eBay turns the tables on its model to let buyers post what they’re seeking

EBay has signed up more than 29,000 would-be buyers to its Want It Now service, which it launched last week. The service for the first time lets buyers post descriptions of what they want to buy on eBay.com.

EBay introduced the new buyer’s service, located at WantItNow.eBay.com, with little fanfare last week. Publicity centered on a home page note and a few news reports, a spokesman says.

“This is another way for eBay buyers and sellers to find one another,” the spokesman says, noting that eBay has more than 100 million registered users. (EBay doesn’t differentiate member numbers between buyers and sellers.) “With 30 million items for sale on eBay at any one time, people should find what they’re looking for, but if they don’t, now they can describe what they want on the Want It Now board.”

There is no cost to buyers to use the Want It Now service. EBay’s registered sellers can freely browse the Want It Now listings and click a link to respond to a buyer. The seller is allowed to only send a 10-digit item number that the buyer can then input into the eBay search function to find the seller’s product page, a restriction that prevents the seller from using the Want It Now service to immediately cross-sell additional merchandise, eBay says.