Local is front and center in the next phase of ecommerce opening up, said eBAY VP of Marketplaces Jody Ford during a keynote address Dec. 10 at Leading in Local: Interactive Local Media in San Francisco. Ford said the past several years have been about online service, inventory and convenience and have necessarily favored online sites such as Amazon. But a new era of commerce that is consumer driven and technology enabled will blur the lines between online and offline.

“That is local,” said Ford. “There will be more retail change in the next three years than in the past twenty years.” And it will necessarily favor “platform” companies such as eBay, which Ford boasts has “the largest group of closed loop transactions in the world served by eBay, eBay Enterprises and PayPal.”

“My job is to remove friction from connecting buyers and sellers,” he said. In fact, eBay “sits in the middle between utility sites such as Amazon and Walmart, and social shopping sites such as Etsy, Pinterest and Fab,” he said.

The company’s next steps include such efforts as same day, scheduled delivery via eBay Now, which is supported by eBay’s recent acquisition of the Shutl courier service. eBay Now has been rolled out in the Bay Area, Chicago and parts of New York City. Dallas and London are next.

The post At Leading in Local: ILM 2013: eBay’s Jody Ford on ‘The New Commerce Battlefield’ appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

BIA/Kelsey is releasing the first wave of its Consumer Commerce Monitor™ just in time for the holiday shopping rush. BIA/Kelsey and research partner Ipsos, surveyed consumers to gain insights into how local shoppers in the U.S. are likely to find, engage and transact with local businesses. More information about the survey is available in our press release, Local Consumers Likely to Flex Multi-Channel Muscle During 2013 Holiday Shopping Season, According to BIA/Kelsey, which came out yesterday.

“Our first wave of the Consumer Commerce Monitor™ survey reveals local shoppers are using a wide range of traditional and digital channels to engage with local businesses,” said Steve Marshall, Director of Research, BIA/Kelsey. “On Black Friday, Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday, we expect local consumers will leverage all the tools at their disposal – online, mobile, social, promotions, loyalty programs and more – as they search for that special gift and hunt for great deals.”

So how will consumers be shopping online this holiday season? Consumers will be using multiple devices to shop online this year. According to the consumers surveyed, 60% will be using a laptop computer, 57% a desktop computer, 37% a smartphone, and 19.4% will be using a tablet.

According to the consumers surveyed, more than a quarter (26%) of consumer local purchases in the last six months, be it online or in-person, were made through promotions or sales, including discount deals, daily deals, coupons or similar discount offers.

Study findings will be made available for purchase in November. Email info@biakelsey.com to be notified when the study is available.

BIA/Kelsey will preview findings from Consumer Commerce Monitor™ during a free webinar on Wednesday, November 6. Register here.

The post BIA/Kelsey and Ipsos Releasing New Consumer Commerce Monitor survey appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

Sears Marketplace, similar to other marketplaces established by Amazon and eBay (and coming soon from Wal-Mart), collects commissions of 7 percent to 20 percent from retail partners. The division, however, recently lost Online President Jim Barr, who had been recruited in 2008 from Microsoft. Moreover, no mention is made of ServiceLive,  a ServiceMagic-like home-and-trade leads service launched in beta last year.

The post WSJ: Sears Refocuses on Online and Mobile Apps appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

CitySquares, an online city guide and directory company based in Boston, has acquired the assets of Yokel, which provides online retail services and maintains a database of 2 million retailers. Terms weren’t disclosed. The combination should work well with CitySquares’ recent turn toward national/local operations.

Fees for Yokel, whose tagline is “all shopping, all local,” start at $7.95 a month. Retailers using the service get a free storefront, assorted marketing tools, and listings on search engines and on Yokel’s own shopping directory. The site was started by Scott Randall, former CEO of FairMarket, an early eBay competitor that later focused on B2B retail auctions. Randall will work with CitySquares as a consultant.

According to The Boston Business Journal, CitySquares, which has some backing by Mark Cuban and Jonathan Kraft (i.e., the family behind Gillette), says it expects to be cash flow positive in 90 days and will be hiring again after weathering the tough climate of 2009.

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