"We are very excited to be opening up stores in the European market," says iSold It President and CEO Ken Sully. "Buying on eBay is hugely popular in the U.K. and Ireland, but only a very small percentage of people in either country actually use the site to sell. We expect our service will be very well received by those who want to sell on eBay but don't want to invest the time or effort to do it themselves."
iSold It's first store in Ireland opened in Dublin in November 2005 and has already been met with an enthusiastic response from the local community.
"We are thrilled by the items coming through the door," says Ireland's master franchisee William Bodenham. "eBay has always been hugely popular in Ireland, and folks here are delighted to finally have a way to sell through this great online marketplace." Bodenham, whose family opens and operates Rentastore, Ltd. (Ireland) and Trasteros Riviera (Spain), is now actively working with franchise candidates to develop the iSold It concept across Ireland.
The U.K.'s master franchisee, Phillip Molloy, will be opening the U.K.'s first iSold It store in the Birmingham area in the spring of 2006. He is already in discussions with a number of interested franchise candidates to join him in developing the U.K. market, with stores planned across the entire British Isles.
"The eBay drop-off store concept has been eagerly awaited here -- it's just what the U.K. market needs. I've already had a tremendous amount of interest from people who can't wait to use the store to sell on eBay, plus entrepreneurs interested in the chance to be one of the first to open a store in their market," says Molloy. A seasoned entrepreneur, Molloy served for eight years as a board director with the highly acclaimed Mears Group PLC and remains a major shareholder.
About iSold It
iSold It offers its franchisees a turn-key program that makes it easy to open an iSold It drop-off store in their local community. The company hosts a proprietary software system that allows independent stores to easily interface with e-commerce sites, manage their inventory, create management reports and efficiently pay customers through a bulk-rate check payment system. In addition, iSold It helps franchisees secure store locations, orders and installs their turn-key "store-in-a-box" build-out, provides training and support, and leads overall national and local marketing efforts.
The concept for iSold It was created by Elise Wetzel as she was helping to fundraise for a new playground at her children's school. Elise recognized that auctioning donated items on eBay could be a powerful fundraising tool, especially if there were a service that helped make it easy. From this small idea for a school benefit came the foundation for iSold It -- providing an easy way for any person, business or organization to sell things online.
Today, iSold It is considered the leading concept in the emerging drop-off store category. iSold It is registered to sell franchises in 48 states and currently has 600 stores under contract. For more information, visit www.i-soldit.com.
iSold It, LLC is a privately held company. Each iSold It store operates under a unique eBay ID. iSold It(R) and the iSold logo are trademarks of iSold It, LLC.
© 2006 Business Wire
