Ebay will open a physical shop in London

ONLINE AUCTION OUTFIT Ebay has announced plans to open a retail shop in central London next month.

The Ebay Christmas Boutique will be an experimental store that will be open for a five day period beginning on 1 December. However, the shop won't actually sell anything over the counter but will have products on display instead.

There will be a "huge selection" of the most popular items such as clothing and toys for punters to look at with discounts of up to 70 per cent. If they like the look and fancy splashing the cash a quick response (QR) barcode will send them straight to the item on Ebay's web site using a device like a smartphone.

If you don't happen to own a device capable of scanning a QR barcode then Ebay has teamed up with HTC to lend you a handset in the store.

Instead of tills there will be a section of the shop with eight tablets for customers to use to browse and buy from Ebay's entire offering of products. The store will be on Dean Street, which connects to London's famous Oxford Street.

The company hopes to cash in on what it predicts will be the busiest shopping period of the year. It expects around 5.8 million users to log on to its web site on Sunday, 4 December. µ