On Wednesday, eBay Inc. hosted House Science, Space and Technology Committee Chairman and Judiciary Committee Member Lamar Smith at the North Campus in San Jose.  As an active user of eBay Marketplaces, advocate for small businesses and a leader on Patent Reform, the eBay team was delighted to spend time with Congressman Smith touring eBay's Innovation Showcase.   He received a hands-on demonstration of the ways in which eBay Inc.'s platforms deliver easy and inspiring shopping experiences that are mobile, global and personal.

As the Congressman experienced in the Showcase, offline and online commerce have converged.   We no longer think about retail as online versus offline, but online plus offline.  With consumers making 70% of their purchases within 5 miles of their home, and a growing two-thirds of Americans now using their cell phones to go online (a number which has doubled since 2009!), eBay exhibited the ways in which businesses - small and large - are successfully leveraging these incredible mobile-local opportunities by utilizing eBay platforms.

To learn more about the Congressman, visit his website.