BillMeLater; Just Not on Amazon
Here’s an example of a story coming full circle: Amazon invests in BillMeLater, BillMeLater is added as a payment option on Amazon, eBay buys BillMeLater, and today, Amazon pulls the plug on BillMeLater. The service, which lets shoppers buy stuff online without a credit card, will no longer be offered as a payment option by Amazon in the New Year.
Browse eBay or Amazon Visually

PicClick is a web tool that lets you browse eBay or Amazon by images rather than lists of descriptions.
You are presented with two tabs, each for eBay and Amazon and you choose which category you want to browse. You are presnted with a page of images with short descriptions. A slider bar at the top allows you to increase or decrease the size of the all the images on the page.
Amazon announces its best ever Holiday Season
In a press release 26 December, Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com, announced the 2008 holiday season finished as its best ever, with over 6.3 million items ordered worldwide on the peak day, Dec. 15, which is a record-breaking 72.9 items per second.
There was no mention of revenue figures. The rest of the press release reveals the top selling itmes of different categories.
Full press release is here.
In a switch, Amazon tops eBay
Is Amazon creeping ahead of eBay?
The latest batch of numbers from internet research firm Nielsen Online reveals an interesting data point. In Nov. 2008, Amazon pulled ahead of eBay in terms of unique monthly visitors — the first time that’s happened since Dec. 2007.
December sees 9% increase in online spending
Online spending for the first 35 days of the holiday season stayed flat with last year, but picked up 9 percent in the first five days of December, according to online research firm ComScore.
Online shoppers rush for Mega Monday bargains
After a weekend charging down cold, crowded high streets and skirmishing in strip-lit aisles with other people’s aunties, many have resolved to continue their Christmas shopping from the safety of their own homes.
PriceGrabber.com(R) Releases 2008 Black Friday Online Shopping Statistics
PriceGrabber.com(R), a part of Experian, today revealed that economic conditions motivate value-driven consumers which lead to an 11 percent increase in traffic year-over-year on Black Friday. Data from PriceGrabber.com shows that online consumers are taking advantage of promotions on popular electronics including: LCD and Plasma TV’s, Blu-Ray Disc Players, Digital SLR Cameras, Laptops, and Video Game Consoles.
Black Friday Web sales jump
Online sales jumped on Black Friday as consumers searched for electronics such as the Wii video game console and Apple’s iPhone and iPod touch, according to eBay Inc and Amazon.com Inc.
eBay still growing user numbers in the UK
More data on eBay; this time, UK figures show the site actually continuing to increase its UK audience in the past year. That’s in sharp contrast to the comparable Nielsen data for eBay in the US, which has seen unique user numbers drop 10% year on year, on average.
phpAuction Releases XL Premium Version 4.0
Fancy starting your own online auction site?
PhpAuction XL Premium just released version 4.0 of their software that lets multiple industries create niche auction sites to cater to different markets.











