eBay's Half.com announced a new Shops feature on Friday that allows buyers to browse a seller's full inventory. The feature is important because shipping discounts are available when purchasing more than one item from the same seller. Half also added a feature to allow buyers to create lists of favorite sellers.

All Half.com sellers automatically receive a shop for free.

eBay acquired Half in 2000 and is integrating the site into the eBay platform. The integration process began two years ago by combining the customer service functions of both sites into one, and with the integration of registration, User IDs and feedback last year. (You can now use the same User ID on both Half.com and eBay.)

In March, eBay said users could expect very minor changes this year, but by the third quarter of 2004, Half.com would be fully integrated into the eBay platform. At that point, the Half.com brand and site would go away, and the Half.com functionality will be available within the eBay site.

There is no word on how Half.com Shops will be affected by the final integration with eBay.com.