Spurred by robust demand, Yahoo-Kimo Inc (雅虎奇摩), the nation’s largest online auctioneer, said yesterday it would launch a fixed-price sales platform called “The Mall” (超級商城) on Sept. 25, following on the heels of eBay’s recent adoption of Amazon’s e-retail model.
Jerry Ku (顧昌欣), vice president of the company’s e-commerce business services division, said that contrary to popular belief, 60 percent of Yahoo-Kimo users make fixed-price purchases on its site.
“Instead of bidding and waiting for an auction to end, many of our users prefer the simplicity of a direct, immediate, hassle-free purchase,” Ku told a media briefing.
Ku said “the introduction of The Mall will diversify Yahoo-Kimo’s business model and add a new stream of revenue to the company,” but did not comment on whether the company felt the auction market was slowing or whether the site would hurt its auction sales.
The year-end goal for the Internet portal is to attract 50,000 to 100,000 listings, or 300 of its biggest power sellers, on its fixed-price sales site, the company said.
The Mall differs from Yahoo-Kimo Shopping (購物通) in that rather than re-directing visitors to independent e-commerce Web pages hosted by various stores, The Mall aggregates these stores on one Web site and offers shoppers a uniform checkout.
“Now buyers can take advantage of sellers’ quantity discounts, bundled sales, free gifts and other promotions, and see all the items in one shopping cart,” said Leon Chen (陳杰), a category manager of e-commerce at the company.
Sellers will need to be registered businesses that issue receipts. The new site will offer debit and credit card payment options, as well as pay-by-installment options.
Yahoo-Kimo will implement a seven-day product inspection period and act as financial custodian until a transaction is completed. The company cooperates with more than 15 international and regional banks.
The added security features were developed by Yahoo’s global engineering team, but The Mall is strictly a Taiwanese concept and venture, the company said.
On its auction site, sellers are charged a 3 percent transaction fee with a cap. On the fixed-price site, Yahoo’s commission will range from 2.5 percent to 5 percent depending on the product and sellers will be charged a store opening fee of NT$15,000 and a monthly service fee of NT$3,000.
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