eBay Begins Push Into Offline Market With Touchscreen Store Windows

eBay hopes to infiltrate the offline market come this summer and it's first step involves collaborating with a retailer to launch a touchscreen store window. eBay CEO John Donahoe spoke at TechCrunch's Disrupt NY event and said that a retailer, whose name was not revealed, in New York will feature a life size touchscreen store window compliments of eBay. The touchscreen store window is just one of many to come.

eBay knows that a majority of transactions are still being done offline, so in order for eBay to grab more revenue, it needs to venture off the internet and into brick-and-mortar stores. It has already begun to do this by implementing PayPal, its payment transaction subsidiary, into over 250,000 retail stores all around the world. It hopes to expand PayPal into over 2 million stores by the end of this year.

The company is focusing most of its efforts into mobile this year. It expects to see at least $20 billion in mobile commerce alone this year. Donahoe stated, "Mobile is clearly changing how consumers shop and pay". He says that eBay has to focus on its efforts on smartphones, tablets, and in-store devices because consumers are not just using one screen to access their information, but many. eBay acquired Duff Research recently, which it will be using to help improve its mobile services.

Many companies, like eBay, have also redirected their focus onto developing better mobile platforms. Facebook is a good example. Instead of focusing on just creating a better desktop performance for users, Facebook put most of its efforts into developing its mobile Android launcher, Facebook Home. The IDC reported that around 722 million smartphones and 128 million tablets shipped last year alone, so it's no surprise that businesses are seeing the important role mobile devices play in the world of advertising and commerce.

[via TechCrunch]