Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2010/07/01/ebay_mobile/
eBay sticks sell-as-you-go on mobile app
Insta-tat-flog at your fingertips
Posted in Personal Tech, 1st July 2010 09:28 GMT
eBay is adding the ability to sell on the move, for those of us (mostly Brits) who find impulse buying isn't enough.
UK shoppers conducted 65 per cent of the mobile business done through eBay in Europe last year, spending a total of £64m. Now that's going to get even easier with new apps for Android and BlackBerry devices, as well as the ability to sell or buy tat without having to sit down for a moment.
Not that eBay is awash with tat these days – the tat bazaar has moved distinctly upmarket since its launch and these days there's not a lot to choose between Amazon's Marketplace and eBay's network of dealerships.
But we are at a loss to explain why UK punters are so addicted to online shopping from their mobile phones: we do know that it's mostly men, aged between 26-30, and that they're buying clothes, shoes, parts for their cars, sporting goods, home and garden stuff and consumer electronics – in that order.
Take out the mobile figures and the order changes. Fashion items still top the list, but technology and collectibles come second and third.
eBay reckons this is down to punters walking round a physical shop and comparing the prices to what they can get online. But we can't help wondering if the quality of today's TV is playing its part here too – chaps browsing for go-faster stripes while the missus catches up on EastEnders.
Either way, having a sellers' application, and supporting another couple of platforms, can only pile on the pressure to get round to that garage corner full of "stuff to be put on eBay when I have the time". ®