eBay introduces new third-party apps for sellers

eBay has launched a new suite of applications provided by third-party developers, which are now available to sellers on the popular auction site. These tools, embedded into users’ My eBay homepages, were introduced to increase efficiency for sellers and to ease the marketing, selling, and shipping process.
The applications are available for those who use the site’s Sell Manager and Sell Manager Pro — primarily small and medium-scale businesses. Available to browse and purchase directly through eBay, the suite includes ahTXT, an application that sends text messages when any action is taken on an account, and ezSupport, which aids in customer service by providing automatic answers to frequently asked questions. There’s also an app linking directly to UPS WorldShip. While some of these applications are free (and all come with a free trial) most charge a monthly fee.
eBay had announced plans in April to open up application programming interfaces (APIs) to outside developers, and this week they rolled out about a dozen apps, with a few dozen more expected in coming months.
Each of these tools has gone through a tough vetting process. Kumar Kandaswamy, senior manager of platform for eBay, said they looked for businesses that had strong infrastructure and were reliable, and tools that would help sellers with functionality. In addition to UPS, the other companies that produced this first wave of apps are smaller, e-commerce developers.
eBay decided to add the new suite of tools in an ongoing effort to make managing a business on the site as easy as possible, Kandaswamy said. By making the applications available on a single platform, sellers can easily find, subscribe to and use them in one place. eBay also provides the billing platform.
In the U.S., 270,000 sellers use Sell Manager and Sell Manager Pro. Although eBay does not yet have statistics on who is using the tools since their debut, the company is confident that there is sufficient demand for new apps that further extend user capabilities.