EBay Tops List of MAGIC Seminars

Ebay Inc., the Internet auction giant, wants to share its online apparel success with buyers at the upcoming WWDMAGIC Marketplace show in Las Vegas, which will be held Aug. 26–29 at the Sands Expo & Convention Center.

The San Jose, Calif.-based company will present two 90-minute seminars at the trade event entitled “Turn Excess Inventory Into Cash on eBay” by Marsha Collier, author of “eBay for Dummies.”

A past attendee of WWDMAGIC, eBay approached organizers to expand the reach of its growing apparel market after hitting the circuit of jewelry, photography and computer networking trade shows.

“We want to show retailers how they can use the site and turn stale assets into cold cash,” said Daniele Levy, director of eBay apparel. “We want to position eBay into the mainstream apparel world.”

EBay’s auction formula has meshed well with the needs of apparel designers and consumers. Apparel sales have rocketed to $500 million since the division formed in February 2001. Small and medium-sized merchants and liquidators are driving the growth, most notably Evalueville.com, a wholesale liquidator based in Hattiesburg, Miss., which offers Bloomingdale’s wares, including items from Kenneth Cole, Ellen Tracy, Anne Klein, Bill Blass and others.

However, eBay would like to court more mass merchants, Levy said. J.C. Penney.com tested a surplus site on eBay last year, but apparel retailers haven’t signed on yet. Sears and Home Depot are two industry titans who have been selling hard goods on the site.

“We continue to be in talks with J.C. Penney and many others,” Levy said. “We realize that apparel is a new category for eBay and it’s a matter of establishing a presence in the trade.”

Levy said eBay has begun to kindle relationships with large retailers through charity partnerships. In the past year, it has worked with Saks Fifth Avenue for breast cancer causes and GUESS? Inc. for its 20th anniversary. This September it will host an online auction for the Macy’s Passport charity event benefiting AIDS research.

Other seminars slated for WWDMAGIC focus on the Internet, teen and Hispanic markets—three markets generating the most noise in the apparel world, said Ernae Mothershed, spokesperson for Woodland Hills, Calif.-based MAGIC International.

Seattle-based Stylesmart will present a discussion on fashion and technology issues and Alloy Inc. will discuss tactics to target the youth market. Also, Teen People Trendspotters—a mixed group of people ages 13–24—will discuss the trends they see at WWDMAGIC, tagging items they like on the show floor. Both Estylo and Latina magazines will cover ways to reach the Hispanic customer and immediate clothing trends. —Nola Sarkisian-Miller