Despite shopping centres being in recovery mode following last year’s pandemic lockdowns, online marketplaces continue to thrive with consumers content browsing products at eBay which may soon be adding an array of wines through a partnership with Digital Wine Ventures (ASX: DW8).

The discussions which at this stage have reached a signed Memorandum of Understanding, would see online distributor Digital Wines list hundreds of different wines on the eBay Australia marketplace on behalf of their suppliers without the wineries having to open their own eBay account and list individual items.

Instead, wineries that have partnered with Digital Wines’ WINEDEPOT distribution platform would have prices and product disruptions replicated onto the eBay with WINEDEPOT picking, packaging and posting orders.

“eBay exists to create economic opportunity, which is why we’re excited to partner with WINEDEPOT, enabling local wine producers – many of which are located in regional areas – to scale their online offering and giving their local regions a much-needed economic boost,” said eBay Australia Managing Director, Tim MacKinnon.

By having wines listed on eBay Australia, customers will be able to add independent wines to their baskets for checkout, without having to browse across different eCommerce sites, and making just one payment through eBay which includes buy-now-pay-later options.

Since launching in Australia in 1999, eBay has evolved from an online auction house to Australia’s number one shopping site with 40,000 Australian retailers.

Following news of the signed MoU with eBay, DW8 shares surged to a high of $0.165 in morning trade which represents a 50% increase on their previous $0.11 close.

Since launching WineDepot in 2019, Digital Wines has been rapidly increasing its supplier partnerships with Australian wineries for online distribution. For the Half-Year ending 31 December 2020, Digital Wine Ventures reported a 1042% increase in year-on-year revenue to $991k.

While the Company is still in the process of working toward profitability with a net loss of $2.3m over the same period, they have actively been building online marketplace partnerships (like this eBay one), having partnered with Vivino in February 2021, the world’s largest wine app and marketplace