eBay has launched the beta of the eBay Selling Manager Applications, which will enable third party developers to easily embed their applications where professional sellers manage their online business at My eBay. eBay is also making Selling Manager free of charge to all US sellers this summer, so developers can tap into eBay’s pool of millions of active sellers. And in return, sellers can access a variety of developer tools to manage their online businesses.
eBay launched the Selling Manager Applications program in June 2008, giving developers access to sellers needing tools to help manage shipping, accounting and inventory management. The program currently has 270,000 business subscribers who pay for selling management tools. And developers who want to build apps on eBay have to meet site standards for buying and selling experiences. Once approved, their applications will be available to sellers that subscribe to eBay Selling Manager Applications on eBay.com, and they can monetize their applications with subscription-based revenue.
UPS, who has developed shipping applications in eBay’s Selling Manager Applications beta, and is integrating its premier shipping software – WorldShip – directly into the eBay experience so sellers can manage shipping for their business directly within My eBay.