Andale Research Plans to Unveil New Services for Online Auctions
By Ross Snel of Dow Jones Newswires
June 21, 2002

NEW YORK – The stock market has analysts. The bond market has analysts. Soon eBay Inc. (NasdaqNM: EBAY) 's markets will have them too.

In an effort to provide online merchants with better market information, Andale Inc., Mountain View, Calif., plans to offer them research about online auctions, including analyst reports.

The privately held company provides services to frequent sellers at eBay and other online-auction sites. It plans to unveil the Research service and several other new offerings Friday at eBay live, a convention in Anaheim, Calif., for users of the popular auction site.

Andale Research will provide sellers with market information such as the average selling price of a particular item and the total number of that item that has been sold in the past. It will also send sellers alerts when the average selling price for an item hits a certain level. Analysts, working out of Andale's offices in India , will provide commentary on various markets.

"If you look at selling on auction sites today, there's a dearth of information about long-term historical price trends," said Munjal Shah, Andale's chief executive, in an interview.

Andale also plans to announce a Reports service, which will provide sellers with information about their own sales and give them tips on how to improve future sales.

"Say you put up 100 Motorola phones for auction, and the average [market] price is $200, but you only got $150," Mr. Shah said. "Reports will tell you why."

Another new service, called Andale Feedback, will monitor the assessments buyers provide about auction sellers and automate the feedback sending process for sellers. It will send sellers alerts when they receive negative feedback and help them seek to eliminate it through mediation.

Andale also plans to announce a new version of its "Lister Pro" software, which helps frequent sellers keep track of auctions and inventory.

The company is also updating its services to allow sellers to list items on eBay Stores, which are Web pages at eBay's site that list multiple items from individual sellers.

Mr. Shah said the new Lister Pro software and access to eBay Stores will be available this weekend. The other services will be available before the end of the summer.

Andale charges Lister Pro users between four cents and 20 cents for each auction they list with it. The company will charge $5.95 for the eBay Stores function, $19.95 a month for Reports and $2.95 a month each for Research and Feedback.

– By Ross Snel, Dow Jones Newswires; 201-938-5285; ross.snel@dowjones.com