eBay executives told analysts in a conference call earlier this week that it would launch eBay Express next week. On Thursday, eBay gave some sellers a preview of the new marketplace in a WebEx presentation. Sellers who were not informed of the presentation were confused when an eBay moderator mentioned it on the eBay discussion boards (http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=1000267737).

A seller who viewed the presentation said eBay Express will have a major presence at the eBay Live annual conference in Las Vegas June 13-15, and that eBay will be pushing the new marketplace to buyers beginning in August. It was expected that eBay would promote the site heavily to buyers during the holiday shopping season.

He said the eBay Express website looks clean ("much less cluttered than Amazon"), and there is nothing to differentiate it from the main eBay site. eBay's intention is to have eBay Express listings rank high in natural search results on search engines.

eBay first announced the new eBay Express marketplace in January (http://www2.ebay.com/aw/core/200601181327302.html). Sellers do not list items directly on eBay Express. Rather, eBay Express will contain fixed-price listings pulled from qualified U.S.-based sellers on eBay.com and eBay Stores.

eBay said Express will make it easier for buyers to find items and will include a shopping cart, allowing buyers to make purchases from multiple sellers with one transaction.

Initial response to the eBay Express announcement from eBay sellers has been positive. However, some sellers remain concerned over the new site's requirements. Sellers must agree to ship items to unconfirmed PayPal addresses, and in doing so, lose any seller protection they may have had through PayPal.

eBay held a workshop for users on March 17 that is archived on the eBay site (http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=2000088514).

AuctionBytes.TV interviewed ChannelAdvisor CEO Scot Wingo about the eBay Express marketplace on April 6. The video interview can be viewed on the AuctionBytes.TV Features channel (http://auctionbytes.tv/features).

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eBay Express from the Auction-Management Point of View (January 25, 2006)
http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y06/m01/i25/s03

PowerSellers Ready to Jump Aboard the eBay Express (February 08, 2006)
http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y06/m02/i08/s03