eBay gives affiliates the key to its listings database for real-time update
In a new program announced today at its eBay Live users conference, eBay is letting its affiliates directly connect to its listings database so they can provide their site visitors with real-time updates to the products selling on eBay.com. “This is the first time you can get real-time connections between an affiliate web site and eBay,” says Vaughn Smith, senior director of Internet marketing.
EBay, with some 10,000 affiliate web sites that forward traffic to eBay.com, is offering the database connection service as a way to increase overall buying and selling activity, Smith says. To maintain its rapid growth rate—eBay compiled $24 billion in gross merchandise sales last year, up 57% from $15 billion in 2003—eBay must constantly look for ways to attract more affiliates and sellers as well as buyers, Smith says.
Although eBay doesn’t report the total amount of gross merchandise sales generated by affiliates, it notes that the top 50 affiliates each earn more than $1 million in referral fees. But with about 25 million items listed for sale on eBay every day, keeping up with changing content can make it difficult for affiliates to display current information about eBay listings, Smith says.
The new database sharing service provides affiliates with eBay’s application programming interface for directly integrating with its listings database. In addition to providing for real-time updates of product listings, the interface also lets affiliates provide real-time information on, for example, the number of Barbie Dolls available on eBay at any one time.
To use the database connection service, web site operators click the affiliate program link at the bottom of the eBay.com home page, then sign up for the application programming interface, or API. Affiliates receive a software code that provides them with access to the database.
The program requires a one-time set-up fee of $250. Although using the API requires some technical expertise on the part of affiliates, users should be able to implement it with a small team of technical and merchandising people, Smith says, adding that it can take as little as a day to get connected and begin to experience results of improved data flow.
Back...
