eBay has teamed up with outdoor clothing manufacturer Patagonia to help UK customers buy into sustainable consumption.

Based in the US, Patagonia has its own storefront on the auction site to sell its clothing. But to get more second hand items back into circulation, the storefront is being opened up to independent sellers of used Patagonia goods.

Beforehand, sellers must take the ‘Common Threads Partnership pledge’, under which the company commits to making long lasting clothes, respecting the environment and repairing goods sent back to them. In turn, Patagonia asks its customers to “exhibit the same behaviour”.

It is the first multi-seller branded shop to appear on the UK version of the site but has been in existence in the US since 2011. In the past year the Common Threads Partnership has resulted in more than 38,000 items being resold.

The aim of the unique store is to encourage customers to go into their wardrobes, find the Patagonia garments they don’t currently need, and list them on eBay to continue their useful life.

“As a global enabler of commerce, we are acutely aware that consumption and environmental responsibility have often stood at odds with one another,” said Alan Marks, senior vice president of global communications for eBay Inc.

“We are thrilled to partner with forward-thinking brands like Patagonia to innovate around product life-cycle and after-market trade and enable the kind of commerce that is critical to the long-term sustainability of our planet.”

The UK wing of Patagonia’s Common Threads store is the latest example of eBay’s commitment to enabling greener commerce. It is also an original model for consumption in the apparel industry – one that eBay and Patagonia say emphasizes product durability, reuse, and tapping the full useful life of clothing.

Mr Marks added: “Through the US programme more than 53,000 Patagonia items are now in circulation, where otherwise they may have been in a closet or ended up in a landfill.”

Digital retailer Amazon has launched its brand new online currency – to US customers only.

The online retail giant is not quite printing its own money – one Amazon Coin equals one cent, or less than one penny – but customers can now use the ‘currency’ to buy apps, games and in-app items from the Amazon Appstore.

To mark the launch, all Kindle Fire owners in America were given 500 coins (around $5 worth). Amazon has not yet confirmed when the scheme will be launched outside of the US, or if it will be available to non-Kindle users.

On Monday, Mike George, vice president of apps and games at Amazon said: “Today we are giving Kindle Fire owners $5 worth of Coins to spend on new apps and games, or to purchase in-app items, such as recipes in iCookbook, song collections in SongPop or mighty falcon bundles in Angry Birds Star Wars. And with discounts of up to 10% when you buy coins, this is a great way for customers to save money when they buy apps, games and in-app items.

“We will continue to add more ways to earn and spend coins on a wider range of content and activities – today is day one for coins.”

Some have questioned the usefulness of the move, as tax is still payable on items purchased with the new coins. But officials at Amazon have described the currency as “an easy way to purchase apps and in-app items” and well as a tool to drive traffic on their site.

In a number of fan reviews already posted online, those in favour of the coins have noted its use when trying to budget online purchases.

At the other end of the scale, the coins have been described as “nonsense”, a “gimmick” and a “waste of time”.

Amazon Coins can be bought in batches of 1000, 2500, 5000 and 10,000.  As you buy more, the discount gets bigger – Amazon fans in the US can expect to pay $90 for 10,000 coins. These customers will also get a 10% discount on items bought.

Amazon isn’t the first company to introduce its own currency; Facebook, Microsoft Xbox and Windows Live customers have all launched similar points systems to pay for social media games, upgrades and bonus levels.

Another online currency that has been in the news recently is Bitcoin, which can be transferred without the use of a bank or institution. Although initial interest came from mostly tech-minded people with distrust in regulated banking institutions, it has grown in certain areas since.

Like other currencies it is used to buy goods and services. Companies selling anything from software to pizza are accepting it as payment. That said, a lot of its use is expected to exist on the black market, thanks in no small part to its relative anonymity.

Although cited by many as a currency, it is perhaps simpler to think on one Bitcoin as an online token.

Bitcoin is often referred to as a new kind of currency which have value because enough people believe they do.

Each of the 11 million Bitcoins currently in existence is represented by a unique registration number, created through a process called mining – a computer solving a difficult mathematical problem with a 64-digit solution. Each problem solved rewards the computer’s owner with 25 Bitcoins. The difficulty of the puzzles is adjusted to ensure a steady stream of about 3,600 new Bitcoins a day.

It does not take much technical knowhow to notice that the popularity of smartphones and tablets is rapidly increasing. Almost two-thirds of the UK population owns a smartphone – something that has a massive effect on the advertising market.

The use of mobile devices to perform online searches and interact with businesses is on the up. Last year, a huge surge in the use of apps meant mobile advertising almost tripled – growing a massive 148 per cent year-on-year in 2012 to £526m, up from £203m in 2011.

It is staggering that in 2009 mobiles accounted for just 1 per cent of the total UK digital advertising market. Today it accounts for around 10 per cent.

According to research by Google in the US, almost 30 per cent of mobile searches result in consumers visiting a store, calling a business or making an online purchase. Understandably, these are figures that businesses want to keep track of and Google may have come up with the answer.

A new tool launched last month, aims to help users estimate the value of mobile advertising (in sites, apps and more) through simple equations and benchmarks. The ‘Full Value of Mobile Calculator’ is a tool with which companies can gauge what advertising is working and what isn’t – then make adjustments accordingly.

“Mobility has forever changed the way consumers live and shop, giving rise to these new customer paths as the lines between digital and physical experiences blur,” said Johanna Werther, Google’s head of mobile ads marketing, in a company blog post.

“Understanding what each of these mobile pathways means for your business is a critical piece of the larger attribution challenge that every marketer needs to meet head-on.”

By inputting information such as in-store sales and internet sales, business owners can get started with the calculator in about 30 minutes. User-review site Yelp also released a calculator this week that helps track exactly how many leads are sent to a business from Yelp each month.

Check out the Google calculator for yourself here.