ProStores to Be the Next eBay Divestment

ProStores to Be the Next eBay Divestment

eBay took away a major incentive for using its ProStores ecommerce offering when it decided to eliminate Third Party Checkout. eBay sellers had previously been able to send buyers to their ProStores checkout page where they could cross-sell additional items - at a much lower commission fee (0.5 - 1.5 percent versus 8.75% - 12% on eBay.

eBay had launched ProStores in June 2005 as a result of its acquisition of Kurant Corporation's ecommerce software. But eBay has always been ambivalent about the service and did a poor job marketing ProStores to sellers.

It seems likely a portion of ProStores users will no longer find the service worth using - you can read more about eBay's decision to eliminate Third Party Checkout in today's AuctionBytes Newsflash. (The decision to elminate off-eBay checkout affects all vendors using the feature.)

With eBay's current mood of shedding subsidiaries, including Skype and StumbleUpon, could ProStores be next on the block?

Update 4/15/09: I received an email from eBay spokesperson Usher Lieberman today stating: "eBay is narrowing access to third-party checkout to approved providers and has asked these third-party checkout partners to update their user interface or UI to conform with a set of guidelines provided by eBay. This DOES NOT involve any changes to the third-party checkout functionality consistent with eBay listing policies and existing legal agreements, just to the user interface. Some of the approved third-party checkout partners may opt out of these user interface changes, in which case they will need to begin using eBay Checkout." I asked for further clarification, Usher Lieberman has yet to reply.

eBay did in fact post an announcement in reaction to our Newsflash article stating it is not doing away with third party checkout in June. However, they failed to provide details and have yet to explain the effects of these changes.

Some third-party vendors have reacted to the article in the comments of this post, including Infopia who confirmed that eBay has eliminated the ability for merchants to cross-sell and up-sell items from the checkout flow. eBay's own subsidiary ProStores had told its customers on Monday that eBay was doing away with Third Party Checkout in 2010, but eBay's announcement did not confirm or deny this.

The kind of situation that arose today only confirms our editorial instincts. eBay said today in its announcement, "the definitive source of information about eBay is eBay." I eagerly await more information from eBay about Third Party Checkout changes coming in June!