Catalog Marketing Comes to eBay

eBay Inc. has signed a deal with Monterey, Calif.-based
Altura International that will open up mail order and online catalog
businesses to users of the auction site via CatalogCity.com.

Altura said that it will list the catalogers’ products on San Jose,
Calif.-based eBay’s Web site and will bring winning bidders to complete their
transactions on its CatalogCity site.

Privately held Altura is expected to bring about 50 merchants to eBay during
the launch phase of the alliance, including Alsto’s, San Francisco Music Box
Company, DiscoveryStore.com and Hello Direct. Altura said it plans to provide
the new service to all its merchant partners and have them selling on eBay by
the end of the year.

Also, consumers at CatalogCity.com and dozens of other malls in the Altura
Network will have tabs to promote the eBay Marketplace. Financial terms of
the agreement were not disclosed.

“We have integrated the Altura technology with the eBay API to provide
catalogers with easy access…,” said Lee Lorenzen, president and CEO of
Altura. “Catalogers will now have a huge market of enthusiastic buyers for
their closeouts, overstocks and distressed merchandise.”

According to Direct Marketing Association figures, the catalog industry
generated around $120 billion in sales last year and is comprised of about
17,000 individual companies.

Altura International, founded in September 1997, builds and manages custom
e-commerce shopping solutions for mail order and online catalog businesses.