A while back, I wrote a piece on a company called IMShopping, which was using Twitter for a fresh approach to eCommerce. Essentially what the company was doing was using a Twitter account to answer questions consumers have about products they are seeking, aiming to bring a human element often lacking in the online retail world.

eBay aims to "spark the entrepreneurial spirit" among its sellers with today’s launch of the eBay Sellers Challenge. The challenge is for sellers to answer the question: "How would you use $25,000 go grow – or start – an eBay business?"

PayPal requires reserves for a percentage of sellers. That percentage is less than 1% according to the company. PayPal likens the reserves to a security deposit to cover future chargebacks and reversals.

Since PayPal began this practice, they have had a lot of questions about it from sellers, and hoping to clear up some confusion, Bill Clark, an analyst with PayPal’s risk team offered the following explanation on the PayPal Blog:

On Friday, eBay released a revised version of its user agreement. The changes deal with situations where a buyer has alleged receipt of a counterfeit item.

eBay Senior Counsel Scot Shipman discusses the changes in a company blog post. He says that under the changes:

Walt Disney Co. has launched a new websites offering select merchandise from Disney’s domestic theme parks and resorts.

The new site, DisneyStore.com replaces the former site DisneyShopping.com. Visitors to DisneyStore.com can browse and buy more than 100 products previously available only at Disney theme parks.

Offerings include customizable novelty ears, birthday gifts, exclusive art, collectibles, toys and plush items. Disney says it will continue to expand its selection throughout the year.

Sometimes one has to state the obvious: You’re in business to make money. You make money by convincing lots of people to give you some of their money. Success depends on making this process as painless as possible*.

But many online businesses may be making it too difficult for customers to hand over the cash, which is a bad business practice by any account.

Here’s what people (especially men) are used to:

Back in February, WebProNews posted a couple stories about a competitor to eBay that you may or may not have heard of. It’s called Bonanzle, and it’s been growing remarkably all year.

When we first looked at Bonanzle, we found out that it had been voted the best eBay alternative, and that the site had reached a million listings in six months. In December, the site was quoted as having 170,000 unique visitors.

Earlier in the year, eBay announced that it would be making two big announcements per year regarding the eBay Marketplace. Each announcement would be made 60 days in advance of when the changes were scheduled.

If any people with ties to eCommerce operations felt a sense of deja vu during the first quarter of this year, it’s completely excusable.  As it turns out, the year-over-year change in U.S. sales worked out to zero percent, making the situation pretty similar to the first quarter of 2008.

The European Commission has launched an eYouGuide, a new online resource that offers advice on the digital rights consumers have under EU law.

The guide covers consumer issues like the rights they have while shopping on the Internet, downloading music and protecting personal information online and on social networking sites.

The economy is making online retailers change their marketing tactics in order to acquire and retain customers, according to findings from the "State of Retailing Online 2009," the 12th annual Shop.org study conducted by Forrester Research.

WebProNews looked at some interesting research from Forrester and Shop.org this week, which indicated that while online retail sales have been increasing, those for the majority of web-only businesses have actually remained flat or on the decline.

One startup launching this week thinks injecting a little human touch into eCommerce can be a way to combat this. Naturally, Twitter is the medium the company’s using to do this.

Amazon announced today that Amazon Payments is now available in over 25 of the leading eCommerce shopping cart providers. These include solutions like CardinalCommerce, Miva Merchant, Magento, ShopVisible, Mercantec, and Zoovy.

This has certainly been a huge week for eBay announcements. First, it was announced that StumbleUpon as being taken back by its founders. Then a similar scenario was announced for Skype. Then eBay announced a ton of changes to its marketplace.

Online retail made positive gains in March compared to February, according to online marketing firm Coremetrics.

Online shoppers purchased nearly 12 percent more items in March compared to the previous month, while the average dollar value increased by more than 4 percent, indicating that consumers were not only buying more items online, but they were also spending more money on average than they had the month before.

Early this year, Circuit City announced that it was closing all of its stores after being in business for 60 years. Gizmodo is pointing to a screenshot from Circuit City’s website now, however, suggesting that the company will be back in online form.

Amazon is ending the payment of referral fees to associates in North America using pay-per-click (PPC) to get traffic. This is effective beginning May 1st.

The change is not temporary. Amazon will not reinstate payment of referral fees to paid search associates. They say the decision to make the change is based on their review of how they invest their advertising resources.

Online shoppers are loosening the grips on their wallets, but continuing to be cautious about where and how they spend their cash. To secure their business, online retailers need to persuade consumers that they’re offering the best product at the best price.

Online shoppers are loosening the grips on their wallets, but continuing to be cautious about where and how they spend their cash. To secure their business, online retailers need to persuade consumers that they’re offering the best product at the best price.

Online shoppers are loosening the grips on their wallets, but continuing to be cautious about where and how they spend their cash. To secure their business, online retailers need to persuade consumers that they’re offering the best product at the best price.

Online shoppers are loosening the grips on their wallets, but continuing to be cautious about where and how they spend their cash. To secure their business, online retailers need to persuade consumers that they’re offering the best product at the best price.