eBay announced eBay Express this winter and it's online now. The timing coordinates with eBay Live! in June and it is an exciting new channel for buyers and sellers.

eBay Express (EE) is really an online store, rather than the using the traditional bidding format of an auction site. If you're a seller you don't submit your items to Express. Instead, store and Fixed Price listings will automatically appear on EE and there is no charge for this (at least at this time - I'll be surprised if it stays that way). There are a lot of advantages to having your goodies on EE:

1. There is a shopping cart so buyers can purchase multiple items at once, just like any online store

2. Payments can be made via credit card or PayPal

3. Buyers will pay at the time they buy so there won't be any non-paying buyers

4. eBay is going to promote EE in the search engines, so sellers should have the advantage of eBay's name plus search engine traffic for more buyers

* 98 percent positive feedback or better
* Feedback score of at least 100
* Sellers must be PayPal Premier or PayPal Business merchants
* At this time, it's only open to American and Canadian sellers, although it is sure to spread to other countries, if successful
* Must fill in the item condition field (i.e. New, Used, Refurbished) in Item Specifics (some categories are exempted)
* Must use Pre-Filled Item Information for listings within Books, DVDs & Movies, Music, & Video Games.
* Must include shipping costs (flat, calculated or free) in the shipping fields
* Must provide a picture or gallery
* Must use eBay checkout or the new checkout integration API (for 3rd party order processing)
* Items must be located in the US

eBay Express will offer sellers more exposure for their widgets and items will be sorted by “best matches”. According to eBay:

"Results are sorted on relevancy against the buyer’s search by default. Searching brings back listings that may not be an exact keyword match and sorts them based on a range of factors. The buyer is able to re-sort by total cost, i.e. item price plus shipping cost."

One downside: sellers must agree to ship items to unconfirmed PayPal addresses. This means that their sales won't be covered by PayPal's seller protection program.

In the US, we have the AVS system. AVS is an acronym for Address Verification System which is a safeguard to protect credit card owners and sellers. If a buyer inputs an address that doesn't match the address given by the credit card holder, the system 'flags' the purchase. Many merchant account providers won't allow their merchants to approve purchases that don't pass the AVS test.

PayPal has been similar because their seller protection will only apply if the address is verified. With eBay Express this protection will disappear.

What can sellers do if they are uncomfortable with this risk?

1. Opt out of the eBay Express system entirely
2. Decide on a sale-by-sale basis whether they will accept purchases from unconfirmed addresses

Naturally, I will have to test this out but I strongly suspect that the increased sales will more than make up for the additional risk.

In 2005, eBay bought shopping.com and it is that technology that will be used on eBay Express. It is different from the shopping.com site, though, because it took buyers to individual seller sites. This won't be the case on EE. Instead, buyers will be able to buyer from multiple sellers, all in one transaction.

I checked out eBay Express from the buyer's point of view and was delighted with what I found:

http://www.express.ebay.com

I can view up to 90 items/page, and they're all beautifully arranged with clear pictures. I can buy from multiple sellers at once and pay for everything with only one payment. It's hard to see how this new eBay project can fail.