Alibaba.com has entered into an agreement to acquire Auctiva, the leading third-party developer of tools for eBay sellers.

With more than 170,000 active users, Auctiva provides a variety of listing, marketing and management tools as well as image hosting and online storefronts that make it easy for small businesses to sell successfully via e-commerce on sites like eBay.

The acquisition of Auctiva, as well as Alibaba.com’s purchase of Vendio in June, combined with Alibaba.com’s strength in sourcing, will create a significant source of tools and resources for U.S. small businesses looking to leverage e-commerce. The combination of both the Auctiva and Vendio acquisitions brings more than 250,000 new customers to the Alibaba.com family of products, and significantly expands the size of Alibaba.com’s U.S. operations.