Online retailer K-tel International, Inc. Wednesday announced the addition
of an auction service to K-tel.com, its
e-commerce Web site.
The auction currently has listings for music, collectibles, computers,
sporting goods, toys and software, with new listings in the works. Auction
participants will be also be able to register their own products for sale
to other consumers.
“The auction is a natural extension of our core strategy of broadening our
product and service offerings into profitable, high growth business
segments,” said Philip Kives, chairman and chief executive officer of K-tel. “This is one of
the major new services we plan to offer our customers.”
“With the growing interest in online auctions, we are excited to offer this
new service and capitalize on the demand, while offering ktel.com users a
more complete shopping experience.”
By adding the auction site, K-tel.com hopes to stiffen the competition with
online music retailers CDNow and Amazon.com as well as internet auction
site eBay.
A study by market research firm Jupiter Communications indicates that
online shoppers purchased more than $461 million in merchandise from
Internet auction sites in 1998, and predicts online auction market will
grow to $3.2 billion by 2002.
K-tel International, Inc. made the transition to the European market in
February, when it launched Ktel
Shopping GmbH to cater to the German-speaking Central European market.
K-tel also established operations in the United Kingdom and Finland.