eBay Introduced the first U.S. Online Business Index (OBI) this morning, a new report that highlights small-business owners’ views across a range of business topics. eBay surveyed more than 400 sellers on topics ranging from holiday sales to mobile commerce prospects and proposed Internet sales taxes.

· More than half (60%) of the eBay small-business owners surveyed said they are considerably optimistic about the future of their online businesses in the 2010 holiday shopping season.

· Almost three-quarters of those surveyed (72%) expect their total online sales to increase during the holiday months of October through December.

· Similarly, in an Online Business Index survey of top eBay sellers in the United Kingdom, 62% agree that they expect the holiday months to be their busiest of the year despite the continued tough economic climate.

· 73% of respondents say it is important to them that shoppers have the ability to browse and buy items on eBay using mobile devices.

· 60% say they are willing to adjust their eBay listings for easier viewing on mobile devices.

OBI participants expressed strongly negative sentiment when asked about the possibility of an Internet sales tax, with 88% of respondents saying they would not support it, and 81% saying they would support a small-business tax exemption in the event the proposal was put into law.

Key drivers of small-business sentiment included fear that an Internet sales tax would:
· Reduce the number of online transactions (74%)
· Reduce online small businesses’ out-of-state sales (69%)
· Make it difficult to maintain business profitability (69%)
· Negatively impact the U.S. economy (68%)

I received the results to the report a couple of days ago and thought it would be interesting to get the feedback from some of our Social Media Sellers.

I asked three questions in response to the OBI:
1. Is this survey reflective of your sales performance this holiday shopping season?
2. What item(s) from your inventory sold more in comparison to last year?
3. What factors do you think contributed to that?

Here is a sample of answers… (More …)