Andale announced yesterday the creation of Andale Stores, a service that will allow online-auction sellers to set up their own online "stores." Andale Stores will allow sellers to tap into "relationship shopping," where buyers and sellers who have previously completed successful transactions at auction are likely to do business with each other again off-market. Andale estimates such off-market sales at $6 billion dollars yearly.
Andale Stores are free to set up, and there is no access charge or monthly rent. Small businesses pay a small fee for every item sold on their Andale Store
from 1% to 2.95% per purchase, depending on the final price of the item. Small businesses can send winning bidders from eBay, Amazon, or Yahoo to pay for their auction wins via their own Andale Store shopping cart. Winning bidders will be able to combine their auction purchases with fixed-price items from the seller's online store. In one quick, convenient transaction, a buyer can purchase both auction and fixed-price items.
Andale has a three-year agreement with eBay to be the exclusive provider of counters and counter-related services. Andale sellers were responsible for approximately $3 billion in gross merchandise sales on eBay in 2000. Yesterday evening, Andale counters were unavailable. A notice on Andale's home page stated, "We disabled Counter Stats due to a large strain on the database. We apologize for this and are currently evaluating a way to make it more efficient." When contacted, an eBay spokesperson stated that the unavailability of Andale's counters had nothing to do with eBay.
EBay spokesperson Kevin Pursglove did say that auction buyers and sellers should be cautious in participating in any off-market trading. Pursglove said that offline trading is the fastest-growing source of fraud as reported to eBay by its users.
Ebay itself is exploring the possibility of adding a storefront service to its offerings that would utilize eBay's feedback system and offer insurance protection. Mr. Pursglove said eBay is still in the exploratory stage and has not made a decision to offer such a service.
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