eBay and Microsoft Partner to Offer Developers Tools to Enhance Trading on eBay

With the combined power of the two platforms, developers now have the opportunity to build innovative solutions that can greatly benefit buyers and sellers on eBay by giving users more control and flexibility in managing their transactions. Using the enhanced capabilities of Microsoft Office Excel 2003 and Microsoft Office FrontPage 2003, developers can create a variety of solutions that will help users increase their productivity on eBay. For example, solutions could enable eBay users to utilize Excel to manage dynamic listing data on eBay -- such as pricing and bids -- and update the data automatically as changes occur. Solutions also could enable users to list multiple items on eBay simultaneously or create a Web site that displays their eBay item listings. Developers and eBays buyers and sellers can use the powerful and familiar tools in FrontPage 2003 with the Extensible Markup Language (XML)-based application programming interfaces (APIs) provided by the eBay Developers Program to easily create professional-looking Web sites that display customized information on items for sale on eBay. The FrontPage 2003 Web package includes these features: -- Web design and maintenance tools -- A data view built to display multiple item listings from eBay -- Customization of data views using what-you-see-is-what-you-get (WYSIWYG) editing tools such as the ability to use bold, italic and colored fonts -- Rich sorting, filtering and grouping features to present only desired data -- A New! icon for specific items listed on the last day (24 hours) of the auction Using Excel 2003, developers can seamlessly integrate with the eBay API via XML, allowing them to take advantage of the latest capabilities in Office 2003 to customize list views, graphs and charts; catalog bulk items online or offline; and submit item listings on eBay. The Excel-based solution now allows eBay buyers and sellers to create an offline historical record of their transactions, analyze their buying or selling history, and use Excels automated bulk uploading processes to submit item listings, instead of having to manually enter the same items each time. The Excel 2003 customized package includes these features: -- An inventory-staging component that allows manual entry or automated input via XML imports from any XML-compliant database -- An automated listing section that enables bulk uploading of listings and real-time pricing of listed inventory -- Offline capabilities -- A persistent historical sales page, which lets users review and analyze sales while managing invoicing -- Ad hoc data analysis in the familiar environment of Excel -- Seamless integration with any system the user may have (via XML) for inventory import