Merchants tipped to benefit as eBay buys Svpply.com

eBay sellers are tipped to benefit from eBay’s acquisition of Pinterest-style shopping start-up Svpply.com, with the auction giant insisting the deal will allow it to offer more merchandising options.

Based in New York, Svpply is a social shopping site that allows users to keep track of products they like, in addition to products flagged by their Twitter followers and Facebook friends.

In essence, the site is “dedicated to helping you discover things you would not otherwise come across to purchase”.

It was founded in 2009 by Ben Pieratt, Eric Jacobsen and Zach Klein, and has raised more than half a million dollars from the likes of Spark Capital, Founder Collective and SV Angel.

As of May, Svpply was attracting around 620,000 product views per week, with 140,000 registered members and 700,000 unique users browsing the site every month.

The company has also seen its iPhone and iPad apps downloaded approximately 37,000 times.

eBay has acquired Svpply for an undisclosed sum. According to the eBay Inc. blog, the company gains access to technology talent to further improve its shopping and selling experience.

“Svpply.com assets – including a talented team of six designers and developers – are well suited to help eBay advance more personalised experiences and merchandising options on eBay.com,” wrote editorial manager Cicely Wedgeworth.

“The Svpply.com employees will work on merchandising, non-search discovery and browsing.”

Meanwhile, Svpply says it “couldn’t be happier” about joining eBay.

“We created Svpply three years ago with the goal of creating a unified online retail shopping experience by bringing shoppers, tastemakers and merchants onto a single site,” it says in a blog.

“One thing we do want to make clear: Svpply is not going away.”

“We’ll continue to bring our users new products each day, allowing our loyal fans to explore beautiful products and stores, all of them hand-selected by the community.”

The news comes less than a year after eBay acquired recommendation engine Hunch for a reported $80 million.

“With Hunch, we’re adding new capabilities to personalising the shopping experience on eBay to the individual relevant tastes and interests of our customers,” a spokesperson said at the time.

“We expect Hunch’s technologies to benefit eBay shoppers as they browse and buy, and to bring sellers on eBay new ways to connect the right products with the right customers.”