Today eBay is launching their eBay Selling Manager Applications beta, a new platform which allows third-party developers to embed their own custom applications within the Selling Manager at eBay. If you’re not a heavy eBay user, you may not be aware what this is: the Selling Manager is the part of the site where sellers, primarily those using eBay professionally, can manage every aspect of their business from invoicing, to inventory tracking, to shipping and a lot more. With the new Applications Beta, these sellers will now have the capability to pick and choose from a number of third-party apps which will help them better manage their eBay business.
The eBay Selling Manager Applications beta was originally introduced back in June 2008 as a closed pilot program. At the time, developers had access to a testing environment, documentation and specs, but it wasn’t until today that their applications actually went live within the Selling Manager itself.
One of eBay’s first partners to release a Selling Manager application – and a good example of the possibilities this platform provides – is UPS. Their WorldShip shipping software will be integrated directly within the eBay Selling Manager so sellers can manage shipments without having to leave eBay to do so. Other applications available at launch time include those from ecommerce developers Terapeak, HostedSupport, ahTEXT.com and Cloud Conversion.
Ebay’s developer community, which includes some 87,000 members who have created over 13,500 applications, have been itching for a way to get better access to the 270,000 subscribers of eBay’s Selling Manager service, an extra and formerly paid-access only area of eBay which many small-to-medium business sellers use. Now they can.
Why formerly paid? It seems that eBay wants to encourage sellers to check out these new offerings available within Selling Manager, so they’re making the service free of charge. This is a win-win for all. Developers get greater access to sellers and sellers get access to better tools from the developers.
The new Applications platform was built using theOpenSocial gadgets specification. Developers join the beta and begin developing their own apps by visiting http://developer.ebay.com/products/selling-manager-applications.
