eBay to open site to third parties

CHICAGO eBay said it will allow third parties to integrate applications directly onto the world’s largest e-commerce site. At the seventh annual eBay Developers Conference in Chicago, the company said it would give developers unprecedented access to eBay’s community of professional sellers, creating more opportunities for developers to market their tools and giving sellers a wider variety of sales optimization applications.

“Third party developers want our help with marketing and distribution, and sellers consistently seek better tools to help them scale,” said Max Mancini, senior director of platform and disruptive innovation at eBay. “Opening eBay.com directly to third party applications through the Selling Manager, gives developers an immediate channel to growth-minded eBay sellers.” 

According to eBay, external applications built using eBay Web Services already account for more than 28% of all eBay.com listings.