Ebay acquires British courier firm, adding social features

Ebay Inc. is acquiring a same-day courier service based in London and revamping its own website as it seeks to compete against Amazon and Walmart and give itself a social media profile right before holiday season starts. The amount of the deal is still undisclosed.

The e-commerce group is buying Shutl, a four-year-old start-up with operations in the US and the UK, in order to tighten control of product deliveries and ensure fast service.

“There’s no doubt consumer expectations (regarding shipping) are going up. What might have been acceptable five years ago is not acceptable today,” said Devin Wenig, eBay president.

EBay also launched social media features that let shoppers follow product collections, similar to start-ups such as Pinterest. It also announced partnerships with Toys R Us (British Toy stores) and Best Buy (US electronic retailer shops) that will let shoppers buy their products on eBay and pick them up in stores, the same “click-and-collect” service that was used by 40% of UK shoppers last Christmas, eBay said.

The new social features are designed to make browsing and buying through the e-commerce site more targeted and personalized. This includes creating groups of products hand-picked from eBay’s listing by curators, buyers, and sellers. Curators represent trendsetters across a range of categories, who create product lists on eBay to help connect users with items they may like. It would also expand on buyer and seller profiles including sharing information about yourself, the collections youve created, and the interests, collections, and people you follow.

The eBay president said the Shutl acquisition would enable eBay shoppers to get products delivered in as little as an hour in 25 US cities by the end of 2014.

Although, Shutl does not own delivery trucks or employ drivers, its business is built around an algorithm that performs the role of a middleman, matching product orders with local couriers based on factors including cost, location and capacity.

The current consensus among 42 CNN Money polled investment analysts is to buy stock in eBay Inc. Company shares fell 0.2% yesterday while being up 1.63% on a year-to-date basis.