Catalog Marketing Comes to eBay

eBay Inc. has signed a deal with Monterey, Calif.-based Altura International that will open up mail order and online catalog businesses to users of the auction site via CatalogCity.com.

Altura said that it will list the catalogers’ products on San Jose, Calif.-based eBay’s Web site and will bring winning bidders to complete their transactions on its CatalogCity site.

Privately held Altura is expected to bring about 50 merchants to eBay during the launch phase of the alliance, including Alsto’s, San Francisco Music Box Company, DiscoveryStore.com and Hello Direct. Altura said it plans to provide the new service to all its merchant partners and have them selling on eBay by the end of the year.

Also, consumers at CatalogCity.com and dozens of other malls in the Altura Network will have tabs to promote the eBay Marketplace. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

“We have integrated the Altura technology with the eBay API to provide catalogers with easy access…,” said Lee Lorenzen, president and CEO of Altura. “Catalogers will now have a huge market of enthusiastic buyers for their closeouts, overstocks and distressed merchandise.”

According to Direct Marketing Association figures, the catalog industry generated around $120 billion in sales last year and is comprised of about 17,000 individual companies.

Altura International, founded in September 1997, builds and manages custom e-commerce shopping solutions for mail order and online catalog businesses.