Australia's OZtion Purchased By Jumbuck for A$2 Million

[mandy]

Australia's new OZtion auction site added nearly 5,000 members this  past week bringing the total to 54,498.

OZtion also announced the beta for its new vShops shopfronts.  The shops include such features as shopping carts and wish lists.  vShops will be  priced at A$5 monthly.

Features:

The vShop service will allow anyone to establish a fully branded virtual shop and include the following key features.

    * vShop branding and customisation.
    * Shopfront customisation.
    * Multiple vShop shopping - Buyers can add items to their Cart from one or more vShops in a single process.
    * Multiple checkout - Buyers can complete checkout from different vShops from one page.
    * Save Cart - Shopping carts can also be saved by shoppers and retrieved at a later time, if they need to interrupt their purchase.
    * Category customisation - 3 levels of unlimited custom categories can be created
    * Newly listed items shown on front page of vShop.
    * Managed content - About Us, Help & Guidelines, News, Policies.
    * Wishlist - Shoppers can add items across multiple vShops to their Wishlist and email it to themselves or a friend.
    * And more...

full beta program info: http://www.oztion.com.au/vshops/vshop_info.aspx

A pair of live OZtion vShops:
http://www.oztion.com.au/vShops/vshops.aspx?shopid=145
http://www.oztion.com.au/vShops/vshops.aspx?shopid=21

The vShops discussion board:
http://www.oztion.com.au/Community/forum.aspx?t=VS

Announcement:

vShops Beta Goes Live

vShops has been open to public beta testing since the 21st August, but hidden from public viewing whilst we collected feedback from testers. The vShop beta trial is expected to continue for another month whilst we add the vShop Hub, new features and fix any problems found.

vShop owners can now turn on their vShops and allow the public to view them. vShops can be accessed from the seller's profile page and item page. A directory of vShops will be shown in the vShop Hub next month. vShop items will appear in all search results and category listings.

We strongly recommend that you only turn your vShop on if you have finished setting it up.  To turn you vShop on, go to the vShop Manager in 'My OZtion', click 'Edit vShop Details' and set the vShop Status.

vShops FAQ: http://www.oztion.com.au/content/0012005...s/faq.aspx

[mandy]

News item #1: OZtion tops 60,000 members and membership now stands at 61,224

News item #2:

Online auction, Oztion, is looking to recruit about 250 computer resellers and electronics retailers for its new vShop service. It will be officially launched at the end of September.

Managing director, Philip Druce, said the service provided resellers with an avenue to create a low-cost online presence.

"There is a lot of activity on the site. Sellers can make a profit without paying a lot for hosting or selling on other sites. It acts as a second store front," he said. "We are looking to bring on more resellers and retailers before Christmas because there will be a lot of interest in computers and electronic items."

Druce said the site generated about 600,000 visitors per month, with that number growing at an average of 10 per cent per week. It currently has about 860 retailers and resellers for computers and electronics...

full article: http://www.arnnet.com.au/index.php/id;58...p;8;fpid;0

[mandy]

The site's grown quite a bit since the last update:

155,726 members, 450,000+ items for sale

"more than 1.4 million Australian visitors in March 2007"

[mandy]

Update: OZtion sold to Jumbuck for A$2 Million

JUMBUCK Entertainment has seized on the opportunity created by disgruntled eBay users to expand its web business with a planned acquisition of Australian online auction house Oztion.
The offer comprises $1 million in cash and the same amount in Jumbuck shares.

Jumbuck, headquartered in Melbourne with offices in San Francisco, London, Cologne, Rio de Janeiro and Perth, is one of the largest providers of messaging applications to wireless carriers...

Oztion has one million unique visitors a month and more than 275,000 registered trading accounts. The auction site is poised to generate $1.2 million in revenue for the 2008-09 financial year, double the previous year, Jumbuck said...

full article: http://www.australianit.news.com.au/stor...06,00.html