EBay has partnered with loyalty programme Nectar so its card holders can automatically collect point while shopping on the marketplace.

Nectar, which is celebrating its tenth anniversary this year, has 18.5 million cardholders while eBay UK has 17 million monthly visitors.

The etailer previously had an affiliate relationship with Nectar where customers earned points if they clicked through nectar.com. Now shoppers can collect points on both successful auction bids and ‘buy it now’ transactions once they link their eBay account with their Nectar card.

EBay shoppers who are not currently Nectar card holders will be able to apply for a card via the marketplace’s website.

EBay European vice president of marketing Alex Von Schirmeister said: “Half of all UK online shoppers visit eBay each month and this new partnership will allow us to reward their loyalty and keep them coming back to the site even more often.”

Consumers will be able to collect Nectar points directly from eBay.co.uk site from October. Transactions must be made via PayPal in order to be eligible for points.

Nectar managing director Jan-Pieter Lips said: “This partnership will have similar reach to  those we have in place with other household names such as British Gas, BP and Homebase which have enabled millions of people to collect Nectar points and get ‘something for nothing’ on their daily household spend.”