Online auction site uBid.com issued a press release announcing it was experiencing a strong start to the holiday shopping season. Starting with Black Friday (November 24) through December 5, the number of visitors to the auction website jumped 33% compared to the previous 12 day period in the prior month. Customer registrations grew 58% largely due to the recent launch of the "uBid uPhoria" commercial on November 22, 2006.
"The trend is terrific and a testament to the efforts made in improving our auction marketplace platform so far this year," said Robert H. Tomlinson, Jr., CEO of uBid.com Holdings Inc. "Just a wonderful start to our peak season which should continue well into the 1st quarter of 2007. This is a result, we believe, of the growing popularity of uBid's alternative marketplace for our Sellers, coupled with the growing popularity of online shopping using an auction format." Tomlinson said the site plans additional growth by testing a variety of mediums in 2007, including newspaper, print and direct mail.