PostNet, a global chain of shipping and business services stores, has set a goal of making all of its 400 U.S.-based stores eBay Trading Post locations where consumers can drop off goods to be sold on eBay, Brian Spindel, executive vice president and co-founder, tells Internet Retailer.
PostNet operates 12 locations as eBay Trading Posts in California, Arizona and Georgia, having opened them last fall. Unlike about 20 other businesses that have formed in recent months as eBay drop-off stores--several of which plan national chains--PostNet is not gearing up for a high volume of eBay listings, at least not right away. “We’re taking it one step at a time,” Spindel says. “We’ve been handling one or two items a day, and if we can get to two or three, that will be a nice increment to our other business.”
PostNet, based in Henderson, NV, is also one of only two companies so far that have been designated by eBay Inc. as an eBay Trading Post, a new way of partnering with the online auction leader that is still being tested, an eBay spokesman says. PostNet has exclusive rights to the Trading Post brand among shipping services companies for the first half of this year, under its agreement to help eBay test the new selling format. “Our goal is to eventually have all 400 U.S. stores operate as eBay Trading Posts,” Spindel says.
The other company using the Trading Post label is AuctionDrop, a Los Altos, CA-based company that operates five eBay drop-off stores and plans to build 500-1,000 over the next few years. AuctionDrop focuses only on handling eBay listings, and does not hold an exclusive arrangement to use the Trading Post label among companies only offering eBay drop-off services.
The Trading Post program is a derivative of eBay’s Trading Assistant program. Trading Assistants, who must meet customer service standards set by eBay, are experienced eBay sellers who help other sellers set up eBay stores or simply list an item for sale from their home computers. The Trading Post program will take that a step further by letting eBay sellers simply drop off a product without having to get directly involved in listing it on eBay.
“The Trading Assistant program extends the eBay marketplace to those who go on eBay but don’t know how to sell, and the Trading Post drop-off stores extend that even further to people who don’t want to even use a computer,” the eBay spokesman says.
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