eBay's Fair Share

According to CNET, eBay plans to launch a marketplace for buying Fair Trade products this summer. The venture, WorldofGood.com, is a partnership between the online auction site and separate fair trade company World of Good Inc.

"Those people aren’t on eBay. We believe only between 7 and 12 percent of these social change consumers are eBay users now … so this could be accretive to the business," said Robert Chatwani, eBay’s general manager of the project. That segment of shopper spends as much as $45 billion on green products annually, he estimated.

With conscience-driven shopping one of the few trends to see robust growth in a tight economy, the venture may profit eBay as much as the artisans it seeks to serve. But as eBay raises the Fair Trade movement’s profile among consumers, will a rising tide raise all boats? Or will eBay’s entrance depress prices to the point where a category once the domain of specialty retail becomes unprofitable, as some have argued the auction site already did to collectibles? — Meredith Schwartz