Online marketplace Atomic Mall is running a contest to encourage sellers to create a page ("lens") on the Squidoo website that showcases their Atomic Mall storefront. Sellers must create a Squidoo lens with an Atomic Mall theme and linking to their storefront. The first-place winner will receive a $200 AtomicPass Gift Certificate to use at any Atomic Mall store. Entries must be submitted before 12/31/08, and entries will be judged and voted on by registered community forum members between January 1 and January 10, 2009. See details on the Atomic Mall announcement board

Meanwhile, Etsy conducted a survey of shoppers and found PayPal was the overwhelming current preferred method of payment. The markeptlace of handmade and vintage items conducted the survey over a 5-day period and received close to 3,000 responses from shoppers throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico and the rest of the world. In response to a question about future methods of payment, PayPal was also the winner by a 40% margin over the other possibilities presented: credit cards processed by Etsy, credit cards processed by PayPal, Direct Debit, Google Checkout and Amazon Payments. More about the survey results is available on the Etsy blog.

OZtion, Australia's second largest online auction website, revealed the most popular gifts for purchased on the site in the run up to Christmas. Philip Druce, co-founder of OZtion, said "There has been some subtle changes to what sold well in 2007. The Nintendo DS has replaced MP3 players as this Christmas's must have item, with other electronic items like Mobile phones and GPS Sat Nav devices also entering the top ten." The most popular Christmas gifts for 2009 in order are, Video Games (Electronic / Console); Nintendo DS Console; Bags (Shoulder & Hand); Mobile Phones; DVDs (TV Shows / Series); Lego; Jewelry; Shopping / Gift Vouchers; GPS / Sat Nav Devices; and Bratz Dolls. OZtion said its membership base recently surged past 350,000, following a year of significant growth.