be really fast to load. Here’s a description Read more

eBay Showcases Its Relationship with Sellers

June 18, 2017 Ina Steiner

eBay launched a “Partner to Sellers” website to act as a “central destination to spotlight our work with and for sellers.” eBay said the new site underpins its commitment to helping all sellers succeed, and showcases the role it plays Read more

eBay to Close Half.com, Its Book and Media Marketplace

June 16, 2017September 4, 2017 Ina Steiner

eBay informed sellers on Friday it will shut down Half.com, its marketplace for books and media listings. HDC, as it is sometimes referred to, is set to close on August 31, 2017, after which it will redirect to eBay.com. “We Read more

Amazon to Acquire Supermarket Chain

June 16, 2017June 16, 2017 Ina Steiner

Amazon is buying Whole Foods Market for a deal valued at $13.7 billion. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos praised the supermarket chain for its healthy and organic food and for “delighting” its customers. Whole Foods does $16 billion in sales at Read more

ShippingEasy Adds Email Marketing and Customer Management

June 15, 2017June 16, 2017 Ina Steiner

ShippingEasy first launched as a shipping solution for online merchants, and later expanded to offer inventory management. Now it has added an email marketing and customer management solution to help sellers market their services to shoppers and manage buyer relationships. Read more

Law Would Free Sellers of Out-of-State Sales Tax Mandates

June 15, 2017June 16, 2017 Ina Steiner

A new bill that is favored by Overstock.com would prevent states from requiring out-of-state sellers to collect sales tax for transactions involving their states’ shoppers. Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner introduced the No Regulation Without Representation Act of 2017 in the House Read more