eBay trials same-day shipping

EBay has reportedly rolled out a pilot test in the San Francisco area that offers same-day shipping for customers willing to pay $5 an order and purchase from local stores, Investors.com reports.

Some tech analysts blogged and tweeted over the weekend about invitations sent to San Francisco users to try a new same-day shipping service called eBay Now.

Analysts say the San Jose, California-based payments and e-commerce company appears to be gauging customer reaction before deciding to roll out same-day deliveries in other parts of the US.

EBay's interest follows reports that Amazon.com might offer same-day shipping in the US as it adds more warehouses. Tom Szkutak, Amazon's chief financial officer, has denied that Amazon intends to do same-day delivery “on a broad scale.”

According to eBay Local spokesperson Lina Shustarovich: “Users order products from local stores for same-day delivery, which usually occurs within the hour. eBay Now shopping valets pick up the item from a local store and bring it to the shopper who ordered,” eCommerce Bytes writes.

While eBay has been crowing about the explosion of mobile shopping on its site, it has also been investing in local, as has its rival Google, and local and mobile are often complementary for today's shoppers.

In late 2010, eBay acquired Milo, which provides real-time inventory and pricing information from 50 000 offline retailers such as Home Depot, Lowes, Target, Best Buy, Barnes & Noble and other large retail chains.