eBay just announced that it has reached an agreement to acquire WHI Solutions, which provides software and digital catalog solutions for auto parts distributors and retailers.
eBay’s Richard Brewer-Hay writes about the acquisition on the eBay Ink blog, which explains that eBay is gaining the expanded selection and access to enhanced structured data with the acquisition, which will enable its eBay Motors arm to improve its parts selection. Brewer-Hay writes:
I’m a fairly stereotypical guy for the most part… I like my beer, my sports, and my action movies. Having said that, I’ve never been much of a gearhead and – in full disclosure – my wife is the one who has negotiated the price of both of my previously owned vehicles. From what I can tell, and I’ve been paying closer and closer attention to it lately, eBay Motors makes it pretty simple to find parts for cars – whether you’re a car enthusiast or not – and the integration of WHI seems to further emphasize that ease of use.
With WHI, eBay plans to expand its catalog – from auto replacement parts to specialty equipment – to meet the needs of the eBay customer. In addition to the catalog benefits for eBay Motors buyers, sellers will also enjoy a better experience with an easier way to list inventory, with automatically populating listing fields including description, image and vehicle application data using WHI’s catalog of millions of SKUs.
WHI’s talent, technology and client base will all be integrated into eBay Motors. WHI has offices in New York, Los Angeles and New Jersey, and will remain in those places.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
