Launched on Wednesday by online auctioneer, eBay (News - Alert), WorldofGood.com aims to sell products that help improve the planet.

 

In an effort to enhance the company’s image as more than just a retailer of low-priced electronics, eBay’s WorldofGood.com will offer goods created with social and environmental goals in mind.

eBay developed the new site with World of Good, a startup company focused on “ethical supply chains” behind consumer products, and licensed the group's name for the marketplace. WorldofGood.com has been in operation for the past six months as an online community with a concentration on the social impact of business. The startup will get a share of the revenue from the site, which will sell fixed-price goods that claim to have a positive effect on people and the planet.

 

According to WorldofGood.com General Manager, Robert Chatwani, the site’s goal is to help consumers align their social values with their shopping decisions.

 

On the site, shoppers can search for products based on specific social or environmental categories. A search can pull up anything from a photo of the man who created the fair-trade coffee a shopper wants to buy, to details of its origins and whether some of the proceeds go to a charitable cause.

 

Independent third-party organizations like Rainforest Alliance and Co-op America will screen sellers and verify the items listed on the site.

 

"We really want consumers to drill down into the detail of what's behind that product," Chatwani said.

 

With everyone shifting their focus to protecting the environment and reducing their carbon footprint, the market for products stressing social and environmental awareness will grow. Chatwani referenced the Natural Marketing Institute's prediction that the U.S. market for such goods was $209 billion in 2005, and the group estimates that will rise to $420 billion in 2010.

 

And with eco (News - Alert)-friendly items on the rise, eBay and its 84.5 million active users might dramatically increase their environmental awareness. WorldofGood.com items are cross-listed on eBay proper, blended into standard search results.

 

WorldofGood.com is applauded by Roberto Milk, chief executive of Novica, a company working with artisans around the world to sell their home decor items on eBay. The National Geographic Society owns a stake in the company.

 

Novica has been selling items on eBay since 1999, but given the site’s enormity, "nobody knows we're on eBay," Milk claimed. This could change with additional sales on WorldofGood.com, where Novica will sell items it has either bought or taken on consignment.

 

"All our artisans really need is exposure," Milk said.

 

As on eBay, sellers on WorldofGood.com will pay fees to list items and give eBay a commission on successful sales. All transactions will be made through PayPal, eBay's electronic payment system. Several hundred sellers have already posted their products on the site, including many merchants who are also current eBay sellers.