Move may quell merchant discontent about higher eBay fees EBay on Thursday introduced two new services, one aimed at sellers interested in setting up their own online shop and another geared at high-volume merchants that buy merchandise in bulk for resale.The moves, announced at the annual eBay Live conference for sellers in San Jose, California, are clearly aimed at retaining merchants by helping them to increase sales, at a time when there is discontent among their ranks due to higher eBay fees.The new ProStores service lets sellers create what eBay calls “an e-commerce storefront” that is outside of the eBay marketplace and has its own Internet address, giving sellers another channel to hawk their wares. Sellers that have a store within the eBay marketplace — as opposed to simply listing their items individually — should consider setting up a ProStore to complement their sales efforts, according to eBay. Sellers can link their eBay store with their ProStore to manage listings and inventory and use eBay’s PayPal service for online payment. There are four ProStores options. The basic one starts at $6.95 per month with fees ranging between 0.5 percent and 1.5 percent per transaction and includes “shopping carts with secure checkout and shipping integration with major shippers,” according to eBay. The company is offering a one-month free trial and is waiving transaction fees until the end of the year for those who sign up for a ProStore by Oct. 3.Meanwhile, eBay also launched what it calls its Reseller Marketplace, where manufacturers, wholesalers and liquidators can post excess inventory for sale in bulk at discount. This merchandise can only be purchased by merchants that eBay has ranked as “PowerSellers” thanks to high monthly sales and a positive ranking from at least 98 percent of their customers.More information about the new services is available at http://www.ebay.com/reseller and http://www.prostores.com. Software Development