» press release

HONG KONG, August 24, 2010 – Alibaba.com (HKSE: 1688.HK) (HK.1688), the world’s leading e-commerce company for small business, has entered into an agreement to acquire Auctiva, the leading third-party developer of tools for eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) sellers. With more than 170,000 active users, Auctiva provides a variety of listing, marketing and management tools as well as image hosting and online storefronts that make it easy for small businesses to sell successfully via e-commerce on sites like eBay.

The acquisition of Auctiva, as well as Alibaba.com’s purchase of Vendio in June, combined with Alibaba.com’s strength in sourcing, will create a significant source of tools and resources for U.S. small businesses looking to leverage e-commerce. The combination of both the Auctiva and Vendio acquisitions brings more than 250,000 new customers to the Alibaba.com family of products, and significantly expands the size of Alibaba.com’s U.S. operations.

Through its recent acquisitions, Alibaba.com is building the world’s first global e-commerce supply chain. This end-to-end network connecting manufacturers and wholesalers with e-tailers and consumers will allow small businesses to easily source from suppliers all over the world, then conveniently manage and sell those products through popular online channels like eBay, Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN), their own online storefronts and more. 

“Time and money are the two most important things to me as a small business owner,” said Don Pinard, owner of www.peggsbargains.net, an Auctiva and AliExpress customer. “I spend a lot of time online looking for products I can sell. I used to use liquidation sites, but AliExpress is much better, and more reliable. If I can trim the cost of purchasing items by just 7% that will cover all store fees and shipping costs, which will really increase my profit.”

The online merchants who use both Auctiva and Vendio will have direct access to almost 1.5 million supplier storefronts on Alibaba.com’s sourcing platform andAliExpress (www.aliexpress.com), a wholesale transaction platform operated by Alibaba.com. This new connection from supplier to online merchant represents significant potential cost savings to customers. By sourcing their products directly from the manufacturer, reducing travel and taking advantage of global markets, Alibaba.com hopes to help small merchants increase their profit margin in the long term. For example, a jewelry retailer can sell a silver bracelet with black agate stones for US$12 on eBay and make a profit of US$7.09 if he/she originally purchased their inventory on AliExpress for US$4.91 per piece. These savings combined with the additional efficiencies of sourcing online will represent significant savings for the average online merchant.

With the acquisition, Auctiva’s platform will be integrated with AliExpress, allowing Auctiva users to connect to AliExpress via a tab on the Auctiva Web-based platform. This will enable customers to easily search for suppliers, acquire merchandise and list those products on eBay through their Auctiva accounts. Exclusive promotions and special deals on AliExpress products will be available to Auctiva users.

“Small online retailers are just starting to see how they can use international sourcing to their advantage, and we have seen the significant opportunity through customer reaction to our initial integration with Vendio,” said David Wei, chief executive officer of Alibaba.com. “Many small business owners never even thought that they would be able to source their products from overseas, as they didn’t have the staff or technological resources to do so. We are bringing both sides of the equation together to make international sourcing as easy as possible for any business.”

“Our mission has always been to help users sell more successfully online, particularly through the eBay channel,” said Jeff Schlicht, founder and CEO of Auctiva. “With more than 10,000 new users joining Auctiva each month, we are constantly looking for new ways to serve our customers and drive value for them. Joining Alibaba.com and connecting our buyers to the vast supplier base on Alibaba.com and AliExpress.com is the perfect way to help them grow and thrive in an increasingly competitive environment.”

The acquisition closed on Aug. 18, 2010, and is part of the US$100 million investment plan for AliExpress that Alibaba.com announced in April 2010. Auctiva will operate as a new business unit within Alibaba.com and will retain its own brand name and operations.

Rothschild was the financial adviser to Alibaba.com for this transaction and Morgan Joseph was the adviser to Auctiva for this transaction. Financial terms were not disclosed.

LOS ANGELES-August 17, 2010-Stamps.com® (Nasdaq:STMP), the leading provider of USPS® postage online and shipping software solutions to approximately 400,000 customers, today announced a new integration and partnership with Magento®, the global open source e-commerce platform provider. The integration is available at no additional charge to new and existing Stamps.com customers.

Stamps.com’s integration with Magento enables Magento merchants to batch print up to 1,000 pre-paid USPS shipping labels for any mail class, including Media Mail® and First Class International Mail®. In addition, Stamps.com automatically posts order status details such as tracking number, ship date and mail class back to the Magento merchant’s database.

With the Stamps.com integration, Magento’s customer base of more than 60,000 merchants will be able to manage and fulfill orders from eBay®, Paypal® Shops, Yahoo! Merchant, Google Checkout™ and their own web stores from one easy-to-use interface.

“Magento clients are eager to use cutting-edge tools to gain a competitive advantage,” said Roy Rubin, CEO of Magento.  ”Efficiently processing and shipping orders is a huge part of what makes an online retailer successful, which is why we are so pleased to offer this integration and partnership with Stamps.com.”

“Magento’s open source platform gives merchants complete flexibility and control to create sites that deliver an outstanding user experience. The Stamps.com integration gives them greater control and flexibility over their shipping processes to ensure that the total customer experience isn’t marred by processing inefficiency or shipping delay,” said Stamps.com president and CEO Ken McBride.

SAN FRANCISCO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–SlideShare today announced tiered PRO plans for the popular presentation sharing site. With the new PRO plans, professionals, businesses and enterprises can enjoy advanced features while users with more basic needs can continue using the free version. PRO plans are immediately available on a subscription basis, starting at $19 per month: https://slideshare.net/business/premium/plans.

SlideShare PRO lets users measure, monitor and engage their community with all their content (presentations, documents & videos). Features include: (a) analytics and social media monitoring for all your content (b) ad removal, (c) lead capture on your content, and (d) custom branded channel.

CEO Rashmi Sinha said, “We have been listening closely to our customers, who have been asking for advanced features and customization. Given the large number of businesses that use SlideShare, a PRO plan fits in naturally. It allows us to keep building our community with a compelling free offering, and to layer on advanced functionality that lets businesses and professionals to get the most out of SlideShare.” SlideShare has been working on the Pro plans in private Beta for several weeks.

George Palantine, Dell Senior eBusiness Manager and a Beta customer of SlideShare Pro said: “SlideShare is the fastest growing external social media site Dell is engaging through. The custom branded Channel for Dell Large Enterprise was easy to set up, the new analytics features help us measure what we manage and we are able to directly capture leads from within the communities professionals participate in.

“Jesse Thomas from JESS3, a creative agency in Washington D.C. said, “As an interactive agency with client and company content distribution challenges, we have found that SlideShare Pro is very close to a silver bullet solution. SlideShare takes branded pages very seriously, offers robust sharing functionalities, lead gen management and analytics. Further, we believe that SlideShare is a platform like YouTube, Facebook or Twitter that all brands need to take very seriously. We store a variety of file types there and encourage clients to do the same. SlideShare is not just for presentations anymore!”

SAN JOSE, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–eBay (NASDAQ:EBAY), the world’s largest online marketplace and global m-commerce leader, today announced that retail apparel veteran and accomplished e-commerce entrepreneur Miriam Lahage is joining the company in the newly created role of General Manager, eBay Fashion, responsible for growing and driving innovation across the company’s multibillion-dollar fashion category.
“Miriam’s deep retail experience and entrepreneurial vision for fashion e-commerce will be a great asset to eBay as we drive shopping innovation and extend our leadership in this category”

A well-respected merchant, Lahage brings extensive offline and e-commerce, value-oriented and luxury brand retail experience to the role. Lahage spent more than 20 years with TJX Companies, the off-price global retailer of apparel and home fashions, rising from store manager to senior executive roles in merchandising and general management. Most recently, Lahage worked as a consultant to Natalie Massenet at NET-A-PORTER to help grow theOutnet business. In 2007, she successfully launched Koodos.com, the first online discount boutique for designer brands in the U.K., and managed the successful sale of Koodos in late 2009 to E-Trader Group.

“Miriam’s deep retail experience and entrepreneurial vision for fashion e-commerce will be a great asset to eBay as we drive shopping innovation and extend our leadership in this category,” said eBay Inc. President and CEO John Donahoe. “We are committed to delivering fashion consumers the broadest selection of clothing, shoes and accessories online at incredible value. We’re equally committed to providing brands, designers and small-business fashion entrepreneurs a cost-effective, highly competitive distribution channel and compelling shopping environment to drive growth.”

eBay is a leading fashion destination with more than $5 billion of merchandise volume annually. eBay features 20 million average daily fashion listings, offering buyers a broad selection at great value. A pair of shoes is sold every 8 seconds; a dress every 10 seconds. eBay has 10 million active fashion shoppers in the U.S.
“eBay is incredibly well-positioned to drive shopping innovation and create growth opportunities for fashion brands,” Lahage said. “I’m thrilled to have the chance to lead such a dynamic business. No other destination can offer fashion savvy shoppers such choice and value.”

Earlier this year, eBay began introducing significant enhancements to the shopping experience with the launch of fashion.ebay.com. New image similarity technology and browsing capabilities, boutique experiences and editorial merchandising make shopping eBay’s vast selection easier than ever. The company also has expanded its Fashion Vault flash sales, working with a broad range of designer and contemporary brands to offer consumers access to limited inventory at deep discounts.

This summer eBay took fashion mobile with the launch of its free eBay Fashion iPhone app. The eBay Fashion app delivers a personalized shopping experience where shoppers can browse, buy and “try on” items virtually anytime, anywhere. The app features a personalized closet, an outfit builder, social media sharing, direct entry to the eBay Fashion Vault and a virtual style gallery.

eBay also has featured an exclusive with designer Narciso Rodriguez, who turned to eBay to launch his first online capsule collection in the Spring of 2010. The company is exploring exclusives with other designers and is supporting emerging designers as a member of the 2010 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund Business Advisory Committee. eBay is underwriting the seventh annual CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund awards dinner, to be held November 15 in New York.

ChannelAdvisor and Bongo International Partner to Extend
International Shipping to Online Retailers

New offering creates additional revenue opportunity for ChannelAdvisor customers

Research Triangle Park, NC – July 13, 2010 – ChannelAdvisor, a solution provider that enables online retailers to improve efficiency and increase revenue, today announced a partnership with Bongo International that enables international shipping for ChannelAdvisor’s online retailer customers, effectively opening up the global marketplace. ChannelAdvisor Webstore customers can now add international shipping capability to their checkout in just hours, allowing them to provide shoppers with real-time international shipping costs, local currency, language translation and an expected delivery date.

“Many of our retailers receive interest from international buyers, but they don’t have the bandwidth to manage the intricacies of shipping internationally,” said ChannelAdvisor CEO Scot Wingo. “We’re partnering with Bongo International to equip our customers to sell more by expanding their target market from the U.S. to the global online community.”

Handling all taxes and customs rules, and taking no longer than a week to ship products, Bongo International can send products immediately or hold the goods to be consolidated with other U.S. purchases, saving the shopper up to 82 percent off common carrier rates.

“We strive to offer value to both the U.S. retailer and the international customer simultaneously,” said Greg Sack, president of sales with Bongo International. “We currently help more than 800 retailers expand their business around the globe, and we’re looking forward to extending that service to ChannelAdvisor’s 3,500-plus customers.”

SnowSportDeals.com has activated Bongo International shipping on its ChannelAdvisor Webstore checkout. “When our international customers order online, we simply ship the order to Bongo in Connecticut, who then ships it on to the buyer,” said Chris Chapman, owner of SnowSportDeals.com. “Since adding international shipping capability, we’re able to reach an entirely new demographic that our products have never been exposed to before. We’re thrilled to offer an additional service to our customers, and we’re eagerly anticipating the business opportunity this presents for our company.”

Bongo International also screens international shoppers to prevent fraudulent orders, resulting in an impressive 0.00 percent fraud rate throughout company history. For international buyers, Bongo offers a one-off purchase plan or a subscription plan that provides additional shipping savings.      

For more information on adding Bongo International to your ChannelAdvisor checkout, tune in to a joint webinar being held Tuesday, July 20, 2010. To register visit www.channeladvisor.com/webinars.

A focus on international growth strategy is a must for online retailers looking to expand their market and keep up with the competition. Very few companies are able to work through the complexities of going global on their own. One avenue to international growth and development is to join forces with a trusted company that has facilitated international expansion for hundreds of merchants. This can allow you to identify and prioritize potential markets, instead of spending a great deal of time dealing with the headaches that can typically be associated with international orders.

Greg Sack is the President of Sales for Bongo International. He outlines some of these challenges on video, including:

• Fraud
• Export Compliance
• Operations
• Shipping costs

Also featured is a demo of UmbrellaSource.com, who currently uses Bongo’s application to convert international consumers into fraud-free domestic orders.

Bongo is also happy to announce Channel Advisor as a new partner! Bongo now enables ChannelAdvisor merchants to sell their products internationally without the worries of international credit card fraud and operational challenges.

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Phoenix-based Addoway, a social marketplace that helps you buy and sell with your friends and the people they know, announced today a new feature that allows Addoway merchants to sync their active inventory with eBay. The new feature is part of Addoway’s eBay Importer, which allows merchants to seamlessly import inventory from eBay to sell on Addoway. As of today, sellers now have the option when importing to deactivate any listings on Addoway that were previously imported, but since then have sold out on eBay and are no longer available for sale.

"One of the top complaints we hear from eBay sellers when considering implementing a multi-channel selling strategy is that they don’t want to worry about having to manage inventory across multiple platforms," said Addoway co-founder Fredrick Nijm. "One of our goals at Addoway is to make this process simpler, and this new implementation is an example of the level of service we aim to offer our sellers."

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To update Addoway inventory, sellers can re-import their eBay listings any time, and Addoway will update active inventory on the spot. In the future, Addoway plans to add an automatic syncing option for Pro Members that will sync inventory automatically without having to re-import their items on their own. The site intends to release the automatic sync feature later this summer. In the meantime, all Addoway sellers can sync inventory in seconds by re-importing items from eBay as often as they like.

Addoway continues to build momentum with both online sellers and shoppers. The site is approaching 100,000 items listed since launch, has more than tripled traffic in the last 60 days and sales on the platform have doubled in the last month, according to co-founder Fredrick Nijm. Most of this momentum has come in the last several months, after Addoway launched its public beta platform in April. The company has multiple innovations planned for the future, and is aiming to be the most social marketplace on the web.

Alibaba.com, the world’s leading e-commerce company for small business, has entered into an agreement to acquire Vendio Services, Inc., a multi-channel e-commerce company providing a one-stop solution for small businesses that are selling online across multiple channels . The company is 40 percent invested by Yahoo!, 30 percent invested by Softbank, and the Alibaba management own the rest of the shares. Back in 1999 Alibaba was a  small business with only $50,000 U.S. capital to start with, and 18 people working with Jack Ma. Now, it has 18,000 people working globally. Alibaba.com became a public company in 2007 and its market cap is over $13 billion today.

Vendio supports over 80,000 small and medium online retailers in the States, and the U.S. from day one has been a very important market to Alibaba.com. Those 80,000 retailers are generating over $2 billion U.S. worth of GMB every year.

There is SO MUCH going on with M&A (mergers and acquisitions) this summer, my head is spinning to keep up. We will cover alot of this stuff on Late Night BETA but listen to this interview with the future CEO of the newly acquired Vendio Mike Effle.

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Also check out this BONUS interview with the CEO of Alibaba, David Wei from Practicle eCommerce

 
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Ecommerce edutainment on demand  

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Ecommerce edutainment on demand  

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eBay Acquires RedLaser, the Leading Barcode-Scanning iPhone Application

EBAY TO OFFER REDLASER AS FREE STANDALONE APPLICATION; PLANS TO INTEGRATE TECHNOLOGY INTO ITS SUITE OF MOBILE SHOPPING AND SELLING APPS

SAN JOSE, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–eBay (Nasdaq:EBAY), a leader in mobile commerce and the world’s largest online marketplace, today announced that it has acquired RedLaser, the popular barcode-scanning application for iPhone, and related technology from Occipital. With over two million downloads, RedLaser is the top-selling iPhone barcode-scanning application for comparison shopping and finding product information using a mobile device. Terms for the deal were not disclosed.

“With RedLaser’s innovative technology, eBay is continuing to help shoppers quickly find the best deals online, and eBay sellers will be able to list their items faster.”

“Mobile enables consumers to make impulse buys and convenient purchases wherever they are, and eBay is constantly innovating to make mobile shopping easy and reduce the friction in commerce,” said Mark Carges, chief technology officer and senior vice president, global products, eBay Marketplaces. “With RedLaser’s innovative technology, eBay is continuing to help shoppers quickly find the best deals online, and eBay sellers will be able to list their items faster.”

eBay plans to integrate RedLaser’s barcode-scanning technology into its leading iPhone applications, including its eBay Marketplace, eBay Selling, StubHub and Shopping.com applications, providing more than 10 million users with access to product information for fast and easy selling and comparison shopping. The technology is designed to help consumers find great deals online for virtually any product with a barcode, and for eBay sellers to quickly create listings by accessing pricing trends and product details for millions of items in eBay’s catalog. The eBay Selling application for the iPhone will be the first iPhone application to take advantage of RedLaser’s barcode-scanning technology for mobile users to sell items online.

eBay is immediately transitioning RedLaser from a paid application to a free standalone application. The company also plans to significantly increase selection on RedLaser by integrating more than 200 million listings from eBay, as well as product inventory from over 7,000 global merchants on Shopping.com, including 95 of the top 100 online retailers.

The RedLaser technology is being used in a wide variety of applications including grocery shopping lists, gift registries, and nutritional tracking. eBay plans on increasing developer support of the RedLaser technology in the future.

The acquisition of the RedLaser application builds on eBay Inc.’s momentum and innovation in mobile commerce. In 2010, eBay released an iPad application and three new iPhone apps: eBay Selling, eBay Classifieds and StubHub. eBay Inc. is a global leader in mobile commerce with $1.5 billion in gross merchandise volume (GMV) expected in 2010 through its mobile platforms. eBay’s mobile applications are available to millions of iPhone, BlackBerry and Android users in more than 190 countries and eight languages. A mobile purchase is made every two seconds via eBay’s mobile applications.

To download the free RedLaser iPhone application, please go here: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/redlaser/id312720263?mt=8

Alibaba.com Acquires Vendio, Continues to Advance Global E-Commerce Platform

Acquisition integrates AliExpress and Vendio e-commerce services into a complete solution for small businesses in the U.S.

SAN MATEO, CA, June 24, 2010 – Alibaba.com (HKSE: 1688.HK) (HK.1688), the world’s leading e-commerce company for small business, has entered into an agreement to acquire Vendio Services, Inc., a multi-channel e-commerce company providing a one-stop solution for small businesses that are selling online across multiple channels . From the Vendio Platform, merchants can source products from Alibaba.com’s trusted supplier network and sell through channels such as eBay, Amazon, and their own Vendio-supported store. This platform is offered on Software as a Service (SaaS) cloud-computing model to help businesses increase their sales while managing costs to enhance their profit margin.

Through this acquisition, Alibaba.com gains access to more than 80,000 targeted small businesses in the U.S. with potential sourcing needs from suppliers on Alibaba.com’s sourcing platform and AliExpress (www.aliexpress.com), a wholesale transaction platform operated by Alibaba.com. In addition, the acquisition will provide access to e-commerce storefronts and multi-channel selling services for AliExpress customers looking to reach consumers online through the Vendio Platform. AliExpress and Vendio customers are able to source efficiently from the 5 million+ products available on AliExpress and then sell goods through Vendio on the retail marketplaces of their choice around the world.

With the acquisition, Alibaba.com will connect AliExpress directly with Vendio through back-end integration, creating an AliExpress tab within the Vendio Platform. This integration allows Vendio users to easily access a private sourcing experience within their Vendio inventory and sales management interfaces. Exclusive guarantees, promotions and special deals on AliExpress wholesale products will also be available to Vendio users.

AliExpress complements Vendio by strengthening the first step in the business cycle for small businesses: how to locate products for sale. According to a recent survey, more than 80 percent of Vendio customers have never used online supplier services and nearly 90 percent have never tried to take advantage of import-export. This integration creates an opportunity for Vendio customers to expand their supply chain and lower their cost through instant, free access to the more than 1.4 million supplier storefronts on Alibaba.com and AliExpress. Now Alibaba.com and Vendio members have access to complete e-commerce solutions to meet their sourcing, buying and selling needs through an integrated set of tools and features.

"At Alibaba.com, our goal is to make it easier for our customers around the world to do business by providing solutions that increase margins, productivity and competitiveness through e-commerce," said David Wei, chief executive officer of Alibaba.com. "We continue to look for synergies and investment opportunities to grow our customer base, acquire additional technology and add new applications that will help our customer base grow and prosper.

Vendio is our first acquisition in the U.S. and a strong strategic fit across all three areas, and I am confident that our complementary businesses will create enhanced opportunities for our customers."

"We identify with Alibaba.com’s vision of creating a seamless global e-commerce experience for business owners," said Mike Effle, COO of Vendio. "We are particularly impressed by Alibaba.com’s deep commitment to creating immense value for small businesses. Efficiently integrating Alibaba.com’s extensive supplier base will allow Vendio’s merchants to earn higher profit margins while providing unique and competitively priced products from around the world to their customers. The increased efficiency and product breadth will yield additional positive effects for the marketplaces we support and throughout the entire e-commerce ecosystem."

The acquisition is part of the US$100 million investment plan for AliExpress that Alibaba.com announced in April 2010. It is expected to close in July 2010. After the closing, Vendio will become a new business unit within Alibaba.com and will retain its own brand name and operations. Mike Effle, current Vendio COO, will assume the role of the Vendio CEO and Rodrigo Sales, current Vendio CEO, will become a strategic advisor to the company.

Rothschild was the financial adviser to Alibaba.com for this transaction and Pacific Crest Securities was the adviser to Vendio for this transaction. Financial terms were not disclosed.